40th Birthday Party

So, my husband turned 40 this year. No biggie. 40 is the new 30, right? So in his honor, we got ourselves a sitter and headed out for a big night on the town. First, we had drinks and snacks with friends at a local pub. Then we headed to a bar to meet up with more friends and watch a cover band. It was a late night but a great night (and nap time the next day was enjoyed by all). We looked forward to celebrating with our closest friends, so I wanted a little something to thank everyone for coming out. I put together a little something for people to take home (yay adult treat bags!), which looked something like this: 

That's not my photo (I neglected to take one), but I did put together a bouquet of Pop Rocks for our guests to take. And I have to say, it was kind of a hit. It was like a little blast of nostalgia in your mouth.

On a smaller scale, we had our own little party for Matt at home, including balloons and a very special birthday 'cake'. In general, I would say traditional cake falls at the very bottom of his dessert list. Nearing the top is Ice Cream Cake, which we enjoy when celebrating with his family, but I thought I could find something even better. 

Enter the Popcorn Cake and my inspiration: 

A mixture of popcorn, pretzels, and M&Ms, all coated with melted and gooey marshmallow? This combines all of Matt's most favorite things! So, I made it in secret the night before (A much smaller version than the one in the link), and after Liv had gone to bed (it wouldn't be fair to eat it in front of her, after all), I busted out the candles and presented it to Matt.

Thankfully, and not surprisingly, he really liked it. That yummy mix of salty and sweet really does hit the spot. He still talks about it, remembering fondly back to that delectable treat. I'm glad he enjoyed it, and he can look forward to this 'cake' for many birthdays to come.

 

A Summer Dress

 

This summer, I set about on a task of making (sewing) a dress for an upcoming wedding. We were heading out to the country to celebrate the marriage of good friends of ours, and I wanted a light summer dress for the occasion. I would say that I am somewhat adept at sewing, but my one weakness, I would say, is actually finishing what I start. My mother can attest (and now husband) to the small piles of fabric that were purchased with such grand hopes of one day becoming a dress or a jacket or a shirt, and now sit in the dark waiting for their time to shine.

You see, sewing, unlike knitting, takes a dedicated space and time, and loads more equipment than just knitting needles and yarn. You need a table big enough to cut your fabric out on, you need to iron, and you need to set up your sewing machine. In our little condo, we currently lack that space for a permanent sewing area, so this also means I have to set up and take down for each sewing session.

But I was determined to change all that and find time this summer to make myself a dress. There were two reasons for this: 1) I find it very hard to dress shop: dresses can be a financial investment, and most often I can’t seem to find exactly the right one worth spending the money on. 2) Making my own dress allows me control of the pattern, fabrics, and fit. Of course, fabric shopping can in and of itself be just as challenging as finding a dress already made, and you still have to sew it! But not matter. I was able to find a fairly simple and geometric black and white linen (boring, I know) and a bright splash of green to add as a belt. The pattern I choose had no zippers or buttons, so there were not too many difficult elements to it. It did have an elastic waist, a belt, and pockets (I think every dress should have pockets!), but all in all, I was fairly confident that I would be able to get it done in the time allotted, about 2 months.

Well, it was the weekend before the wedding and the dress was still in the fabric pile. Nothing like a little time crunch to put the gears in motion. I dedicated two days to the project: the first for cutting and ironing, the second for sewing. Turns out this was just enough time to get a dress together.

To be honest, I wore the dress the next weekend with a little hesitation. I was sure that it looked “too homemade” and not fancy enough for the wedding, but I was assured (albeit it by loved ones) that it looked just fine. I know there are still some tweaks that I need to finish before I wear it again, but luckily a little black sweater hides most of the imperfections. I’ll fine-tune it as I work on my next dress, using the same pattern and adjusting the size until it fits just perfectly. Off to my fabric pile I go….

1000 Tastes of Toronto

This summer has simply flown by, but what a great summer it has been. It seemed like almost every weekend was booked with some sort of event – be it Beer Week, food events, concerts, the cottage, or visiting with family and friends – the summer really is the best time of year. As we busy ourselves now preparing for Thanksgiving and (gulp) Christmas, I look back fondly on the photos collected on my camera to remember the days gone past (I really do wonder if they will ever end up printed and in a book some day…).

