Geeky Cat Miusings

Some time back in December of 2010, I decided to give skating a whirl for the first time since childhood. I can’t remember exactly what was going through my mind but I’m sure I was thinking that it could be a fun activity to do in the outdoors, something that enhances the pleasures of winter (cool air, snowflakes falling) plus has the merits of being a social activity, though it can also be enjoyed in solitude.

Since I haven’t skated for a very, very long time and I was not a strong skater to begin with, I weighed my options for a good place to get started. I found out Harbourfront has skating lessons but was concerned how far of a commute it is for me from my home. When I found out that my work place has an ice rink that is open for free-style skate during specific times, I realized the writing was on the wall - if it was going to be that easy to get to a rink (I’d be there anyway), I’d have a go at it right away.

I was quite nervous about that first skate, asking people questions like is it okay to skate in my long coat or would the length cause me to trip. Nobody rolled their eyes at my inquiries - they’re a good bunch of people.

So I went for my first skate on a (thankfully) nearly empty rink, hanging on to the side board for the first twenty minutes for fear of going down. I slowly gained confidence and released my hands from the sides of the rink but still skated right alongside the wall. I felt thrilled that I could still skate and hoped I could improve my speed and movement with practice. It went well and I returned to my office in need of a second lunch!

After that first skate, I almost felt ready to take on a rink with no side boards but was not entirely sure of it. So when a friend asked me to join him skating, I replied that I may need a hand. No problem, he replied. Great. So, I borrowed my sister’s skates and off we went to Harbourfront on a sunny, but cool day. I still remember how beautiful the lake and Island looked on that gorgeous December day. I found my footing surer than I anticipated, resisting my friend’s supportive arm which he later confessed to feel dismay at since holding my arm was something he hoped he would have had the pleasure of that day. I enjoyed moving to sounds of rock & roll and even started playing the air guitar and so did he. Skating and music are a natural pair. About 45 minutes into the skate, my sister’s old leather skates broke apart, and so, that was the end of that skate for me. It was nice to sit by the rink and watch my friend try to impress me. Moral support - that’s what friends are for.

My interest in skating was gearing up so I organized another trip to Harbourfront. This time I went with two friends - one was a figure skater and the other had not skated since childhood - I couldn’t have picked a more interesting social skating experiment! As one friend twirled and leaped into the air ever so gracefully, the other cautiously and slowly took steps while holding firmly onto my hand. At least we could dream of our potential as skaters if we only took a few more lessons.

You know, it really is fun to skate hand-in-hand

…except when one skater goes down and pulls the other down too.

…but then we can laugh in pairs about it. And we did. And we still do.

There came a day when I decided to buy skates so that I would not have to rent them and thereby avoid the long rental lineups, but it would also enable me to skate at venues that did not have skate rental opportunities. I was so excited when I found a pair of beautiful skates - I hurried to make use of them the very next day. Sadly, the skates were not at all kind to me and caused large, bleeding ulcers above my ankles on both legs. There was blood every where! I have no idea how I could be so injured without being aware of it but I was not skating for a couple of months. Ooops.

But I recovered and regained my courage.

I skated a few more times at work and had plans to skate in the heat of summer - I thought it would be awesome to feel the chill of ice skating when it is a steamy 35 degrees outside. It didn’t happen last summer but maybe this summer it will. Sounds cool to me!

In January of 2012, a few friends went to skate at Colonel Samuel Smith Park. There is a beautiful and warm place to lace up in the Power House Recreation Centre (built 1888) which served for a century as the coal-fired heating plant that piped warmth to the adjacent Lunatic Asylum. It was a lovely, sunny day to glide around the city’s first trail, winding through the park. It is a refreshing yet calming experience that feels as though we’ve traveled back in time, to a more gracious and slower existence. Part of the charm of a social skate is the ability to skate with different partners and change conversations each time you switch. The social skate has a really nice flow.

Aside from the social aspect, there is the opportunity to explore the many skating venues and the next one is another beauty:

The Evergreen Brick Works has a beautiful trail where you can glide over the ice under the open sky with only the rafters of the former industrial building overhead. It is as though you’re winding through a wooded valley with views of the city and enclaves filled with ovens providing a charming view. There is a pretty cafe for the requisite hot chocolate or moccachino, plus many other activities to do in the area or interesting trails to explore where fossils may be found and birds are likely to be heard. Or, as in my case, a singer could be on the loose. My best experience here involved being pulled along by a very strong skater - I’m sure you understand the joys of just standing still as someone else does all the work - yet you must be alert at all times to not bump into any one and you must also swing your pose to accomodate the turns. We had one person pull two of us in a string of skaters - for me it was a thrill ride. I’m sure there could be skater pulling competitions somewhere or else a paid attraction at a winter fair.

