A Nice Evening Out

We went to dinner at the CN Tower 360 revolving restaurant with some friends the other night. It was pricey, but we had received a gift certificate, so it helped considerably with the cost. We had never eaten there before, so we played tourists. It takes about a minute to ascend the 1100 or so feet to the restaurant. It did a couple of rotations by the time we had finished our dinner and L and one of our friends felt queasy by the time we got to dessert. They are not cruise worthy. Afterwards, we went down the stairs to visit the observation deck. It was a clear night, but cold.

This is the wine cellar in the restaurant, they have a considerable wine list:

This is the view from the observation deck:

The CN Tower in seasonal colours:

Happy New Year when it comes!

Some Quick, Healthy Dips

L passed on a few quick, healthy and delicious recipes one of her roommates passed on to her. For this one, you dump some salsa sauce into a bowl, pour some sourcream over top, then top with grated cheese. You have a healthy dip for tortilla chips!

The other thing they do is add some onion flakes to some sourcream and they have an almost instant, delicious chip dip!

News

Bubbles key to New Year's champagne: study

Polish Honey Cookies

I got this authentic recipe for Polish Honey Cookies from a Polish friend. She actually translated her recipe into English for us, and then L and I converted the measurements from decagrams as best we could. We also adapted the instructions a bit. I have to share it with you because they are so delicious. It's hard to stop at just one. I hope you will try them.

Ingredients (for approx. 36 cookies)
4 1/3 c flour

1 c honey
1/2 c icing sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 egg

2 tsp baking soda
spices - ground nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, pepper (L used cinnamon and nutmeg)


Mix honey with other ingredients until smooth.

Flatten small spoonfuls, making a hole with a straw, apply any decorations you wish....remember to apply icing sugar AFTER BAKING

bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 350 F

Remember, the cookies are hard, they will soften when you store them in a tightly closed container... the longer, the better..... you can keep them for several months

Enjoy!

Japanese Food Photos

We were at an authentic Japanese restaurant the other day and K snapped a few food photos for us: grilled scallops, cold soba noodles and steamed mussels. That seems to be a quail egg beside the noodles. I must admit that was our least favourite dish that went largely uneaten, but it was unusual for us and worth photographing. We thought we were ordering the transparent glass noodle salad that L and I love. We ate tons of other stuff, so we did not go hungry that night.

A Day of Unwinding After Christmas

Yesterday was a day of rest and unwinding, after all the gifts were packed away. We have so many chocolates, cakes, nuts, candies and cookies left to eat, oh dear. L and K made these spicy gingerbread cookies using a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen. They are delicious, with just a hint of sweetness. The kids like to dunk them in a cup of milk.

We went over to my mom's on Xmas Eve. I baked her some salmon with zucchini strips, being careful to use no salt, just herbs and spices. She said it was delicious. She has all the symptoms of heart failure and the doctors have advised a no salt diet. I had a damaged baby photo of her at 10 months old restored in time for Christmas and gave her an 8 by 10 inch framed photo as a gift. She loved it. L and K exchanged gifts with their cousins. A cousin of mine who recently moved back to Toronto dropped in to say hello.

On Christmas morning I went for an enjoyable early morning walk, I felt I needed the exercise. Then, we opened gifts. I usually get the kids a lot of gifts then I realized it's just more for me to pack away every year. They are older and it's not as if they still believe although they look forward to Christmas. So I just got them a few nice things and I think it was a good idea.

In the afternoon, we went to M's sister's place for a large family gathering as we have been doing every year for over 20 years. We met M's nephew's new baby daughter, just one month old. She is gorgeous. M's niece has a 19 month old son, so the next generation is well underway. The turkey was moist and delicious.

M's sister had photos of their recent tour to Africa scrolling on the TV. Their group of 24 people flew into Nairobi, Kenya before heading out to the National Parks. They stayed in some lovely resorts with fabulous views overlooking the parks. A highlight of the trip for the group of seniors was the hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti. They brought back some gorgeous photos of the wild animals in their natural habitat.

One of M's sisters was looking in good shape and she told me she lost 5 pounds simply by not eating after 6 pm. She felt it aided her digestion and she is now sleeping better at night. I'd love to lose 5 pounds.

