Enjoying a chocspresso from my Tassimo machine.

Life has been full of adventures since my return. This is how it went down, I flew across the ocean (1 hour late of course, it is Air Canada after all). Landing at Pearson International I had just enough time for my first double double (and here I was thinking I'd never drink a double double) and then it was in the car to drive for three hours. We spent the night in the lovely city of Brokville and after visiting the town and having my first bagel of the trip, we headed off to Ottawa to see our Nation's Capital. I heart Ottawa. It was beautiful weather and we really got to appreciate the city. After appreciating Ottawa we were Montreal bound. Montreal was FANTASTIC. It has always been my dream to live in Montreal and basically I love all things Montreal (except for the smoked meat sandwiches. We stayed in a hostel there and visited mainly Vieux-Montreal. I will write more about our crazy adventures, but I wanted to get something down!

After Montreal, we headed back to Toronto just missing crazy funnel cloud involving storms and hung out in the big city. After that, Tuesday afternoon, I got on a plane and came home.

Home has been great! Except for the visit to the dentist yesterday morning..what a way to begin the day. Also yesterday, I had to get my passport renewed. Well, there wasn't even a line at the office AND I got the parking space IN FRONT OF the building. What a day. The weather has been fabulous and today, my list of things to do involves: NOTHING! Horrah. Except sorting through papers. I currently am going through my mail. I feel popular, however, it is mostly from the bank ;) Alright, back to drinking coffee.

Double-Double here I come!

...except I don't drink double doubles. :)

The point of the matter is my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. I'm typing this with one hand as I am currently drying my hair but tonight (inshallah) I'll be going to sleep in Canada. The big question is....will my luggage follow me? So so so excited.

Next update; from the other side.

I'm currently sitting here enjoying my couch. I've been doing a lot of running around recently. This weekend, we headed to Rouen to visit a new kitty! New kitty friend was so much fun (especially when I closed the bedroom door at night and got a rest) It is amazing how much energy the little animals can have. I've never had a kitten of my own, due in great part to my irrational fear of cats as a child.

Also during my weekend, I visited the Rouen division of my gym. It was slightly complicated to gain acess as all of the gyms are franchises so the card system doesn't work exactly the same from one place to another; as in we have swipe (well actually microchip) cards sans picture and they've got hand made picture cards. The machines at their gym however were astonshingly nicer than the ones at ours especially considering that ours has about seventeen fold the memebership. It was nice to get a chance to work out there too though!

In other exciting news, I got to drive a brand new car (Ok, it had 100 km on it) for the first time in my life today. I was speeding (this is a bit of an exaggeration, I might have hit 90 km/h) around the highways of France in a brand spanking new Smart. Get this, there was a crack in the windshield of the old one, so instead of just changing the glass they traded her in for a new one. Even though it's not at all my car, we definitely bonded this morning...perhaps even more so seeing as how I will never see the gas bill.

Now I'm off to make some Chili sin carne. I'd share the recipe but I'm not even quite sure what it will be yet, except that it will more than likely involve two types of beans and perhaps some mushrooms.

Ikea wants one out of ten European children to be conceived in an IKEA bed.

...now you know!

As we speak, Argentine Lentil Stew is simmering on the stove. It smells good but I won't lie, I'm a bit sceptical about a stew that involves BBQ sauce, but I'll give everything a try, once. The Yummy Honey Chicken Kabobs did live up to all the hype. :)

The weather has suddenly become fantastic. I would be out enjoying it but I'm desperately trying to finish my book, Of Marriageable Age (although I'm actually reading Noces indiennes despite my general dislike of reading French or English books translated), which is due back to the library tomorrow. Granted, I could simply renew it, but I'd just as soon finish it now so I can spend the next week speed reading a new book before my vacation. I highly recommend this book, which is about the lives of three different children whose destinies slowly intertwine. I haven't been able to put it down and not only because of the deadline of tomorrow. The sumptuous descriptions transport you to British Guiana, India, among others. *sigh* Now I want to travel....

Whoopsie.

