Mcgregor has a new BDF (best doggie friend). Meet Henry Briscoe from across the street. Henry and his mum Lori join us for walks around the streets and parks of Rosedale and Yorkville . Its soooo nice for Mac and I to have friends to walk with! Henry is up front in the shot above, Mac is looking a bit sulky in the back coz Henry just scarfed half a brie from the cheeseboard while we had our backs turned and he missed out! A few days after this shot Pip and I took the shears and sissors to Henry and gave him a spring clip. We've been grooming Mac for years now but this was our first 'other dog'. Pip does the shearing with clippers then I do the tail, ears, head, skirt and legs with these lovely blunt ended curved sissors. Now the two westie boys look very smart, like twins, though Henry has one floppy ear which is the giveaway!
Monday night Pip hit the kitchen and whipped up THE most delicious pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes and gouda, sweet potato mash and salad with balsamic dressing. OMG...so yumpalumpious! Ontario pork is the best we've ever tasted (unlike the lamb which is not), its so luscious and lean and delish! My boy cooked this to perfection....no recipe... just winged it. Gotta love a man who can cook like this!!
Making the most of the warmer weather we dined outside again, this time it was my turn to produce. I love making these little pizzas using whole wheat tortillas for a super thin crusty base. Homemade parsley and coriander pesto, goats cheese and finely sliced beef made a good combo, as did chipotle red sauce, caramelized onions, red peppers and goats cheese. These little gems are my lazy night option, using whatever I have in the fridge to create diff combos each time. My super fav is tiny nuggets of pork sausage, caramelized onions and fresh sage over a chipotle bbq sauce!
Our lovely neighbours Happy and Susie invited us for an Indian Banquet on friday night. The night before I'd gone with them to a Halal market to buy the ingredients. Very Cool. This place was mecca for spices, flours and rice and a whole range of veggies and herbs that I'd not seen before. We came away with bags of Gram (Besan) flour for the Pakora, spices to make garam masala, beautifully decorated cotton bags of rice, fresh chutneys like the very green hot mint chutney, sweet chunky mango, deep smooth hot mango and tamarind. Last stop was the dessert store where for $8.00 a pound you choose from a selection of luscious, syrupy tiny cakes, some gilded with silver leaf, others with hints of coconut or rosewater.
Happy,a Punjabi from Quebec, showed me how to make the best Pakora I've ever eaten. With her bare hands she mixes the gram flour and spices like garam masala, cumin, tumeric, paprika, chili, coriander seeds (which are the singing note in these crispy vege treats), coating finely sliced onion, potato,eggplant and spinach. She gradually mixed in water and plain yogurt until she had a fairly runny batter. Deep frying little clusters of veggies in batches until deep golden brown, she sopped up the last of the batter mix with bread cut into cubes and fried these too. OMG. This is a true good for you bad for you mix. All those veggies spices and yogurt balanced out by the frying but the end result is soooo divine. Served with a mix of chutney's and spiced yogurt they are a meal in themselves.
We celebrated Mothers Day on Saturday (NZ time) with breakfast with the girls. This time Happy's flatmate Susie cooked us French toast to die for. Susie is French Canadian from north of Quebec city and it showed. Her french toast was sublime. Her secret was to use one egg per slice of bread, just a dash of milk, cinnamon and a tablespoon of maple syrup which helps to get that incredible crisp carmelized crust and soft delish centre. Served with bananas, Maple butter from the Isle d'Orleans,Quebec and real Maple Syrup it was the perfect taste Quebec.
My Mothers day outing with dog and dogfather was to the Big Bass Pro shop!!! The mecca for outdoorsmen (and women) in North America. This huge store, kitted out like a hunting lodge displaying wildlife, game and fish native to these parts was actually very cool. All animals displayed, except the fish like the longnosed Gar seen above swimming in the huge freshwater tank, were long dead!!
We were quite taken by the cute raccoon, especially as Pip had just encountered its very large cousin on the way to work one day this week. We occasionally see him stealing eggs from nests in the trees behind us! Moose are the big deal up here too and its sad to say that hundreds are shot for sport each year. The Moose get their own back and kill a few motorists everyear in the spring. These funy looking creatures who browse in lakes and marshy areas, can be seven feet high at their shoulders, their heads massive and can be as tall as fifteen feet!!
The Big Bass Pro store is so huge this seaplane was dwarfed. There were speed boats, canoes and kayaks, party boats (glam floating pontoons set up with all around seating, tables and booze fridge), atvs that looked liked jeeps, more fishing rods and lures than is sane, guns, guns and more guns!!, crossbows, hunting fashion gear, decoys of every type of wildlife to use for target practice, a laser shooting range, camping gear with rows of tents set up, amazing smokers that look like small steam engines, huge fish tank, etc etc etc.!
We'd thought we'd buy a fishing rod for the lake but were bamboozled by the selection. Some research is needed before we make a purchase. We saw 15ft surf casters for $80 which seemed very reasonable and these great reels that have depth counters and covered spools so no tangles. Pip left muttering someting about a shopping spree before we return to NZ!
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