One thing I did want to share with you was an event we went to sometime in June – the 1000 Tastes of Toronto, presented by President’s Choice and part of Luminato. The city closes down John Street between Front and Queen and invites restaurants and chefs to open booths for the public to sample some delicious treats. And delicious they were! Some places we had heard of, others were new to us, but for only $5 a dish, Matt and I spent the afternoon tasting a variety of different foods. Some noteworthy dishes included:

Khao San Road (with a close encounter with Susur Lee). This was probably our favourite dish of the day – a pork sausage specially created for the event that you can’t get in their restaurant;

Poutine from Poutini’s House of Poutine (namely because I love poutine);

Pulled Pork Tacos from Milagro;

 Pizza from Queen Margherita (they even brought their own wood oven!);

  

BBQ Shrimp and Black Beans from President’s Choice, followed by an ice cream sandwich;

We stopped eating after that, but there were loads of more choices. It was a two-day event, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for it next year if it rolls around. In the meantime, there have been murmurs of a new event coming to the Brickworks – the Toronto Underground Market (http://yumtum.ca/). A similar concept to this event: “The Toronto Underground Market (TUM) is a social food market for the community to sample the food of Toronto home cooks. It is a venue for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their products. These vendors are not necessarily chefs, although some will be. This is a new kind of community market; not a farmer's market, or a food festival, but something completely unique and new to Toronto.”

You have to purchase tickets to attend, and the September and October events are already sold out, so we better keep an eye on this one if we want to attend the next one. 

Winterlude in Ottawa

Photo from February Snowmageddon

As this cold weather still lingers in the air, promises of warm and sunny days linger in my mind. But in the meantime, the snowy days and frosty nights do bring a certain charm of their own. Why not make the most out of these cold winter months and the activities that they provide? Frozen ice pads for skating and snowy hills for tubing and skiing are all great activities that have a limited time in this country. And heck, you can do both for free!

With Family Day falling in the dead of winter (a greatly appreciated holiday indeed), Matt and I decided to pack a bag and head to Ottawa to visit Erin and her family for the weekend. The Friday we left, it was actually quite a mild day; the sun was shining, perfect for a long drive. If you’ve done that drive before, you’ll know that they had to blast their way through rock to run the road through there, leaving behind a beautiful stretch of landscaping. As we drove through that stretch of road around Kingston, we saw water just gushing out between the rocks as the snow began to melt, and some pretty rapidly. While it was very cool to see, it also made us think that our plans for the weekend might be spoiled.

This particular weekend happened to be the last of the annual Winterlude Fest, and with the mild weather we had that week, we weren’t sure how many of the activities would be open. And then came an extreme cold snap, and the just-melted snow was now freezing while we slept. We had packed our ice skates in the hopes of perhaps gliding on the Canal, but, even with the cold snap, we learned it would be closed both Saturday and Sunday. Better safe than sorry; there’s always next year.

But other activities were still open. Saturday afternoon we bundled everyone up and headed to Rogers Crystal Garden at Confederation Park to see the ice sculptures. I wondered if the warmer air would have melted any of them, but most seemed to be in good shape. There are some very talented artists in Canada; the sculptures were amazing! But with the chilly air blowing in our faces, we stayed only long enough to see the sculptures and enjoy a Beavertail (a local treat) and some Snow Taffey before heading home to a warm house for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning we got up bright and early, jumped in the car and drove to Jacques-Cartier Park to play at the Snowflake Kingdom. Erin, having two kids, knows that the earlier you get there, the less busy it will be, so we were there shortly after the park opened. We started our day taking a tube ride down an ice covered hill, but after that first run, and the newly formed ice, for safety reasons they closed the run for the morning. Luckily we got our ride in first. Next, it was on to the snow hills, man-made mounds of packed snow that kids and adults slide down on their snow-pant-padded bums. This is fun for the whole family, as the younger kids can ride down with their parents, and the older kids (like Matt and I) can go on our own.

As the morning wore on and we tired of the sliding, we stopped inside a heated tent to enjoy yet another Beavertail. Deep fried dough covered in sugar - yes, please! Did you know they come in a selection of flavours, both savoury and sweet? I didn’t, but I do now. We ate them up and then slowly made our way back to the car, stopping here and there to see some other small attractions (a giant inflatable beaver, an accordion-playing snowman, a very large deck chair), and then headed back home for a nice afternoon nap, adults included.

