pinterest

I'm completely hooked!
I have been pinning all-day-long.
If you don't already know what it is, take a look here.

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you organize all the wonderful things you find on the internet -
recipes, artwork, craft ideas, home inspiration...

Anything and everything you like!

It's an infinitely better way to bookmark things on the web.
I am cleaning out all of my cluttered, picturless, haphazard bookmarks, right now.

Click here to see what I've been busy pinning.

If you want to try it, let me know.

I'll send you an invitation!

bon vivant and the centre of champagne

We recently took a drive into the province of Champagne with another couple here.  To the the city of Reims, or as my friend Emilie says, the "city of champagne".  Most of the grand champagne houses are here and beneath the city lay a labyrinth of caves and tunnels, housing millions and millions of bottles of champagne.

On short notice we were able to book a champagne tour and tasting at G.H. Mumm.  They have been making champagne since 1827, so they have had a little experience.  The tour takes you down into the caves where they store around 25 million bottles of champagne.  It is cool and dark and damp; a maze of bottles.  Endless, bottle-upon-bottle-upon bottle. 

Jacob didn't think this was nearly as interesting as we did and felt that he should be off exploring on his own.  To his great disappointment, this did not happen and he was carried.  It turns out that taking a busy baby on a champagne tour is a little harder then it sounds.  Who would have though?!  But there were no tears so we deemed it a success, and drank four glasses of champagne to prove it. 

We did do more then just drink champagne though.  We learned that the business of making champagne is quite laborious.  Depending of the age of the bottle, they have to be stored at particular angles.  They must also be tuned regularly, a few degrees at a time, to work the sediment through the bottle.  Fun fact: If you are a novice at turning the bottles you might be able to turn five thousand in a day (not bad, right?).  If you are skilled, or I suppose a professional even, you would turn upwards of forty thousand bottles a day (unbelievable, right?). 

Once the sediment has painstakingly been worked up the neck of the bottle, and the champagne is crystal clear, the sediment must be released.  In doing this, some champagne is inevitably lost ("to the angles" our guide told us) and a sugar mixture is used to top it back up.  A Brut is the driest champagne with very little sugar added while a Demi-sec is much sweeter.  

Beneith G.H. Mumm in the caves

After champagne tasting it was impossible to leave 

without at least one bottle

Bon vivant - a person who enjoys luxuries, especially superb food and drink. In other words, us on our trip to Reims, France.   

Sablés

A lovely French cookie very similar to our shortbread, buttery and sweet, but with a slightly different texture.  They are a classic.  Perfectly wonderful with tea, coffee or all-by-themselves.

In English, Sablé means sand.  How that translates to cookies is a delicate, soft and crumbly texture.  Although tasty, be warned that if you are sharing them with your kids, this delicate, soft and crumbly texture will result in a lot of sweet messy crumbs.

The secret to the perfect Sablé or shortbread is the butter, so use the highest quality butter you can find.  I bought this butter at the market here, from a little shop called la fromagerie.  Along with the most amazing assortment of French cheeses, they also sell fresh milk, cream and yogurt.

The dough is rolled into logs and chilled in the refrigerator.  I baked the first roll as soon as the two hours were up.  The entire house smelled warm, buttery and sweet.  It was intoxicating.

As for the second roll, I figured I would save it for a few days and make a fresh batch when the first was finished.  Instead, slice-by-slice, I ate the dough.  I have always had a deep love of cookie dough and if it weren't for Billy, I would likely make cookies with no intentions of actually baking them.  Billy won't eat the dough because it's "not safe" but I will gladly take my chances. 

You will need:
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted 
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 large egg yolks,  at room temperature
2 cups flour.
……………………………………..

Beat the butter at medium speed until it is smooth and very creamy. Add the sugars and salt and continue to beat until smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 2 egg yolks, again beating until well blended.

Pour in the flour and gently incorporate just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uniformly moist. If you still have some flour on the bottom of the bowl, use a rubber spatula to work the rest of it into the dough. (The dough will not come together in a ball -- and it shouldn't. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you're aiming for is a soft, moist, clumpy dough. When pinched, it should feel a little like Play-Doh.)

