One day last September, our Mom took ill and had to make a visit to the hospital.  Little did we or she know that she would never return to the home where she had lived for 58 years.  At the onset of her illness, we were so focused upon ensuring that she got better, I for one never really thought about the house. Mom isn’t completely settled into a new place yet.  She went from the Concordia Hospital to Deer Lodge and is now at the Misrecordia Hospital waiting for a space to come open for her at Concordia Place.  But it was apparent, pretty much from the start, that Mom wouldn’t be able to return to her home.  So we’ve been busy over this past winter and spring getting the house ready to sell to another family.  Possession date is July 1 and we have been taking turns spit polishing it up for the new family.  This past week, I tackled washing the windows and had what might have been my final walk through.

This is the bathroom that 8 of us shared when my 5 siblings and my parents all lived together at the house.  This sometimes meant drawing the shower curtain if you were in the bathtub, so that someone else could use the toilet.  My fondest memory was of perching on the toilet to watch my Daddy shave in the morning.  He was a careful shaver and loved the ritual, mixing up a warm lather with his real horse hair brush and shaving so close that his skin looked blue to me.  I can recreate the feel of his wiskerless face against my cheek now, even though he has been in heaven for 17 years.

This was the room that my two oldest brothers shared until a new bedroom was built for them in the basement.  They had two single beds that each straddled a wall.  On Saturday mornings, my twin brother and sister and I used to wake them up and then climb under the covers with them.  We would have pirate ship fights with them and toss all our stuffed animals back and forth and take hostages of each other.  After the boys were moved into their new room downstairs, this became my very own room-quite a feat with 8 people living in a 4 bedroom house.  Perhaps this is the reason why my family always teases me that I was spoiled.  I will admit it, I felt spoiled (and deeply loved).  Somehow my Mom and Dad found ways to make us all feel this way.

This is the hallway from the bedrooms to the kitchen and living room.  Before I had my own room, the twins and I all slept together in a double bed.  I don’t remember there being an issue with space, but I do recall how it was so hard to fall asleep sometimes with two little monkeys in the bed with me.  We would giggle and have so much fun, until…….we would hear my Dad’s feet hit the hallway floor coming towards our room to tell us to hush up and go to sleep.  As soon as we heard that first foot fall, we would suppress our giggles and pretend we were sleeping, but we weren’t fooling our Dad.

For many years the only TV in the house was in the living room and I remember watching Bugs Bunny cartoons at lunch time and Bonanza and the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights.  I also recall “reserving” the TV to tune into my favourites of the Paddy Duke Show and then the Flying Nun.  Christmas morning was so exciting in this room with heaps of presents everywhere and Christmas cards hung on strings adorning the walls.

Neil Campbell School was a half block down this back lane and from grade one on, we all made the trek on our own.  I remember being instructed to run as fast as I could (for me that was never fast at all-bottom heavy, you know) down this lane during the Bay of Pigs crisis. It seemed like only days later that we saw the announcement on TV of the assassination of President Kennedy while home for lunch hour.  A day or so after that our naughty dog Pepita, who liked to chase cars, was run over by a truck in front of our house while I was across the street borrowing a cup of sugar at the Dyer’s.  So there was sadness too.

And last but not least, this was the kitchen, the heart and soul of our home.  Mom always had a pot of soup or stew on the go and I learned how to make cinnamon buns and pinch perogy edges, standing at the kitchen table.  Sometimes dinner was pancakes or spaghetti with tomato soup poured on top.  Other times though, supper was steaks pan-fried in butter, thick and juicy pork chops and more corn on the cob than you can dream of eating.  Mom would spend all day making doughnuts to feed the paper boys of the neighbourhood because the bin where they collected their papers had been placed on our back drive.  My Dad loved to cook too and made amazing baked ham and pizza with “thin crust” before anyone ever thought about thin crust pizza.

If the walls could talk, they would speak of constant cooking and consuming, TV shows and record playing, people coming and going after school and hockey games and drumming gigs and theatre school, of reading books and naps on the couch and my Dad who always watched TV by lying right in front of it on the floor.  The walls soaked up all of our giggles and laughter but also the tears of heart-breaking sorrows and losses.  It was a good house.  It was our house.

Kath’s quote:  “Love grows in small spaces”.  Quoted from some country song I heard long ago.

Love that is all.

