Self Isolation Week 23

 Weekend Cooking is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader!

Sunday Salon

Seasons

August 2020 - Toronto 

AROUND TORONTO

The weekend was spent around home doing odds and ends and relaxing.

John took a walk around the neighbourhood.

I tried another electrician who came promptly and we booked him. He will come on August 17 to put in an additional plug in the kitchen prior to the counter installation.

We also booked 1-800- JUNK and moved that date to August 24 to puck up the stuff. John also added his pant press to it. It came with us from the house but hasn't been used since.

The flooring guy will come on Monday to give us another estimate.

Monday was a hot one. At 6:30 PM it was 31C feeling like 39C. 

I decided to only go to Longo's, first time since March 11 when we went to a sushi class, when the world was still almost normal, we were hearing about coronavirus and had cancelled our winter trip, but had no idea what was to come!

Since I had an hour until the next bus (reduced schedule due to Covid) I took a walk and found this new display.

On my way to Longo's, a great reflection of the CN Tower.

The hockey bubble around the arena.

Tuesday I went to College Park for the first time since March.

I went to the Bulk Barn, which is great, entrance is crowd controlled, hands sanitized on entry, required to put on gloves as you select your bulk items and told not to remove the gloves until you leave the store.

I also went to Metro and found a Portuguese chicken (see below) and fresh lamb shanks. 

Food court in College Park, so sad, my BFF and I loved the closed steak place on the end.

A few were open, Tim Horton's, Duck *I love their noodle soups), Taco Bell, KFC and Thai Bowl.  Steak was closed as was the teriyaki place and Szechuan stand.

  

Wednesday I had a ticket for the ROM. Traffic was so light I got the 9:10 bus then took the subway to Museum Station and was there by 9:35 so I had time to kill.

Great map at the subway station.

I am loving the creativity of the sidewalk social distancing markers.

You had to have a timed ticket for entry which was checked before you entered, coat check closed, ticket scanned. 

I keep saying it but I love this social distancing. The ROM is huge and I had the third floor (European) to myself, a little eerie.

There was a small special display that I wanted to see.

One person/family per elevator.

This ten-storey building was constructed by a consortium of doctors to provide facilities for the medical profession, and was a landmark redevelopment of a formerly residential section of Bloor Street. Designed in a Georgian-influenced style by Marani, Lawson and Paisley, Architects, it exhibits high-quality materials and craftsmanship, particularly in its stone detailing and main lobby. On its façades, classical motifs such as garlands and pilasters are joined, on the ninth floor, by the symbol of the medical profession, a rod with serpent. The Medical Arts Building was acquired by the University of Toronto in 2002.

In 2008, this building became the Jackman Humanities Building in recognition pf the Honourable Henry N.R. Jackman's extraordinary philanthropic support of the humanities at the University of Toronto.

I need to get a photo of the plaque.

I featured that mural by Birdo on Monday Mural.

In 1980, two long-established congregations joined to form Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church. Founded in 1887 and 1889 respectively, St. Paul’s Avenue Road United Church and Trinity United Church had already contributed nearly 100 years each of dedicated service to the community, each seeking to live the love, justice and freedom of Jesus Christ.

The fulfillment of this mission continues today in a lively and vital atmosphere. For more than a century, the familiar stone towers of Trinity-St. Paul’s have been a landmark on Bloor Street. The building represents the congregation’s community outreach for neighbourhood programs, social justice activities, educational forums, support services and the performing arts. 

A lending library at the church.

Built in the Revived Romanesque style, Trinity-St. Paul’s stone was quarried from the Forks of the Credit River. It is part of the body of work of architect Edmund Burke, whose splendid buildings are so much a part of Toronto’s cityscape. In recognition of its fine architecture which is revolutionary in its democracy, Trinity-St. Paul’s has been designated as a Heritage Building by the Toronto Historical Board.

Love the tiny patio between the buildings.

El Furniture Warehouse, a restaurant-bar, where all food is $5.95.

Interesting window.

