With a few of her children and grandkids at Star Wars.

This weekend we celebrated my Mother-in Law’s 80th Birthday. Her real birthday is not until Christmas but we always make an effort to celebrate early so that her special day doesn’t get completely mushed into Christmas.

Grandma Jean is truly amazing for too many reasons to number, but here are just a few:

• she went to work outside the home for the first time when she became a single Mom of seven children
• she does not have a grey hair on her head
• last time we played a family baseball game, she could still hit one passed the reach of her grandkids in the field
• she babysits the 2 1/2 year old Wee One once a week, taking her for walks and spending most summer days at the playground
• each person who spends Christmas in her home gets a special gift, even if they were a last minute invitee

I could go on but you get the picture…..

This year she gave her children and her grandchildren something truly extraordinary- a handwritten recipe book! D’s has 39 pages and 156 recipes including many of her own Mother’s and Grandmother’s. D was salivating as he flipped through the pages last evening, remembering delicious family suppers and the abundance of shenigans and laughter around the table.

I was invited to her Christmas table some 34 years ago and tasted her Potato Lefse for my very first time.  When the Wee One eats them, she is the sixth generation to taste the recipe.

Think on this: 156 recipes x seven children and fifteen grandchildren=3,432 hand-written recipes! The project took her two years to complete. Now if that is not love, then what is?

Kath’s quote: Grandma Jean to her children & grandchildren-“If anyone’s marriage happens to break up, take the recipe book”.

Love, that is all.

Fusion Grill is not exactly in my own backyard but pretty close-a block and a half walk away.  The cafe’s close proximity actually makes me guilty about not dining there more often as owner Scot McTaggart is an old friend of ours from a time when we all worked together at a popular restaurant.

Scot’s culinary philosophy has always been a passion for “local”, years before the trend was in vogue.  Scot once shared with me that his wish has always been a simple one: “to sell carrots from my own backyard.” He recalled raiding a garden for carrots and scraping off the dirt with his hands.  He remembered the sweetness and the crunch and added “even the dirt tasted good.”

Gutsy Scot was the first of Winnipeg’s restaurateurs to deliver Manitoba regional cuisine like bison, pickerel cheeks, Arctic Char, Northern Pike caviar, grass-fed beef and Bothwell cheese.  The all-Canadian wine list was also a bold move when he first opened, but feels vindicated now with the focus on both food and wine from closer to home.  He believes that Canadian wines are the perfect pairing to Chef Lorna Murdoch’s cuisine.

Like many cities, Winnipeg is disproportionately lacking in female chefs. Chef Lorna is one of our shining stars. When you meet her in real life you might be surprised by her diminutive stature. She is petite, but her imaginative food combinations and taste profiles are not. They are enormous!

We started our evening with white truffle perogies, loving both in equal portions. The duck sausage was a savoury layer; the walnut cream sauce hit this starter out of the park! Also sampled were the Caesar salad and the soup of tomorrow-both terrific.

The guys decided upon the elk tenderloin that was available that evening. My husband shared the myriad of roasted local vegetables with me. Chicken stuffed with mushrooms and mascarpone cheese was perfect on its own, sensational with squash gnocchi.

I often choose vegetable-centric entrees, not because I do not enjoy meat but because I am a veggie nut. I could have enjoyed the handmade tagliatelle noodles (a cousin to fettuccine) with a simple bit of garlic and a good olive oil. I was in heaven when the pasta was intertwined with ribbons of artichoke, pickled squash and wilted greens. Wow, just wow!

Kath’s quote: “Classical cooking and molecular gastronomy should remain separate. You can mix two styles and get fusion; any more, and you just get confusion.”-Alain Ducasse

Love, that is all.

When our eldest child was five years old we had an extended stay at the Children’s Hospital here in Winnipeg. It was there that we met a little girl that I am going to call Britney. She was in the room next to ours and the two girls loved to play Barbie’s together and Britney’s Mom and I would try to support each other the best we could. I remember the day that we were able to finally go home after our ordeal. December 8 will long be fixed in my memory. Our daughter “Beep” as she is called in this space went to a new school in January where she received all of her necessary therapies as a part of her school day. Before that occurred though, she was an outpatient at the hospital and whenever we were in the building we would go to visit Britney. Beep even got to attend a Christmas party with Britney that was put on by Cancer Care. You see Britney had leukemia. On the day of Christmas Eve, Beep wanted us to delivery Britney’s Christmas present but when we arrived on the ward, we were told that Britney wasn’t feeling up to visitors. We left her gift for her to open whenever she felt up to it. On Boxing Day, without ever having opened her gifts Britney passed away. We had gone to visit the ward that day too and all the nurses were so upset that they were visibly weeping and trying to take care of all of the other sick little ones.

Britney’s Mother was a single Mom from somewhere in the province. She spent every single waking hour at the hospital by Britney’s side. Once Britney had fallen asleep at night, she was encouraged to go take some time for herself, have a good rest and return the next day. This went on for months on end. Luckily for Britney, her Mom was able to stay in the city the entire time and be within walking distance of the hospital. Britney’s Mom spent her nights at Ronald McDonald House. She shared with me that she did not know what she would have done if it were not for the House. She wasn’t willing to spend any time away from Britney as she must have known that their days together were few.

