Day Two Hundred and Seventy Five - Snow Mobile in the Dark

Dear all,

It's my FAVORITE THING in the world ( This decided after one day of snow mobile action last February) and with the weather now settling down, we can enjoy the benefits of the early snow to roar around the countryside on Darren's ski-doo. I LOVE IT!!!

Darren had given me the coolest Christmas present imaginable: A pink snow mobile helmet, fresh off the shelf from the only name worth talking about in snow mobile equipment, Royal Distributing of http://www.royaldistributing.com/main/

We set off from Collingwood in the garage where D is storing his snow mobile and after a quick gas re-fill, I jumped on the back and off we went!

Snow mobiling is without a doubt, one of my favorite things. Darren set off with confidence and flair reaching speeds of up to 60km/h very soon as we tore through the night towards the dazzling lights of Blue Mountain. The ski village is now very much open for business and mountain and ski hills are illuminated at night with a thousand fluorescent lights; it's unbelievably beautiful and mind blowing on the snow mobile driving past it all.

We sped through the trails and actually ended up by the Pretty River park entrance although it was getting very late by then, so we turned back. It was amazing in every single way and signals an awesome season out on the skidoo stretching ahead into 2011. I love the ski doo!!!! Hurray!!!!

Day Two Hundred and Seventy Four - The Empire Grill

Dear all,

Collingwood is blooming and the winter season is being celebrated by the opening of a plethora of new bars that hope to house both the loyal locals and the myriad of snow-loving folk that migrate to the area with the promise of snow and the obligatory apres-ski.

The influx of [approximately a billion] people to the area means that certain amenities are suddenly restricted for locals due to body mass and one such thing is the beloved Galaxy Cinema that appears to be full to bursting every night of the week (unusual).

Serenpity has a fine way of turning up at the right moment and Darren and I found ourselves at the new 'Empire Grill', just opposite Canadian Tyre ( for fellow Cwood folk), a new eatery that boasts the atmosphere of an upscale bar with a gastropub theme (ie beer and nice food).

We sat at the bar and I quickly felt very comfortable in the kindly hands of Stella Artois and a very nice bar tender. We sampled a couple of tasty looking snacks from the menu, the favorite being the tuna ( although they did forget the sipping sauce).

For a new bar, it has a comfortable, well ironed feel and I will happily return, in fact it has the makings of a regular hangout. (no website yet, but here are the details: 20 Balsam Street, Collingwood (Harbourview Plaza) ON L9Y 4H7 T: 705.444.0920)

** apologies for the photos, they truly don't do it justice.

Day Two Hundred and Seventy Three - Boxing Day in Simcoe

Dear all,


We are being spoilt this Christmas! After an amazing day with Vince and Kerry we grabbed a change of clothes, a few key ingredients and a couple of yule tide surprises and set off for Simcoe!
Everyone was meeting for a late lunch at Bob and Mary Lou's gorgeous home. We were in charge of the trifle but due to a rather un-timely snow storm in Owen Storm and the knowledge that trifle does not travel very well, I packed all the ingredients in a bag ( poor Mutti found this very upsetting) and off we went.

I managed to peel and slice the kiwi's whilst Darren was circumnavigating Cambridge but decided that I should leave the whipped cream until we had reached the safety of the homestead.

We arrived a little late but were greeted with a magnificent feast of turkey which we devoured on impact! It was wonderful to see everyone; Deidre, Vince and Bella came up from Toronto, Gerald, Justin and Josh came too, everyone was full of Christmas cheer and had [hopefully] left some room for desert.

Bella helped me to make up the trifle, she even helped me lick the bowl of cream.. the perfect sous-chef. Vince had bought some of his ma's special tiramasu ( sublime) and there was cake galore, it was fantastic. The trifle went down very well and most people had thirds.. I have heard a rumour that Josh managed to put away 5 portions. Now, that's a successful desert!


Bella and the boys enjoyed a few fiesty rounds of uno whilst everyone else played on Bella's new keyboard (Where Darren excelled himself).

It was such a wonderful day and I felt very sad to leave at the end of the night. Thank you Bob and Mary Lou for such an amazing day.

Day Two Hundred and Seventy Two - Christmas with Vince and Kerry

Dear all,

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! Here we are again, another year of feasting and fun and Darren and I had a blissfully lazy morning before packing up the car with Ostrich and pressie and setting out for Christmas chez Duwyn!

We had an AMAZING time! There was a gigantic feast for all, it was wonderful. Kerry, Fran and Michelle were cooking up a storm and Vince was making sure everyone had a drink in hand and grin on their face.

The kids were just adorable. We gave Payton a 'sleeping beauty organ', possibly ill-advised as it housed at least 20 'melodies' with 'lyrics' each with their own princess picture. Paytee loved them all. And wanted to sing them all many, many times over. So sweet.

