D and I knew that for the Frenchman’s birthday, we could pretty much fix anything and he would be delighted; that is just the kind of guy he is.  We pulled out some old family favourites, that we hadn’t enjoyed together for a while.  Lemon Oregano Chicken is one of the first “grown up” dishes that I had ever acquired a recipe for, completely on my own.  It was a very long time ago when I lived in a gorgeous vintage downtown apartment and worked two jobs: 1) the Winnipeg Art Gallery and 2) The Keg or the Keg ‘n Cleaver as it was called in those days.  I suppose they dropped the latter word as it came off kind of violent.

My boss at the WAG at that time was from a famous artistic Winnipeg family and her Mom was a renowned cook.  I had heard so many descriptions of dinner parties that had been thrown for Winnipeg’s artistic elite.  The Lemon Chicken recipe was passed from Jan’s Mom to her and then to me.  I passed it to my Mom and two sisters and I understand that everyone in our family makes it a slightly different way.  J1 and J2 have recently requested it to treat a new Mom and her husband and so the tradition continues.

But as usual, I digress.  Mushrooms Neptune have been a staple on the Keg menu for years and years and since both D an Sister #3 were Keg prep-cooks at some point in their careers, they both had the recipe memorized.  I know that Sister #3 has included a copy of it in a family cook book that she has been writing.  On the day that I was shopping for ingredients, I didn’t want to test D’s memory, so I did what everybody does now a days I suspect, I Googled it.  This recipe came through the TSN website and I know that it is authentic because there has been a long standing partnership between the restaurant and the network.

So without further adieu.

Love-that is all.

The Buick GM Team had one final meal adventure in store for us on our last night at the Touchstone Resort.

J and I (and everybody else in the group) had a great deal of freedom throughout the day to go off in our Buick Encore to whatever adventure we desired. We would gather together at cocktail time before dinner, to share the details of our day.

On this last evening, instead of going into the regular dining room, we were escorted to the private living quarters of the owner.

We were introduced to the sommelier that had paired wines to go with our meal and discuss why each wine was chosen.

We began with an amuse-bouche of lobster claw with a citrus zest to get the party going.

This led to a grilled spiced pineapple, pan-seared king scallops, citrus foam, crisp pancetta and black lava salt, with a mint dressing.

From there we had a wonderful mushroom soup with an herb crouton with sautéed duck foie gras bites.

Our next course was our salad filled with watercress and avocado, grapes, almonds, and a champagne vinaigrette. At this point in the meal we began with some great meats.

We tucked into a hoisin sautéed duck breast with a pecan and cucumber salad with Riesling infused watermelon (my favourite dish).

We moved from duck to a rack of lamb with a mustard and fresh thyme crust accompanied by a gnocchi tossed in a pea mint puree with a pear poached in aged port.

Next up was a beef tenderloin accompanied by mushroom and poached quail egg, saffron risotto croquettes, honey glazed baby carrots, and a cabernet reduction.

If all of this amazing food was not enough, we finished off with an angel hair sugar basket covered cheesecake with strawberries and a chocolate cake for desert.

J and I had never had a meal like this before, but I must say, we look forward to having one again! This was definitely the icing on the cake of our culinary adventure.

A special thanks again to the GM team and Buick Canada for creating all of these amazing memories. Also, a shout out to all of the wonderful people that we met on the adventure. Canada is filled with talented people who are passionate about love, food and travel and we definitely look forward to meeting you all again on our future adventures.

Kath’s quote: “I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters … food, for me, has always been an adventure.”-Anthony Bourdain

Love-that is all.

We are home after another amazing time on Isla Mujeres.  Here are some random reflections on our time away.

• The world’s weather is changing.  There were a number of rainy days and brisk winds.  Now because I am not a beach fanatic, I really didn’t mind one bit, but the locals commented quite often that the weather was very untypical for early March in the Yucatan.  If you are still heading away, take one of those rain ponchos that you can buy at a $1 store, pack a deck of cards or an extra book so that you can still while away the time pleasantly, even if the weather doesn’t co-operate 100%.
• Even though we were there for peak season and the island was at 0% vacancy, there were some restaurants that were empty or had only a couple of tables occupied even at peak times. So in addition to the current high restaurant turn over, we predict even more.  Upon reflection, we are wondering if more visitors are dining at home now that places like Chedrui have opened and have so much to offer.  Islaholics, what are your thoughts?
• There are so many property for sale signs on the island, by our accounting, more than previous years.  Perhaps this is because even more land has been surveyed, parcelled and available for sale or maybe it is because economic times have created a bit of a glut.

• The locals are still working from dawn to late night.  Most of our friends have 1-2 and even 3+ jobs to try to make ends meet.  But they continue to work diligently, without complaint and are very appreciative of the tourist business.
• There have been some more municipal improvements like the new illuminated walkway on the south Caribe side.
• The Police presence was even more noticeable with a funnelling of traffic to single lanes just south of the navy base.  We wondered about their strategy, but in the mean time, I felt very safe and secure.
• The day-trippers have an impression that Isla is a great place to get liquored up and menace the roadways.  Something tragic is going to happen and then perhaps liquor will not be freely sold directly to golf cart drivers (who didn’t even get out of their golf carts to be served-as we witnessed).
• Being on Playa Sol feels a bit surreal.  It is still my favourite piece of beach on the island.  I loved the ever present cool breeze and the shade of a lone palm tree.
• Best orange juice anywhere in the world with the possible exception of Israel.
• Hotel staff remain the most helpful people I know-Jill at Casa el Pio and Isobel at Luna d’Meil especially so.

