Old School

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader 

Sunday Salon

Seasons 

Hearth and Soul Link Party

Weekend Coffee Share

Sherry's Pickings

March 2021 - Toronto ON

March 2021 Old School Café Toronto ON

Monday mural from Hamilton.

More Tuesday Lanes.

Monday I was able to book John's vaccine appointments and I am on a pharmacy waiting list. A friend got her first shot this week.

The website was excellent, providing waiting time and then being very easy to navigate. He will go to a mass vaccination centre downtown.

John played his first round of golf today! It was the warmest March 22 in history, went to 22C.

I went downtown, had the bank machine eat my card so ended up in the branch to get a new one.

The Bird X pigeon deterrent balloons are doing their job so far. We've had some days with zero intruders and some with one or two. 

Mind you, it does help to actually READ the directions. I was about to throw out the package when I noticed it said "affix the shiny eyes.." OH!!! Luckily I hadn't thrown out the garbage and I retrieved the eyes. AND the instructions said to tie those red shiny ribbons (I had put them aside) so now the eyes reflect and the ribbons blow in the wind!

Tuesday and John did a Costco run.

Tuesday's Double Feature was two excellent movies. And the popcorn was great too.

Wednesday we stayed in and did the usual household maintenance, laundry, baking, watering plants, emptying dishwasher and so on.

Thursday to Hamilton for fish and chips for John, I tried their lobster roll. I did not like the gluten free roll they used but loved the lobster mixture, and it came with fries.

Random drive by mural shots. Some required the driver to go around the block.

This mural deserves a closer visit.

On King St. East. Hamilton is soooo confusing to Toronto. In Toronto you always know south is facing Lake Ontario. In Hamilton it is the opposite.

The corner of King St. East and Ferguson is full of things to see, murals, signs, train station.

1932: Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw opens the first official birth control clinic in Hamilton even though it is illegal to do so.

Still at King and Ferguson, some cute kids' murals.

Walking along King St. East

Popeye building at 11 King St. East. There is a ghost sign that refers to Mills China Shop which was located in 11-15 King St. East. It closed in 1985.

Victoria Hall is a former ​3 1⁄2-storey commercial building on King East. It is a superior and rare example of a commercial building with a decorative architectonic sheet metal facade, which is completely hand-made. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1995.
For many years, the building was home to Gerhard Heintzman Pianos, A. Carey & Son Radio, J.H. Herring tea brokers, the Empire Newspaper, Canada Cycle Company and Bessie Brown Hats. A high-fashion women's store named Foster's moved into Victoria Hall in 1952 and about 10 years later it also took over the MacKay space next door. Since then, they've been treated as one property and apparently they even lean on each other.

Additionally, the building is an irreplaceable element in King Street's continuum of commercial architecture dating from the pre-Confederation era to the present and is likely one of the oldest surviving sheet metal facades in the country.

See, John, it was an interesting looking building!

John cancelled his Friday golf game as it was raining, cold, windy and just miserable until mid-afternoon and the sun came out.

COOKING

Saturday Cocktails VII

We tried a vodka Sidecar, it was sour!! But it grows on you. 

SOPHISTICATED SHAKERS - TO DATE

Mai Tai with orgeat which is new to us

Tequila Sunrise

Rob Roy required bitters which we had never bought

New York Sours 

Gin Fizz

Rusty Nail

Saturday's dinner was roast chicken, potatoes and carrots all done in the oven.

On Sunday the chicken carcass went into a soup pot.

I then made a haddock shrimp chowder for dinner served with focaccia.

Tried two new recipes on Monday garlic butter mushrooms and cauliflower and cilantro lime chicken thighs both from Damn Delicious. I had all the ingredients available! Both were great and I had made them together as suggested. However, it kind of felt like two separate plates. The chicken would have gone well cooked with the butter sauce and the vegetables would have been good with the cilantro lime sauce. 

Tuesday leftover chowder.

Wednesday short rib and lamb kidney stew in the crockpot. The stew made Friday's lunch as well.

I also made a lemon loaf and since we have a Costco sized bunch of lemons I took some and zested and juiced them into an ice cube tray.

Thursday we had a big salad with lots of vegetables, ham and egg.

Friday is Friday, Steak Friday.

I don't know if this belongs under cooking, watching or reading!

I binged on Nadiya Bakes (2021) on the weekend. I want to make almost every recipe. 

Marg of The Intrepid Reader alerted me to these new episodes.

This website seems to have all the recipes!!

This cheesecake recipe made with bananas instead of cheese blew my mind because I always have bananas in the freezer.

And then this teriyaki chicken and noodles - she doesn't cook the noodles but bakes them in the oven!

Her galette pastry looks really easy.

Brownies!! Potato rosti quiche. Onion pretzels.

WATCHING

We finished Wanted and  Seven Seconds which was a very disturbing series.

We then started Intelligence a Canadian series set in Vancouver. Available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Tuesday we scored big with two outstanding movies.

Death of a Ladies Man starring Gabriel Byrne (what could be better) and featuring the music of Leonard Cohen (even better), filmed in Montreal where I grew up and in Ireland where I was born.

There is even a site called Byrneholics for fans and it lists the filming locations for the movie.

The use of Cohen's literary or musical work is a recurring motif in Matt Bissonnette's work, also seen in his 2002 filmmaking debut Looking for Leonard and his 2009 film Passenger Side.

The second movie was A Call to Spy.

I can only ask why I have never heard of these two extraordinary women??? Virginia Hall and Noor Khan??????? This movie highlights these women's incredible lives just as Hidden Figures did.

READING

I am reading Outtakes from a Marriage and find it a quick easy and sometimes funny read with some profound truths about marriage.

I finally went through my new purchase, The Atlas Cookbook and was a little disappointed as I didn't mark as many recipes as I thought I would.

I flipped through The French Menu a step back in cooking time with recipes like boiled pigs' tails, grilled lamb's heart and kidneys. Don't get me wrong, I like heart and tails and we had lamb kidneys this week and we both remarked on how much we like them.