We got home after 2 am, it was a long day and I was exhausted.

Sunday Sketches - Diamonds

I did a 'diamond' theme for Sophia's Sunday Sketches this week. While I don't own any of these pieces myself, I thought they looked pretty. Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Time for some to get ready for the New Year's parties!

Gingerbread House

Merry Christmas Everyone!


The Gingerbread House is all decorated and ready for eating, thanks to L. I won't post tomorrow in honour of Christmas Day.

News

I thought this article was informative and yet funny:
The Christmas Invitation

Swiss Delice

I bought these Chocolates from Costco and they are absolutely to die for or should I say 'heavenly', I knew they'd be good.

Skin Crack Care

My fingers have been getting all these painful skin cracks due to the cold. I decided to purchase
this new product called Nexcare Skin Crack Care and it is working wonders for me, I love it. It's like a tiny bottle of nail polish. You apply it twice a day to the cleaned, cracked area and let it dry for a minute. It seems to be healing faster and it eliminates the need for band aids which are always falling off.

People recommend olive oil, and other creams, but this is not messy at all and it
works quickly. You can always apply creams as usual over top.

L made it home safely the other night, so happy to have her home for Christmas!

Party Favour Extraordinaire

We went to a wonderful dinner party this past Saturday. Our friends went all out. My friend used to be a florist and made these pretty flowers for us to take home. Her house is perfectly decorated at this time of year and it was a treat to be invited over. Dinner was delicious followed by a chocolate ganache cake. K just ate all the sugar cookies that adorned the top. The hostess has all these delicious chocolates lying around so I had to have a Laura Secord Frosted Mint chocolates and some butter crunch candy.

While walking out of church on Sunday morning I heard this young boy conversing with his mother. She was saying 'I don't know, after the way you were behaving yesterday...' The kid smiles at her cheekily 'Well, that was yesterday, today's a whole new day' To which his mother replied, 'well...no' as they kept up their argument. I'd say he was about 10 - 12 years old. I wonder if he was able to talk his way out of his bad behaviour!

News

New Blog Captures Awkwardness of Parental Text Messages - it's called 'when parents text', check it out here.

Upscale Dim Sum

M, K and I decided to do a dim sum lunch with my girlfriend this past Saturday. We ended up waiting for an hour and a half to get into this restaurant/banquet hall that we've never been to before. It was lavishly decorated inside and the food was delicious, served on fancier dishware than in a normal Chinese restaurant. After we paid the bill, my girlfriend estimated it was about double the normal price and perhaps not good value. However, we did enjoy the upscale ambience even if the jumbo shrimp dumplings (har gow) were twice the price. To tell the truth, I sent these photos to L and she can't wait to try it when she gets home. It's Christmas after all. We can try going during the week, it might not be as busy then.

Huge Chandeliers


Beautiful Dishware , extra large teacups

Sticky Rice encased in Yam Wrappers

Milk Tart Dessert

Sunday Sketches - More Holidays

Here is my Sunday Sketch continuing with a Holiday theme. Sophia's Sunday Sketches rock! There is such a lively bunch of contributors here, do check them out at Blue Chair Diary.

River Effect

I thought this Xmas 'river' effect at the mall was neat.

Today will be a busy day. A girlfriend is coming over for a morning walk then M and K may join us for lunch, if we do end up going to lunch. We're also exchanging gifts. In the evening we have been invited to dinner at the home of some other friends and exchanging gifts.

Baked Cheesies and Miscellaneous

Look what I found at Walmart! Yes, these are baked cheesies packaged in 100 calorie servings. I'm going to enjoy without so much guilt.

There are a lot of jewellery sales these days. My hairdresser had told me that he has a lot of jeweller friends and they complain that it's expensive to buy gold these
days, and as a result, they have to charge more for their jewellery. So sales are down and business is bad.

L told me all her friends check their smartphone instant messages but they don't all check their emails. It's a sign of the times where email is becoming outdated. Oh dear. Everything has to be instant and fast now in these changing social times.

I've been sprinkling cinnamon into my cups of tea for a seasonal treat. It's delicious, not to mention cinnamon carries many health benefits.

Have a Great Day!

I forced my tired, slightly headache'y self to go to my exercise class yesterday on a cold, ultimately sunny morning and felt much better for it. I overheard one lady saying she's been overshopping for Xmas as usual and buying too much for herself.