• The most beautiful sunrises.

• The most beautiful sunsets.

• The food was simply amazing but that story will be told many times over in the upcoming weeks.
• Families still flourish on Isla.  We saw so many babies, born to locals and brought by the tourists.  I still get a little freaked out when I see infants held by one arm as their parent drives a scooter with the other.
• With all the speed bumps all over the island, I am not sure why the traffic is allowed to race along the airport strip.  It seemed noisier to us than previous years and once again, I hope that the speed of the traffic, does not come to a bad end.

• The water is still the most amazing colour I have ever seen.

• The sea-glass picking was exceptional.
• Villa Bella really does serve “beer so cold that your teeth will hurt”.
• Many travellers are content to lug their own chairs to sit in the natural shade.  This produces a familiar and social atmosphere like the one that we enjoy at our summer cottage.

• Islanders still love colour.

I’ve got emails to catch up on, assignments due, unpacking and laundry but I just wanted to record these reflections while they are still in my consciousness.  We’ve already booked for 2014!

Hola from the Winnipeg gang!

Kath’s quote: “They say I’m old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!” – Dr. Seuss

Love-that is all.

The next day we met the rest of the participants and the GM team including the lovely Laura Nava – Media Relations Manager of GM Canada. Lunch was served in the hotel by Top Chef Canada star Chef David Chrystian. Chef David designed the menu based on the different aspects of our adventure.

First course up was a Toronto spiced tomato soup with fried sun-chokes, brussel sprouts and cream cheese. Chef David described his hopes that Toronto Spice would one day be a household name similar to Montreal Steak Spice and he included it in all of the dishes (even dessert!).

Next was an Entree entitled “Group of Seven” inspired by the visit we took later that day to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection Gallery where we toured the Group of Seven painting exhibit. This included Chicken Tagine, dried fruits, mint puree, olives, sumac and crackling.

The second entree was called “Ice Fishing in Muskoka”. Although it was too warm to go ice fishing (not complaining!), Muskoka was the final destination of the day where we were to stay 2 nights in the stunning Touchstone Resort. This dish was composed of pan seared white fish with sauerkraut, bacon, pickled asparagus and wild rice.

Last but not least, the meal was concluded with a little “Pick Up” of tiramisu.

While we were finishing up dessert we were ushered out to meet the star guest of the weekend- our Buick Encore. We chose the black, luxury model and one of the very helpful GM representatives walked us through the special features including heated seats, heated steering wheel (my favorite feature!), a built in voice recognition system and the very easy-to-use phone sync program. Then we opened the sun roof, blasted some tunes, picked up our favorite travel snack (Miss Vicki’s Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar chips) and were on our way to the next step in our adventure.

Kath’s quote:  “Onion rings in the car cushions do not improve with time.”-Erma Bombeck

Love-that is all.

When we were invited to attend the Buick Encore Culinary Adventure we weren’t sure exactly what to expect. We arrived in Toronto on Sunday evening and were greeted by the very friendly Lisa Calvi and her trusty sidekick Gary.

They escorted us to the Hotel Le Germain and we were invited to dine in the hotel restaurant – Victor Restaurant.

I had a project that I had to finish up, so instead of dining in the restaurant, I ordered some room service and dined on a delicious feast of Linguini with aged goat cheese, fennel, eggplant and olives.

Jeremy took the opportunity to head down to the bar and ordered two items. The first was off of the restaurant’s Toronto Tasting menu which was described as being food designed based on different spots or neighborhoods across the city. He had the “Corktown, King and Parliament” which bore the description simply of ” ‘Fish and Chips’, tartar sauce and malt vinegar”. He chose this based on the recommendation of the bartender. When the food arrived, Jeremy thought there must have been a mistake in the kitchen because he had never seen any “Fish and Chips” like this before. The fish and chips were put together like a small cake with slices of potato being the fluffy cake and the fish acting as a soft icing layer in between. This “cake” was then panko crisped, slightly fried, and then opened up to absorb the amazing house made tartar sauce. Served on a pool of malt vinegar jelly with a classic lemon wedge garnish. Needless to say, it was amazing. The portion was small, by design, so Jeremy went back to the menu to find another tasty treat. There were so many great options, he went back to the bartender for another recommendation.

The next item was a sushi pizza. He was wonderfully surprized a secnd time with this course.  Having never eaten a sushi pizza before, Jeremy was able to enter in with no expectations as to what would appear on his plate. The pizza was a marinated tuna filet wrapped around a crisped rice base, covered in a slew of pickled vegetables. On the plate there was a spicy soy sauce jelly, a miso puree, roe, avacado spread, and a wasabi blend. Each bite was different as the presentation allowed the diner to mix and match particular elements from the plate. After being pleasantly surprised a second time, Jeremy was content to sit back and enjoy snippets of the Academy Awards on TV while sipping on a nice Amsterdam KLB Nut Brown ale.

Kath’s quote: “I strongly believe that culinary love is not about having a French Passport, but about what you feel” –Albert Roux

Love-that is all.