Last month, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my little place – my first (and hopefully not the last) formal-ish dinner since I moved to this property. I was a little worried about people’s comfort – squeezing 5 people around a small round table, but it all worked out.
Thanksgiving for my family is not about the fairy story of the Natives helping the invaderscolonizers white Europeans survive and sharing food with them and everyone co-existing happily ever after. I think that’s more of an American thing. I don’t know what the origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are. Maybe we saw what our neighbours were doing and thought: Hey, an autumn feast is a great idea but let’s move it up so it’s not so close to Christmas, OK? I dunno. For us it’s a simple celebration of the season’s bounty and feeling thankful for all that we have – food on the table, a warm house, friends and family.
The table set-up.
I had invited Donna and Richard to join Jemma, Kevin and I for dinner. Of course Bowser was there – and I had cooked the giblets from the turkey just for him!
But first, appetizers!
Bowser: Did someone say cheese? Photo by DonnaClose-up of appetizer tray I put together.
I’m so glad I invited Donna – not only because she is a great friend, but because she remembers to take photos!!! 🤣
And she brought her fabulous homemade cranberry sauce (pictured above with the gravy and the cut up turkey). I couldn’t steal find the recipe on her blog so you’ll have to ask her for it, if interested! Photo by DonnaThe sides: Mashed potatoes made by Jemma and Kevin, stuffing flavoured with sage and onions from my garden, squash from my garden, and green and yellow pole beans from my garden. Celebrating the harvest in a very personal way! Photo by DonnaI didn’t make a trifle this time, but I did make a loaf of our favourite rustic bread. Two desserts also graced the table: a gluten-free pumpkin pie (and the best I’ve ever tasted!) from Wild Poppy Bakery in Ladysmith, and gluten-free Oreo cheesecake bites (made by me from a recipe in Costco magazine – basically the same as Donna’s recipe here). Photo by DonnaAnd here’s proof we all fit around the table. Photo by Donna
Please check out Donna’s post here, where she blogs about another October celebration – Halloween!
And please feel free to join us, either in the Comments or by joining the Link Party, or both!
At the end of August, I had the good fortune to travel to Prince Edward Island. You can read more about that trip here. While on PEI, our hosts had booked us into The Table Culinary Studio for a very special evening (extra special because it was also one of our hosts’ birthdays!).
The Table is in a re-purposed church.A lot of smiling faces around our table, already anticipating a wonderful evening (and we were not disappointed!). The open kitchen is in the background. The owner took our picture.A somewhat daunting array of cutlery greeted us, surrounding the night’s menu. At The Table, a menu is created each week based on consultation with local farmers on what is at its peak right now. The menu is retired at the end of the week and those creations are never repeated again (no matter how piteously the patrons beg!).Like the menu says, the meal is going to be a love letter to Canadian food and wine. Everything we ate was grown in Canada. For example: since black pepper does not grow in Canada, roasted and ground alder cones were used instead; in place of vanilla, an extract made from sweet clover was used to flavour the night’s dessert. All of the restaurant’s food-providing partners are listed on the back, and even a link to the music coming through the sound system!Chef Hunter created a special playlist, featuring artists from PEI (an island blessed with an abundance of musical talent!).Chef Hunter Guindon – who told us the story behind every morsel we were going to enjoy, as the evening progressed. There’s birthday boy Ted, on the left.He knows it’s gonna be a good night, as he’s been here before!The interior of the menu tells the story of the venue, and lists the nights offerings, including the optional flight of Canadian wines (which I selected, naturally 😁).The delicious first course: striped bass caught the previous night by the Chefs Hunter Guindon and Alex Bevan-Baker. Alex also creates beautiful pottery and the bass is resting in one of his stunning bowls.Second course: the best damn tomatoes I have ever eaten.Third course: gorgeous on the eyes, and even better in the mouth!Fourth course: mouth-watering scallops with tiny turnips – amazingly delicious.To accommodate Brenda’s shellfish allergy, the chefs provided a gorgeous salad for her fourth course.Fifth course: (probably my favourite of the night) mushrooms, bacon and ricotta on toasted bread with a bone marrow aioli. Divine.Sixth course: the pork loin – my least favourite, sadly. I found the herbs a bit overpowering. But then the bar was set amazingly high. I still ate almost every bite, though 😉.The dessert course: in another one of Chef Alex’s beautiful bowls. I love apple desserts and this one was absolutely delicious, no surprise there! In the background you can see more of Alex’s pottery being displayed plus a board holding all of the previous weeks’ menus.The Table was featured in an episode of the Amazing Race Canada. I haven’t watched this show (don’t have cable). Have you seen this episode?