Afterwards, I picked up new 2011 desk calendars from the bank as I had to do a few transactions anyway. The lady at the bank told me her 10 year old still doesn't know about Santa, although he might suspect.

I decided to make an overdue trip to a hardware store yesterday to do a bit of 'shopping'. I'm at home in a mall, but a hardware store is a different place, I'm totally lost. Perhaps because there is no interest. Anyway, I found mostly what I was looking for within an hour. I wanted a small hammer, a multi-bit screwdriver and a new lock for the gym. I also got a carebiner bungee cord with hooks for K's next field trip in the new year. He's going on a toboggan/snowshoeing expedition, but thankfully they will be in cabins this time. His gym teacher is one of the few people who gets paid doing work they love.

I can't figure out K's latest Science lesson and neither can he. It's to do with colour subtraction. Hopefully some light will be shed on that soon. He's on school vacation at the end of the week and looking forward to Christmas. It's nice that a kid any age can look forward to Christmas.

Our furnace broke again yesterday evening but luckily the furnace guys were able to come and fix the problem, we needed a new motherboard ($400 plus), but it was 14 years old, not bad. You do take central heat for granted until you lose it. And those furnace guys are heroes in my mind.

Have a great day!

No Heat

The weather turned icy and freezing this past Monday. We woke up on the coldest day and M noticed our furnace wasn't working. He put a call through to the repair people then started tinkering a bit and concluded that somehow the automatic scheduler on our thermostat had kicked in, even though we had it on permanent hold. So the heat came back on after he cleared out the scheduler. We have a gas fireplace in the basement that was our backup in case of emergency. Once the repair people knew we had heat we were put on the back of their repair list as there were people waiting who had no heat. It was simply a matter of calling them the next day to say the problem seemed to be fixed.

Here are a couple of interesting news articles I found:

Snail mail still popular for Christmas cards - Do you still mail your cards out? I do. My sister heard the Post Office is not as busy as usual this time of year. Hmm.

When is twins too many?
'Doctors could “reduce” the pregnancy from twins to a singleton through a little-known procedure that eliminates selected fetuses ...
Experts question whether parents should choose to terminate a fetus just because of the impact the child would have on their lives'

Healthy Holiday Party Food Guide

The healthy holiday party food guide advises the following:

Choose Olives over Mixed Nuts
Choose Soft Cheese (like Brie, Goat) over Hard Cheeses (like cheddar, gruyere)
Choose Crudite and Dip over Cheese and Crackers
Choose Mini Quiche over Pigs in a Blanket
Choose Roast Beef over Ham
Choose Gingerbread Cookies over Sugar Cookies
Choose Cocoa over EggNog
Choose Candy Canes over Chocolate Kisses
Some of these are surprising to me, how about you? See the article for more details.

Lowe's Toronto Christmas Market 2010

The weather was mild on Saturday evening, so M, K and I decided to check out the Toronto Christmas Market downtown. We struggled to get parking but eventually found a spot a few blocks away. That's downtown for you. It was crowded with families. We ate Slovenian sausages on buns. They were fresh and yummy. We found some melt in your mouth shortbread cookies, although they weren't cheap at a dollar apiece. Enjoy the photos!

Sunday Sketches - Holidays

Here's my first Sunday Sketches entry for Sophia's art co-op, I chose a Holiday theme.
Sophia says, 'Just grab whatever you love to draw/sketch with and have at it.'

Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

'T's Daily Treasures' had a posting for an easy peanut butter recipe that she got from Sherry of 'A Happy Valentine'. It attracted me because it only calls for 4 ingredients. Of course, one of the ingredients is a baking mix, which accounts for the lack of ingredients. Let me know how yours turns out if you decide to try it.

I asked M to pick up a package of 'bisquick baking mix' at the grocery store. This is what he brought:







I suppose this might still work. He didn't realize it was an oatmeal cookie mix, he just saw 'biscuit' on the backside. All the products sold in Canada are printed in English and French.

