UPDATE ON HOW MY GARDEN GROWS

Best cucumber of the lot because it was not on the ground. Will have to stake next year.

My girl's favourite salad ingredients!

I am very happy with the corn and beans and cucumber and marigolds, but I would still do peas again and look for the insect that kills it prematurely. The kohlrabi and cauliflower were not successful, and the squash is taking over a LOT of space but no signs of producing yet.

I SOLVED THE RUBIK'S CUBE!

It's been years since I tried, and I could only ever get to the last face without instructions, but I was organizing my bookshelves and found the book that taught me everything I know. And I solved it!

Satisfaction guaranteed! Checkerboard and Shooting star possible again! My top face is always orange, so I tried this time with blue. Somehow my rubies' cube orients different than my solution book, but it still worked!

DESTINATION: WINNIPEG

One week in Winnipeg. Daughter and sister-in-law as companions. Summer in Canada. IT WAS AWESOME!

My brother had time in the evenings and weekend to elevate my food and coffee tastes.

These photos do not do justice to the trip, but like most things in my life, it is a little spotty reflection of the reality.  They do enrich my memories and capture a little  of the reality.

First things first, I love my brother and sister-in-law. I love their house. I love the places they live near. I love eating with them, and walking with them. So here are a few highlights of Winnipeg.

1. Coffee. Where I live in the suburbs, I can't even get my hands on the 3rd wave coffee my brother swears by. If you read my blog, you know when I buy a coffee, I am squarely in the 2nd wave coffee world (Starbucks), but when I am downtown, I try and drink differently. Montreal 3rd wave coffee shops are easy to find on line. I often feel bad for the waste since my favourite beverage (iced latte) goes in the garbage because it's plastic number 6. Not to worry. In Winnipeg, these are recyclable! I was introduced to Osborne Village's Little Sister, a regular haunt of my brother's and Make Coffee on Corydon which doubles as inspiration for architecture and design. Happily, I found that I don't need sugar with my coffee if I ask for fat milk! Delicious, and less embarrassing to my brother!

2.  Food. I have to start with the best food. In a word, Enoteca. On a friday night, with a last minute reservation at the bar, our charming server vainly attempted to get a vegetarian to share with a carnivore. In the end, I broke my moral code to taste some of the finest food I have had the pleasure to eat, and it was literally the best meal that I have ever been treated to. Thank you, bro! Strange to name a tapas resto for an italian wine bar, but, if I understand correctly, the original idea evolved into the restaurant I saw this August, and I love it!

Roast cauliflower, cave aged gruyere, panade (french savoury bread pudding), almond, citrus (freeze dried - looks and feels like a cheez-y), caper and brown butter

 Nagano pork belly, smoked parsnip, romesco (Catalonian combo of almonds and roasted red pepper) sauce, sherry, Iberian Salumi (salami), squid ink, cress

Roast crimini mushrooms, truffled aioli, thyme, sherry dressing, flat bread, mache, crisp chick peas

Creme brûlée  and lemon mousse with pistachio 

More affordably, our go-to place was Stella's Bakery. You can try out different venues which may suit your mood at different times. I tried the homemade quinoa burger on Osborne, and had the vegetarian sandwich beside the WAG on Portage, and ordered the insane-ist cinnamon bun with cream cheese icing for our last breakfast at the Sherbrooke location. I should not have been able to finish it, but I did, and did not eat lunch, nor need supper! It was as good as it looked. All meals were great, generous, and very decently priced. I wish I lived closer!

Stella's Cafe on Osborne's Quinoa Burger with amazing hash browns and spicy coleslaw.

Ridiculously big "four buttermilk pancakes". Delicious and plenty to share!

The Forks market was home to amazing food. The perogies were outrageous. Bindy's potato lentil roti was fat and gorgeous.

The Fort Whyte Farm had Buffalo Stone Cafe. It was clearly making conscious decisions to make good food with local flair, and I enjoyed making hard choices with the menu.

Unusual heavily rose flavored lemonade. Perfect cold on a hot day.

Trout fillets and arugula at Buffalo Stone Cafe.

Vera Pizzeria- Not just an ordinary cheese pizza (it has fior di latte and parmesan), and a glass of chianti. My brother with VIP service. Great last supper!

Everywhere there was food.  The Museum of Human Rights. The Assiniboine Zoo. A week is not enough time!

Then there was home. The fattest quesadillas ever. See my daughter's creation on a blog entry called My Foodie Daughter. My brother's spectacular culinary flip. My sis-in-law's awesome culinary skills. A crazy technology called an induction range.

My brother's attempt to flip his overstuffed quesadilla. I didn't believe he could do it. You can see the concentration in his face that he is about to defy that opinion!

