Saturday, November 23, 2019

High Tea

November 2019 - Toronto ON


Queen St. East Toronto

I mentioned before, November is a quiet month around here. We have short gloomy days that are conducive to cocooning, baking, relaxing, making our place cozy.



Twice this week we had planned to go out in the afternoon to the ROM, Royal Ontario Museum and then changed our minds. We'll get to the exhibit, maybe next week.


Saturday was cold and grey but we took the bus and subway to Wellesley for a burger at Holy Chuck's, they do a great gluten free bun as well.

While we were waiting for our burgers the TV was on a PBS station and they were showing Pati's Mexican Kitchen filmed in Mazatlan. It was incredible we knew every single place they showed and it had some of the best drone shots.




Walked to College Park and made stops at Bulk Barn, Winners, Metro, Dollarama and LCBO before heading to Queen St. W.
On the streetcar home we passed this demonstration outside Old City Hall.

John snapped this.


Checking our the neighbourhood at twilight.



Sunday I made Chinese curry chicken, onion bhajis and lemon mousse as John's daughter was in town on business and came to dinner. This had to be totally gluten free for her.

Love getting organized for cooking.



Monday John went with a friend to an Indian reservation to look at golf stuff. No taxes! They also found a gluten free pizza place that was quite good. Artisan Pizza in Burlington.


I debated and ended up staying home and visiting a friend. Then it was loads of laundry, two dish loads.
I finally updated my book list for this year and our ongoing monthly recap.
Dinner was last night's leftovers.

Tuesday John did Costco where he got a great deal on coffee beans, but that meant we needed a grinder. Thank you Amazon Prime.





I returned a Uncomplicated, a cookbook to the library and then poked in a few stores before picking up vegetables for dinner.

Since we had enjoyed the mushroom brie pasta I made last week, I copied this recipe from the book.


I cut through the Eaton Centre where there was a pop up barbershop offering non-alcoholic beer.


Canada's tallest Christmas tree is now up.



Interesting sunset.



Made a meatloaf, haven't done that in ages. I used my trusty Betty Crocker recipe it has spinach and mozzarella in it. I also added some mushrooms into it.
Served with mashed potato, carrots and turnips.


Wednesday we had planned to go to the museum late afternoon but then got settled and decided to go on Friday instead.

Stuffed baked potatoes with bacon, broccolini, cheese, scallions and sour cream for dinner.

Thursday my BFF and I went to College Park and had a good time poking around Bed, Bath and Beyond, Marshall's, Winners, Dollarama and our favourite lunch in that food court, pepper steak sandwiches and a water for $7.50, cheaper and better than McD's.
I bought this chopper as I had seen a blogger raving about it and my BFF said she's had one for years!


Some other stuff that caught our eye.



I am really interested in this, to grow herbs inside.


And this.


I was going to order this online from Bed Bath and Beyond, where I saw it. But couldn't find it so found a similar one on Amazon.


Socks




We were so pleased with our timing for heading back to Union to go our respective ways home. Headed down to the subway and hmmm. lots of people on the platform, and the northbound train was sitting at the platform across from us.
Finally a garbled inaudible announcement that service was suspended north and southwards due to a "trespasser on the tracks", at least that was better than "personal injury at track level".
So we decided to get the College streetcar over to University and go to Union that way. Of course, it was raining out...

Salmon with lemon butter and colcannon for dinner.

Friday, again, we planned on the ROM but chose instead to just go downtown.
I needed socks (I know, so exciting) and John wanted a pair of gloves.
Then we stocked up on food for the weekend.

We had to buy this unusual cheese. Haven't tried it yet. It is made from cow's milk with a licorice flavour according to descriptions online.



Steak and mushroom tomato cauliflower rice with broccoli for dinner.


BOOK ENDS


I mentioned The Flight Attendant last week and I must say the ending caught me by surprise.
I followed by other book by Chris Bohjalian Midwives.
It was an interesting read set in the 80s.
All I can say is having read two of his books I am astounded at his ability to write from a woman's perspective, first as a flight attendant and now as a 14 year old girl!

I am also reading The Atomic City Girls on my phone in transit. I am very interested in this piece of history during World War II but it is written in such a mundane tone, that it is hard to keep my interest. I have read that one should instead read the non-fiction version instead The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II which I think I will.

I also started The Past, by a new to me author, Tessa Hadley whom I discovered when reading The Irish Times book section. I think I will be reading more of her.




LINKING UP WITH
Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.
Sunday Salon
Seasons
Say Cheese
Monday Walks
Monday Morning Blog Club



13 comments:

  1. I saw that gadget too and thought about getting it but forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder. Have a great week!

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  2. I wonder if that chopper is like our mandolin? If so take great care to not cut yourself. The Aero Garden looks interesting. Btw, I hope you have your armband to wear as protection against being hit by a motor car. It must put some forcefield around senior pedestrians.

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    Replies
    1. It is better than a mandolin, mandolins scare me. You put the veg onto it and close the lid and it slices it.
      Yeah, really, armbands...as the driver gives me the Toronto wave "sorry I didn't run you down".

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  3. You seem to be keeping busy, out and about, despite the weather. It's been pouring here, but stops now and then, which gave me a chance to pick lemons for my marmalade.

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  4. You had me waxing nostalgic there for TO and all its goodies and sights. Only briefly. I could never give up my ocean again :) But lovely, thank you for the walk down memory lane. I truly loved TO.

    XO
    WWW

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  5. We had our first snow overnight . . . I'm definitely getting in to cocooning too. How cool that you recognized all the places in the PPS Mazatlan show. I have the same coffee grinder -- it works great.

    Oh no! You've mentioned meatloaf! What a perfect meal for these darker, colder days. And I need to check out that chopper -- looks easy and fun (though I don't mind using my knife).

    That Gouda sounds really different (in a good way) -- hope it was good.

    I laughed out loud at the Scrooge comic. I've read at least one Chris Bohjalian book and really liked it, but I haven't gotten to The Flight Attendant yet. I have Hadley's Late in the Day (but, again, haven't yet read it)

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  6. Nice post but I laughed so hard at the Scrooge joke!

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  7. I'm not surprised you knew every place in Mazatlan. You really experience the place where you are.

    Our weather is such a lovely relief after the heat of the summer that I want to get out every day. I tend to cocoon in the summer, just to get out of the heat.

    I like the sound of The Girls of Atomic City. I tend to like straight nonfiction better than historical fiction.

    Have a lovely week!

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  8. We are really not good at shopping, Jackie. It was raining here today and we set off with a list, but got most of it wrong! We did manage to buy a small lamp and have a nice pasta lunch out though. :) :) I like the cheerful berry arrangement on your table. Have a lovely week!

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  9. I'd be interested in what you think of The Atomic Girls. I haven;t gotten to that one yet.
    Love the idea of a good curry right now.
    Hope you like that Irish cookbook. It's a beauty, lots of photos.

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  10. Haha, love the cheerful penguins your hubby caught. The Twilight photo is beautiful, so much aftmosphere there. And patches of snow!! Bu the most of all of your weekly post I love the still life of the table, with the wall hanging - great taste in colors an many thanks for linking:):) It is this grey-ness in the Northern countries in winter that is hard to get through for me. Thanks for you enthusiastic comment about the bathroom. Now our kids are gone, it seems we need to remodel our bathroom (2nd house), to make it more practical and our own! Have a great week:)

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