In My Kitchen July 2017

Jul8

July! Summer is in full swing, though it hasn’t really felt that way. We have had a lot of rain and it hasn’t been very warm either. I hope that means we will have a long warm fall. Please gods let it mean that.

We did a little travelling, close to home these past couple of weekends, so I have a peek into my home kitchen and travel kitchen as well.

If you follow us on Instagram @cookswithevie you would have already seen some of what we have been up to. We have been eating a lot too!

Made lilac water, very fancy

Used up some of our chive blossoms to make chive blossom vinegar

Very rough looking calzones

And pizza

More of my fave cheese

This is Evie’s treat. She likes it straight up on tortilla chips. She doesn’t get that it is for putting on other food. Her aunt let her try it on a tortilla and now that is how she wants it, 😂

Raspberry pie

And a little walk rewarded us with some wild strawberries, so tiny and so sweet

And a chocolate fondue

Night #2 a marshmallow roast, we made s’mores

The first radish from the garden patch

If you like something, just order a case…I love this coffee

And found these beautiful dates, have a stock of those too. Awesome stuffed with almond butter.

Sherrys Pickings

The “In My Kitchen” monthly theme host is Sherry, from sherryspickings.blogspot.ie If you would like to know what is happening in other kitchens or join IMK head over to Sherry’s blog and check out all the other IMK participants and join in.

Meanwhile in Canada…

Feb18

I have been seeing a lot of picture from blogging friends showing beautiful spring like pictures. Many of you are in the Southern Hemisphere and it is your summer and I love seeing those pictures this time of year. Even on this side of the globe Misky just posted some beautiful spring pictures of flowers peeking through the ground and Celi has been moving pigs around the farm and it looks like early spring there.

Meanwhile in Canada, this was our week….

Walking to school was a challenge and took a very long time and I was extra late for work.

Short little westie legs….need to shovel out a spot for him to pee.

That is the table and chairs on my patio. Won’t be having morning coffee there for awhile.

This year is Canada’s 150th birthday. It will be a year long celebration.

Dragon boats equipped for the ice

Evie’s favourite part of skating is maple taffy made by pouring hot maple syrup on snow

Skating on the Rideau Canal

Elaborate snowman

It is nice and all,but I am ready for spring and summer.

Fisherman’s Wharf

Sep5

This is definitely a stop to make if you are in Victoria.

We went solely to see if we could see any seals or otters swimming in the wild. We did! And went by everyday to see them, Evie loved it.

The seals and otter are wild, but they are very smart because people get little fish pieces from the fish stand at the dock and throw to them, so they are use to people and very friendly.

This little usurper just came in and started stealing the fish heads that people were feeding the seals.

They also have a very popular fish and chip place there and a floating ice cream shop!

Favorite food spots in Victoria

Sep4

These were the favourite spots where we ate while in Victoria.

Jam Cafe.

The first time we went here we were shocked at the line up down the side walk to get in. They had been featured on Food Network’s show ” you gotta eat here”, we saw that show. We wanted to stay and try it. We waited in line about 20 minutes and it was worth the wait. We went back again. Here is a sample of what we had

veggie bowl. hash browns, biscuit, mushroom gravy and egg. it was huge but delicious

kids pancakes with maple butter

Fruit salad french toast with lemon curd

eggs benedict

Huevos rancheros with cornbread

We also quite enjoyed a couple of visits to Frankie’s

frittata

Waffles with blueberries, lemon curd and whipped cream

kid’s french toast

oatmeal with blueberry compote, carmelized apples, granola and warm vanilla milk

Well that is a sample of some of the great food that we ate at Jam Cafe and Frankie’s Modern Diner. We did eat at a few other places that were not bad but not worth the money or a second visit. I won’t go into detail on those places. However, if you are visiting and want to know the places that we were not impressed with either the food, service, or both, just email me and I will let you know. There are a few other places that I would recommend as well.

We were not compensated in any way for this post. The above are the opinions of all three family members, in total agreement that we loved it!

The Empress

Aug24

We arrived in Victoria on a sunny afternoon. We just had to walk a short ways across the street to check into our hotel. The Empress is a beautiful hotel my husband and I had stayed here once before. Evie was looking forward to staying at the legendary Empress.

My husband had a room upgrade coupon from his previous travels so we used hat to get a bigger room. Holy Cow, were we surprised when we walked into our room!

The room was large, but opened into an entire other massive room overlooking the harbour.

This is about 4 times the size of our living room at home!
Along with a coupon for cookies and milk to be delivered…bedtime snack.

We went out for a walk and when we came back they had left this welcome snack in our room! This is the life, cookies and milk delivered to her in bed by a maid! Never going to happen again, so I took photo evidence to make sure she remembers this. Though I am sure this will be a childhood memory she will not forget!

Vancouver

Aug14

We arrived very late and very tired. I am attempting to do a post from my phone, not sure how that will work. We shall see.