First attempt, but no losses!

Success. Brother 1 Sister 0. One perfect quesadilla.

The last great food memory was the Bridge Drive-In. There is no drive-in, but you stand outside in lines,  and, once you have your ice cream, there is a pedestrian bridge over water to walk over and eat on! It reminded me of Regina's Milky Way. I had a sundae with Saskatoonberry topping! That was a first! My daughter went for a classic vanilla cone with sprinkles.

My only bad food recollection was at Boon Burger Cafe. This was a disappointment. The interior was fun, and I am grateful for a good vegetarian selection, but the Boon Burger was impossible to eat, and unremarkable. The fries were disappointing, and who can't make french fries taste good! My most embarrassing mother moment was giving my daughter a hard time for not eating her Boon Dog. I thought she couldn't get past the wrapper being a tortilla, which probably is a mistake, but after a few bites, I tasted it, thinking I would prove a point, and it was the worst veggie dog I have ever had! I would describe it as follows: If you tried to make a veggie weiner taste like the water left over in the plastic of a weiner wrapper. It was terrible! Sorry Boon Cafe, but I'll eat at Stella's next time!

3. Activities

Boardwalks at Fort Whyte Farm with buffalo, gophers, burrowing owls and a genuine pioneer sod house

Walking the boardwalk at Fort Whyte Farm.

Lots of dragonflies and mosquitos!

Sod house at Fort Whyte Farm.

After watching the burrowing owls and prairie dogs, a little reflection  and a water break with an amazing Aunt!

The Forks - Walk along the Red River and Assiniboine Rivers

Canadian Museum Of Human Rights - An incredible architectural wonder with vertiginous views on multiple levels, this interactive museum is a testament to the human being's potential for good and evil. This is the first national museum built outside of the National Capital Region i.e. Ottawa. My 9 year old daughter, who can only stay in an art gallery or ornate church for a few minutes, spent several hours looking at the exhibits. As a native-born Canadian, I found it most interesting to read the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. This museum is a must visit if you are in Winnipeg.

Children's museum is a museum with lots of hands on activities. My individual favourite was the water table, but the collective favourite was the demonstration of how a milk farm circulated milk in the form of yarn balls that flew around in tubes and peppered you if you stood in the right place , which resulted in a lot of giggles!

Children's museum at the Forks

Optically vivid slide

Harrison Ford like image

Assiniboine Park Zoo- A recreated Churchhill and 7 polar bears were the highlight of the zoo, but it included a pride of lions, a caravan of camels, a herd of bisons, an ambush of tigers, a mob of kangaroos, and a flutter of butterflies. We had lots of fun looking for the named animals.

Lyric Lawn in Assiniboine Park - We watched Finding Nemo as park of Scotiabanks Movie in the Park in the Lyric theatre outdoors, doused in Deet with a big bag of creamy caramel Kernels popcorn. It was perfect!

Fort Garry Hotel - The most remarkable hotel silhouette in Winnipeg, this Chateau style hotel built in 1906 was a Grand Trunk Pacific Hotel, so I had to admire its lobby. It's easy to locate from the Forks market, as it was naturally close by the Union station visible from the Forks area.

St. Norbert Saturday Farmer's Market

BING CHERRY CLAFOUTIS

My foodie friend Mou made this one day and served it warm from frozen bing cherries, so when I found some in my local freezer, I bought them and looked up the recipe. I found it in Mastering the Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child, and ate it for dessert and breakfast for a few days. It was pretty yummy , but it sure doesn't photograph well!

WANDERING MCGILL CAMPUS

Amazing tapestry over the stairs on entering the McLennan library off McTavish and Sherbrooke. "James McGill, born 1744, Glasgow,  began fur trading 1767, fought in war of 1812, married Madame des Rivieres 1776, bought Burnside farm 1778 40 acres, died 1813"

Very interesting exhibit in the McLennan Library about McGill's impact on WWII

I think it is so interesting that our brains recognize patterns so quickly! Even on a sidewalk walking by, these crushed to oblivion piles of cracker dust are instantly recognizable as Goldfish by the colour pattern.

I took a little botany in undergrad, but not enough that I can explain it.  I know enough to be impressed though by these blooms on  the same tree that have mature fruit!

I find it unusual that this tree was labelled. It seems like labelling a lawn, or a crop of dandelions! It stopped me in my tracks on McGill campus last month. 

SUNSET THANKS TO THE NEW COMMUNITY CANADA POST MAILBOXES

Tonight my daughter and I wanted to go for a walk, but we didn't have much time. We decided to make our mailbox the destination, and this was the view! It motivates me to get out of the house even for just the shortest of walks (1 block to the mailbox is the shortest of walks) every time I can!

