Double date with Richard and Oscar

My awesome friend Jenn invited me out to a magical evening listening to the music of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, all performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

These days when it's so hard to tear myself away from my life with Lily, Dustin insisted that I accept Jenn's invitation and enjoy the night out. Although I didn't manage to "get dressed up" as originally planned, I did manage to wear a clean shirt and put on earrings.

The performance was so wonderful. I had chills. I was in near tears. Both Jenn and I had commented that our mothers would have thoroughly loved to the show.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was accompanied by soloists and a choir; they performed selections from Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and of course, The Sound of Music. I think I may have enjoyed the selections from Oklahoma the best, and I thoroughly enjoyed singing along to Edelweiss when they asked the audience to join in, but I was completely floored by their finale piece from The Sound of Music. I had just leaned over to Jenn and whispered a snotty "I think Climb Ev'ry Mountain is probably one of my least favourites from this musical" and then was blown away by the arrangement that they sang. All three soloists (the soprano, tenor, and baritone), along with the bellowing choir, came together to sing this beautifully grand finale.

This concert was part of the "POP" series. I guess compared to the performances of the baroque and renaissance era, this was an evening of "popular music". I wonder, what they will call it in a decade or so when I take Lily out for a magical night at the orchestra?

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Kensington sweethearts

Jenn was my Kengsington sweetheart yesterday as we perused Toronto's Kensington market in search of desserts and other baked goods to satisfy our sweet-tooth.

I never used to be big on sweets. I always preferred a bowl of chips over a double chocolate brownie with double churned French vanilla ice cream. But this pregnancy has definitely heightened my sugar cravings. I will actually pass on the calamari appetizer to try and save room for some dessert now.

Jenn and I created our own little tour of dessert stops in the Kensington Market, sneaking in a little savoury refreshment here and there.

It's amazing how quickly we filled up on baked goods.

We started at the Moonbeam Coffee Company and started with a savoury light and flaky spinach and feta pastry called a boreka, coffee and mini chocolate croissant to finish.  All of their pastries looked divine, and there was that lovely homey Kensington Market feel that made me wish I lived nearby.

Our second stop was probably my favourite. Much smaller than Moonbeam Coffee Company, Miss Cora's Kitchen was filled with baked goods made from local market ingredients. There were options for any vegan, gluten-free, or all-the-works patron; we definitely had trouble narrowing down our choice selections for this leg of our sweets tour. Although Miss Cora was not present that day, Miss Carmel made some suggestions and we settled on a flourless chocolate cupcake, a vegan peanut butter cupcake, and my favourite: a jam-filled strawberry cupcake.  All fantastic.

Stop number three was at Panchos Bakery where we, naturally, ordered churros and hot chocolate. The churros were a little heavier than expected, perhaps even a little bland although covered in sugar. I would recommend asking for extra caramel sauce.

We made a quick stop at the Chocolate Addict and chose 6 truffles to bring with us to our last stop: Krepesz.  The Chocolate Addict is a tiny shop with a decent selection of truffle flavours. We settled on (clockwise from top left) jasmine, green tea, pomegranate, caramel sea salt, chili, and chai.  The chocolates were delicious, but I'm not sure if it was my tired palate or perhaps my under-appreciation for simple chocolate bonbons, I didn't think the chocolates were anything extraordinary.

Krepesz was our last stop.  The sit-down area was quite a bit more upscale than the average Kensington Market venue, so it was nice way to end the afternoon.  Krepesz is a Hungarian crepe shop; they also have on their menu a "chimney cake" that looked rather interesting. The afternoon of sweets (and the heavy churro) left us with little appetite, but we decided to share a savoury crepe filled with spinach, tomatoes and feta. A friend joined us and ordered a strawberry and nutella crepe. The crepe itself was delightfully light (thank goodness.)  I would definitely return and order one of the heavier dessert crepes next time (and save room for a chimney cake).

Our tour of sweet shops in Kensington Market was great. We knew there were official tours you could sign up to take with a group of people and an official guide, but doing it ourselves, and in a small party of 2, let us go at our own pace and not feel rushed (or too cramped.) I'm not sure if my sweet-tooth will remain after my pregnancy, so the timing for this sugary adventure was perfect.

I hope you've enjoyed the vicarious sweets tour of Kensington Market. Let me know if you have any Kensington Market sweet secrets you'd like to share!

