Year Two One Hundred and Forty Two - Thai Memory

Dear all, 

Continuing on Karen and my amazing 'Art' adventure, we stopped off at the intriguing 'Thai Memory' whilst on our journey through Hamilton. http://www.thaimemory.ca/

Hamilton is a very industrial city, the skyline of which is constantly belting out large plumes of smoke and large buildings jut out from the cityscape as far as the eye can see. As we were to find out, it also houses a fascinating and booming artistic community. Even on the wall next to our ( very urban setting car park), was a cool and graphic tribute to 'Lithography' *shudder*. 

Once inside the very unassuming restaurant facade, we were greeted by an 'explosion' of all things Thai. Thai Memory was a treasure trove of virtually all things that you might be able to find in the tropical paradise. It was magnificent!

The menu was also VAST and it was busy - even at 6pm ( always a good sign). The smells coming from the kitchen were overwhelmingly incredible; spicy and fragrant. We were in Thai-Wonderland!

I ended up choosing a huge portion of chicken cashew curry which was delicious [very good as Karen and I were both VERY over-excited and needed some significant carbo-loading to calm down].

Thai Memory is awesome and well worth it if you happen to be passing through Hamilton. They even offer the new 'doggy bag' environmentally friendly service (you take your leftovers home literally in-a-bag). 

Year Two Day One Hundred and Forty One - Lemon Syrup Cake

Dear all, 

I am on a baking spree so decided to bake Mutter's Lemon Syrup cake that she sent me via email a few weeks ago. I have also discovered that I love lemon flavoured things.  

Anyway, I was a English recipe ( so therefore the odds were stacked against me from the get go in terms of using the 'correct' measurements), so I started converting oz into cups using my very 'relaxed' method of calculation (ie. using my coffee mug). The moral of the story is: make sure you use the correct quanities (the reason will be revealed below). This is also fairly ambiguous when you start researching the correct coversions online:

Dry Goods

All-Purpose Flour: 1 cup = 4.5 oz

Bread Flour: 1 cup = 4.8 oz

Cake Flour: 1 cup = 3.9 oz

Pastry Flour: 1 cup = 4.25 oz

Whole Wheat Flour: 1 cup = 4.25

Cornmeal, coarse: 1 cup = 4.85 oz

Cornmeal, fine: 1 cup = 6.3 oz

Oats, rolled: 1 cup = 3 oz

I am confused. So anyway, I heated the oven to 350oF and put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

• 6 oz self raising flour ( I used 'unbeached' flour?)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Then add 'soft creaming margarine' ( I used butter) and sugar..

.. and the finely grated rind of one lemon ( I used a cheese grater.. that seemed 'fine' at the time). 

• Finely grated rind of one lemon
• 4 oz soft creaming margarine
• 4 oz castor sugar

I then added 2 large [organic] eggs, walnuts and I TOTALLY FORGOT about the milk.. hahahah. Whilst writing this post, I now realise where I went wrong. Ahhhhh baking. 

• 2 large eggs
• 1 oz coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 tbs milk.

So, i started to mix the ingredients together and wondered why it was so hard to mix ( I had forgotten the milk)... but I battled on until the mixture resembled a hard ball. 

I then filled a loaf tin with grease-proof paper and placed the 'ball' into the tin, squishing it down so it resembled a 'loaf' shape of sorts. 

In the meantime, I tried to skype Mutter to air my concerns about the 'lemon ball' but sadly they were out. So, I battled on and made the syrup ( very easy). Add lemon juice to icing sugar and leave to soak in! I got this bit right. 

• Juice of one Lemon
• 4 oz icing sugar

I put the loaf in the over and after about one hour, it had 'started' to rise and turn a little brown.

Once I took the cake out of the oven, I pricked the surface of the cake with a fork ( harder than you might think actually **see large hole towards the left hand side of the cake) and poured the lemon syrup all over it. 

There was a LOT of syrup, but I poured it all in anyway, until the cake looked like a Lemon-bath. 

I then left the cake and the lemon juice did actually soak in. After the cake cooled, Darren and I decided to try it. It smelt very lemony with a texture that resembled a scone or biscuit rather than a 'cake' but needless to say, it wasn't bad! D's first comment was 'wow, that's very falvourfull' and we have actually almost eaten half already! Not a total failure and well worth it!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Forty - Scholarship Show Opening

Dear all!!!!

It was the big day: The opening of the Scholarship Show! It was such a wonderful evening - so many people, so much amazing work, just amazing! Darren and I arrived early after picking up Bob ( the scholarships were awarded at 6pm for the Fine Arts Students) and were stunned as to how much work was on show. The show was the best of the bunch from Fine Arts, Jewelry, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Interior Decorating and Photography and there was a LOT of work on display.

Six first years ( Calvin, Donna, Heather, Anna, Karen and myself) were selected to be part of the show and lovely Calvin ( amazingly talented) cleaned up but Donna (also amazingly talented) and Karen (Yay!!!!!! and her display was INCREDIBLE!) also got an award, double hurray!!! **and for the first time this year, we were all wearing nice clothes and not covered in plaster/ink/dirt/biochemical waste. 

I was just delighted to be able to be part of the show and so happy that everyone was there. Deidre, Vince and Bella even came up from Toronto! So amazing to see them. 

And here is some of my work! In glorious Technicolour (photos taken by Vince on his Iphone) and amazing quality! I am excited to get our new camera *currently on order*. 

Thanks again to our AMAZING faculty - we are honoured to be in your presence. And to Ted, our leader, THANK YOU!

On to next year! 