This concluded a most special evening and a unique dining experience! It was made even better by sharing it with our hosts and two other lovely women (who I met for the first time that night). If ever on PEI, I recommend getting a seat at The Table!
Please let my co-host Donna and/or myself know what was on your plate lately, in the Comments or by using the Link Party, if the spirit moves you!
P. S. For those of you who might be concerned that I went to PEI and didn’t mention eating lobster (cough*Bernie*cough 😉), a lobster roll was What’s On My Plate for my very first meal on the island! Lobster is not my favourite sea food I think its over rated TBH, but I did partake regardless, as one does. It was pretty good – I ate all the lobster meat and most of the fries. No room for the roll, though.
* This should really be renamed What’s In Your Glass 😉
I don’t know about you, but as I am getting older I am finding that drinking alcohol is sometimes more trouble than it’s worth. It disrupts my sleep at night – even one glass of wine after supper! Which means the only alternative is day drinking finding substitutes that provide the same refreshment without the befuddlement buzz and the dreaded 2 am wakey-wakey.
I did find (thanks to my non-drinking family) some superior non-alcoholic alternatives for purchase (more on that later in this post) and I also made homemade Ribena – of a sort – from my own garden! I found a recipe here.
Into the double boiler goes this year’s harvest of blackcurrants. Along with last year’s dried blackcurrants, and for good measure: last year’s elderberries, that have been languishing in my freezer. Why the heck not?! 🤭I mashed ’em up real good, and strained the juice through many layers of cheese cloth. Back in the pot for cooking until the sugar dissolves.Assembling the ingredients for my first taste.Blackcurrant syrup over ice.Adding tonic water.Delicious AND refreshing.I’ve also come to enjoy an iced coffee in the morning. My daughter found these protein drinks at Costco. (Not a mocktail per se, but thought I’d throw it in for good measure.)Here are 2 of my favourite non-alcoholic drinks for this summer.This is incredibly refreshing and tasty. I don’t miss the alcohol in this Corona at all. In fact, I prefer it to the regular version. I can order one of these when I’m out and not have to worry about driving afterwards.Assembling the ingredients for my sinless sangria…I’ve thrown a few of the raspberries from my garden into the glass along with the ice.Looking (and smelling) good so far!Oh yeah, baby! Come to Mama 😁.This goes down so good after a long hot afternoon of swimming in the river or the ocean with the grandkids. It retains the complex flavour profile that I love about wine. Although red sangria is my favourite, I would love to try a white version. I don’t know if they sell one yet but Atypique also makes other sinless adult beverages. I’ve enjoyed their mojito and amaretto sour as well.
Thanks for reading this far! Hopefully I didn’t make you too thirsty, although it is important to keep hydrated – especially in hot weather 👍.
As always, please join my co-host Donna and myself by sharing what’s on your plate (or in your glass) in the Comments or in the Link Party.
Last weekend I hit a major milestone birthday – well, according to our government that is! I turned 65, which is the traditional “age of retirement” still, here in Canada.
Woohoo! I can look forward to my Old Age Security cheque every month now, starting in August. It’s not near enough for a person to actually live on, but it will be something for those of us who no longer garner a paycheque. When I retired from my career officially at age 60, I opted to take my Canada Pension Plan (a benefit available to all Canadians who have paid into the plan during their working lives) early because of a few good reasons – the main one being that my early CPP plus my existing survivor benefit (for being a widow of a working Canadian) meant I was pretty close to my maximum payout already, so why not?! And I have not regretted for one minute my decision to retire early!
My daughter had made plans to treat me to High Tea at the Empress, in Victoria, on my actual birthdate so I had a girly splurge at the local mall the day before – purchasing a new silk top, a new lipstick at the MAC counter, and some new jewellery. Happy birthday to ME, LOL!
Interestingly (to me, anyways), this statement necklace is made from recycled aluminum. Which makes it quite lightweight and thus easier to wear.My beautiful daughter.Getting ready to enjoy our tea tray and extra special tea blend (more on that later!)Close up of some of the sweets.Complimentary glass of prosecco rosé delivered by our waiter, Raymond.
Because the hotel knew it was my birthday, I was given some very special gifts including a sachet of their Empress blend tea (to take home), a delicious glass of bubbly, AND a pot of very premium tea – all on the house! The tea (regularly $18 a pot, on top of the cost of the High Tea itself) was absolutely wonderful – beautifully fragrant and a delight on the tongue – so of course I headed to the Fairmont Store right afterwards to source some to take home. Imagine my shock when I found out it was $99 for 2 ounces of Madame Butterfly!
