Food For Thought

September 2016 - Toronto ON

Saturday is usually our play day, no plans, just whatever you want to do. We did make a quick grocery run and a stop at a Beer Store to check out their gluten beers.

John watched sports and worked out. I binged on My Kitchen Rules, our cable company decided to move my usual channel to another package that we don't and won't subscribe to so I found them online. Also our channel is a season behind, so I am watching the latest season. Bell, thumbing my nose at you!!

Saturday baked these no bake chocolate coconut cashew bars and this recipe immediately went into my recipe box.

Sunday was another lazy day.

Monday John golfed and I did some errands.

Tuesday we headed out for Toronto Islands and a long day of walking, over 19,000 steps.
Click here for details. 

Gorgeous day gorgeous view as we step off the ferry.

Entrance to Clothing Optional Beach.

fisheye view of the amusement park.

Wednesday is John's weekly golf game and I did household chores before heading out to my a niece for a Harvest Wednesday dinner at the Gladstone Hotel. Click here for lots of food.

I walked to the Humber Loop as there is a disruption it the streetcar tracks so it was just easier. I waited over fifteen minutes and no streetcar came, so I walked up to the shopping mall and called a cab using a taxi app. When I got in the cab, my niece messaged me saying she was also being delayed by the streetcar (from the opposite direction).

We got there and checked in. The evening was hosted by the hotel chef and celebrity chef Bob Bulmer of Surreal Chef fame. We had plenty of food to sample, one of my favourite was this rice with chili oil miso.

Thursday I headed downtown to meet a friend for lunch.

Hockey fever is alive all around town. Banners decorate Union Station for the World Hockey Cup starting on Saturday.

We go to an Irish pub in her office building.

I snap some photos on my way home.
A 1989 Toronto Historical Board plaque, located here on the south side of Front Street West at the entrance to Isabella Valancy Crawford park, tells us about this poet.Isabella Valancy Crawford (25 December 1846 – 12 February 1887) was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.

Considered among our finest poets, Isabella Crawford was born in Ireland and came to Canada with her parents about 1858. After settling first in Paisley, Ontario, the family lived later in Lakefield and Peterborough. As a young woman Isabella became fascinated by backwoods life and Indian legends. Following her father's death, she and her mother moved to Toronto. There they subsisted on her meagre earnings from light verse and 'formula fiction' that appeared in Canadian and American newspapers. One privately-printed book of serious poetry, 'Old Spookeses Pass, Malcom's Katie and Other Poems' appeared before her untimely death at 57 John Street. Full recognition came later, however, with the publication of her collected poems, which were admired for their evocative images of the lush and sparkling wilderness.

'Darkness built its wigwam walls close around the camp'

Terry Fox statue in Metro Hall.

John and I then headed out to a walk Lost Breweries of Toronto hosted by Heritage Toronto. I didn't take a lot of photos as most of these breweries have been replaced by new buildings. Some have been repurposed.

We started out meeting at a rather dodgy corner Sherbourne and Queen.
The earliest breweries in Toronto arose from a need to provide the city's British soldiers and Canadian militia with their daily rations of beer. By the mid 1800s, however, brewing in the city had really begun to take off and the industry was beginning to help shape entire neighbourhoods, like Corktown in Toronto's east end.
We walked and stopped at several locations of various breweries and heard a lot of stories in the two hour walk.

We stopped at the location of the Korman Brewery which lead to an interesting story about the husband of one of the Kormans, Ambrose Small who disappeared.

Brewing in Corktown is also indirectly responsible for the city's first "free school." In 1846, the Common Schools Actwas passed, giving municipalities the ability to collect taxes for the purposes of providing public education. However, when municipalities proved reluctant to do so, it was a local brewer, Enoch Turner, who provided the funding to build a school on land donated by Little Trinity Anglican Church.

These photos are from a previous visit to this area.

School House

Little Trinity Church

Turner put up the funding to ensure that the poor, immigrant families that lived in the area surrounding his brewery could go to school and he continued to pay the operating cost of the school for the first three years of its operation. Today, Enoch Turner School still stands at 106 Trinity Street--as does the adjacent Little Trinity Anglican Church, the oldest surviving church in Toronto.
We were surprised to find a street called Old Brewery Lane tucked behind the Animal Shelter.


In 1849,Thomas Davies established the Don Brewery, which was built on the Don River and drew from it for brewing and malting.

One of the buildings has been turned into condos.

Davies operated the Don Brewery with his son, Thomas, Jr. until Davies died in 1869. At that time Thomas Davies Jr. was joined in running the business by his brother Robert Davies in 1871. Seven years later, Robert left the family business to found his own brewery, the Dominion Brewery down the road from the Don Brewery on Queen Street East in Corktown.
Davies provided housing for his employees across the street from the Dominion Brewery.

We then walked to the Distillery District and attended a beer sampling.

A fun beer label.

We did 14,553 steps or 6.2 miles.

Friday we headed downtown. TIFF is in full swing.

We went to lunch at Wurst on King St W at Bathurst. Wurst is a sausage beer hall
You line up and place your order and a server then brings it to your table.

We sat at the bar.

We ordered flights of cider 6 X 5 oz for $14. We had a great conversation with the owner/manager and learned about other ciders that they are importing.

We shared duck fat fries, because you have to, right? They came with two dipping sauces of your choice, we chose jalapeno cilantro which claimed to be spicy, nope, no at all and buttermilk ranch.

I had elk in a delicious bun.  They currently have twenty five gluten free sausages on the menu. The bread is not gluten free.

John chose chorizo served currywurst style. I "borrowed" this photo from BlogTO as we forgot to get one.



A mural hidden down a lane as we head home.

DINNER
My freezers are stocked completely. I am not buying any meat until we can use up some of what we have. I also need to be better at labeling and should will make (maybe) an inventory for my phone to track what we have. I am looking for a good app for managing this.

Saturday - Thai meatballs but I used beef instead of pork because that's what I had. Served with salad and pita. The dipping sauce was absolutely delicious!

Sunday - mystery meat I thought it looked like pork but it was chicken thighs so we had Spanish chicken thighs, a recipe I go to many times, I used up some corn on the cob that we had, the last carrot and made mashed potatoes.

Monday - I planned on Greek lamb meatballs in pita but couldn't get any gluten free pitas so came home and defrosted some lamb and made curry instead.

Tuesday - steak sandwiches with green peppers and onions.

Wednesday - I made Lamb Patties with Pita and Yogurt to use up the defrosted meat for John as I was out. This recipe is not going in my recipe box, it was good but the yogurt dip could be improved upon.

Thursday - out again so we came home and had cheese and crackers.

Friday - leftovers because I am determined to use what we have

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