Scrape the dough onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long (it's easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to help form the log). Wrap the logs well and chill them for at least 2 hours. The dough may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Trim the ends of the roll if they are ragged and slice the log into 1/3-inch-thick cookies and place the rounds on the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each cookie, and bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the halfway point.

When properly baked, the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. Let the cookies rest 1 or 2 minutes before carefully lifting them onto a cooling rack.
……………………………………..

This recipe is Dorie Greenspan's Master Recipe for Sables.  Check out this article, Cookie Master to see the variations for Lemon Sables and Parmesan Sables. 

a park full of jazz

Our weather here has turned hot. Hot and humid.  By the time evening rolls around, the temperature is perfect. Bright blue sky and a light breeze.  Sunday night we walked downtown for ice-cream cones.  Our favorite waffle man changes things up in the summer and sells soft serve instead.  He assured us that he will switch back to waffles come hiver.

We wandered up to the cathedral and in the park adjacent they were having a live jazz performance.   It couldn't have been a more beautiful night for it.  We listened to jazz as Jake played in the wooden park.  The band was comprised of six little old men and on a little bench with all the sound equipment, sat their little old wives, looking on so fondly.  It was so sweet.

We wandered on to the cathedral, marveled at the vastness of it all and then headed for home.  Happy and full of evening sunshine.

Here is the park during the day.  Jake likes to walk around there and kiss the flowers.  

confiture du lait

A kind gift from a friend.  Confiture du lait is a thick, gooey, sweet and rich caramel sauce that is a specialty in Normandy.  I can already imagine that it is perfect on crepes! 

If I wanted to be really French about it, I would eat it with fromage blanc.  Instead, I will probably try a little in my coffee, which I am certain isn't very French at all. 

right in the middle

We are in the middle of a courtyard, on the middle floor of our building and very much on-the-fence about the place.  If you asked me on day one what I thought about the apartment I might have just burst into tears, but after catching-up on some much needed sleep and after lots of cleaning, it's not

looking quite as bleak.

The worst of it is the wallpaper.  Four different horrendous prints in four different rooms.  The color scheme is baffling.  Cream and red in one room; purples and gold in another; peach, green, purple and blue in another; and I'm not exactly sure what color you would classify our room, maybe it's in the burgundy family.  Our only reprieve is the living/dining room.  The only room without any wallpaper. 

Initially I told Billy he had to make the team paint over it, but I'm starting to think of it as less of a problem.  Sure, it looks awful.  Sure, nice-bright-white-walls would look so crisp and new and refreshing.  But I figure if our biggest problem in life is some ugly wallpaper we should probably be celebrating.  So I think I will.  I'm going to get some nice wine and some French cheese and celebrate how ugly this wallpaper situation is, and feel like the very luckiest girl.

The second worst of it is the layout.  Every room is it's own and has a door that can close it off from the rest.  Last year we had a nice airy open-concept, which I have come to realize is pretty rare in Europe.  I miss being able to see Jake while I am in the kitchen but we are working around it.

Here it is, all scrubbed and polished.  While it's isn't exactly glamorous, it has just a little bit of old charm like these bright floor-to-ceiling windows that open-up to the courtyard. 

 Our kitchen even has an oven this year, cute little tea towel hooks and a herb garden of fresh mint, chives and basil.  This is also the best of the four wallpaper patterns. 

This hallway is all purples and golds.  And not exactly in a trendsetting way.  I find myself wondering if the previous owner fell in love with this print, or if it was on a clearance sale?  I keep imagining it in clean white.      

The best part of this apartment is the location.  Basically just a block away from the rink and a nice quick walk into downtown.  We will be out enjoying the city often.

in-between

Our days here are piling-up, but we are still very much in-between timezones.  Jake and I are fighting some serious jet leg.  In truth, it is mostly Jake who is having all the troubles but since he is up at night, I am too.  Our late nights and tired days are probably having the greatest impact on Billy, even though he's not complaining (yet).