Thursday up bright and early. Breakfast, some online time. Found a recipe for no churn ice cream and decided I needed to make it since John had bought cherries and I had dark chocolate from another project along with some past its due date whipping cream. The recipe is from Foodie Adventures. I had also just read that if you soaked fruit in a little vodka it wouldn't freeze rock solid in ice cream, so I did that as well and it worked.

I took last night's lamb shanks and turned the leftovers into a soup with some leftover new potatoes.

Then I took the 12:40 shuttle downtown and headed down Lower Simcoe to Harbourfront.

This mural has been a work in progress since 2017, it fills the entire underpass. It is almost finished now.

Down at Harbourfront, the galleries are not open.

Social distancing circles.

You can grab lunch.

This patio was open, some were closed.

Normally it would be packed down here and these boats would be doing a thriving tourism business.

These patios were busy.

I would later go through the Sun Life building to see if the stores were open as the office towers are not. Yes, they were open, but it was so quiet. Normally it would be bustling with office workers. Customers were from the nearby condos.

Looking down at the ScotiaBank Arena (old ACC) where the eastern hockey games are being played. Even these players were in the bubble.

I did some shopping at Longo's then came home.

Then I decided we needed some breakfast sweets so I made cinnamon raisin bread. This recipe is delicious, quick (one bowl - no mixer) and makes two loaves.

Friday Andrew wrote about his condo and dealing with recycling.

We have a disposal room on each floor for blue, green recycling and a garbage chute.

When we moved onto this floor in 2012 there were only 5 of the 8 units occupied and everyone followed the rules. The floor is full now and it has driven me crazy that someone could not be bothered to break/fold up their boxes. Mystery solved, as I was putting out some stuff a while back, B was there and said "I've been a bad boy, I didn't break up my box! Making it sound like a one-time thing. Not so, every time I see a box, I check and it is him, as he doesn't even pull off the address labels.

I decided I wouldn't go out, much as I enjoy it, but had been out a few times already this week.

Instead I went outside and sat in the sun and read. I was enjoying my peace and quiet until another annoying resident, M, came out. He absolutely must talk to everyone and stopped to say hello, then tried to engage me in conversation before he started loudly chatting on his phone. Headphones next time!

DINNER MENU

Saturday I don't remember!

Sunday I made pulled pork and potato salad.

Monday John was talking about pork hocks a few weeks ago. He was remembering have German style pork hocks in Montreal that were crispy. My mother usually boiled them. So I used this recipe  oven pork hocks, neither of us loved them, they got a little too dried out and hard.

Tuesday I found this at Metro. Served with potato salad and coleslaw, I put cabbage, radishes, red onion and carrots in the food processor and then made the Betty Crocker dressing but added some oil and vinegar to the mayo/sour cream.

The chicken was delicious and I had a couple of sandwiches for lunch later in the week.

Wednesday I did the lamb shanks in beer with mashed white and sweet potatoes.

Thursday shrimp and salad.

Friday steak and loaded baked potatoes.

READING  AND WATCHING

Found on Facebook

I am trying to read my Bloglovin' (blogs I follow) almost on a daily basis lately. I had slipped into doing it on the weekend, but found I wasn't catching up with everybody.

I finished The Silence, an Australian thriller which also dealt with The Stolen Generations. This was recommended by Tina at Novel Meals.

The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.

I couldn't believe a character in the book was a policeman whose job it was to forcibly remove these children from their families.

Tina also recommended the movie Rabbit Proof Fence.

I started reading Right After the Weather which has as a backdrop the 2016 election aftermath that lends a foreboding feel.

A blogger posted about watching shows at CBC Gem, a streaming service.So I started watching a free month preview. The blogger had mentioned a series called The Secret and I watched the four part series in an afternoon.

The Secret is a 2016 Northern Irish mini-series based on Let This Be Our Secret, Belfast journalist Deric Henderson's account of the double murder of Lesley Howell and Constable Trevor Buchanan, whose bodies were discovered in a fume-filled car in the garage of a property in Northern Ireland in May 1991.

A compelling read in the Rolling Stone - The Unravelling of America.