START OF SCHOOL YEAR

End of summer blues! This is total body grief, elementary school style!

Remember Mr. and Little Miss books? My daughter named herself Mrs Kitten for her locker.

TASTES LIKE A CLEAN TOILET

Just when I thought I finally had it down pat, I go and buy myself the biggest tube of toothpaste I can find, only to realize its the one toothpaste flavour that I hate! It shouldn't be that peppermint is bad, but whenever I brush my teeth with this, I feel like someone used my toothbrush to clean the toilet with that peppermint smelling toilet bowl cleaner. I suppose that my husband could have lied to me, but he swore he didn't! This is for next time, so that I might have a chance to buy a refreshing flavour that I would enjoy more! Maybe I should just buy the cinnamon one to be safe!

ROMA CLOSER TO HOME

Recently a friend had to cancel a week vacation to Rome. It was going to be her first visit to Italy, and I had told her a few of my personal highlights that she might want to check out. So when she was faced with a week closer to home, I realized that there was a good amount of Rome reminders here in Montreal. Five years ago I booked a month off to go to Italy, and the month before, after 9 years of unemployment, my husband got a job, and in my attempt to be a supportive wife, I did my best to keep myself busy locally.

I took a beginner's italian course. I watched Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn, ate fettucine alfredo, watched 3 Coins in a Fountain (featuring the Trevi fountain tradition of throwing a coin over your shoulder so that you will return one day again to Rome), and The Gladiator.

Trevi Fontain with Seahorses carrying Neptune over the waves

I watched every video and listened to every podcast on the topic done by Rick Steves. I bought a mickey of liquorice tasting sambucca and a sickly sweet mickey of lemoncello. I ate gelato on St. Charles at La Dolce Vita and in the Fairview Pointe-Claire mall.

Bacio and Sicilian Cannoli Gelato at La Dolce Vita

I gawked at the exquisite replica of St. Peters dome that is called Mary Queen of the World. There is a four pillared "baldachin" under the dome that was made in Rome and is a replication of St. Peter's baldacchino carved by G. L. Bernini.

From my favourite clandestine viewpoint

Ebony and Gold

My husband made me cappuccini on a Breville machine I got from Martha at one of her last shows in NYC.

Cappuccino, Via Cavour style

 I visited the Italian Renaissance art at the Montreal Fine Arts Museum. I admired the fountains in Place-des-arts. I bought fresh pasta in Jean Talon market, and made homemade pesto from basil, grated parmesan and roasted pine nuts. It made my trip to Italy, the next spring, a richer one.

Things to do next time I want to revisit Rome, but can't afford it:

1. A visit to Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery to find a replica of Michelangelo's Pieta called a La Pieta Mausoleum.

Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Cathedral

2. Eat in Little Italy's Primo e Secondo and shop the nearby Jean Talon market for fresh local produce, like the italian's do.

Wonder if it has a terrace? (In the Jewish quarter of Rome)

3. Visit Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - look for da Vinci, Caravaggio, Tintoretto, El Greco, Veronese in the Jean-Noel Desmarais-Pavilion.

4. Look for the Pionnier's obelisk, commemorating the 250th year anniversary of Montreal at the site of former Fort Sainte-Marie, now Place D'Youville, Old Montreal, and remember the Obelisks of Rome. Rome has 12 obelisks to find. Augustus, who beat Cleopatra and Mark Anthony to take over Egypt, was a megalolithomaniac, and the Romans loved collecting Egyptian artifacts, but when the Roman empire fell into ruins, it was the counterrevolutionary Popes that dusted off these amazing stones and erected them in places of religious prominence, in front of churches, with crosses on top, to reclaim Rome's former glory, in hopes of bringing glory to God, or at very least, the Roman Catholic tradition. The Vatican's obelisk has no script and acts as a sundial in St. Peter's "square" (circle). My most memorable obelisk is the one in the Piazza del Popolo, and the one on the back of Bernini's animated pink elephant statue in front of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church. Others, like the one in front of the Pantheon, top a fountain.

The Lateran Obelisk is tallest Egyptian obelisk in Rome, and the largest standing obelisk in the world.

View from San Giovanni's Square

In Vatican city in St. Peter's Square

From Borghese Garden - View to Piazza del Popolo, and St Peter's to the left in the distance.

Chiesa Santa Maria sopra Minerva

In front of the Pantheon

Spanish steps and the Trinita dei Monti church with obelisk

5. Tour the fountains of Montreal. I haven't found any that resemble the dizzying array that Rome displays, but here are a two of my favourites:

Bernini's sinking ship at the foot of the Spanish steps

3 Bees and a scallop shell