Freak Accidents

This lady at the gym has been wearing an eye patch over one eye recently. I was guessing she may have had cataract surgery. She said she was opening her car door and hit herself in the eye. Ever since then, she has been having vision trouble, seeing doubles, etc. So without the patch, she can't process very well. She has gone for cat scans and all kinds of tests, but they don't know what the problem is. The doctor thinks she may have damaged the nerve and the hope is that it will repair itself in time. Meanwhile, it's apparently okay for her to drive. Isn't this such an unfortunate freak accident? I get bruises all the time, but usually it's an arm or a leg.

This is worth a read and a listen, I think.

Helen Mirren Sounds Off On Sexist Hollywood Ways – And Much More (Video)

Joanna's Perfect Moment

Joanna at The Fifty Factor has a fun post called 'Perfect Moment'. It goes like this:

'What one perfect moment in your life would you relive if you had the opportunity? ...without changing a single thing...a time of pure bliss.'

I'm still thinking about my answer, how about you?


News

This is sad, but true, I think:
In Smartphone Era, Point-and-Shoots Stay Home

Lunch Talk (At Christmas Time)

I went for a haircut a couple of days ago and took a bottle of wine for my hairdresser, in honour of the season. He gave me a big hug and kisses on both cheeks and told me I shouldn't have. He mentioned he is 63 years old, with no plans to retire. Either way, sooner or later I'll probably need a new hairdresser, I'm thinking.

Before going for my workout, I decided to have lunch at the mall. There was a new (and busy) Mediterranean restaurant in the eatery, so I decided to try the chicken shawarma sandwich which was on special. It was nice although a bit too 'garlicky' for my taste. I'll try the falafel sandwich next time anyway.

It was crowded in the eatery, but I spotted a couple of seats next to an older couple. I asked if it was okay for me to sit there, and the lady said brightly 'you are most welcome to do so'. She sounded like a teacher, I thought. Her husband left the table but she remained seated, finishing her meal. She asked how my Christmas shopping was going. She had happily made a lot of progress that day.

It turns out she has 3 grown sons and some grandkids who live at other ends of the city. She hosts the entire family on Christmas Eve and also on Christmas day (overnight, I think). She said it was a lot of work, but she'll do it as long as she can. I continued messily eating my shawarma sandwich, there's no way to eat it neatly, not me anyway. I said, 'Maybe if you had a daughter, she would take over the celebration.' She said, 'Well, I have a daughter-in-law that would probably do it, but she's Serbian and...she'd probably serve pork. And my boys and I are so used to having Turkey, it wouldn't be the same.' I said '...I like pork'. She said 'You know, when the time comes, it will be her celebration, and I'll support whatever she chooses. Family is what's important.' I agreed with her.

We discussed the weather and she told me she had grown up on a farm and watched the animals all the time. She knows this is going to be a hard winter because the squirrels seemed extra busy this fall ferreting food away. And their coats are extra thick. There is a red fox in their neighbourhood sporting thick,lustrous red fur this year when he's usually like a pale orange shade. I said I would most certainly pass this information on to my husband, so he could get the snowblower ready! Then she went off to finish her shopping and I went to do my obligatory cardio workout. I told her she was a good mother and she told me she was sure I would do the same if I had to.

Our mailbox was frozen shut that evening, even the lock de-icer wouldn't open it. Maddening. This happens every year. The next day, a lady at the gym told me to try WD40 oil and I did and it seemed to work, but maybe the mailman did something.

Creative Tuesdays - Holiday

Here's my entry for Mmm's Creative Tuesdays "Holiday" theme.

Great Gift Ideas

M, K and I had a lovely lunch with some new friends at the other end of town yesterday. It didn't snow until night time, so it was a safe drive over there, although it was cold. They gave me a lovely cookbook, 'Ricardo, Meals for every occasion', from Ricardo Larrivee of FoodTV. It was such a thoughtful gift, because I so enjoy his show on TV.

Afterward, I was able to attend Mmm's Virtual Xmas Tea party which was in full swing! He was an attentive, gracious host and what can I say, it was like a real party! There was delicious 'food', 'dancing', and fabulous guests. Yes, the Christmas season is well underway now.

L said they received about 30 cms of snow yesterday in her town and are expecting another 20 to 30 cms today. That means lots of snowball fights and hopefully lots of studying.