I thought the last time I updated was Friday. I guess I over estimated myself :)

To make up for it, the delish recipe I'm making today for lunch is....Yummy Honey Chicken Kabobs. I figured you can't go wrong with a name like that. Now let's just hope it lives up to its reputation! For desert, I have a hankering to bake, so I think I'm going to make some sort of a chocolate pudding cake. The details have yet to be worked out (and I just remembered I have no baking powder. D'oh! The superette (mini-grocery store...bigger than a Green Gables/Mac's Milk, smaller than your average grocery store)is exceptionally closed today. I'll figure something out, or I'll just eat the cocoa in powder form.

The Euro 2008 has begun! We watched the opening game yesterday between the Czech Republic and Switzerland. We are taking part in a pool and basically picked our teams randomly much to the despair of our friend who carefully weighed the pros and the cons of each team when making his selection. Imagine his face when our team, the Czech Republic won ;) However, afterwards, our favourite Turkey, which, yes is playing in the EURO didn't come through and lost to Portugal near the end of the game. But here's to hoping that Croatia and Germany make us proud today. Although, Croatia is playing against Austria, which is apparently only included because the tournament is partially taking place in their country and bearing an act of God doesn't have a hope.

The game that I'm personally looking forward to is Italy vs. France on June 17th.

Guess which team I picked :)

Day 5..

I was working late this afternoon, so I contracted out the cooking yet again. After the relaxation of my Body Balance class, I was welcomed home to the tempting flavours of Pork Chops with Apples, Onions, and Sweet Potatoes. The orginal recipe was tweaked (quite) a bit. The ending result was more Pork Chops with Apples, Shallots and Potatoes, with a rubbing of Herbes de Provence on the Pork and a light dusting of cinnamon on the top. It was a very yummy dish made from ingredients that were on hand.

I'm enjoying this challenge. I think the best part is all the recipes I have come across that I am planning to try.

Alright, back to watching a documentary about the impending end of the world. It's a study of global-warming-famine-flooding-war-raising oil price, pretty much covering all the current buzz words in the media. But don't worry guys, it's going to be OK :P

Days 3 and 4

Yesterday, I forced myself to go to the gyme and whilst I was busy sweating up a storm, someone else was in the kitchen whipping up something he'd never even eaten before...Tuna Noodle Casserole. It was a nice comfort meal to eat on a stormy evening. Speaking of which, recently there has been fairly intense storms which no fail flood out the main road. I don't quite understand why nothing has been done to fix this seemingly frequent problem. One of my students today informed me that the city had, in fact, attempted to rectify this situtation to no avail. Next time it's raining, I'll just head into town in my canoe. :)

Tonight, I had a hankering for some Indian-style cuisine. I loosely followed the recipe for Rajma which is a dish made from Kidney Beans, which I thought I had but didn't so I threw in some chick peas. I also attempted (for the umpteenth time) to make some Indian Chapati Bread which was, yet again, mediocre at best. One day, one day I will master the art of making flat bread.

It's still raining, so I might just take the bit of free time I have this evening to start building that ark :)

Week of No Groceries, Day 1 and 2

Alright, yesterday we conjured up that old time childhood favourite of tuna melts for lunch. To me, the ordinary was extraordinary with the exotic taste of melted emmental cheese topping them. Mmmm.

Dinner was made with the chicken in the fridge that had to be used up before it spoiled. I decided to only use recipes I've never used before. I made Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken which was a big hit with the masses accompagned by herbed stuffed potatoes. The potatoes in my fridge are reminicient of new potatoes lacking the size and the thick skin of the baking potatoes I'm used to in Canada (which I have yet to find around here). I wish I'd taken a picture of the cute little stuffed potatoes sprinkled with cayenne pepper, but they didn't last that long.

Lunch today was a Greek Lentil Soup which was delightful; a mix of green lentils, garlic (Note: I love garlic), shallots, herbs and a wee bit of tomatoes.

Supper, however, is Paëlla from a can :) Hey, it was in my cupboard!