Sea Cider Friday

Well I think I’ve figured out how a Friday afternoon should be spent more often.  A little early exit from work, a short drive, a crisp Winter day, some good girlfriends, and a wee cider tasting.  Sounds good, no?

Shockingly I have been holding on to a Groupon for Sea Cider for almost a whole year.  I guess “we’ll go sometime this Summer” means “we’ll go before it expires”.  Thankfully I was not alone in my slacking so there were two Groupons to be used up which meant four of us gals could take part.

Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse is just a short drive out the highway where it sits on a lovely little piece of land complete with a gorgeous view.  Even on a foggy snowy day it’s crisp and peaceful.

Choosing to go late on a Friday afternoon worked out quite well…we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Included in our great Groupon deal was a little local snack plate…breads, cheese, chorizo, salmon, chutney and hazlenut brittle…all from local foodie artisans.

Good thing for that bread and cheese…we needed it for our long flights!  Eight ciders to taste and a sample of Hot Buttered Rumrunner.  I was glad to share!

I have tried several of Sea Ciders specialties before and was hoping to walk away with a new favourite…but turns out I’m a creature of habit.  Still pretty much in love with Pippins, which is strong and off-dry but has a lightly sweet fruity touch to it.  Rumrunner is still a close second but because of it’s stronger flavours I like it with dessert (or you know, in front of a roaring fire…if I had a fireplace).  :)

A perfect way to launch into a busy weekend…now if we could just make short Fridays happen on a regular basis.   

Wouldn’t that just be the life? *sigh*

Sun, Snacks, Sangria

Yesterday ended up being sunny, beautiful and HOT.  Weeeeeeee!  Needless to say a lot of the errands and chores I had planned didn’t get accomplished.  Didn’t make it to the gym either.  And I’m OK with that!

FH was up before me and as soon as I came downstairs he asked if I wanted to go for breakfast.  We haven’t done that in months (he was away, then we were away, then he was still away!) so I jumped at the chance.  Off to The Armview we went, where I enjoyed some much needed tasty coffee and my old standby of bacon & eggs. 

Scrambled eggs, bacon, multigrain toast, and cubed potatoes.  I left half of the toast and potatoes.  Yummy in my tummy!

When we got back I had to work for an hour to clear up some important stuff I’d forgotten on Friday, then spent another hour or so fiddling with the set up of my Blackberry.  I’m starting to get the hang of most of it now!  Still trying to figure out little things though, and I’m sure more questions will arise the more I use it.

After that I made a quick trip to the grocery store (for supplies I later ended up not needing, and berries I hadn’t planned on buying!) and to Starbucks because we ran out of coffee on Friday.  I of course got myself an iced coffee while I was there.  :)

For the rest of the day I pretty much laid out on the deck reading.  Glorious!  I rolled out a big blanket, brought a pillow and snacked on fruit and veggies and water.  Amy, I just finished Club Dead…on to book 4!

Grapes.

Carrots & celery.

Late afternoon salad: spinach, free local raspberries, BC blueberries, pecans, organic old white cheddar…drizzled with honey & EVOO.

Once the sun started to move away from the back of the house I came in to shower and get ready to head over to Angie’s for the evening.  It was still pretty sticky in the house, but thankfully by the time I got to doing my make-up and getting dressed it was pleasantly cooling off.

At Angie’s I got to help her out with her Epicure taste testing!  The nice folks at Epicure Selections sent her some sample products to review, so she mixed up a bunch of different dips for her guests to try out.  I’ll let her tell you all of the dirty details in her own blog post, but my quick review is: Summer Berry Fruit Dip and Three Onion Dip WINNERS and Roasted Red Pepper Dip LOSER. 

Honestly though, my favorite snacky wasn’t an Epicure one.  Angie made a 7 Layer Dip and I’m pretty sure I ate half of it all by myself!! 

I enjoyed one big glass of her homemade sangria over the course of the evening and it was the perfect drink to end such a beautiful day.

