a little of Provence in southern Ontario

The visit to Scott’s Barn was lovely. It’s such a pretty little place. There’s this newly restored 1924s barn and it’s adorned with mismatched furniture and brightly coloured quilts. It’s more of a rustic-wedding kinda barn that one for ho-downs and rollin’ in the hay.

The lavender festival is a synesthesia-tic experience ofthat purple fragrant flower associated with images of southern france. Stepping out of the car, we were greeted with wafts of a little bit citrusy, a little bit minty, a little bit sweet.  Apparently there is, like, a gazillion varieties of lavender, each with its own smell.

Our tastebuds were also stimulated by lavender. Lavender ice cream, lavender ice cream, lavender butter, lavender lemonade, and even lavender rubbed beef on a bun. Who knew lavender could be such a widely used ingredient? 

I bought a bunch to make lavender iced tea at home; it’s refreshing and very… flowery.  I feel like such a country gal, again more English-rose country then the western kind, while sipping on my iced tea… but only for a moment as a glimpse outside my window into a concrete jungle reminds me that I am a city-girl through and through.

(note to self: iron fabrics before using as a backdrop in photograph)

birthday traditions

it's a tradition of my family to celebrate birthdays at a restaurant of the birthday person's choice. daniel decided to have his celebration at earth indian of restaurant makeover fame.

there was 2 appetizer platters, 6 curries, 2 bowls of rice, and 10 naans shared among 8 people (my family + cousins). the food was devoured in about 15 minutes.

the problem I find with communal sharing of food like such is that people tend to eat as much as possible, as quickly as they can, in order to try everything before it disappears.

then I get indigestion.

my cousin laura got itis and fell asleep as soon as she got home (at 9pm).

daniel, on the other hand, found his spinach in naan (or was it the saag paneer) and gained superhuman energy and stayed up really really late.

my family loves the birthday dinners. we never go anywhere fancy, but it's so much fun trying to manipulate others into choosing a restaurant of his or her choice and trying new restaurants. there will be a birthday drought for the next few months, but come april, we all begin the cycle again!

holiday parties

holiday partying has already begun. it started off with my office’s kid’s Christmas party last weekend. for some unknown reason (aneurysm, perhaps?) I volunteered to do Christmas-y crafts with kids at the party... I don’t even like children! (a more accurate statement is that I don’t like all children. I like some children; I’m just not one to think all kid’s are cute—because they’re really not— and I do not like playing with the non-cute ones.)... but I survived. the party was quite fun, but I do look forward to more grown-up ones.

yet another day on the farm

this time we drove to cooper's farm for their awesome 10 acre corn maze. my mum and aunts came along as well. we (that is, the kids) lead them deep into the maze, and then darted onto another path to force them to find they're own way out.

cops and robbers

There were no helium balloons and pistols, but nonetheless, the game of cops and robbers within the corn maze was so much fun!

Objective for the Cop:

Catch the robbers

Objective for the Robbers:

Complete the maze without being caught by a cop

The Game:

1.     Robbers enter maze

2.     Cops enter maze thirty mississipis after the robbers

3.     If a cop encounters a robber, they must duel in a game of rock, papers scissors. If cop wins, the robber is “caught” and must join the cop in searching for the remaining robbers. If robber wins, she/he can escape with a five mississipi lead.

4.     If a robber completes maze, he/she has won. 

dionysus

the winery tour I organized for my company’s young professionals’ group was a success! great wine was consumed and great wine was purchased I had mulling wine for the very first time, and boy of boy, it sure is delicious.

date night: on the farm

we've gone fruit picking aplenty but this weekend we went vegetable picking (at farintosh farms)! there will be lots of roasted red peppers and tomatoes for dinner in the next few days.

then daniel finally redeemed a present from long long ago and went flying! here he is, my brave and adventurous, fulfilling a lifelong dream. but alas, we cannot afford to pay $200+ a lesson for subsequent lessons or a $100K plane. 

four legs good, two legs bad

daniel insisted I put up more zoo animal pictures... for you, m'love!

ahab

a while back, I told daniel the only thing I wanted for my birthday was to cross fishing off my 101 in 1001 list. so when he was came back from arkansas, we went fishing for my very first time for belated birthday festivities. I had a pretty pink pole with pretty pink fishing line and it lit up when I reeled things in.

however, the only thing I reeled in was seaweed. didn't catch moby dick, but it was still so much fun nonetheless!!  anyone care to join us for our next fishing trip? ooOooh.. anyone with a boat?!

date night: the zoo

favourite zoo animals: hungry hippos, brazen zebra, quirky organgutangs, majestic elephant, roaring lion, silly husband.

date night: that's "fronkensteen"

(source: mirvish website)

yesterday we got free tickets to want young frankenstein at the princess of wales theatre. The tickets were courtesy of a co-worker of daniel’s who, apparently, is a super elite air canada member and received the pair of tickets from them. because we held the super elite air canada member tickets, we were ushered to a private lounge with complimentary refreshments and drinks. Daniel kept on urging me to have a beer because it was free, but I opted for free bottled water, with the choice of flat or fizzy. there was also popcorn and haagen daz ice cream bars, which we were allowed to take into the theatre to munch on during the show.

the musical was… not stellar. funny at parts, but didn’t seem to be about anything really. acting was alright, but the songs weren’t all that memorable. the best part of the show was gorging on haagen daz, two bars each.

and in case you were wondering, last week’s date night was having a steak dinner. daniel now wants steak dinners to be a date night regular.

date night: swans and sake

(source: national ballet of canada)

we were successful with getting dancebreak tickets for swan lake and saw the matinee show on saturday. I loved the dance of the little swans; the dance is hypnotic and mesmerizing.