I remember my parents taking me and my siblings to Winterlude as young kids, probably during one of my brother’s hockey tournaments in Ottawa (and, as I know my memory is not that great, this is surely incorrect. My mother can correct my errors). I remember the bitter cold but also the fun that we had. That year (late ’80’s perhaps) we did get to skate on the ice, but as our toes quickly froze, we didn’t last long. I remember watching my dad and brother learn to play sled hockey, where, seated in a sled, you must propel yourself along with two pointed sticks. I remember it being a fun weekend, but I wonder if my memories are different from my parents, who surely heard “I’m coooooold!” many, many times.

We drove back Monday afternoon, a little more tired than when we left (but that’s life with kids, so I’m told), and as we did, we arrived at a very different scene along the highway. The gushing water we saw just days before was now frozen solid in giant icicles. I wish I had snapped a photo, because it sure was a beautiful sight. While I'm anxious for spring to get here, I'm enjoying the winter while it's around.

Seedy Sunday

Volunteering has been high on our To Do list this year, and when Matt’s Dad and Step-mom suggested that, in lieu of a Christmas gift to them, we volunteer and share the story instead, we were happy to take them up on it. Finding a place to volunteer, however, proved to be a bit more difficult. We have been thinking of Habitat for Humanity, which we are still looking into, but this frozen Canadian landscape is not ideal for building. In the meantime, we started looking for other opportunities. We found a local website online that sorted the current volunteer spots by the theme of the organization, and since we are big foodies, we searched in the food section to find a good fit for us. Matt found one that was tied into the Wychwood Barns (a local farmer’s market we were familiar with) called The Stop (www.thestop.org; their mission is to implement anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs). He e-mailed them to see if there were any upcoming events that we could participate in and, sure enough, they were helping with volunteers for an event called Seedy Sunday.  

So, this past weekend, Matt and I got up early (relatively speaking for a Sunday), had a quick breakfast bagel, got dressed, and then headed out to catch the first subway of the day (it’s amazing how quiet the streets are at 9am on Sunday!). Our destination: the Hart House at the University of Toronto, where the annual event was held (although we joined through the Stop, the event is actually hosted by Seeds of Diversity, a “Canadian volunteer organization that conserves the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of food crops and garden plants”). The event originally started as a way for local gardeners and farmers to meet and exchange seeds within the community. It has since grown to now include an area for vendors to come and sell their own products.

We had a few different tasks as volunteers. Matt began his day helping with set-up; assisting the vendors to bring in tables and stands and other necessary equipment for their booths. I spent the morning with another volunteer standing outside one of the entrances telling people they couldn’t park there. Luckily it wasn’t bitter cold out, and the other volunteer was friendly to chat with. After a while, we moved inside to see if we could be of more use there.

Our next task for the remainder of the day was to assist with the Seed Exchange table. Boxes were already organized with seeds that had been pre-packaged and were set out on the tables by category (fruits & vegetables, herbs, and flowers) for easy finding. The concept is that you can either bring seeds and take some new ones in exchange, or take seeds for a suggested donation of $2/packet (it was a pay what you can, so we weren’t too forceful in the $2 payments). Matt and I took the vegetable table, an ambitious move by two very non-gardeners (at home we have had 3 out of our 4 cacti die…). But we have hopes of one day having a little garden and growing some of our own vegetables, so we looked at this as an opportunity to learn. And learn we did. By mid-morning, the event was buzzing with people and our table had plenty of visitors. We did our best to answer questions where we could, but when we were stumped, Matt had the great idea to pull out our Blackberries to Google the answers (secretly, I think that made him the hit of the table!).

When we had a bit of a lull in the crowds, we would take turns popping into the room next to us where the vendors were set up. There were a lot of interesting booths, from ones providing info on urban gardening (we signed up for a mailing list or two), edibles for sale (fair trade coffee, local honey, etc.) and one highlighting all the summer farmers markets in the city (we’ve scouted a new one for next summer).

While it was a long day standing, we met a lot of very interesting people and learned quite a bit about some of the different vegetables out there. It has sparked an interest for both Matt and I to learn more about gardening and vegetables, and, to start, I picked up a few different varieties of seeds for our future garden. And next year, if we volunteer again, we’ll come better prepared with more knowledge on growing vegetables.

Finally Flying Porter!