Yesterday when we got up, very early as we were will on Ottawa time, we walked along the sea wall to stretch our legs.

Evie was thrilled to be so close to a heron. She will write it down in her birding book.

After walking for a bit since nothing was open we made our way to Save On Meats for breakfast. It wasn’t busy except for us and a few police officers having breakfast.

I needed coffee, and it was strong and wonderful, along with a Benny.

Then we made our was to the aquarium. Evie just wanted too see the otters, she is mad about otters. After a short interaction with a whale she beelined to them and was not disappointed. There was one older otter who must have sensed her excitement because she floated around cleaning herself and then floated straight to Evie bumped her head to the glass then went under to swim and swam back to her smiling and clapping her little front paws! Evie was beaming!

I didn’t get pictures on my phone of the otters but I have lots with me regular camera. I will have to post some later.

We went for a snack where we were very happy to see this sign.

Evie promptly said “mom look they don’t use straws”. She wasn’t as happy later, at the market, when Dad gave her a smoothing with a straw in it.

Very happy with a little otter and otter PJs!

A few pictures in Newfoundland

Aug12

We are heading into the city for a few days before heading back home. I am not sure I will have computer access so I am just going to post a few random pictures here that we took over the past week.

Lobster traps……mmmm Lobster!

A lock box found in a cave in this small town. Located at the Wooden Boat Building Museum.

Old fashion Newfoundland kitchen. See the gray thing on the stove door, that is a beach rock inside a knitted bag. Back in the old days people heated beach rocks in the wood fired stove in the evening and then put them in their beds at night to warm it up and keep them warm, there was no heating and the stove heated as much of the house as it could.

Wash day.

Tea time.

Jellyfish, look at that clear water.

Evie with Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart memorial in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada

The Kyle, also in Harbour Grace, picture taken from the Amelia Earhart memorial

They drink/use a lot of carnation in Newfoundland. This is actually an old barrel that is being used as a garbage can, painted to look a little nicer!

We are heading to St. John’s for a few days.

Old time village

Aug6

On Sunday we went to visit Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada (www.uppercanadavillage.com). Evie LOVES this place. We have been here with her before, but this year she has been asking to go back before the winter was over. We have been reading Little House on the Prairie together. She is just learning to read so this is our bedtime reading, each night we read a chapter. We are only on the third book in the series, but it has been fascinating for her to learn how they had to do and make everything themselves. Upper Canada Village is the village as it was settled in the 1800s, it is very accurate as it is a World Heritage Site. She really liked the animals and gardens, seeing the girls in calico dresses just like Laura and Mary.

The lady in the picture was making toast to use to make vinegar. She was a very nice lady on the tenant farm. Evie’s attention was completely captured in this little house. The lady explained to her that she was making the toast to use in making her own vinegar to use for canning, it would take 6 weeks and she explained exactly what she was going to do.

She told us that she was using white sugar to make this vinegar normally she made molasses vinegar because white sugar was too expensive at 6cents a pound. However, that ladies in the village told her that she could not win a prize for her preserves in the fall fair using molasses vinegar, so she was making this one. I think that was Evie’s favourite part of the day. Now she wants to make vinegar, but we are not doing that, maybe we will ferment something instead.

Then at the hotel and tavern her Dad bought her a sarsaparilla, it was really good.

The village also has a mill which mills the flour that is delivered to the bakery where they bake fresh bread daily, you can buy that in the gift store along with the cheese made from the cow’s milk. It is both very good.

They also have a woollen factory showing in detail the old process for making yarn. There is dirty sheep wool that has just been shorn, washed wool ready for use then the area where they spin, dye and win

d it into skeins. This was a cool process to see since I am just starting a sweater for Evie with yarn that is in skeins and we are hand winding it into balls.

This afternoon we are leaving for two weeks in Newfoundland (www.newfoundlandlabrador.com). We have lots of adventures planned, there will be a lot of food. Evie has planned cooking with her great-grandmother and a great-aunt. There may be some fishing and berry picking. Both my husband and I grew up on this island so there is alot of food that you can only get there that we cannot wait to eat. I think I will probably put on about 10 lbs!

Happy Canada Day!

Jul1

Today is Canada Day. It was so nice to have an extra day off work. We went to the Mackenzie King Estate (for non-Canadians, he is a former Prime Minister) in Gatineau Quebec. We listened to the Sons of Scotland bagpipe band, Evie loves bagpipes, she said it is her favourite instrument. God help us if she wants to learn bagpiping.

Last night we made “Canada Day Strawberry Yogurt Ice Pops” to use up the rest of our strawberries. It is really easy. Take 1lb strawberries, washed and hulled. Puree with ¼ cup powdered sugar and 2tsp lemon juice. In ice pop molds alternate layers of strawberry puree with vanilla yogurt.

Freeze.

cookswithevie

our adventures cooking … and other fun stuff

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