Luckily (?) I can get over a shock quite quickly and easily 😉 so in the true spirit of YOLO: YES – I bought the damn tea! I reasoned it was the equivalent of buying a very fine bottle of wine or spirits, so out came the credit card. I also purchased the other blend we selected for our high tea – Lady Londonderry (at $18.95, a veritable steal…).
This is looking more and more like the equivalent of a very fine wine, indeed! (The flowers described on the label are jasmine, which gives the tea its heavenly fragrance as well as contributing to the taste.)To be opened and enjoyed the next time I host Book Club.Lady Londonderry ingredients. I have lemon balm and calendula growing in my garden…hmm, getting ideas 🤔.
As if I wasn’t spoiled enough already, my good friend and fellow blogger Donna wanted to treat me to a day at Butchart Gardens including THEIR high tea! Who am I to say no to two high teas only 3 days apart?!
We got the best outside table in the place, overlooking the owners’ private garden.Another guest kindly took our photo.This tea started with individual trifles! Photo by Donna.The Butchart Gardens tea tray.Including a special chocolate birthday medallion!
After that delicious meal, Donna and I valiantly tried to walk some of it off around the gardens.
View looking down at the Sunken Garden.One of many spectacular dahlias that took my breath away.
In comparing the two teas, they were equivalent in terms of quality of ingredients in my opinion. The Butchart Gardens tea tray seemed to give you more in terms of quantity as well as cost – the Empress high tea cost was almost double per person – but in the wise words of our waiter, Shane: Yes, but you had to pay to get into the Gardens in order to eat here…
The Empress provides a different sort of ambience – including a piano player tinkling away throughout our tea, and a gorgeous view of the Victoria Harbour and Parliament buildings…as well as the history of that grand hotel itself. Meanwhile the Gardens provided spectacular vistas and blooms everywhere you looked while enjoying their tea and later walking their paths. I couldn’t choose just one over the other, and luckily I didn’t have to!
If you are ever on the island (and celebrating a special occasion…or not!), I can highly recommend either of these venues. After all, YOLO!!!
And if you can’t find anyone to treat you, there’s always this wisdom from the Parks and Rec crew:
Despite a cold, wet spring here on the Island, things are happening in my little garden! And I am “shopping” daily in my backyard to put things on my plate.
I planted peas for the first time – snow, sugar snap and shelling peas – all of which are becoming my go-to snacks as well as being featured at meal time.
The snow peas are abundant!And the shelling peas are catching up.
I’ve been making a lot of these simple and quick rice bowl meals.
No recipe – just a variety of peas from the garden, cooked rice, a protein (smoked sausage, here) and a dollop of Sambal Badjak (Indonesian pepper paste) run through it all. One of my favourite meals…
And for dessert?
The raspberries are starting!!!Another simple meal of berries and yogurt.
Please join me and my co-host Donna (she’s back!!!) and let us know what’s on your plate this month! Feel free to leave a link in the Comments or join the Link Party:
True confession time: the last time I can recall eating stewed rhubarb was the night before I gave birth to my son. I was 2 days over my due date, it was August in Ontario, Canada (if you know, you know), and I was completely over being a whale a walking refrigerator a weeble pregnant. I thought the rhubarb might get something started, and…my son was born at 930am the next morning. So all hail the power of rhubarb! Actually, my daughter was also born exactly 2 days past my expected date too, and no rhubarb was involved. But let’s give kudos and credit to the all-knowing, all-powerful rhubarb!
Anyhoodle! Flash forward to the present day (almost 39 years later), and I finally have gotten around to stewing my own rhubarb from my own garden again. I can’t explain the long break other than to say I had somehow convinced myself that I didn’t like rhubarb and since I had no pregnancy to push (pardon the pun 😉) to conclusion, there was no need to eat any! Gentle reader, how wrong I was…
This spring I rediscovered this amazing plant (conveniently growing in my backyard) and have been on a bit of a rhubarb tear, ever since.
The first of many batches of stewed rhubarb, from my garden.Stewed rhubarb in my morning oatmeal and cottage cheese.Stewed rhubarb over custard.Stewed rhubarb stirred into Greek yogurt.
I have also discovered the wonder that is a rhubarb crisp.
Rhubarb crisp, put in the oven.Rhubarb crisp with ice cream. My family helped me empty the dish, in case you were wondering 😉.
Rhubarb is such a tough and amazing plant – you’ll know just how tough it is if you ever try to remove it from your yard, like my son-in-law is trying with his rhubarb patch It’s not that he doesn’t like rhubarb – he just wants to put something else in that prime growing location. Good luck with that, SIL!
How do you feel about the wonderful spring tonic that is rhubarb? How do you use it, if you do?