We live right down town and minutes away from the Island Airport (our house is the red star, below), so flying someplace with Porter Airlines has been on our list of things to do for quite some time. We’ve only ever heard great reviews of the service (even a friend who lost his skis said it was an awesome flight!), and the more popular the airline becomes, the more flights they have available. We weighed our options between renting a car and driving to Tremblant for a ski weekend (which we did two years ago when we had a car), but when we thought about the seven hour drive there and back (at least), the cost of renting the car, not to mention the cost of gas, flying became more and more appealing. We finally decided to go ahead and book our trip with Porter, and the closer the date got, the more excited we became.

Well, the weekend came quicker than we thought, and before we knew it, we were packed and ready to fly. Porter has expanded the number of flights they offer, so we were able to catch a departing flight at 7:45 Thursday night, arriving at 9:00 pm in Tremblant. And how many can say that they have ever walked to the airport?! Well, we practically did. We walked to the streetcar stop on Lakeshore and took it the few stops to Bathurst, and then just hoofed the rest of the short distance to the ferry waiting. The ferry ride…Ha. That lasted a whole of 2 minutes once we left the dock. Matt said there had been talk of building a bridge at one point, and we also hear murmurs from other travellers of an underground pedestrian walk way, both of which would make a lot of sense.

Check in was easy; no line-ups, and since we weren’t flying out of the country, the security check was fairly painless (yet we still had to remove our belts….). The lounge area is nicely arranged and offers complimentary tea and coffee, snacks, along with wi-fi and newspapers. Plus, you only have to arrive a minimum of 30 minutes before your flight, so you aren’t even there a long time, unlike international departures. The plane is a twin-propeller and seats 70 people (we learned from the on-flight magazine), and shortly after take-off, we’re again offered complimentary beverages and snacks, this time including beer and wine. We had just enough time to enjoy a glass before we started our decent not an hour later.

Arriving at the Tremblant Airport held a nice surprise of its own – it looks like a ski chalet! It was small and so very quaint and even had a fireplace to boot. It was just so welcoming that it really didn’t have the feel of any other airport we’d been to. The only line up was for those people looking to catch a shuttle to the mountain. Luckily we didn’t have to wait in that line. We were staying with relatives for the weekend at their chalet, and they were gracious enough to meet us at the airport. The ironic thing is, the drive for them to and from the airport was probably longer than our flight! Our hosts met us on the other side of the dividing glass wall (with a hand-written welcome sign for us – you rock, Megan and Doug!), and there was only a brief wait for our luggage as they unloaded it from the plane. We were then told to fetch it ourselves from the trolley, so even then we didn’t have wait at the baggage claim. It wasn’t long at all before we were on the road to settle in at the chalet for the weekend. After a beer or two and few Cheetos, we were ready to call it a night.

The next day, the four of us set out early for a full day of skiing at Mount Tremblant. Crowds were a bit lighter since it was a Friday, and it was a beautiful day for cruising the slopes. It had been two years since both Matt and I had been skiing, but we picked it up again rather quickly. The views from the top of the mountain were amazing! And if the wind wasn’t so blustery, I might have snapped a few photos, but I guess now you’ll just have to go and see for yourselves. On one of runs down, actually, there was an artist bundled up with his easel painting the landscape; that was a sight I wasn’t prepared to see. We stopped for a coffee after a few runs down the mountain, then back again. We finished up around one (we were a little sore a bit tired) and drove back to the chalet for lunch and a nap, both much needed. For lunch, Megan prepared a beef brisket that was very delicious (not quite Schwartz’s, but for making at home, very tasty!). I’ll be asking for the recipe, naturally. We then headed into town to pick up some groceries for the weekend and returned to relax, do some reading, more eating, play some euchre, and a simple pasta dinner. We were also awaiting the arrival of Erin and Brad and their girls; they were joining us for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was much the same, only this time Megan stayed back with Erin and the girls and instead Brad joined us with his snowboard for a day on the slopes. Surprisingly, the crowds were not that terrible (we expected it to be busy on a Saturday), and the weather again was a great for skiing. We tried a few different runs that day, and instead of heading into the village for a coffee, we stopped at the “Refuge”, a cabin on one of the hills that serves warm and cold drinks, along with snacks. The cool thing is it has no electricity, so it’s very cozy with the fireplace. Doug was even kind enough to share his secret stash of Grand Marnier to add to our drinks. Yum! And after a few more runs, we met the rest of the gang for lunch in the village. A few more runs and we were done for the day, satisfied with the two days of skiing we had gotten in.