There I must end for now but I’m looking forward to exploring different ice rinks in the city and beyond. I do have a list of ice rink hopes.

Gleam of ice, and glint of steel,
Jolly, snappy weather;
Glide on ice and joy of zeal,
All, alone, together.
Fickle Spring! Who can imprint her?-
Faithless while she’s captivating;
Here’s to trusty Madame Winter.-
~e.e. cummings

The summer of 2011 I experienced my first photo scavenger hunt! I met the group and organizer on the big rock in Yorkville where we were divided up into groups of four people. The only criteria for the group selection was that each group must have one member who is familiar with the area. The groups were randomly formed and I was hooked up with three rather good looking men. Boy was I lucky! I mean I really felt special in this whole process, rather like the princess and these knights would do their best to make me shine. Somehow the synergy was just right and we struck a creative chord making the process enchanting and the photograph taking imaginative. Here I’m being proposed to and quite obviously blushing. I accepted his key ring :-*>

We were provided with a list of items to find within Yorkville and were given 1.5 hours to find the items and take a creative photo of our find. Here we find a popular salsa dance club called Babalu. It seems natural to have us dance for the photographer. I could feel the urge for dancing grow in me that day.

Somewhere under the rainbow…rainbows bloom.

We find the clothing store called Rainbow and we make a rainbow shape with our arms.
We are a colourful bunch and I’m not just referring to my colourful dress.

Here we resuscitate a patient in spirit of the old Mt. Sinai hospital which used to be located in Yorkville. In 1923, Toronto Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital was opened at 100 Yorkville Avenue and a year later the name was changed to Mount Sinai Hospital. The facade of this building still stands today.

Like I said, these guys make me feel like a princess. Here my shining knights open the door for me. I’m glad I wore my colourful Buddha dress (for the colourful image boost) with my flip flops (for comfort).

Small dress with big impact.

Will the real psychic please stand up? We don’t know what the psychic in Yorkville thought of us as we pose for our own psychic shot, but he knew that we were coming. Right?

What a fun event this was. I hope to experience another one in 2012!

Our chica who art into fringeing
followed be your game
when fringedom comes
your will be done
in earth as it is in fiction
give us this day our weekly pass
and show us only the very best
as we know we can’t see them all
and lead us not into sold out shows
but deliver us into bliss

she’s collecting scars
a lifetime habit
looking at stars
not noticing the thorns
digging into her flesh
…until the damage is done
slowly healing but never healed
a new scar breaks her starry dreams
out into the fields she goes
hiding scars underneath her sleeves
she’s collecting scars

~A poem I wrote on June 7 2011

Words can be louder than actions
but actions speaker truer than words
your words filled me with a bright joy
I kept your words close to my heart
and felt warmed as I replayed them day and night
…but your actions spoke a different story
for the actions filled me with dark sorrow
those actions stole the words from my heart
now the words are gone leaving an empty space
still, I am covered by the shadow of your actions
~ Poem written May 20 2011

You may recall from an earlier post that in the fall of 2009 I started a project in which it was my goal to make 100 new recipes. By the end of 2010 I had surpassed my goal! It was very easy to follow through and go beyond my expectations. Since I enjoyed the process so much and found that I learned a lot about cooking, including finding a lot of new recipes that I like and will be happy to make again, I decided to continue on the new recipe project but in a way that did not have specific defined goals. I don’t currently have a specific number of new recipes that I’d like to make but as of today, March 29, I have made 148 new recipes. The last one that I made is a vegetarian french onion soup made with miso and I absolutely LOVE it. I’ve been dreaming about it ever since I have made it so I think I’ll have to make it again soon. I saw another recipe for french onion soup - this one had no miso but had wine instead. It was very different than the first one I made so I promise myself that I will make it and compare the two.

This is a great project for anyone who is interested in cooking and looking to explore new cooking options. The danger is that sometimes you wonder why you bother going to mediocre restaurants and pay heavily for doing so…

It is hard to believe that it is almost one year since my lost blog post! So much has happened over the year but I find that without writing a diary or blog, many of the details fade from memory.

What has happened since then? I had a pretty good trip to Chicago. Getting there was quite a challenge. I took the over night bus and faced 11 hours of an uncomfortable journey — not being able to sleep because it was too cold on the bus and it was also pretty smelly. Getting off the bus at the US border was unpleasant in its own right - it was the middle of the night so the mind is no where near being alert enough to handle the questions asked by the suspicious of everything border guards.

Fortunately, Chicago is a gorgeous city and my architecture loving heart was so filled with joy that I did not notice the lack of sleep when I slipped into town and set eyes on the gorgeous Harold Washington Library. I couldn’t take my eyes of the owls.