Lovely Olivia had received a fabulous gift that she was very keen to show me. Livi had a new 'webkin'.
http://www.webkinz.com/us_en/indexw.html
I realize [now] that I am very behind the times: Everyone knows about Webkinz! Olivia was quite disturbed about my blind ignorance and took it upon herself to tell me all about them.


Livi's new friend was a wee panda she had already named 'Domino'. She logged into the website and typed in the various codes on Domino's label. Before we knew it, we were in Webkinz world; an interactive, simulated landscape where you can build a home for your webkin and then follow him or her through their daily life. You can earn money, play games, it's endless! Livi was spellbound by the site and was navigating around it with phenomenal speed.

It was such a great day! So much amazing food, amazing people and the traditional game of poker at the end of the night. I had fallen asleep on the sofa with blackberry liquor in hand around 11am ( I am such a light weight these days) and awoke to more poker and a big congratulations to D who had dominated the game and came home with the cash ( I think around $3o! festive fun!)

It was another brilliant brilliant Christmas day and in fact, my one year anniversary in eating meat! Darren fed me my first piece of succulent turkey this time last year, hurray! It's been a brilliant year!

Thank you so so much to Vince and Kerry and all the family, another wonderful Christmas!

Day Two Hundred and Seventy One - Ostrich Meat Balls

Dear all,

Ooo la la, sorry about the brief hiatus everyone.. I have a bit of catching up to do ( I blame Christmas). There has been a special something lurking in the freezer for quite sometime and today was the day that we got her out for some experimental yule tide cuisine: Today we made Ostrich Meatballs!

Ostrich ( plural, Ostriches: try saying that 10 times in 10 seconds) a lean dark meat, highly revered for its exquisite taste and yet it ticks all the boxes being extremely lean, low in cholesterol and high in calcium and protein. Some might say that its a 'super-meat'.

Darren, with a stroke of genius, suggested we make meatballs. I harnessed the power of google and found this little gem of a recipe ( Holy Duck tape indeed!)
http://www.holyducttape.com/kps/recipes/ostrich.html

1 lb ground Ostrich
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 green bell pepper chopped in small pieces
1 red or orange bell pepper chopped in small pieces
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup cherries, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 small can crushed pineapple in juice
1/4 cup white onions chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup pineapple juice

I defrosted the meat and added the garlic and salt. I then rolled the meat into small balls and browned them in a pan.
I chopped up the pineapple, cherries and peppers and once I had lifted the meatballs from the pan, I tossed in the remaining ingredients (except the corn starch) and let them bubble away for 20 minutes or so. The rice vinegar added a wonderfully tart smell to the mixture which I took to mean that it would truly be sweet and sour.


I added the corn starch at the final hour which meant the sauce immediately thickened up and my faith in the recipe was restored. The sauce was a total triumph and the meat balls were sublime. I would definitely recommend fellow meat lovers give it a try ( we found ours at Black Angus meats just north of Thornbury, the mecca for interesting game http://www.blackangusmeat.com/)

Festive greetings from our feathered friends!

And in other news:
1. Today I sampled a seasonal favorite, Rum and Egg Nog. Also very close to Darren's heart, Egg nog is a stable in the fridge and lends itself very well to a yuletide toddy with a splash of rum and sprinkle of nutmeg. A delicious drink and I would highly recommend it [after 11am of course].

Day Two Hundred and Seventy - Rupert's Landing Mural

Dear all,

Christmas is in the air and today my task was particularly seasonal. Penny, from Rupert's Landing (http://www.rupertslanding.com) had asked me to paint a mural at the recreational centre. The theme was 'Mad Men' after the very successful TV series, so I got to work.

Penny has lent me some paints and I sketched out a design (with the help of Darren who had some brilliant ideas).

It was quite the challenge as Penny had asked me to paint the mural on the large glass windows in the Rec Centre, something I hadn't done before. Glass has an unusual quality in that it is hard to stop the paint from coming away on the paintbrush on every stroke. It took me a while to get the hang of it but in the in the end, I was quite pleased with the result.

I followed a fabulous black and white photo of the New York skyline as my reference for the background..

And this is the Mural ( from the inside), Penny was pleased with so that's the main thing. Bring on the festivities!

Day Two Hundred and Sixty Nine - Darren's Office Pot Luck Lunch

Dear all,

Today was my first day off for the Christmas break ( hurray) and also Darren's office lunch where everyone was to bring in something as part of a pot luck bonanza.

We decided to try out a new recipe from Ted's new book, 'Everyday Gourmet Grilling', a fabulous new addition from Ted which contains user-friendly recipes using a huge range of ingredients.

Darren wanted to make a Greek salad, a favorite for us both and turns out Ted likes it too. Page 138 sees Ted's Thai Style Greek Salad, so I popped to Metro to get ingredients and we started work immediately.

Darren is most certainly the King of the Kitchen and continues to surprise me with his exceptional culinary skills. I naturally fall into the role of Sous Chef, but this suits me as I do have slight resistance to following recipes and have been notable cavalier in my cooking in the past. Not so good for the office lunch ( which I later discovered becomes a forum for showcasing cooking ability - my, my, people can cook!)

