Hourly Photo Project

Andrea, a well-known local blogger, from A Peek Inside the Fishbowl is hosting an Hourly Photo Project today.

The idea is that you post a picture every waking hour of the day.

I'll be taking a picture every hour and posting them. However, because I'll be in transit for a good part of the morning, I'll have to update later this afternoon with my hourly photos.

Photo 1: Evidence of my procrastination...Supposed to leave by 9am. This is my suitcase at 8am.

Photo 2: Making progress: lunch for the road...obviously missing my 9am target

I'm back...and now catching up on the photos I took.

Photo 3: 10am - finally on the highway...But 417 at 10am = seriously late

Photo 4: 11am - on route
Photo 5: 12pm

Photo 6: 1pm - Definitely more than half way.

Photo 7: 2pm - How can you tell we're getting closer to Toronto



Photo 8: 3pm In Toronto - Mom's dog, Suki

Photo 9: 4pm -- just some of mom's beads.

Photo 10: 5pm - mom's torture device/apple peeler

Photo 11: 6pm - a birthday present for me (warrants 2 pictures)!

Thanks mom!!!

Photo 12: 7pm - groceries for tomorrow night's dinner...

Photo 13: 8pm - yay! A new episode of Ghost Whisperer...but when did they get a 6 year old son?



Photo 13: 9pm - getting tired...

Wedding Reception #2

Oh oh... The gig is up. After nearly two years of going unnoticed, we've been caught. My dad found the blog. Go see for yourself, this is the comment he left

Anonymous said...

Accidently found this blog...
... clearly somebody's been holding out on me

I guess I'm just yesterday's chopped liver (sorry, no foody pics...)

And who am I?
... with a Giz and Grad in the family - I could only be known as:

Psycho-Giz-Grad's Dad

All along, we just let him (and other family members) believe that we were crazy people obsessed with taking pictures of food and now the truth is revealed: the obsession goes much deeper. Not only do we take pictures of food, we blog about food and participate in a community of food bloggers. Oh well -- my dad is a wierdo too, in his own right.

*********************************************
Speaking of my dad...let me tell you about the reception he hosted for me and R...

Going to Winnipeg for a second reception is something R and I knew we had to do. R and I wanted a small ceremony and reception in Ottawa, so only closer family and friends were invited. I don't think anyone was too offended by it -- but a 2nd reception for extended family was probably the only way to prevent that.

The idea started out pretty basic...we would have a bbq at my dad's place. Then, this became unrealistic because a bbq would have to extend to both the house and backyard. This would, apparently, require a tent, catering, and a newly painted fence. (I don't know when we started trying to keep up with the Joneses)

Redoing the fence was the deal-breaker. So, the reception had to be held elsewhere. "Elsewhere" was pretty limited too because the meal had to be kosher. In Winnipeg, there are only a handful of places that serve kosher food.

So, what started out as a low-key bbq became a reception at the Hotel Fort Garry, one of the nicer hotels in the city.

From then on, I pretty much relinquished control and went where I was told.

Although the laws of kashrut created some limitations around food options, it was probably a mixed blessing. Any "bright ideas" Giz and I had about baking for the reception were impossible. So, that meant a repeat of the wedding cookie saga was out of the question.

Instead, we got some chocolate giveaways from Morden's, a family owned and operated chocolatier that is another one of those Winnipeg institutions.


Because the chocolate was not kosher, guests were asked to wait until they left to open up the giveaways. Our experience with Morden's was really positive -- they were able to complete our order with little notice and even accommodated a change to the order a day before pick up.



Sometimes kosher food has a reputation of being...so-so. I don't know why because when made well, the quality of kosher meat is often better that run of the mill grocery store meat.

I'd have to say that this meal didn't change my mind about kosher food. It was about par for the course. Not bad -- but no one dish would be something I'd add to my cooking repetoire (if I had made it at home).

The meal started with a mushroom and wild rice-type soup. It was pretty plain and could have used more mushrooms and wild rice within the broth.