Please tell all in the Comments! This month my lovely co-host Donna has gone walkies so you just get me and no link party either, as that is her area of expertise. Sorry, eh! 🇨🇦
When I was still working and if I was running errands at lunch time, I used to pick up a particular salad from the nearby Wendy’s fast food restaurant. I just loved the combination of flavours in this particular salad: the Apple Pecan Chicken Salad. Salad greens, apples, pecans, chicken breast, blue cheese crumbles – with a fruity sweet-sour dressing – delish! I probably ate this salad at least once per week, back then.
Fast forward to now – I’m happily retired and the nearest Wendy’s is a 20 minute drive away, and I have to keep asking myself why I don’t make this salad at home?!?! With a bathroom renovation in progress and a garden full of chores awaiting me, the time is now for this speedy, healthy meal.
Part of my Get Through This Busy Time kit – salad greens, rotisserie chicken and protein drinks! 😉I didn’t use candied pecans or dried cranberries ala Wendy’s…And I didn’t have the pomegranate dressing either. I used my Blackberry Ginger balsamic vinegar instead. It’s the little bits of blue cheese that takes this salad to the next level! I know it can be divisive, but I think the world would be a sadder place without blue cheese in it. More than ready to DIG IN!
How do you get through the busy times in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, as well as see what’s on your plate in the Comments or by joining up your blog to the Link Party. And head over to my co-host Donna’s blog for another vegetarian mainstay!
Believe it or not I am still eating vegetables I grew last summer, from my little garden. Even as I am planning to start seeds for this year’s eventual harvest, I have a few delicious squash remaining in my unheated entry way. They are waiting their turn to be transformed into something yummy, as in today’s recipe: Curried Lentil Stew with Butternut, Kale and Coconut.
An old cookbook of mine, Cook Up Comfort by WW Healthy Kitchen. I’ve made this recipe so many times I barely need to refer to the book anymore.Most of the ingredients, assembled. I always substitute baby spinach for the kale because I find kale tough when used in dishes like these. And I didn’t have any vegetable bouillon on hand so I used chicken instead.Delightfully fragrant stew simmering on the stove top.Stew plated over rice, with my absolute favourite curry powder (Lalah’s) in the background. If you can find Lalah’s Madras Curry Powder in your area, I urge you to try it.
Although it doesn’t look like much on the plate, the flavour is amazing. The recipe doesn’t refer to it as such but I believe it is a dal-type dish…a delicious Indian lentil “gravy” that is indeed cooked-up comfort.
Please join my co-host Donna and myself as we both explored meatless meals. No surprise for long-term readers of Donna’s blog, but this is the 2nd month in a row for me!
As always we’d love to hear from you and learn what’s on your plate, either in the Comments or using the Link Party link:
This month I am trying to recreate a dish I was treated to several months ago, by my co-host Donna’s husband, Richard.
I enjoyed this meal so much and have been thinking about it ever since. I knew I had to try to make it again for myself. I give you HelloFresh’s Black Bean Taquitos, lovingly made by Richard:
Photo by Donna
I had to forage for the ingredients from my own pantry and refrigerator, so here is what I came up with:
I sauteed the chopped veggies (onion, garlic, yellow and red peppers) in a pan with some oil. Then added the drained and rinsed canned black beans. I found a packet of almost expired taco seasoning mix in the cupboard and tossed that in too, along with a can of Rotel brand canned tomatoes and chilis. Putting the mixture on the tortillas and adding the cheese. I didn’t have Monterey Jack on hand, so made do with extra-sharp cheddar instead.Ready to go in the oven.Done! I loved how the shells got crispy at the ends.A little salsa, a little sour cream, a wedge of lime…ready to dig in!A delicious, hearty lunch. Definitely not as pretty as Richard’s, but every bit as tasty. Even after noshing on these for most of a week, I’m already planning to make this recipe again. I’m thinking these could also work individually frozen (before OR after going into the oven), and then to finish/reheat in the air fryer.
That’s it for me for this month…Be sure to check out Donna’s post here, and to let us know in the Comments or via the Link Party what’s on your plate! Looking forward to hearing from you.
We had a pretty mild February, here on Vancouver Island.
Here are some of my favourite photos, from last month.
How every walk starts, on our street. The poop bag is never let go of, no matter how pressing any other business is. It’s hard for me to get front-facing shots of Bowser, because he likes to range ahead. So I snap one whenever I get the opportunity.I finally got to see the wild elk herd whose tracks I come across almost every day. Here they are – quite a distance away in a farmer’s field – across the creek from where we are on the trail.An action shot of Bowser, mid-gallop.Bowser – probably annoyed I called for him, mid-exploration. A rare “standing still” opportunity for a portrait shot.
We hope you had some amazing February days. Here’s to an equally-amazing March for everyone!