These days Beep has grown up to be a beautiful, intelligent woman and is in the midst of obtaining her Masters Degree at the University of Manitoba. My time had freed up and I was a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital, sometimes on the very ward where Beep and Britney played with their Barbies. In addition to the House which is close by, there is a Ronald McDonald suite right in the hospital. Here families can do their laundry, get caught up on the world through provided computers, make phone calls, relax in front of the fire, bake cookies, watch movies and play with their other children (as often times, a whole family will attend a sick child to the hospital). I have often encouraged parents to take a break and head to the facility while I spent some time hugging their baby or playing on the floor with their toddler.

Recently though, with our own grandbaby and another on the way, I spend the hours that I might have been volunteering, babysitting the Wee One. She is an absolute joy and both D and I are excited every time we get to spend time with her. This weekend she had a sleep over with us and on Saturday evening, I let her open a Christmas gift that had been delivered from McDonalds. A box was filled with a number of treats but the best one was that they had made a donation to Ronald McDonald House in my name, so that a Mom like Britney’s can be close to their child at Christmas.

The Wee One hasn’t been to McDonalds very often and loved her happy meal with its little “Build a Bear” toy. In turn I was pleased with the sautéed onions, double cheese and pretzel bun of the Jolly Burger from their Holiday Warmer menu.

Here is the Wee One in the act of opening “Glamma’s” gift.

Poppa read us the card from a Ronald McDonald House Family and then the Wee One gave us her rendition. A healthy child is a blessing that we never, ever take for granted.

Kath’s quote: “None of Us is as Good as All of Us.”-Ray Kroc of McDonalds

Love, that is all.

 

 

Later that same day we chilled on Luna De Miel’s Caribbean patio until supper with rums & freshly squeezed oj and nachos.

We love the colours of the sea on this side of the island, especially in the ever changing light.

But we also appreciate the  west patio too with the natural tree canopy and views of the bay.

Eventually we cabbed into Centro to Covi to stock up on some wine and met a wonderful couple from British Columbia. We have friends in both the communities of Pender Harbour & Gibson’s Landing in BC and this couple lived half way between the two. She spontaneously told me about a place that they had just discovered where they were delighted with food they had never tasted before. Turns out that they were speaking about Chiles Relleno from La Lomita, where I had my first meal on the island many years ago. They were so enamoured with everything about Isla, they even wanted us to see their little room at Hotel Casa Espana.

We then wandered over to Brisas Grill to have dinner with family members Don, Victoria, Kelly and Lorraine. Unfortunately, I had misinformed the latter and mistakenly they went to the former Brisas Caribe in Colonias. Eventually they found us but I felt bad.

In the end we had a lovely sunset dinner with our feet in the sand (see this link to read about it in more detail).

After dinner, we wandered Hidalgo with a stop at our favourite bakery truck for pina (pineapple pie). Unfortunately our friend Jose was sold out so everyone bought cookies and pastries instead. Our final stop of the evening was with Victoria and Don at their hotel-Roca Mar to fetch their leftover groceries and a last visit around the pool. They departed the next morning.

We are very much looking forward to our 2016 Isla visit, when we will not have to hail a cab or make the walk down the dark airport road after an evening in Centro. We will be spending half of our time at Villas San Miquel. We will have gorgeous sea views in a secure compound in the perfect location. On a day like Day 7 we will have saved all kinds of time and cash by not making our way back and forth to Centro. We cannot wait!

Since I have recounted this time earlier this year, I have been informed that Brisas Grill is closed. I do not know any of the circumstances but certainly hope that it all gets straightened out because we are very fond of the spot.

Kath’s quote: “Dinner is not what you do in the evening before something else. Dinner is the evening.”  ― Art Buchwald

Love-that is all.

I consider myself knowledgeable of Mexican and Italian cuisine as I have traveled to both countries a number of times and studied intently. With frequent exposure I am fairly well versed in French, Middle Eastern, Greek, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine as well. I have taken a cooking class to learn how to make samosas but other than that, I cannot claim to be an expert in East Indian cuisine and yet I love its complex tastes and flavours.

I have sampled the excellent dishes at Charisma of India on a number of occasions but have never had an opportunity to enjoy their lunch buffet overflowing with authentic items from the north of India. On this day the selections were: butter chicken, goat curry, tandori chicken, spicy chicken, vegetable korma, palak paneer (pureed spinach), bhindi masala (spicy okra), channa masala (spicy chickpeas), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), vegetable samosa, vegetable pakora (vegetable fritter), vegetable biryani (vegetable rice) and another five items that I did not make note of.

Mitesh Trivedi the sole owner/operator of Charisma of India knows that naan (flat bread) doesn’t hold well on a buffet so he has his kitchen make it fresh and his staff delivers it right to your table.  We appreciated it so that we good lap up the soft vegetables and sauces on our plates. All the sampled dishes were so tasty, that is, based on my limited appreciation of complex Indian spices.

Mr. Trivedi was trained as a civil engineer in his native land and after he garnered other restaurant experience here in Winnipeg, he opened this lushly decorated one in 2007. He had studied the neighbourhood and knew that many vegetarians resided within walking distance. Although Butter Chicken is my personal favourite, Indian cuisine was ahead of the curve with its veggie-centric fare.

Kath’s quote: “This curry was like a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that I’d once heard…..especially the last movement, with everything screaming and banging ‘Joy.’ It stunned, it made one fear great art. My father could say nothing after the meal.”-Anthony Burgess

Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.