The rest of the weekend was spent mainly indoors playing cards, reading, or playing with the girls, and, of course, eating. Sunday afternoon we said our good-byes and departed for the airport for our journey back home. After check in and a small delay, we were back in Toronto, ready to head back out to a small Super Bowl Party. What a weekend!

Ice Skating

I’m not generally one of those people who complains about how cold it is in the winter (at least not to that many people). I love watching the snow fall, collecting into piles along with window ledge or rooftops. We do live in Canada, after all, and the cold and the snow is what we’re known for. Sure, when it’s minus 30, I am more than happy to stay bundled up indoors, and extremely happy for my convenient underground walkway to the subway, but on those occasions when the sun is shining and the cold is bearable, the winter is great for outdoor activities. And this past weekend was one of those days that made for a great winter adventure.

As a kid I remember my dad building an ice rink in our back yard. He spent hours after work and on weekends flooding it and levelling it (and we spent hours asking, “Is it ready yet?”), until finally the surface was frozen and smooth enough for us to skate on. We bundled up, strapped on our skates, and that’s where we learned to glide and stop and turn. And we’ve been skating ever since. As an adult today, I think skating outdoors is such a great family/couple activity, but the reality is, we don’t do it all that often. Seems like life keeps getting in the way, unless you schedule it!

That’s exactly what we did this past Sunday. As a Birthday Surprise Adventure, I planned to take Matt ice skating for his birthday (we've been talking about going for probably two years now!). With various rinks around town to choose from, first I had to narrow down where to go. Nathan Phillips was an obvious choice for its location, but it’s also very popular with the locals and tourists and I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds. I had the same thoughts about the rink at the Harbour Front. And then my mom sent me a link to an article about a recently opened ice rink in Colonel Sam Park in Etobicoke, and after checking it out, that’s where we were headed. I borrowed skates from my dad (and he was even kind enough to have them sharpened!), hoping they would fit Matt, and whipped up a thermos of hot chocolate to enjoy after the skating, along with a few other snacks. We hopped into the car (a little luxury we have for the month of February) and drove off for our adventure. Matt was the one driving, but I only gave him general directions as to where we were headed. I’m pretty sure once we pulled into the parking lot he had figured it out (kind of hard not to when you see the rink and the people skating about).

The Colonel Sam Skating Trail is unique in that it’s shaped like a figure eight, and you can either skate the long way around both loops or take a short cut through the middle. A big bonus is that the rink is artificially frozen (great for our fluctuating temperatures) and Zamboni-ed regularly to keep the ice smooth. Plus, there is a heated change room with cubby holes for your boots, if you prefer, but also benches outside along the rink.

It was a prefect sunny afternoon for skating - not too cold, and the warmth of the shining sun actually kept us quite comfortable. Both Matt and I were a little rusty in the beginning, but after a few laps around we got the hang of it. There were lots of families and couples, as I suspected, but lots of room for all of us to share the ice. Once we had enough, we wandered back to the car where hot chocolate laced with butterscotch awaited us (the butterscotch was from a coffee syrup that I used in place of sugar). We finished off the afternoon with a car wash, a visit with a friend in the neighbourhood, and an Americano at a new coffee bar by our house. Oh, and we topped it off with the last of our wedding brisket to enjoy Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwiches for dinner (I also gave Matt another brisket for his birthday, so we'll be able to enjoy that throughout the year). All in all, I would say the day was a success!

2010 Edition of Matt’s Top 10 TV List

My husband writes an annual Top 10 TV list of the shows we watch throughout the year. I posted his 2009 list last year and thought I'd share with you all again.

2010 Edition of Matt’s Top 10 TV List

By: Matt Reid

For anyone new to this list, I’ve been doing this for a few years now and it seems to be appreciated by friends and family who like to enjoy, discuss and debate the year in television. To recap, these are the shows that I personally watched in 2010 (even though some have been on DVD, as I may be a season behind). As for shows that didn’t make the list, I really don’t have the time to watch much more than these listed below, but I always welcome suggestions for new programs to check out. Also, despite my resolutions from last year, I can’t seem to stick to the “Read More/Less TV plan”, so for now, it’s still a Top 10 list….. something tells me that my TV watching will decrease once I have children.