 

A friend of The Frenchman lives with us.  They worked on archeology projects together and he is an archivist and conservator.  His stories around the supper table about his latest projects are always fascinating.  He also replicates antique coins as a hobby.  Check out his website at www.awestruckworkshop.com.  He recently asked the Frenchman for gift hints for my birthday and the reply was “hearts” so he did some researching.  Here’s an excerpt from the site: http://www.sedwickcoins.com/articles/hearts.htm

The Hearts of Potosí were minted in five denominations: ½, 1, 2, 4, and 8 reales (though half-real Hearts are so rare that only a handful of pieces have been confirmed), and apparently only from the very late 1600s (the reign of Charles II) to the mid-1700s (the reign of Philip V). The outline of a corazón can vary significantly, but it is basically Valentine-style yet with a wide, tall stem and a long, tapering tail. Predictably, almost every confirmed Heart has been holed at the top of the stem. Unlike most holes in cobs, these may have been mint-produced holes.

We don’t know for sure why cobs were cut into heart shapes at the Potosí mint, but given their scarcity, their usually careful execution, and their tendency to be holed, they were most likely produced for special use as religious pendants known as “ex votos.” The prevailing theory is that they were intended to be used by church officials, as the heart was known to be a sacred symbol of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also believed that women sewed these images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ into their blouses, a custom which is still observed in remote Andean villages today.

[Note: The Catholic Sacred Heart symbol, as demonstrated in ex votos and other manifestations, is in fact a flaming heart, usually with a long, curved tail. This matches the Potosí Heart cobs precisely, their prominent stems at top apparently representing flames.]

This birthday note was affixed to the gift: “I know you really like hearts and all things turquoise-though not turquoise, it is a South American Spanish heart to remind you of those Azul waters of the Caribbean!”

The coin is two-sided and looks gorgeous when worn as a single pendant.

Kath’s quote: “Lord into your Sacred Heart I place my heart united to all my needs and desires, I present humbly my petitions, please deign to listen to my plea, embrace me with your love, respond to my soul, look at me your child who comes attracted by your love.”-Unknown

Love-that is all.

 

Even the name of this little food store, bakery and eatery at 105-819 Sargent Ave in the Sargent Park area of the West End: “Viena Do Castelo” sounds foreign, romantic and delicious to me.  I would guess that the name was selected in tribute to a community in northern Portugal and my pre-visit research indicated that they are the purveyors of Portuguese specialty foods.  My husband and I have long dreamed of visiting the Mediterranean country, especially the Azores.  When I arrived to pick up our pre-ordered chicken, a gorgeous vista of the Azores adorned the wall behind the checkout counter.  That part of the country is the home to one half of the married Esteves team that own and operate the store and restaurant.

The whole roasted chicken and potatoes that I ordered for takeout tasted just as if I had pulled it out of my own oven (without having to scrub a baked-on roasting pan-yippee).  Although the chicken was on the small side (for the price) the meat was firm and moist.  When I had called about picking up our supper, owner Luis cheerfully said “We roast our chickens to order so I’ll put one in the oven for you. Would you like it mild, medium or spicy?” We are “moderates” with our spice level (and just about everything else in our lives) and the seasoning balance was perfect. The spice mixture that permeated the flesh of the chicken, also seasoned the potatoes that had surrounded the chicken in the roasting pan.  My husband especially enjoyed the latter.

Also tempting were Viena Do Castelo’s cheese buns.  They tasted to us as if parmesan and garlic had been rolled into the dough “cinnamon bun style” with a generous topping of more grated cheddar cheese on top.  I would love to drop in for another half dozen of these for takeout or for a quick snack at one of the sunny tables right in the shop.

When I asked if the chicken was his Portuguese mamas’ recipe, Luis replied “No-it is something that my wife invented.  She’s always dreaming up new recipes”.  This husband and wife are definitely a committed business team.  They even had what Luis dubbed a “store baby”. Their youngest son was born about three days after the store opened and subsequently was brought to the eatery on a daily basis until the time that he learned how to walk.  Now that’s a family run business! Luis adds that many store customers ask about him to this day.  As Luis was running my tab up, I read the tattoo that graces the inside of his forearm, it simply stated: “Familia”.

Kath’s quote: “Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!” ~Albert Einstein

Love-that is all.

 

 