It was also Angie’s hubby’s birthday so being the fabulous wife that she is, she made him a cake.  A crazy decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake complete with a layer of solid peanut butter cups.  Insanity! 

Thanks for the lovely evening Angie!  I didn’t get home until 2:30am.  oooooops.

Noodles from the Dark Side

Yup, so I got my Blackberry!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  The next few days are going to be all about setting it up and figuring it out and BB texting til my heart’s content.  I’m so excited!  What a dork.  (and all this from the girl who just mere months ago said she’d never need a Crackberry)  I think my little BB and I are going to be very happy together. :)

Did I mention it’s blue?  *giggles and claps*

Since I was heading out after work to Dartmouth (locally referred to as the Dark Side…since it’s over the damn bridge) I decided to just get dinner while I was out.

Around 4:30 I grabbed a sweet treat to tide me over.  These Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Nut bars are growing on me.  Yummy.

I threw a couple of clementines into my purse on my way out, but honestly those little buggers are too hard to peel while driving.  That will learn me for next time.  I didn’t end up eating them because I got to my dinner destination quicker than I expected.

Thankfully retrieving my Blackberry from the courier depot was a breeze.  I found the place easily (thank you Google maps!) in the giant industrial park and was in and out in about 5 minutes.  I was worried because the poor guy in front of me had been there 45 minutes and they couldn’t find his package.  Yikes.

Once I had it in my hot little hand I found my way out of the industrial area and over to Dartmouth Crossing shopping district and stopped into Wok Box – fresh asian kitchen.  Miss Lex raves about this place and I was finally in the area at dinner time so I decided to stop in.

There were a lot of customers so no interior photos…but it was a nice place for a take-out joint.  It is pretty much a brand new place so the decor is fresh and modern…slightly Asian, but mostly dark woods, bar height tables, and a few cozy booths.  I’d definitely do eat-in if I was in the area and had some time for a quick meal.  Tonight I did take-out.

I had a little trouble choosing because the posted menu didn’t describe any of the food items.  I realized after I ordered that the take-out menus have full descriptions so I will be better prepared next time.  For this go I went with their Pad Thai with shrimp (each option comes with choice of shrimp, chicken, beef, pork or tofu).

Honestly, I will say I was disappointed.  I expected more veggies and definitely more shrimp for my $11 box of noodles!  The sauce was almost non-existent and it was pretty heavy on the lime and light on flavor.  Nearer to the end I found a bit more spice (not that spice constitutes flavor) but I wished it had been a more peanuty type Pad Thai.  I still ate all of it – minus the green peppers and I still want to go back and try something else now that I have proper descriptions.  I think Singapore Cashew or Jungle Curry are more my speed.

After I picked up my dinner I headed over to a friend’s place.  FH was busy jamming with his buddy from next door so I decided to make myself scarce and invited myself out.  They were watching movies with their daughter so I showed up with treats.  Junior Mints, Mike n Ikes, and Smarties.  :)  I may have eaten more than my fair share of the Mints…I couldn’t help myself!

Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard

I was going to wait to post anything else today, because I am only two posts away from 1000 posts!  I thought if I could just do one tonight, then tomorrow morning could be the big celebratory post.  :)  But I just have so much to blog about since I’ve been slacking so badly the last month or so that I just couldn’t wait!

First things first…today’s eats…since that’s what I’m really supposed to be here talking about, right?  :)

The fridge is almost bare.  FH drank all of the milk (bugger).  The spinach went bad.  There is no fruit in the house.  And I’m working today so shopping has to wait until tonight.  What’s a girl to do?

Good thing I am the QUEEN of making something out of nothing when it comes to food.  LOL.  Still managed to keep it fresh and healthy…pretty proud if I do say so myself.

Breakfast was easy.  I had the yummy Blueberry Chia muffins that I froze on Thursday before I left.  Thawed out two of those fresh-baked babies to enjoy with my coffee this morning. (Coffee #1 with the ridiculous sploosh of skim milk FH left in the fridge…coffee #2 had to be made with Almond Breeze.  Bad FH.)