(source: the toronto star)

afterwards we met up with some friends at guu izakaya, which I would liken to a japanese tapas bar. it was an hour and a half wait to get in, but such fun when finally in! the food and drinks were guud (hee)- though, the small portions and desire to try everything on the menu resulted in a fairly big bill for a dinner what required a hotdog snack prior and instant noodles after. the atmosphere was so 'yeet low' and lively... so much fun!!... I want to go again...

date night: oink oink

terms of conditions of date nights:

1. there must be one afternoon and/or evening a week reserved for spending quality time together.
2. the date must be a planned-in-advanced, meaning, being lazy and not wanting to cook dinner that night and therefore turning to husband and going “let’s do sushi tonight” and thereby going for sushi for dinner does NOT constitute as a date. similarly, surprising wife with a season of pushing daisies on blueray, however sweet the gesture, and then spending the rest of the evening watching it with her does not consititute as date night.
3. we will take turns planning date night.
4. date night activities should be thoughtful and fun.
5. each person has a $20/date budget. if dates cost more, it can come out of the next dates budget, however, a person cannot exceed spending more than $40 on dates in a month.

last week was daniel’s turn to plan and when he chose to go to black hoof for dinner, I was ecstatic. I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant for a very long time. since coming back from our parisian honeymoon, where much charcuterie plates were consumed, and doing a google searches of “toronto” and “charcuterie”. I was surprised that daniel was aware of the black hoof, but he must have had a similar nostalgia for parisian dining (he did mutter something about “paris” and “good times”) and conducted the same google search.

the restaurant opens at 6 and when we arrived, mere seconds before the opening hour, there was a already small crowd of people waiting outside for the doors to open. the restaurant is small and doesn’t take reservations so it is wise to arrive when the restaurant opens— the alternative is to wait an hour somewhere (there is not waiting area in the restaurant).

we ordered the large charcuterie plate, a long narrow wooden platter of ten items: foie gras, pate, duck liver mousse, chorizo, sopressata flecked with blueberries, duck prosciutto, calabrese and several other cured meats. surprisingly, we both really liked the foie gras and duck liver mousse—things we don’t usually like. the calabrese was our favourite- spicy and flavourful. it was a satisfying meal of salt and fat. mmmmmmmm.

(if any of you plan on dining at the black hoof, do invite me! daniel and I were there for the charcuterie plate, but I would very much like to try the tongue on brioche and raw horse sandwich!)

date night: twenties couple

odd socks holds a swing dance night, with lessons and live music, every saturday night at the dovercourt house. the night we went, we learned to charleston and the lindyhop, and then had the opportunity to swing the night away to the melodies of the toronto jazz orchestra and crooning of shannon butcher. it was so much fun!

I wore my new anthropologie dress. it’s 50s inspired and not at all the frock of a flapper, but it does have such a cute flounce in the skirt that I thought it’d be fun to dance in. daniel wore his fcuk batman t-shirt. okay, also not a twenties outfit, but batman did first appear in comics during the swing era between the 1920s and 40s.

date night: pie

since re-watching episodes of pushing daisies, I have been craving pie. for date night, I dragged daniel to the pie shack in the beaches— a bit outside our usual jaunt, but I really needed pie. we had a savoury pie each and then a sweet pie each. the savoury pies were decent. the sweet pies were dee-licious. such nice and flaky and buttery pastry crust.

and for those who have never ever watched pushing daisies, watch it! pushing daisies is about a piemaker (mmmm… pie) who solves mysteries by bringing dead people back to life. sounds a bit weird and morbid? it’s not. it’s more like a fairy tale, set in this very visually stunning fantastical world with characters that are all so absurd but in this lovable quirky whimsical way. I love the dialogue because of the abundant use of alliteratives and the rapid-fire delivery, like in gilmore girls, but more poetic and bizarre. it’s one of my favourite tv series of all time.

date night: sushi & movie

as part of my 101 in 1001, I am to have date night with daniel once a week for at least six months. for our first date, we decided on sushi and daniel was sweet to let me choose the restaurant, which inevitably meant somewhere nicer and more expensive than what he would have chosen (sushi bong). I have a list of sushi restaurants around the GTA that I want to try, but because we had a movie showing to make at fairview mall, I opted for le café michi, an old favourite of mine, because of its close proximity to the mall.

le cafe michi is a curious place, meaning it is a japanese restaurant run by japanese people but has a slight parisian air to it. a display of yummy looking cakes, along with a counter of bejeweled accessories and knick-knacks, greets patrons stepping into the restaurant; you can have some uni sushi and buy a beaded ring at the same time. there was no buying for us, just eating. yum yum yum. lots and lots of fresh yummy raw fish. albeit a tad pricey, café michi is a worthy once-in-a-while treat of melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

afterwards, we went to watch avatar, even though daniel had already seen it. I enjoyed it, not as much as he did and most certainly not enough to watch again on the big screen.