This looks like a perfect gift idea for teenage girls , (although L is more of an eyeliner, eyeshadow person and I've already got her gifts). It's a set of 15 mini lip glosses in assorted colours:
Tarte lip gloss set at Sephora

And for teenage boys like K, there are DC shoes T-shirts, (although I've already got his gifts too).


I got these great gift ideas from this article:

Great Holiday Gifts Under $30

Mmm's Xmas Tea Party

Well, Adam Lambert is in Scotland for Mmm's Xmas Tea Party! Doesn't he look great in a kilt?

Here's Adam doing a beautiful acoustic version of Whataya Want from Me.

This is 'Aftermath (Acoustic)' on his new acoustic album.

Hop over to Mmm's this evening to meet all the beautiful people! It'll be fun.

Toronto Christmas Market

We received a Dylan's Candy Bar Gingerbread House Kit yesterday from our financial advisor. This means Christmas is officially underway! I put the tree up and laid out all the decorations. K was watching 'The Santa Clause' that night, one of his favourite movies.

Everyone is starting to arrive at Mr. Toast's Virtual Christmas Tea Party. It's fun stopping by there to see the current goings on.

'My Kitchen Snippets' recently posted her recipe for Redang Chicken Curry and I thought, I have to visit a local Malaysian Restaurant to try this dish, it sounds delicious. So, it's on my list of things to do over the holidays hopefully.

Another event I hope to attend is 'Lowe's Toronto Christmas Market', which is something new in the city, European inspired. It sounds like fun. It starts today, until Dec 12th. It is a very cold weekend, unfortunately.

Dry Shampoo

I heard them talking about Dry Shampoo on the radio yesterday. Have you ever heard of this before? Apparently it's available at the drugstore.

Here is an informative review of Batiste Dry Shampoo that I found.

And in an unrelated topic, this is 'The OMG Cat', funny.

News

Scientists find way to reverse aging in mice

Lemon Grass

I noticed lemon grass at a local supermarket recently. So now I know where I can get it, if I decide to try a recipe that calls for it.

I'm making a conscious effort to eat more chicken and fish as opposed to red meat. Yesterday, I made spaghetti and meat sauce using lean ground chicken instead of lean ground beef and it was just as good.

Coffee Talk

It was raining hard yesterday morning but the weather was a mild 6C. I stopped in at McDonald's for an apple oatmeal muffin and coffee. It was surprisingly empty either because of the rain or because the free coffee special ended. I heard the manager ask one of the cashiers to get a muffin ready with a candle for a regular called Roger, who was turning 80.

I ended up sitting next to a well dressed lady wearing a dark grey sweater over a light pink top. It was so pretty how her earrings and ring were also pink. It turns out she's originally from Mexico, so we got talking about the crime and poverty in poor countries. She said she goes to the big market in Mexico City with her good looking cousin to shop. It's a place her big burly male cousins avoid because they are afraid. However, they sell fabulous shoes and she knows the shoemaker. So she will order the ones she likes in size 4 and a half, a difficult size to begin with.

For some reason, I mentioned my daughter away at school, and a son at home. She said she has 2 daughters. Her favourite, (and she said she shouldn't really say that) lives in London, England. It turns out this daughter got her teacher's degree at a university here, but couldn't get a job, even with all her many certificates. So she and a friend heard there were jobs in London, and off they went. They were readily employed and before you know it, she was married to an Englishman. Now they are expecting a baby. So the lady will visit, but she laments the 'loss' of her favourite daughter. She said she had actually seen a therapist to treat her problem. It seems her mother had died early at 58 and this daughter looks so much like her. So the therapist told her that was the reason she is so attached to this daughter. And this discovery has helped a lot in dealing with her feelings, it has helped her let go more.

I said, 'do you have a husband?' She says, 'yes, he is at home'. Then I said, 'what about your other daughter?' She says, 'she's at home too'. I laughed and said 'oh, that's not so bad, you have lots of company'. After about 20 minutes, I decided I better get on with my day. I bid her goodbye, we exchanged names (hers is Rosemary), and I told her I enjoyed listening and learning from her experiences. She said 'it's always good, because you realize you have no problems when you hear other people's problems'. I laughed and said 'same to you' and bid her goodbye. I'm terrible with faces, I'll try to remember hers in case I see her again.

News

The 20 Gift Cards Consumers Want Most