Lunch plan was for either a salad or a green smoothie, but the spinach smelled disgusting so sadly 2/3 of a container went to the compost.  Boooo.  The rest of the veggies seemed to have made it through the weekend though, so I rustled up a couple of small veggie wraps instead.

On the small ww tortillas:  melted shredded mozza, salsa, yellow tomatoes, matchstick carrots, yellow peppers, & red onions.

Served with a big ol’ carrot to clean out the last of the hummus.

After lunch I poured up a glass of Blueberry POM, which I’m sipping on now.  My flowers seemed to have weathered the weekend well.  :)  I didn’t make it into a spritzer this time because the club soda lost it’s “spritz”.  It’s strong, tart, and slightly sweet without the soda…deeeeelish.

In other fun news, I just learned that I was staying in the home town of one of my readers this weekend (Milton, ON) (after leaving the cottage) and I didn’t even know it!  Booo to that…I was literally staying right across the street from the Starbucks she works at.  I would have loved to meet Bee!!  We just discussed how we were both freaked out during the crazy lightning storm I mentioned the other day.  Poor girl was actually in a baseball tournament when the storm blew in…talk about scary!! 

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I’m hoping to have copies of other people’s weekend photos for tomorrow, so I can show you the fishies that everyone caught.  They managed to reel in one HUGE Muskellunge that they were all pretty friggin’ stoked about! 

In the meantime, I’ll tell you about the glutonous meal I enjoyed for lunch yesterday.  I actually remembered that I’m a food blogger and took photos! Phil had told me about this new chain in Ontario called Wild Wing and once we started talking about it we knew what we HAD to have for lunch.  I picked one (I am Canadian), he picked one (Beach House), and we chose one that we would both like (Gar-Par)…PLUS some crazy fries with cheese, gravy and bacon (although our arrived sans bacon…they were still freaking awesome though).  See the menu here.

 

I haven’t had chicken wings in YEARS, so these were a great treat.  I really enjoyed mine, Phil said his were only OK though, but I think the winner was definitely the Gar-Par…how can you beat garlic and parmesan?  I mean, really!  :)

Winnipeg: Banville & Jones Wine Co.

Leave it to Winnipeg to be home to the BEST wine store I’ve ever step foot in.  FH had told me about this place, but honestly he didn’t do it justice.  This was a particularly lovely find because I’ve been terribly disappointed in the wine stores in Halifax.  The so-called “high end” stores here have a dismal selection (and I am NOT a wine snob by any stretch…I just know what I like) …we prefer New World and for some reason Halifax seems to stock a lot of Old World.  Needless to say, Banville & Jones Wine Co. was a welcome stop!

 

We were only shopping for a few bottles for the night but I could have roamed around for hours.  They have a beautiful speciality section, all of the wines housed in locked glass cabinets…complete with champagne and sparkling wine display.

The staff were extremely helpful and knowledgeable.  FH couldn’t recall the name of the wine he bought last time, but with a few quick questions and a trip to their cellar they were able to find it for him in one try.  (Tate, if anyone is interested!)

We mainly wandered through the Australian section, where the helpful guy explained to us about the different store selections.  They mark their shelves with three types of tags so customers know whether the wine is a) available at any Manitoba liquor store, b) brought in special by a group of importers that work together, or c) specially imported by B&J only.  These three options make for a wealth of variety and selections.

We of course left with only Auzzie reds (FH is very select on his tastes) but I did have a good chat with the guy about fun BC wines…including the cool story of Blasted Church and the sad story of Silver Sage.  Made me homesick for an Okanagan Wine Tour.

I wish we could have spent more time exploring the different brands I had never heard of and just overall enjoying the store.  Alas, the sun was shining so spending the day outdoors had to take priority.

FYI: The recommended wines we purchased were pretty much as described although FH wasn’t as strongly in love with them as he had hoped.  The Tate has been saved for a later date.  :)