Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader
January 2021 - Toronto ON
Sick to death of talking about Covid, we're locked down, it is what it is.
However, here is a funny video spoofing the politician that got caught breaking the lockdown rules by going south on a vacation over the holidays.
We have 9,500 streets that require clearing. Not that they've needed any clearing so far this year.
Spent the long weekend relaxing at home. Monday was a holiday to make up for Saturday's Boxing Day, a legal holiday here in Ontario.
Tuesday I had had enough, and ventured on the shuttle bus (only passenger both ways) downtown to Longo's, $ store (only store allowed open as it carries a couple of aisles of food) and a special errand for John's son. See below.
Royal York Hotel windows were festive. Union Station reflected.
F for Fairmont as they own the Royal York these days.
Wednesday was warm and dark and gloomy. We took the shuttle downtown and checked some sights, staying well distanced.
A dump truck drivers' protest heading up to Queen's Park. We had seen them on the Gardiner slowing up traffic before we left.
The man sitting at the corner at the traffic lights on the right, with his dog, has used this corner to panhandle for as long as I can remember. He packs up at 5 PM tucks his dog and bag under his arm and takes the subway home.
Sadly, the lockdown interfered with the Thirsty Elf's intentions. We had been looking forward to sampling his seasonal libations (only as a show of support, of course).
Such a shame these businesses did so much to add to the festivities as well as providing some income under the difficult circumstances when dining/drinking inside was not an option and still they were closed down at the end of November.
The cows didn't seem to mind the snow.
TD Centre had a great looking tree.
Making a snowman out of the little amount of snow that had fallen overnight.
City Hall was disappointing. The skaters have to book online, the lineup is just to the right of the photo.
Parked on Queen St. West outside City Hall.
Food trucks are still going.
Huge video billboard at TD corner Bay and Queen.
As we headed to Longos to pick up NY Eve's dinner it started raining harder so we cut indoors. It didn't get cold enough for it to turn to freezing rain, luckily.
Intrigued/curious about the McDonald's commercial for the spicy habanero chicken sandwich as the actors proclaimed how spicy it was we said we would have to try it.
New Year's Eve we ventured out at lunchtime to a drive through and each had one, even John, although it is not gluten free. A little spicy and it was good. John suffered a little in the afternoon but he said it was worth it and it's not like we had anywhere to be.
NEW YEAR'S DAY was spent relaxing and chatting with family.
I got a spurt of cleaning/organizing frenzy in the afternoon and did a proper cleaning of kitchen and bathrooms! Organized a couple of shelves. It wore off quickly though.
John got a surprise gift from his son, I had played elf picking it up on Tuesday.
COOKING
Saturday was Christmas leftovers, no cooking involved.
Sunday leftovers again, John was happy with more tourtiere and I had a hot turkey sandwich. I made more gravy from the turkey carcass that was simmering for soup/stock.
Monday I took out part of the ham I had frozen and served it with potato/cauliflower au gratin.
Tuesday we went with leftovers from last night and added Brussel sprouts.
Wednesday chicken legs and kale salad.
Thursday New Year's Eve
Happy Hour - tequila anejo
Crab legs and lobster tails. Crab was fabulous but wouldn't buy the lobster again.
I made a cheddar jalapeno soda bread.
FRIDAY NEW YEAR'S DAY
Used this gluten free Yorkshire pudding recipe. I cut it in half, used a muffin tin rather than my usual bowls and bacon fat instead of oil. It was a major fail, will go back to my usual recipe.
Prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, mushroom gravy made from scratch, carrots and turnips, broccoli.
I didn't use the cold oven method, because you can't open the oven therefore you can't make the roast potatoes or the Yorkshires (in this case it wouldn't have mattered). I used the traditional 500 F for 15 minutes and then reduced to 375 and 15 minutes per pound.
John's plate, not mine!
WATCHING/READING
Really enjoyed Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on Boxing day.
Being Frank was a lot of fun.
We binged on The Undoing and stayed up until 2 AM to finish.
I'm into season 2 of Ozark.
We got totally caught up in Dirty John, here is a good article about the real Dirty John. Fun to see Julie Garner from Ozark playing Terra.
Latest binge Yellowstone on Amazon Prime.
And finally
So, I come here this Morning before Breakfast and you've made me Hungry as Hell with all your Food Porn! *LOL* Thanks for the Tour of Downtown, it looks so Festive and it is a shame they aren't allowing the businesses to at least do Take-Out, how about Delivery, is that allowed? Is your Country subsidizing the Businesses so they can survive... here they are not so too many are Closing never to reopen and so a lot of people will now be out of a Job! The Vaccine here is rolling out so behind schedule and slowly that they predict it could take a Decade at this rate to vaccinate everyone... oy vey! I don't have a Decade to wait for a turn so I just Hope our present Age and comorbidities bump us up the Laundry List sometime in 2021??? Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteRestaurants can do take-out, drive thru or delivery. Yes, businesses have been given subsidies for rent and wages.
Deletehttps://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/economic-response-plan.html
Someone at the park just told us about Yellowstone, we hadn't heard of it before so I did get on the wait list at the library. Sounds good. We are taking a break from liquor and wine this month as our intake increased these past few months. My liver and brain will thank me.
ReplyDeleteLove the food trucks and I would gladly get something if we had any around.
Happy new year!
I love that image with the little girl reading! I'm going to steal that to share on our library's Facebook! My husband and I enjoyed the spoof on the politician's hypocritical trip. He said several U.S. state governors got caught traveling for Thanksgiving after telling everyone not to go anywhere. (I've stopped following the news almost completely, but know I'll have to do better after Inauguration Day here.
ReplyDeleteAt least a dozen or more have now been caught, and they wonder why people don't follow the rules.
DeleteSnow clearing is something I know little about, so the link was interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe cows are quite realistic in the photo.
I live the raccoon poster. We don't have them here of course.
I thought you would like it.
DeleteIt must be so difficult to be locked down after the loosening of the lockdown. We lock ourselves down here, as others aren't careful. Love those windows. I miss going into a big city. We venture out to walk to the library of our small town, and that's it.
ReplyDeleteThe snow is so beautiful.
Glad the food trucks are still open.
I'd love to see your recipe for cheddar jalapeño soda bread. We will be swamped with jalapeños in our garden next summer. I'm a huge jalapeño fan.
Haha to that Covid "mask-cot."
Love your play on mask-cot!
DeleteHere is the recipe I add the jalapenos to
https://thecafesucrefarine.com/cheddar-herb-savory-irish-soda-bread/
I'll drop by and leave a link at your place.
Thank you for the pictures that made me travel to Toronto ! And the culinary cartoon ^^ I'm afraid I don't share many pictures as we're more or less on lockdown, but the weather is so foggy/rainy that we don't regret staying in - and reading ! Enjoy your week :)
ReplyDelete