We needed cucumber,red onion, tomatoes, green onions ** spring onions, celery and bell peppers for the main salad mix that Darren diligently sliced up along with cilantro **Coriander (I bought parsley by mistake first time. grrrrr) and fresh mint ( note to all: not so 'fresh' in December).

We had bought some lovely olive oil from Costco the other day so saw this ample opportunity to crack open the bottle for the dressing http://www.oliocostadoro.com/acm-on-line/en/Home/Products/Ilgrezzo.html

I had bought a 'kilo' of feta for the salad which we chopped into medium sized pieces. We then started on the dressing.

We heated up chillies, garlic, olive oil, fresh lime juice, rice vinegar ( delicious) and sugar in a pan, bought it to a 'low boil' and then let it cool for 5 minutes. Darren then whisked it up with the hand blender.

We poured the dressing on the salad and were ready to go!

I had also whipped up a 'gourd' soup in a spare moment, also adding carrots, onions and potatoes. It tasted pretty good as I had thrown in a load of spices.. (it's cold outside).

We arrived at the office just in time and everyone had gone all out on the food prep, holy moly! It was fantastic. There was everything from meat balls to salads to mini Cornish Hens to dips. It was a veritable feast!

It was such a lovely lunch and without realizing 3 hours went by with wonderful chit chat and resents galore including, the always hilarious, 'Secret Santa'!

Thank you to all at In.Genu for inviting me along, I had a great time and what a feast!! Congratulations to everyone!

Day Two Hundred and Sixty Eight - Electric Toothbrush

Dear all,

It has stopped snowing, [hurray] and we enjoyed a fabulous sun rise this morning over the marina.

Something very interesting happened to me today while I was shopping for groceries. I was in desperate need of a new toothbrush, so picked up a [very snazzy] looking one that happened to be on sale in Metro.

http://www.colgate.ca/app/Colgate/CA/EN/HomePage.cvsp

It seemed normal, green, medium texture; all the right ingredients but on using the toothbrush for the first time, something quite extraordinary happened: It started to vibrate, on its own!

Yep, I had mistakenly purchased an electric toothbrush but on using it, I have realized that I am a total convert and will never be able to go back. This new design is brilliant! No charge up, no battery, just brilliantly compact and ready for action. I love my new toothbrush! Well done Colgate.

And in other news:

1. Drive in Bank Machines! The way of the future.. and my first time at a 'drive-through'!

Here is Darren using the ATM - It's ingenious.

2. I am continuing on my mission to churn out a port folio: Here is a portrait of Emma Thompson after I asked Darren 'name an actress' in an attempt to find some sketching material online.

Day Two Hundred and Sixty Seven - In.Genu Christmas Party

Dear all,

It's the In. Genu Christmas Party!!!! We were all dressed up and ready to go and embark on what would become a veritable monster of a night!

The party started at The Cranberry Resort.. just across the road so very handy.

http://www.thecranberryresort.com/

I decided to wear my totally inappropriate, 5 inch, open toed stilettos despite being -10 and falling, a decision I lived to regret at around 2am; foolhardy by any standards. Anyway, we arrived [fashionably late] to a drinks reception and invitation to dinner which was being held in the Cranberry banquet hall. Wendy and Allison had gone to so much trouble to organize the event which including decorating the hall and devising numerous 'gift-giving' games that punctuated the evening.

Darren and I were on a table with Rayanne, Rebecca and Aaron, a great combo and everyone was laughing away within seconds on getting seated. Drinks were flowing and the food arrived.... but i must say, and everyone will agree, it was not brilliant. The only complaint of the evening and was eclipsed by having a brilliant time from start to finish. ( Below a picture of the 'soup' that was described as being as diverse tasting like 'shortbread cookies' to 'a bowl of melted butter'. Nicht so gut. The bread was nice though.

Allison took the stage and gave a very heart felt speech. It was wonderful for me to see how loyal and dedicated all Darren's staff are to the company and a real tribute to Darren in being a great boss. Darren stepped up and gave a wonderful thank you to everyone and then the presents started to fly. It was incredible. Gifts everywhere! Just wonderful.

Anyway, after we had finished all the festivities at Cranberry, Rayanne led the way in rallying the tribe to continue the fun at Blue Mountain, now a ski and apres-ski paradise. We made trail for Kaytoo after an amusing drive in the taxi with an 'accordion playing' cab driver and a 'fraught' walk through the village in my ridiculous shoes. http://www.kaytoo.ca

Well, I don't want to be TOO incriminating.. but here are a few choice photos from the evening, taken by 'many' as my camera [brilliantly] turned into the communal apparatus.

1. Arron and Darren play 'Gangster':

2. Allison wins 'best dancer' hands down.

3. Tanya, Rebecca, Martin and April still standing at the end of the evening! Hurray!

What a brilliant evening, thank you Darren and everyone at In.Genu! ( FYI: Darren has the remaining photos from the evening...)