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Chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling

Although my sewing projects are moving along too slowly to be an interesting blog post, I seem to have plenty of food experiences to share.

Today we celebrated a friend's birthday at her favourite Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Ju. Described as a "Japanese bar and grill", it is similar to the better-known Guu Restaurant. (That's darling Caleb eating shredded nori with his hands.)

Different than the typical sushi-Japanese restaurant, the menu had things like soba noodles, grilled meats on rice, grilled skewers of pork belly, black cod, pork cheek, etc. The most amazing of all: chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling.

At first, we thought it was a typo. "Chicken wing" was on the first line and "stuffed with pork dumpling" was on the second. Perhaps these were two separate menu items?

Nope. It was actually a chicken wing where the bones were removed from the middle wing and then stuffed with a pork and chive dumpling. It was fantastic.


I also ordered a hot soba noodle dish with grilled duck breast and leek...

... which I split with Jess who ordered a garlic soy marinated tuna sashimi on rice. Both were fantastic.

Sometimes it's nice to get some authentic Japanese cuisine and to try something different than sushi. Even the wasabi was a real grating of fresh japanese horseradish, not the stuff in a powder or tube!



I will have to work up the motivation this summer to brave the long lines for Guu so I can compare Japanese Izakaya food!

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Enjoying a lacy Saturday

The weather today was amazing. The perfect spring day to go lace shopping with Jenn.

We both signed up for a class at the workroom to learn how to sew our own underwear. Exciting, isn't it??? We needed to purchase some stretch lace to bring to our first class. There were just too many beautiful colours and patterns to select only one. I decided to choose two. Jenn chose three. I changed my mind and got three.

We also went hunting for elastic trim. There were even more colours and styles of trim. Sussman's (420 Queen St West) has an entire wall of elastic trim! I chose a mint green, lace-like trim and a ruffly pinkish-violet trim. They will be used to fancy up my super-soft olive green bamboo cotton. To celebrate our successful shop, we had brunch at the Bellevue Diner in Kensington Market. The weather was superb, the food was delicious, and company (as always) was top notch. Here's to many more perfect Saturdays.

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Simply Mad

I mentioned in a previous post about an event I was attending that supports microfinancing. The money went towards financial services (i.e. microloans) for people in Ecuador to alleviate poverty. Very similar to Kiva.

I think it's such a great concept; Dustin and I have a loan through Kiva to help someone in Nicaragua buy new tires for his taxi. He's already started repaying the loan, so we can now lend that money to someone else.

The other great thing about this event was the theme: Mad Men. Dressing up is always fun. Dressing up in 1960s clothing? Super extra fun! What a great fashion era.

Let's pretend for a little bit that I didn't have a full time job.

I would have ordered this pattern:

and purchased this fabric:

and then sewn myself a super cute dress for the occasion so I could humbly boast about how I made it myself.

But I had zero time to do all those things. I was destined for this: (which I would have copied, printed, and ironed onto an old tshirt.)

Thanks to my housemate, I had a pretty dress to wear because she picked up an extra dress from Kensington Market. Ain't she sweet?!

The event was so much fun! Thanks to Jenn and friends for organizing!

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Crafter by weekend

For those of you who don't know, I only moonlight as a crafty girl. Most of my day is spent doing Engineering related work. With other Engineers. Mostly men. We make jokes like "that guy is team mu" (mu is the static coefficient of friction. being on team friction refers to causing trouble. team mu is a surprisingly large team.) We're geeks. Root 3s, so to speak.

My crafty cottage getaway last weekend was such a breath of fresh air. (We didn't craft the entiiiiire weekend. There were breaks to catch up on the latest Bieber gossip, double dream hands, and this romantic music video; we found our Mr Darcy; we even spent some time with Harry Potter. I digress.)

My last post was the "thank you" post. This post is about the amazing crafting that was happening.

After Jenn finished the "where my heart belongs" embroidery, she worked on a quilt. Her fabric choices are just fabulous, separated by simple, natural beige to let the colours really pop.

Isabelle is slowly working away on an amazing crochet blanket, inspired by Jenn's find on this blog.

Laura worked on a super cute embroidered wall hanging. It was mostly done after the cottage weekend. Those are two mugs. "Filled with love." So cute.

I worked on a birdie sling (yup! the factory is reopening!) and also a baby quilt. But I can't share yet. Don't want to ruin the surprise. I did have fun sewing opposite Jenn in a "duelling sewing machine"-like setup.