I had barely got off the train when I signed up to become a member of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and immediately took Architecture River Cruise along the unexpectedly beautiful Chicago River. It is lined with buildings that makes this girl say *wow* nonstop. There are so many pleasant surprises on the relaxing boat ride on a very beautiful and warm day.

During my stay I took as many of the architecture tours that I could fit into my schedule. There were some areas that I just fell in love with and visited over and over again. Millennium Park is one of my favourite places in Chicago with the BP Pedestrian Bridge, Lurie Garden, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the Bean, and a nice artificial waterway where I cooled my travel-worn feet. They seemed to have free concerts there every day and I was happy to enjoy them which was easy for me because I stayed in a place just across the street from that marvelous park. I really enjoyed the Crown Fountain too - it is a must see. There were many wonderful places to eat in Chicago and I did more than my fair share of eating. I also loved taking the subway there, especially the elevated L which takes you away into a bygone era. Such a lovely view and well worth taking even if you don’t need to go anywhere. There are times for aimless travel and sometimes those travels are the best you’ll ever have.

A couple of things to consider when going to Chicago: make plans to see theatre (it didn’t work out for me because of circumstances) and bring mosquito repellant (they really went after me, even when I dined inside downtown restaurants).

Asparagus was in season during my recent visit to Europe, quietly making its presence known to me as I strolled by markets, visited restaurants, and pondered seductive woman eats asparagus advertisements. In Canada I normally eat the green asparagus (which I love grilled) but in Austria I saw it in its many forms, colours and sizes. I saw a lot of the plump, white asparagus. It is the same plant as the green but it is covered with mulch as it grows so that it is not exposed to sunlight and thereby preventing photosynthesis and is therefore *pale* with a milder, less bitter flavour that is popular in Germany and Austria. They typically serve the white asparagus (aka spargel) with hollandaise sauce and potatoes. I have also had asparagus tucked in with other vegetables in omelettes, in soups, and grilled. In the latter part of my trip I saw other types of asparagus that I would have loved to try: purple asparagus, which has more sugar and is a beautiful colour and wild asparagus, seen on the forefront of the picture.

Asparagus “…transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume.” Marcel Proust

“You cuss, I cuss, we all cuss for asparagus” Gary Larsen

In Melch I came across a tempting jar of roasted apricot kernels. Remembering that apricot kernels are poisonous because of their cyanide content but feeling confident that this reputable tourist area and shop would not be selling toxic food, I bought a jar (sadly, only one jar) and opened it up immediately to nibble on these bitter sweet nuts. A website I consulted claims the cyanide is destroyed in the roasting process so I have concluded that I’m safe. Besides, the kernels are used in confections and to flavour liqueurs so I’ve had the kernels, unwittingly, in other forms. Some people even claim it is an anti-cancer agent and that they are very nutritious, especially high in vitamin B17, a nutrient that is neglected in our modern diet. Bring on the Amaretti di Saronno!

A Salzburg basic food item is the pretzel which comes in a variety of sizes and types from the light coloured and salty to the rich with molasses to the covered with chocolate. In the market there are pretzel stands with a delicious selection and the tables in the beer gardens have pretzel stands to accompany your beer. The abundance of pretzels made me think I found its birthplace but I now know that an Italian monk invented it to reward children for praying. Amen!

Prague is somewhat known for its absinthe and drinking it is listed as one of the top tourist things to do when visiting. I have always been slightly curious about the culture and lore around it.
Numerous artists and writers living in France in the late 19th and early 20th century were noted absinthe drinkers who featured absinthe in their work. These included Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Later artists and writers drew from this cultural well, including Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Hemingway. Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec helped popularize the notion that absinthe had powerful psychoactive properties but there is no evidence that it causes hallucinations. In 1905, Jean Lanfray murdered his family and tried to kill himself after drinking absinthe and subsequently the beverage was banned in various countries. In the 1990’s countries started to reverse the ban. It is a popular drink in Czech and I was tempted to try it but instead had the absinthe ice cream after a fair amount of searching for the fabled treat. I found it to be very tasty and high in alcohol (they won’t serve it to minors) causing me to feel a little tipsy.

The main flavour in absinthe is anise but I understand that the proper preparation of the beverage at time of serving can bring out the other, more subtle flavours. The French method of serving absinthe involves placing a sugar cube on a slotted spoon over the glass and pouring water over it so that it dissolves into the alcohol below it. The Bohemian method involves burning the sugar cube which also burns up the alcohol.

I was delighted at finding the green fairy. Děkuji - thank you in Czech.