Honourable Mentions:

TOP CHEF (as a picky eater, I wouldn’t eat half of the stuff they cook, but I really appreciate a reality show that involves that much talent)

CASTLE (I’m not much of a watcher of procedurals, but this is the one I do watch – the charm of the two leads and light tone make it a guilty pleasure)

SURVIVOR (the ‘All Star’ season in early 2010 was one of the best in awhile)

RUBICON (a slow burn, this intriguing AMC show will unfortunately not be returning next year)

DRAGON'S DEN (I can’t believe some of these people think their ideas are worth a million dollars)

The List

10. How I Met Your Mother

This show came back strong in Fall 2010, seeming more focused as the plot moves the characters forward in their lives. I don’t really care who the mother is at this point, but it was nice to see some of the other characters start to deal with their own changes. It’s not all story though: the laughs are still there (led by Neil Patrick Harris’s Barney) and the callbacks to earlier jokes and storylines ensure you don’t want to miss a single episode.

9. Friday Night Lights

For a show with this small an audience, it seems like a miracle that it is about to launch Season 5 in just a couple months (it will be the show’s final season). This drama about life in a small Texas town (I have to constantly tell people that the show ISN’T ABOUT FOOTBALL) finally got some deserved Emmy love this year with nominations for Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, the most realistic married couple on TV (neither of them won though). The changing cast of high school kids and lo-fi camera work add to the realism of the show.

8. Fringe

Another show that has really hit its’ stride with the Season 3 premiere last fall. The ’two worlds’ scenario revved up the drama, kept the story arc constantly moving forward and allowed Anna Torv a wide range of scenarios to act in. John Noble’s Walter is still the highlight of the show for me, with his odd humour and haunted past. Here’s hoping the move to Fridays in a couple weeks does not signal its death knell.

7. Dexter

Please no spoilers as I’m behind on this show (I haven’t seen any of the season that just ended), but I have to admit that watching this on DVD works just fine for me: I don’t have to wait a whole week to watch the next episode. Michael C. Hall continues to make me root for a serial killer, there are enough laughs to keep the show not too dark and the new supporting players they bring in every season just keep getting stronger and stronger.

6. Walking Dead

All of AMC’s 4 series made this list (if you include Honourable Mention section), showing why I have faith in almost anything that channel brings to television right now. I was never a huge ‘zombie’ fan but had heard great buzz on this one, so I decided to take the plunge (also convincing my wife, who doesn’t like scary stuff at all, to watch). Well, we’ve both really been loving this show - the way it mixes thrills, gore, human drama and even some dark humour. The ratings for the show were through the roof (for a cable series), so we look forward to many more seasons.

5. 30 Rock

This show continues to bring the laughs – so many that I often need to rewind and watch scenes twice to ensure I didn’t miss all the jokes that were unleashed. Alec Baldwin has found the role of a lifetime, as his growing stack of Emmys proves (although she didn’t get the Emmy this year, Tina Fey did deservedly win the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour). It’s become the most enjoyable workplace comedy on television….unlike another office based show I could call out. As I prepare for my own ‘Kabletown’ merger, this is my Thursday night highlight….

4. Modern Family

Last year’s best new show continued to remain exceptionally strong, ending 2010 as the funniest show on television. From the humour-heart mix to the way the show uses the child actors as more than just props to the ability to use the ‘mockumentary’ set-up (and not seem stale), this show is firing on all cylinders creatively. With a ton of Emmy love and solid ratings, this has the popular appeal to stick around for awhile (unlike other shows this funny….ahem…..Arrested Development).

3. Lost

One of the most ambitious shows of all time finally called it quits in May. It had a very divisive finale, which I personally thought was a solid (if not great) wrap up – probably proving I cared more about the characters than the mythology. Regardless of your thoughts on that one episode, we can all agree that strong writing, great performances, and beautiful imagery solidified this as a series that won’t be matched in its ambition for a while. No other show inspired the amount of discussion/research, both online and in conversations with friends, that this one did for me.

2. Mad Men

As the seasons rolls along in this show and time marches forward in the 1960’s, we continue to excitedly anticipate what our anti-hero, Don Draper, will do next. And that’s the best part: you never really can guess where this show will take you. There was lots of change this past season, with many new opportunities, changing relationships, deaths and other surprises all rolled out last summer. A uniformly strong cast, an immaculately designed world and a distinct creative voice guiding the series always ensures I am counting the days until the show returns.