I recently came upon a statistic about 18-34 year olds depending primarily upon processed and pre-made food and the reason for this being that "from scratch" cooking was not modelled by their parents.  I commented in a recent post, that this was not the case in my family and a couple of weeks ago we had dinner with three other couples where this was not the case either.  In fact, one offspring is a gold-plate chef and two others have sons who are not chefs, but professional cooks.  I recounted our evening together and pondered what we had all done "right" to ensure that our children were comfortable in the kitchen. One couple was in from Toronto for the weekend and staying with another couple.  One half of the hosting couple was about to celebrate a monumental birthday which was our reason to get together.  None of us wanted the hosting couple to go to a whole lot of trouble because, the dinner was in their honour after all.  In addition, the visiting couple did not want to spend their short time grocery shopping and in an unfamiliar kitchen so I suggested that we order in.  Consensus was that even considering the concerns noted above, it would still be better if we all cooked and contributed ourselves and so..... The menu was decidedly simple: D and I provided little plates of sausage, cheese bread, olives and other brined items. At the appointed time, R fired up the grill showing me how he first brushes the grills with oil and hot sauce to neutralize any flavours from previous use. First he marinated the salmon in soya, balsamic vinegar and sarachi sauce.  He called the fish "Iphone Salmon" because the trick was to flip the fillets, precisely when his Iphone signalled, to ensure even cooking without over-cooking.  The lid of the grill was lowered for intervals and the cuts were placed crosswise on the grill each time they were flipped to decorate them with the precise cross-hatch marks. The result?  Perfection! The salmon was accompanied by boiled baby potatoes tossed in butter and fresh dill, grilled asparagus and the lightest, freshest tasting bean salad, I have ever tried.  I am not typically a bean lover but this one was sensational.  So much so, that I had to get M's recipe:

 Influencers of the next generation of “real” food eaters.

So did we have some fun?  Absolutely!  We were entertained by the antics of the bearded fellow with the parasols stuck into his whiskers.  He kept disappearing into their home and coming back out attired as famous bearded men-think: ZZ Top, Moses, Duck Dynasty, etc.  (Perhaps some wine was enjoyed as well).

Kath’s quote: “The basic thing a man should know is how to change a tyre and how to drive a tractor. Whatever that bearded dude is doing on the Dos Equis beer commercials sets the bar. That’s your guy. Every man should be aiming to be like him. The beard is just the tip of the iceberg.”-Timothy Olyphant

Love-that is all.

 

 

In our family birthdays are a big deal and it is not because of the lavish gifts that we bestow upon each other.  I think that it is because of the care that goes into the celebration.  Take this weekend for example.  My birthday fell on a Friday which typically means that I have a longer break from my computer on some sunny patio with friends.  This year though we spent 2/3rds of the day on the road.  First driving in from Regina and then after a quick turn around right out to our beach house for the weekend.  Besides a salad that I ate in the car and a bowl of chicken soup that we shared with our grandbaby, there was not a lot of focus on food or merry-making.  But on Sunday afternoon, D scooted into the city early so he could start with supper preparations.

He didn’t have any trouble knowing what meat would be the main, just how to prepare the pork chops that he knows that I love.

In addition there were savoury grilled potatoes;

my favourite grilled eggplant

and also grilled zucchini and onions.

Sister #3 contributed the salad and everyone loved it so much, that I am sharing the recipe here.

All the food was lovingly prepared and The Frenchman picked up a banana log Jeanne’s cake which is my absolute favourite.  But the highlights of the weekend were the following:

• Last year I was in Philadelphia for my birthday and although I love to travel to and dine out in various cities, my favourite spot at the end of May is the lake.  The smells of the forest, the surprising warmth of the beach, the new growth everywhere-I can’t get enough.  We live very simply at the beach house and it was only a year ago that we got an indoor biffy.  What a lovely treat when you are all sleepy and cozy from watching movies and drinking wine, to know that you don’t have to make the trek outside one last time before bed.
• We got to take the Wee One as both J1 and J2 had commitments.  We were thrilled with how easily she just slipped into “lake” mode with us.  In the mornings when D an J1 are off playing tennis and J2 is catching up on some sleep, I walk with the Wee One for her hour nap.  She has this lovely chariot stroller that can be pushed on wet sand and so both mornings, we spent the time on the beach; she singing to herself and watching the birds and the water until she fell asleep and me just basking in the warmth and so happy that spring and the promise of summer had come again to the Canadian prairies.

• As is our tradition at a birthday dinner, everyone took a turn sharing what they loved about the birthday girl (me).  This is the most precious gift of all, not only because it is lovely to be in the spotlight every once in a while but because of the beautiful words that my family blessed me with.  Not only was our Mom and Sister #3 there to celebrate with us but Daughter #2 skyped in from Colombia where she is away studying.  Although we felt funny eating in front of her, she visited with us throughout our entire dinner!  I love technology when it brings people together.

In our home, we find something to celebrate most days or at the very least most weekends BUT birthdays are a special opportunity to give and receive love.  Make the most of every opportunity as birthdays also remind us that our days are finite.

Kath’s quote: “That outdoor grilling is a manly pursuit has long been beyond question. If this wasn’t firmly understood, you’d never get grown men to put on those aprons with pictures of dancing wienies and things on the front and messages like ‘Come ‘n’ Get It'”.-William Geist

Love-that is all.