** and I even smuggled in a print - here are my lino block lilies! 

Year Two Day One Hundred and Thirty Nine - McMaster University and Williams Cafe

Dear all, 

Onwards on our travels and as we had time, Karen thought it be a good opportunity to stop by for a visit to her old Uni, MacMaster! http://www.mcmaster.ca/

We had a lovely walk through the lovely campus. The university is a relative youngster compared to its great great great great grandparents, Oxford and Cambridge but it maintains a wonderfully enriching atmosphere found only in academic institutions. I felt very stimulated being surrounded by the beautiful grounds, large imposing buildings made of glass and lots of young folk wearing over sized scarves. 

The unanticipated highlight was stumbling across the campus gallery which was exhibiting the fine art student graduate show - what a treat! It was a wonderful show and amazing to see what our contemporaries have been getting up to... very inspiring! 

We also stopped off at the restaurant chain Williams, a first for me and very welcome coffee. 

http://www.williamsfreshcafe.com/

While waiting for our coffees, we played 'what cake would you order' ( a great game). I went for the *massive* strawberry cheese cake and Karen picked a chocolate cheesecake/ cake which every piece being garnished with a whole brownie! Now that's a cake.

And in other news:

1. Karen and I took 5 minutes out of our busy day to run up and down the Niagara Escarpment just outside of Hamilton ( about 300 steps?). Very good cardio. 

Year Two Day One Hundred and Thirty Eight - Galaxy Cinema, Barrie

Dear all,

On a mission to see the highly anticipated 'Lockout', http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592525/, Darren and I took a road trip to Barrie to the Galaxy Cinema situated on the south side of the city. They have a much bigger range of movies than Collingwood although everyone was clearly just interested in seeing  'The Lucky One' (?????) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327194/.

The Cinema is pretty epic and I was excited! It was also PACKED so I ran for the ticket booth while D parked the car. As you can see from this ( very blurry photo), the line for the 'Lucky One' ran all the way 'out' of the cinema... Ahhhhh Zac Efron.

The movie was okay... Now I have all this free time, I am attempting to monetise my blogging by getting a job writing for The Georgian Eye http://georgianeye.com/home/blog . Sounds glam, and it is. Here is one of my sample posts.. I am now in a 'blog-off' to see who can get the most votes/comments so would be so so so so grateful if you would all be able to have a quick look at my post and spare a moment to like/ comment on it. THANK YOU!!!! xX

http://georgianeye.com/2012/04/25/movie-review-lockout/

Year Two Day One Hundred and Thirty Seven - Cookie Crumble, Kleinburg

Dear all,

A short but sweet posting today, continuing on Karen and my, road trip/art adventure. Of course, on such a day, one must stop for regular refreshment, coffee being at the top of this list.

Whilst in the lovely Kleinburg, and wanting to find something a little different from the omnipresent, Starbucks and Tim Hortons,  we stumbled upon this gorgeous and quaint little coffee shop, called 'Cookie Crumble' http://kleinburgvillage.com/?p=199. 

We both had soy milk latte's and they were, of course, delicious. After our lovely coffees, we took a stroll around Kleinburg and even managed to find 'The Doctor's House' where Deidre and Vince got married - Gorgeous! Talking of weddings, we saw at least TEN different wedding parties while walking through the (very small) village high street. Kleinburg is, most certainly, the hot spot to get hitched!

Year Two Day One Hundred and Thirty Six - Curating the Scholarship Show

Dear all, 

On a cold, snowy morning... (!@!@#!@#!@), I set off for school, mentally preparing for one of the most important days of my school year: I was off to set up my work for the 2012 Scholarship Show!

I had already entered a draw to find my spot in the school to exhibit my work and this morning I arrived to see my name ( posh name that I never use), on my spot of wall. My name, on the wall! 

After managing to secure a 'pedestal' for my sculpture that involved another raffle-style draw, I thought I would be able to get all my work up and hanging in a couple of hours. OH, how I was wrong. It took HOURS!

But what a wonderful day! So challenging yet so rewarding. This World is very new to me and I was so touched by my fellow students who were so happy to lend a hand and give advice. I am, thankfully, positioned next to Karen and we both muddled through amidst bouts of hysteria and with the help of a very helpful box of clips. At the end of long day, our work looked great.  It is amazing how complicated 'hanging' of art work can be - how to hang, what to hang, where to hang and why to hang..... *aggggg*. But I am happy it's done and excited for the opening and results from the jury !

And in other news:

1. uh oh.... the bar has been lifted - today I managed to find BOSTON CREAM TIMBITS!

 I took home 10 for D. He was very happy. 

** Boston cream is a donut filled with 'creme patisserie' and smothered in chocolate. D's ( and most people's) favourite. 

Year Two Day One Hundred and Thirty Five - McMichael Art Gallery

Dear all, 

Today, Karen and I went on an EPIC road trip that took us, firstly to the World Renowned McMichael Art Gallery, just outside of Toronto. 

The gallery is home to many paintings from the 'Group of Seven', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven_(artists), a collection of Canadian Artists from the early 20th Century, best known for their beautiful paintings of Algonquin Park and iconic Canadian landscapes. 

I was (obviously) unable to take photos inside, needless to say, its a delightful gallery, jammed packed with paintings from the Group of Seven, Inuit Art and currently housing an amazing exhibition about trees. The gallery itself is an art piece, set in the middle of dense forest and seemingly far, far away from the big city, despite it's close proximity. http://www.mcmichael.com/

We also took a nature ramble around the various trials that surround the gorgeous buildings and stumbled across a sculpture garden and the wedding arch ( that presumably gets very busy in the summer). It's a wonderful gallery and well worth the trip if you are passing through Kleinburg - a beautiful body of work celebrating Canadian Art!

And in other news:
1. Check out this gorgeous blog: An Apple A Day! I love flowers... but this takes the biscuit!  http://emersonmerrick.blogspot.ca/