1. Breaking Bad

There was no show I looked forward to this year more than this one. What had already been an amazing show somehow kicked into a higher gear. The performances were top notch (although only the two leads won Emmys, the entire cast in uniformly strong), the pace thrilling (the parking lot scene may have been my favourite single scene of the entire year, having me holding my breath for what felt like forever) and the look of the show stunning (the cinematography reminds me of watching a film). And, just to show how strong the show is, it can have a slow paced episode take place entirely in one room (one that revolves around two people trying to catch a fly) and it will still stick with you.

So, what did you love this year in TV? What did you feel let down by? Which show did you not watch but still feel they should execute the whole cast, gangland-style : The Bachelor or Jersey Shore ?

P.S. A quick aside, a couple people asked for my top five CDs for the year as well, so here they are:

Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”

Band of Horses “Infinite Arms”

Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs “God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise”

The National “High Violet”

Cee-Lo Green “The Lady Killer”

A good cup of joe!

I think Matt has always had a love of good coffee, and over these past two years together, he’s taught me to appreciate the fine art of crafting an espresso (not by us, usually a talented barista), and of enjoying a coffee for its taste, not just its caffeine. It’s no surprise, then, that plain old regular coffee (aka Tim Horton’s) just doesn’t cut it for us any longer.

There also seems to be a revolution towards better tasting and better made coffee, especially in bigger cities. New coffee bars are popping up around town and, just like new restaurants to try, our list is rapidly growing. We already have a few favourites, but we love seeing what else is out there. Very timely, an article published in Eye Weekly narrows down the java joints in Toronto to check out to the Top 10. An interesting read of you also enjoy your coffee…

We’re also experimenting with making our own coffee and espressos at home. We invested in a French press to make freshly brewed coffee, and the difference from machine drip coffee in taste and quality is quite remarkable. We also upgraded our beans, getting freshly ground beans of our favourite Starbucks blend. And next, we’ve moved on to espressos, thanks to a tiny and wonderful little item we picked up in Italy.

I saw this in several store windows on our trip and was first drawn to it because, frankly, it’s so darn cute! It even has small espresso cups in various colours to go with it. I didn’t think Matt would go for bringing one home, but he surprised me and also suggested we get 4 cups to go along with it. This little contraption works by boiling the water in the bottom container through a filter with the ground beans, and out through each of the two pipes into the cups… brilliant!

Add a dollop of steamed milk (and sugar for us sweeter types), and you’ve got yourself a macchiato. We often drank this type of espresso in Italy, so each time we brew up a batch, it instantly takes me back to the numerous piazzas where we spent sipping coffee and people watching. When we have a bigger place with more counter space, we’re definitely going to invest in an espresso machine, full with milk steamer and everything. But until then, this little guy will do the trick.

Gelato Fix

I completely forgot to share wit you the very good gelato we found in Toronto a while back. This was the day we went to Stockyards for our late afternoon dinner (and Matt discovered a new love - the green chile cheesburger) and were looking for a sweet bite for dessert. We walked the kilometre or so to get to the shop (so we could feel better about all the fat and cholesterol we just ingested at dinner), and were surprised to find it quite an authentic gelateria. Soccer was on the TV with a number of Italians watching and cheering along, and menus and flavours were written in Italian.

While the selection of gelato to choose from was limited, there were still some great flavours to enjoy at Novecentro. I opted for the strawberry, while Matt enjoyed the chocolate stracciatella, a combo of vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks. They came served in a chilled glass bowl with a little cookie straw – nice presentation. We enjoyed the dessert just as much as the atmosphere, but when it came time to pay the bill, we realized we broke our cardinal rule as a tourist. We learned quickly in Italy that it’s much cheaper to get your gelato and coffee to go, as there is a fixed price and they can’t charge you a service fee. We didn’t think this applied back home in Canada! But sure enough, enjoying our gelato sitting down cost us at least an extra $2-3 each. 

We’ve been on a bit of a gelato hiatus since that trip back in October; perhaps it’s the looming winter cold. I’m sure once the warm weather appears again (or Matt gets a hankering for some cold gelato), we’ll be back on the hunt to find more great gelato shops in the area.