Saturday, October 14, 2017

Cooking up a storm

October 2017 - Toronto ON

SATURDAY
Six Word Saturday

We  hosted a Thanksgiving dinner with my cousin's family. We had ham, au gratin potatoes, maple syrup Brussels sprouts and oven roasted mustard cauliflower.
 The cauliflower was not a keeper/success as the mustard topping didn't really provide any flavour and it could have been cooked for longer than the recipe says.

I decided to make a pumpkin mousse for dessert, I've never made a mousse before but this is going into the recipe box.  Greek yogurt pumpkin cheesecake mousse  and I made the caramel topping.


SUNDAY
inSPIREd Sunday
Shadow Shot Sunday



I took a stroll to the store for some cheese (ya, us, forgetting to get some at Costco) and went along the lake front.


I've shown you two art pieces from the summer that "appeared".













Well, today I came across this guy!

The two artists behind a driftwood sculpture that spelled out "Toronto" are back with another piece of public art by the water: an androgynous, reclining figure nestled by the shore at Humber Bay Shores Park.


Thelia Sanders-Shelton and her artistic partner Julie Ryan built the figure over 19 intense days by the water in September.


Beyond a few metal supports, the figure is built entirely from driftwood scavenged from the beach and from the mouth of the Humber River. It also features a painted red heart. 


And we were gifted with an incredible sunset! John is reflected in our windows.






MONDAY
Canadian Thanksgiving and we went to family. Everyone was bringing something, I had vegetables so I spent the morning cooking and mashing carrots and turnip and also Brussels sprouts. 
I also made a gluten free pumpkin cheesecake.

The meal was planned for 2-7 as my BIL had to fly out for business. It was held in the party room in his building.






TUESDAY
Wordless
Weekly Travel Theme
Chihuly Glass and Gardens Part 1


It was such a gorgeous sunny day I convinced John to golf even though he had a game booked on Wednesday, which turned out to be a good thing as rain was forecasted  for tomorrow!

I went looking for some sweaters and snagged two at Winners.


We finished off the last of the leftovers except for some carrots and turnips.

WEDNESDAY

Grocery shopping was on the agenda.

I used the last of the mashed carrots and turnips as fritters for lunch served with sour cream with a dollop of horseradish, but my dollop should have been bigger for a kick.

We had oven fried chicken made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and gluten free flour and bread crumbs served with roasted potatoes and broccoli.

THURSDAY
Thursday Doors


Another dreary grey day with no excursions outside. I've been enjoying puttering in my kitchen and cooking new and old favourites.

I had an abundance of celery in my freezer, you know when you cut up celery for snacking on, and you have the ends and stalks, well, I freeze those.

So I made this no cream, cream of celery soup with grated Parmesan on top. It was very good, but simple easy so I don't think it will go into the recipe box.

For dinner it was my old standby slow cooker ribs served with mashed potatoes and carrots. As always these ribs turn out perfectly.

FRIDAY
Friday Finds
Weekend Greens Chihuly's Gardens in Seattle
Weekend Reflections




Girls' shopping day out and boys' golf day.

While I was walking to meet her I noticed two Douglas Coupland pieces that I hadn't noticed before. For more Coupland in Toronto click on the tag under this post.

Both play homage to the style of Group of Seven Members Tom Thomson and JEH MacDonald.

Title Crystal Jack Pine


Title Crystal Mist Fantasy



We had planned to buy whatever fancied us and I walked away with one sweater and my BFF a purse. Seriously, and between us we had taken ten items into the dressing room in one store.

It's been a week of eating favourites and Friday is almost always steak night this time with frites.

BOOKS

Total books to date 61 - not a great success so far.

I am kinda back into the reading groove. I finished The Wonder and I did not like anything about it. As an Irish born, brought up Catholic, I disliked all the characters. especially the prudish English nurse with her condescending attitude towards all things Irish. And then the over the top ending.
Enough said.

Also finished Eligible which was a great, light change from The Wonder. It is another parody on Pride and Prejudice and the mother's character was delightful!

I started The Clasp and I'm waiting for it to grab me. Gave up.

But I am thoroughly enjoying Unraveling Oliver, I love these dark, disturbing thrillers that show life is never as it seems on the front.




SHARING WITH:


Weekend Cooking hosted by www.BethFishReads.com
Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy.

15 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving belated! I saw it on my wall calendar and wondered how this year got by so fast!
    I will check out the book Unraveling Oliver, I like thrillers. I just joined in with a British Mystery book club on Goodreads and have been introduced to new authors. You may like Belinda Bauer, I just read The Facts of Life and Death by her and it was good, very descriptive. I wrote about it on my book blog if you are interested.

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    1. Thanks for this, Tina. I am going to check out Bauer and also that book club. Also off to read your review.

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    2. Jackie, I liked that last Peter Robinson book. Now I have to wait for him to put another out. I worry about Alan Banks aging in real time. Eventually he will have to retire. Also, on the Broadchurch series, we liked seasons 1 and 2 but didn't finish season 3. I think they should have stopped with two seasons.

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  2. Looks like everyone is having fun at Thanksgiving. Always good to be with family.

    I liked Eligible too. I'm adding Unraveling Oliver to my list.

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  3. Another amazing week with wonderful photos and good recipes to share. I'm looking at that cheesecake

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  4. What a fun day! I love the look of that Greek yogurt pumpkin cheesecake mousse...and the sculptures, skyscrapers, etc. Fun!

    Here are MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOTS

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  5. I can't recall my mother ever trying a mustard sauce with cauliflower. Usually it was a white sauce with nutmeg, or a cheese sauce.

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    1. Perhaps if it had been a creamier type of mustard sauce it might have worked. My mother always did a white sauce too.

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  6. I like the idea of mustard sauce with cauliflower. Have a great week. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  7. I liked the sound of the cauliflower recipe; too bad it didn't work that well. I've pinned the Greek yogurt pumpkin cheesecake mousse recipe to try as a possible g/f Thanksgiving dessert!

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  8. Happy Belated Thanksgiving- it's my favorite holiday.

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  9. What a coincidence that you met the artist! Wow, wished I could write him, the last sculpture of driftwood is quite a feat!! I love it, because it gives also the appearance of muscles of the body. How did your dessert turn out? Maybe I should post sometime the recipe I have for cauliflower soup. I didn't like cauliflower till I came across that recipe - we've eaten it quite often last winter. Many thanks for linking up to All Seasons this week, and have a lovely week!

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  10. Happy belated Thanksgiving... that Pumpkin moose looks amazing

    Mollyx

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  11. First off yummy and than wow what fun whimisical art. Have a great week!

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