The Making of... Royals

Jeez, I am really liking this gal! And she is just barely 17... What an amazing talent. Madonna, Gaga, and Adele got nothing on her!

Royals...

The Lorde Version:



And the Canadian Borde version:

Coffee anyone?

#FlexLikeCarrie

Tantrum!

This clip really cracks me up. Apparently the 6-year-old daughter is thowing a tantrum, which has been going on for almost an hour according to the mother, or originally posted the video. I think the girl is still in her room and can't see her father, but she sure hears her brothers laughing! Dad is an amazing lip-sync!

Indulge 2013 (contd)

So our Indulge Weekend continued the next morning with me walking Jasper first thing and then Brad and I having breakfast at the Inn. Nine times out of Ten I will go for the Eggs Benny, which is what I did both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Delish. Complimented by just a few homes fries and some fresh fruit. We then hooked up with Paul and Ron at the Market and walked around there, taking in all the sights and sounds and smells! After a bit, Brad decided he wanted to try to find a rental cottage that we might be interested in renting sometime in the future. We all parted ways and agreed to reconnect at the liquor store at 1:30, which was the time the wine trail started. A wine trail is similar to a pub crawl, except that it's done in daylight and generally, more wine than beer is involved. We decided to start at the liquor store as it was at the end of the street and make our way down from there. It was all kind of ho-hum until we happened upon a place with beer on tap (mostly Austrian), which was very good, and they also had some GREAT nibbles! Lots of great bread and yummy charcuterie (Shhh - some of us still pretend to be vegetarian!). Then it was off to a place where they had single malt scotch. Nice and peaty - yum! We then ended up at the best stop of all on the wine trail, where Mission Hill wines (from B.C.) were on offer. The pours were generous and the reps (Tyler and Jill) were great! Mission Hill recently won an award for having the best Pinot Noir (in the world, I think?). The white wine was also good. There were real glass wine glasses and, as I say, nice pours! We stayed for a couple of samples! Eventually, Brad left to go back to the Inn to let Jasper out and give him his supper. We agreed to meet up at the last stop on the wine trail, which was also the place where we would be having dinner that evening. In the interim, we also connected with some of Paul's friends and had a drink with them. Then, it was on to dinner! It was all set up in one of those gigantic tents with windows. Bales of hay with planks on top for sitting. Tyler and Jill, the Mission Hill reps whom we had met earlier in the day, ended up sitting right beside me. (Let me just say, as a result, the wine flowed freely all evening! :))The tables were beautifully laid out and the food was absolutely delish: Beausoleil oysters (done 4 ways) with Mission Hill Five Vineyards Pinot Grigio; Smoked salmon terrine with canadied Acadian Sturgeon (with Mission Hill Five Vineyards Pinot Noir); Roasted buttercup squash soup with spiced pumpkin (with Mission Hill Perpetua Chardonnay); Merlot slow-braised short ribs with purple shiso-chives blue cheese "gnocchi", parsnip crisps, nasturtium oil) (with Mission Hill Compendium - and man, I must say, if you get a chance to grab a bottle of this, by all means, go for it!); topped off by a dark chocolate mousse cake with hazelnut feuilletine for dessert (with Henkell Trocken sparkling rosé). Uh-huh...

Indulge 2013!

So once again this year Brad and I headed down to the beautiful town of Saint Andrews for the 2013 editon of the Indulge NB festival. I think this was our third time to attend the decadent weekend on the coast. Usually it's held the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving (which is this weekend, incidently), but this year the organizers decided to hold it the weekend before Thankgiving (Oct. 4 to 6). As usual, we went with our good friends Paul and Ron. We took last Friday off and arrived in Saint Andrews around 4:00 p.m. Brad and I and Jasper checked into our room at the Inn and then hooked up with Paul and Ron, who were staying in a cottage down the street a bit. The weather was beautiful (sunny and warm) the entire weekend, by the way. Between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. on Friday, a lot of the shops and restaurants on the main street had appetizers and wine and other drinkables on hand for $2 a pop. It was a great idea, but we ate more than we should have, as we had a 7-course meal booked back at our Inn at 6:45.

Here is the menu from Friday night:

Glass of sparkling wine served with
Buttercup Squash purée
(vanilla infused, parsnip crisps, prosciutto dust, parsley oil, micro greens)

Glass of Sauvignon Blanc served with:
Croque Madamme
(crushed baby potatoes with olive oil, crisp bacon, chiabata crouton, arugula, soft poached egg with mustard ice cream)

Lobster Cake
(wasabi sour cream, potato "swiss cheese", corn shoot)

Charcuterie
(prosciutto wrapped pork terrine, Waldorf salad, Sauce Cumberland)

Bay of Fundy Scallop
(Bay of Fundy scallop, quinoa tabbouleh salad, sweet potato silk)

Glass of Shiraz Cabernet served with:
Surf & Turf
(Pork tenderloin filet in parsley panko crust, blueberry jus, scalloped potatoes, blackened salmon filet, saffron beurre blanc, baby carrots)

Glass of ice wine & brandy served with:
Sessert Sampler Trio
(Rote grütze with crème Anglaise, Baileys cheeze cake, hazelnut truffle)

All that was just $75 (including drinks), and for good measure, we had another couple of bottles of wine to wash it all down. Needless to say, by the end of the meal we were stuffed! Brad and I walked back to Paul and Ron's cottage for a night cap and made it back to our Inn around midnight.

I'll recap Saturday soon!

Tennis Court

Music by Lorde:

More Cookbooks!

I indulged my cookbook addiction on the weekend and ordered two new books from Chapters online. One was "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing" by Anya Von Bremzen. It's written as an autobiographical story and has no recipe pics.

The second book was "Plenty" by Yotam Ottolenghi - co-author of "Jeruselem," a book I bought last year and is great! Plenty is completely vegetarian, and I've been wanting to pick it up for some time now. It's got all the bells and whistles as far as recipe pics go.

They arrived today. I can't wait to read and make dishes from both!

Cheers and Bon appétit!