On the way to the reception, I asked my dad and step-mom if there were any speeches planned (you may recall I had a "no speech" policy at my reception). My dad quickly said, "no" -- which was my first clue. Typically, when I ask my dad a question, I can expect a 5-10 second delay in getting a response (if he's paying attention). This time, there was less than a 2 second delay between the end of my question and his answer -- something was amiss.

Shortly after the evening started, I could see folders being passed around. There was one speech after the next and a "you must sing a song about love or tell a joke to get Psychgrad and R to kiss" rule. Turns out there was quite a bit of speech plotting without me knowing about it.

It was ok though...After consuming a couple of extra drinks than planned, all was good.

Back to the meal...

The salad had a sufficient amount of dressing, which was something the salad at the other reception lacked. But, it looked kind of sad on my plate.


The main course looked kind of sad too. The taste was ok, although the chicken was on the over-cooked side.

It did make me wonder when the last time this menu or plating was changed -- I'm guessing about 20 years ago.

The dessert was a cookie/scone (somewhere between the two) with sorbet. The sorbet was good, the scone wasn't great.

The decor my step-mom chose was nice -- tigerlilies.

It was nice to be able to spend time with more of my extended family. I think everything worked out well and no one has disowned me because of not being invited to a reception.

************************************************

One last note....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIZ!

Celebrations will be held this weekend.

View and Review: Back to Nature Trail Mix

I think I was born opinionated. That, or I had a model of someone who was very opionated to learn from. In either case, from a very young age, I have enjoyed reviewing things. When I would go to restaurants with my parents, I had a rating system that included the food taste and quality, service, and cleanliness of the washroom. Is this normal behaviour for a 10 year old?

When I heard that BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine was initiating a View and Review component, I was immediately intrigued.

BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine have partnered with cookbook publishers and food purveyors to offer members the opportunity to participate in book and product reviews. To date, more than 14 members have received copies of some great books and products for review.


Does it sounds like something interesting to you? Join BloggerAid: Changing the Face of Famine here and sign up for View and Review.

The only way I can agree to giving a review is to be able to tell the truth -- good and/or bad.

This week, I received my first product. A basket filled with six different nut/trail mix combinations from Back to Nature.Over the past couple of years, I've discovered that I actually like nuts. Starting with the ease of transporting them for camping purposes and then learning about their health benefits, I now regularly eat nuts. The Back to Nature website reiterates these benefits:

•Studies have shown that including nuts in your diet can reduce the amount of harmful cholesterol in the blood and can reduce the risk of heart disease.
•If total calories are controlled, eating a handful of nuts daily may help prevent weight gain. The fat, protein and fibre in nuts keeps you feeling fuller longer, so you may eat less during the day without feeling deprived. Studies also show people who regularly eat a small amount of nuts have a lower Body Mass Index those who do not.

I don't typically buy salted nuts, so I was a bit weary about seeing some sea salted packages in my basket. But, I was quite impressed to see that even the salted nuts were low in sodium. Compared to a serving of non-salted nuts (as little as 5 mg sodium)/serving (1/4 bag -- 42g), the salted nuts are closer to 140 mg of sodium (about 5% of recommended daily intake). Not bad...not bad. Plus, the taste of the salted nuts is more of a light dusting as opposed to those nuts that are so salted you need a glass of water to just get them down.

I took a bag of cashews to work and they were happily shared among my colleagues. I also served a bag of cashews, almonds and pistachios to neighbours as we unwound from a long day at work.

This weekend, I opened up the raisin, almond, pumpkin seed, pecans and apricots to dress a salad.

As usual, the nuts tasted fresh. But, I would have to say that the apricots were not a high point for me. I don't generally have anything against apricots, but these ones were quite chewy, particularly in contrast to the remaining nuts. I may be crazy, but I'm pretty sure there are walnuts in this package too. I'd rather see more walnuts in lieu of apricots (although I'm sure cost would be a factor in determining the package's distribution).

Most recently, I opened the cranberry, chocolate covered almonds and vanilla almonds. I really like the vanilla almonds. I was less crazy about the chocolate covered almonds, because the chocolate is semi-sweet (not a flavour I'm crazy about). But, a nice snack all around.

Overall, a good product. I'm happy to see them at my local grocery store too.