Driving out of Salzburg towards Prague I stopped at Passau, a charming German town where three rivers meet. It was dinner time and I had not yet had lunch so I was starved and ready to chow down anything, even stale pancakes. But it was clear that the epicurean gods were looking after me for, the first restaurant I came across, had pancake soup. I have never had or even heard of pancake soup and was curious about it. In my hungry state, I was picturing a big flat pancake sitting at the bottom of a bowl of broth but the dish consisted of long, thin strips of pancake in a vegetable broth (for moi) with some veggies. This is a typical soup served in German weddings. I find it sad that people say “yuck” when I tell them about my pancake soup because it was so delicious and the Germans and Austrians make their pancakes so well. I know that the soup I make will never taste like the soup I had in Passau but I will try this recipe soon.

Telc. In Telc it was a matter of getting fed so that I could have enough energy to move along.

Returning to Vienna, I became engaged in the Sachertorte wars. You might not have heard about the Sachertorte wars since it doesn’t make headlines on our local newspapers but there was a big fight as to who can claim to make the original cake. Yes, there was a lawsuit that lasted for years and you can read about it here. I intended to try the Sachertorte at both Sacher Hotel and Demel for comparison but I only tried it at Demel. It was a good chocolate cake but would not make my top ten cakes of all time list.

I love cheese but ordering a plate of cheese for just me to eat at one sitting was just too much. This excellent assortment of Austrian cheeses would keep me happy for a few days.

As I strolled through Vienna I saw a lot of references to Sisi, the Austrian Empress with a twenty one inch waist and ankle length tresses. Apparently she had a passion for crystallised violets. Eager to try food fit for an Empress, I bought a packet and discovered the pleasure of a very sweet floral treat. I wondered if she had the opportunity to try macarons. I did find the French speciality at Paul, the Parisian patisserie chain.

One thing I hope to learn and remember from this trip is to always return home with an ample supply of tasty food and beverages that were sampled in the journey, to ease the nostalgia for foreign lands that will overcome me even before I have had time to unpack.

Grüß Gott

I had one incredible Christmas vacation enjoying the pleasures and excitment New York City and surrounding areas have to offer. To cut to the chase, here are
the pictures.

One of my favourite spots is the High Line Park built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad of the West Side Line, along the lower west side of Manhattan. The High Line was built in the early 1930s by the New York Central Railroad to deliver freight to warehouses. When I looked at the map of the park I thought it started at 34th Street. When I couldn’t find the entrance, I kept walking south until many, many streets later, I found a stairway going up. When I visited NYC, only section 1 was completed but when all sections are complete, the High Line will be a 2.33km-long elevated park, running through the West Side neighborhoods of the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen. The view of the city is beautiful and not to be missed, especially the city lights at night. The combination of wild plants, lawn furniture, and art makes this a perfect place to discover the lesser known parts of Manhattan.

Look at this beautiful slide show of the park and these images of the old freight line.

Earlier this year I decided that I should expand my repertoire of recipes so that I could cook beyond my standard fare of Moroccan chickpea soup and scambled eggs. I do not enjoy eating the same things everyday and I find that not only do I need a variety of foods, but also, a variety of cuisines. I found this resolution was a bit difficult to keep for many months, given my lifestyle, but I felt a renewed commitment to my goal after watching Julia and Julie on the big screen one day late this summer. I did not want to become anything like Julie - I could not imagine how her husband could stand the ordeal she put him through. But my goal was very modest in comparison to her devotion: I decided I would try a new recipe every week. I understood that I needed to make this commitment elastic to accomodate my lifestyle. So I allowed myself to skip a week and do two dishes the next week if it was necessary.

Happily, I have been able to dedicate myself to this fun experiement since August and made the following recipes. Many of them can be found online at one of my favourite gourmet websites, Epicurious.

Butternut squash soup with lemongrass chilli mint - excellent mixture of tastes and very warming
Caramel popcorn with chipotle - yummily addictive
Morrocan Quinoa Butternut Squash - Wonderful!
Mashed Sweet potato with lavender, lime, and cilantro - gorgeous
lavender rice pudding - I absolutely love this
lavender blueberry muffins - needed more lavender. I love lavender, can you tell?
leek, chive, gruyere turnover - very tasty
Thai Jasmine Rice with tempeh - good dish - I’m looking to expand my collection of tempeh recipes since it is supposed to be good for health
Curried Millet, Shiitake, and Corn Salad Restey - very nice
Spanish White Beans with Spinach - okay
Curried Potato and Leek Soup with Spinach - yummy and didn’t need too much richness
Black Bean and Roasted Tomato Soup - good
Whipped Chipotle Sweet Potatoes - yummy and spicy
Red Lentil Soup with Spiced Oil - red lentils are always a winner
Provençal Bok Choy - nice
Braised Turnips with Poppy-Seed Bread Crumbs - A winner

I would like to do at least 52 new recipes, so I have a way to go. Bon Appétit til then!