It's so inspiring to spend a weekend with fellow crafters. Engineer by day, crafter by weekend!

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Crafty Cottage Getaway

How was everyone's weekend? I hope you had as lovely a weekend as I did.

I spent the weekend in a gorgeous cottage on Joseph Lake in the Muskoka region, thanks to Jenn and her generous friend Steve (and family!). It has been a dream of mine and Jenn's to devote an entire weekend to crafting, and this venue was a super wicked bonus.

From Crafty

From Crafty

To say our thanks, we ensured a gourmet menu for Steve. For his family, we adorned the cottaged with a couple crafts.

The menu for the weekend included fruit and granola crepes, winter root vegetable soup, quinoa salad, made-to-order eggs, and delicious snacks to boot... But my favourite meal was our dinner on Saturday night. Jenn whipped up an amazing cheese fondue made with gruyere and oka, and served it with an assortment of steamed veggies, nutty bread, cured meats, and crisp fruit. So delish!

For the crafty thank-you gifts, Jenn spent a good chunk of her weekend perfecting this beautifully embroidered wall hanging.

We also whipped up a set of four coasters. Jenn had a log cabin block lying around (don't we all?) so I cut it into four, much like a disappearing nine patch, and zigzag stitched it to layers of muslin. A little stitch-in-the-ditch, and tada! Gorgeous coasters for a gorgeous cottage.

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Autumn Leaves

From Out and About

Why do boys need to play "school-yard football" during thanksgiving? My friends in Ottawa call it the Turkey Bowl. Dustin's friends in Guelph call it the Fall Classic. I don't get it.

But it gave me the opportunity to go for a nice hike in Guelph with Mackenzie.

The day was gorgeous. Crisp autumn air, vibrant shades of red and orange leaves, and just enough sun to warrant my Michael Kors aviator sunglasses. Dustin lost his football game. But the day was gorgeous.

From Out and About

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A new park of smells

Mackenzie loves walks. What dog doesn't? But I was getting the impression that she was outgrowing her neighbourhood. Same smells everywhere. And it didn't help that there was a serious lack of squirrels.

Today I decided to take her on a new adventure. We took the bus (the TTC allows dogs on the bus/subway system!) to Dufferin Grove park and had a nice morning in the sun.

From Mackenzie

From Mackenzie

Mackenzie even made an appearance at a one year old's birthday party! She usually isn't very good at staying still for kids to pet her; this abnormal politeness may have had something to do with the croissant that one of the kids was carrying.

From Mackenzie

I've been blogging for a couple hours now, and Mackenzie has been sleeping at my feet snoring louder than my brother, Kirk. She must have had a marvelous time!

From Mackenzie

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My very own Green Gables

Okay, so I don't have a Green Gables.

I have a greenhouse.

From garden

But "gables" rhymes with "stables" which is essentially a "house" for animals. So I've come as close as I can to having my own Green Gables where in my imagination, I am Diana Barry (since I have black hair) and I'm spending time at Green Gables with my bosom friend, Anne.

I apologize for the misleading blog title.

I must also apologize for implying that I have my own green house; it is, in fact, not "my very own". Quite the opposite, actually. It's a community-shared green house.

A month ago, I ordered a copy of "Grow Great Grub" by Gayla Trail, author of super-awesome-blog: You Grow Girl. On her blog, I learned of an opportunity to share some space in the community greenhouse in downtown Toronto.

From garden

Dustin and I are in charge of going to the greenhouse every Monday to water the seedlings. We all take turns. Isn't it all so harmoniously charming?

Although we have limited space in our balcony garden, we went nuts and got seeds for anything that we would enjoy having an abundance of. We would worry about the space later.

We planted some zucchini (this one's still got the seed stuck to it):

From garden

some cucumbers:

From garden

and to make my mom proud, some Chinese Veggies (菜心):

From garden

We also planted some garlic, basil, dill, and cherry tomatoes. All in the greenhouse. It's incredible how quickly everything grows there. Gayla was smart and got us a shelf in the sunny corner.

From garden

In a couple months, all our little babies will be big enough to leave the warmth and shelter of the greenhouse and enter into the real world. Some will not make it out the door; others may perish in the harsh (and unpredictable) conditions of an Ontario Spring/Summer, but the strong will prevail and fulfill their destiny to be cooked into something unfathomably delicious!

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