I'm certain it is hard to sleep through the noise a crazy-hyper-toddler makes while zipping through the apartment in the middle of the night.  Jake thinks our apartment is the funnest thing; there are lots of doors to open and close, low shelves to explore and even lower couches.  It took him all of ten minutes to figure out he can climb these couches all-by-himself and that they are awfully fun to jump on.  It's a battle I think we will be fighting for a while. 

What do I think of the apartment?  I'm slowly warming-up.  Very slowly.  And if I ever find my camera cord, I will post some pictures.  Until then, here are some old ones.

and it begins

Hooray, we made it.  Safe and sound.  No delays, no missing luggage, no sleep for twenty three hours and almost no tears*.  It all is quite a haze really, but we're here and calling it a success nevertheless.

*Jake wanted to nap so badly but just couldn't get comfortable.  So tired he was practically delerious, he just sat there hysterically laughing, at nothing.  It was so funny and sweet but eventually the delirium wore off and it turned into a few tears, which in turn, turned into sleep.  Thank goodness.

Image via ikeepadiary

a sad goodbye

And that is understating it a little.  It is always hard to leave our families and home.  I am just terrible at goodbyes.  This year was a little extra sad because Hailey is staying behind with my wonderful Mom and Dad.  I think she will have the best time and we are so thankful.  But it's still hard to leave her and I am still feeling a little guilt over the whole decision.   

We will miss you Hailey!

   

Now we are off to France.  Twenty two hours of travel ahead of us.  I swapped out my diaper bag for our smallest rolling suitcase as a carry-on, and filled it full of snacks and surprises.  Now we are just crossing our fingers and hoping it all goes smoothly. 

off the vine

Kait, Billy and I went to Gerhringer Brothers, Hester Creek and Inniskillin to pick up a few bottles of wine.  All are in Oliver, in what is referred to as the Golden Mile Bench.  We had a hard time narrowing it down to three but were happy with our choices.

Hester Creek has such an impressive tasting room and they offer the occasional cooking classes in what was the nicest kitchen I have EVER seen.  How much fun would that be!?  They also have a cute little patio where you can enjoy a bottle of wine with some cheese or picnic, and a restaurant that we hear makes some very authentic Italian pizza. 

 
Inniskillin was a much simpler tasting room but their Vidal was the nicest ice wine I have ever tasted.  The perfect dessert.

We came home with a few wines from each, mostly reds, and we are enjoying them before leaving for France. 

three

This blog has suffered from a little neglect over the past few weeks - it wasn't intended, of course - but between all of our travels and visitors and being a mom, I just didn't get around to any uploading or updating.  Now that we have started our packing, it is likely only to get worse.  Does this make me a bad blogger?

I'm actually a little in-denial about this whole packing thing.  Only three days left at home.  Only three sleeps left in our own bed.  How is this even possible?!  It kind of feels like summer has just begun and yet here we are, once again, packing-up our entire life into hockey bags.          

kamloops

Kamloops couldn't have been better or busier.  We made the absolute most of our short visit.  My Dad even emailed out an itinerary before hand that included things such as "trip to the infamous Riverside Park so Jacob can go wild", "awake to the smell of press coffee", "Bill and Lins to run away for lunch".  The itinerary also included golf, an evening fish, the Wildlife Park, apple pie, some home improvements and we even found time to sneak away to the last Harry Potter movie - which by the way, is so good. 

We had perfect weather for Riverside Park and Jacob couldn't get enough of the Water park.  He was even brave enough to venture over to the big-kids side and did indeed "go wild"

Mom's homemade pies cannot be beat.  They picked-up the Transparents at an Orchard in Vernon and they made for the perfect apple pie. 

The Wildlife Park was another highlight.  They do a wonderful job of maintaining the animal habitats and a lot of the animals they keep have been rescued and rehabilitated.  We were wowed by the Birds of Prey show and watched the cougars feed.  We also saw bears, moose, owls and elk.  It was a nice afternoon.