The tree is up

Tags

decorations, Food, happiness, HoHoHo, Holiday Season, people, Tree

Will and I have put a lot of effort in having a wonderful tree each year. We carefully collected ornaments from all the place we lived around the World, it is all very personal and full of memories. As we decorate we think of friends gone long ago and those still with us to this day.

Will has always like doing something special at Christmas and he puts an awful lot of effort in preparation and our yearly traditions. This year it is all the baking from Christmas pudding to the many little special treats prepared with care. Then the table for Christmas day with our Christmas good quality crackers, special little bags for each luncheon guest full of imported chocolates and sweets. We have our formula and we follow it all those many years. And one special tradition is to invite people who are on their own on that day for lunch at home with us.

Will we have a White Christmas, that is anyones guess, today 14 December it is pouring rain with high winds and tomorrow it will be 12 C. The Winters on the Atlantic are very different from central Canada, Ontario and Quebec. I do prefer a mild Winter more in keeping with Northern European climes.

So here are some pictures of our tree and goings on at our house in preparation for the Holiday Season.

Our little Nora, who is back from the groomers and is ready for the Holidays. She is now 11 yrs old but still feisty.  Typical wire hair Dachshund.

This is a neighbours house, it is quite large and occupies a large lot, C. 1830. Typical Island style, Prussian blue in colour, candles in the windows for Christmas.

Our 2019, Xmas tree, all decorated with its 42 year old Star on top. Who knew that a gold aluminium star would last so long.

This year I did the honours of shining the silver balls for the tree.

I also cleaned those Silver Floral Ornaments made by Towle.

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Getting ready

Tags

cuisine, Food, Friends, home, Noël, ornaments, PEI, Tree

This Monday we had another Birthday party for Will this time with a few friends across the Street at the Water Prince, we had Malpeque Oysters, Lobster and Halibut one of my favourite fish. Will had coconut cream pie made on the premises, it is so good. A friend who is a baritone and actor came in to sing Happy Birthday to the boy who was surprised. It was a fun afternoon.

Well we are getting ready for the Holidays, Will has been cooking up a storm, muffins, cookies, Christmas Puddings 2 big and 2 small, a very rich recipe with lots of Brandy. He also made bread (no machine) by hand, mince meat pies (45) small ones. Today it was Tourtière or French Canadian Meat pie, something English Canadians find exotic and cannot make on their own, one of those strange Canadian Factoids. The Tourtière is no longer made with the Tourte Bird which is extinct since 1914. It is a mixture of veal, pork and beef, very nice and the smell in the kitchen screams Christmas Season. This meat pie should not be confused with the Acadian Meat pie which is a very different recipe and preparation, made of shredded beef and mash potatoes. The Acadians live in the Maritimes in Canada and are a distinct French speaking group from other French Canadians in Canada. We already have a year old Fruit Cake soaking in Brandy which is a traditional gift from our Friend John in Ottawa. Every year for the last 38 years no matter where we might be in the World, he makes one for us and sends it to us. It is truly a marvel unlike any other Fruit cake I know of.

Our one and only Pointsettia which is a mixture of pink, red and yellow, it stands 2 feet across.

We are going to make Amuse gueule for our Xmas Eve Party, note that I use the old French culinary expression Amuse gueule and NOT Amuse bouche which is so common today amongst the prissy class. The word gueule is an old French word and refers to the mouth of the lion or wolf, meaning that the food in small bites is so good you devour it. The new expression means nothing to me and is frankly silly, a bit like saying; Oh I will have one but should not because I’m on a diet. Well then honey let me show you the door.

I am looking for a good Stilton Cheese and I may have found one today. No Stilton is not like other blue cheese. Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has had Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste and White. I want the Blue. Which I will put into a light pastry and served hot.  Will also wants to make other little bouchées for our guests. We will also have sweets like the mince meat mini tarts. We make all of this from scratch which means that I go out with long lists of ingredients.

Cheese star crackers made with very old Cheddar for that extra sharp taste, you cannot eat only one.

Mince Meat tarts, first make the mince meat and store in jars and then the pastry and assemble. Again very nice to have with a drink or coffee.

Today I also went to the dentist for a cleaning and well I was told I have beautiful teeth, again the Colgate poster kid, what can I say… Afterwards came home and polished the famous 30 Sterling Silver Christmas balls and the 10 Towle Sterling Silver Floral Ornaments,  so tomorrow we can decorate the tree. We have Delft ornaments this year to add after our trip to The Netherlands. Photos coming.

Sterling Silver ornaments all hand polished each year. Neiman Marcus has them each year.

We have our menu planned for Lunch on Christmas day, we will be 6 people. As for New Year’s Eve I really don’t know at this time, I prefer to either stay at home or maybe we will go to the Club for a drink. Then for January 1, 2020, Levée Day in PEI, I am wondering if I will go either to volunteer at Government House or to the Club. Not sure what to do. In either case you greet hundreds of people in 2 hours, a little exhausting.

So it is all coming together. Not to forget there is also Hanukkah on 22 December, in fact every year at Christmas lunch we give our guests some chocolate geld which come in the form of Canadian $1 and $2 dollar coins.

 

 

 

 

 

30 November 2019

Tags

Club, Dad, dinner, Food, Haviland, lobster, storm, surf, winter

Well our first snow storm of the Season is in full swing now. It started last evening with rain and winds and changed to snow squalls overnight. Poor visibility and dangerous driving or walking conditions. High winds with pounding surf and higher tides than normal, no time to go walk on the beach now, it can be dangerous. This weekend was the Christmas market weekend but the weather forced a change in schedule and most things are closed or re-scheduled until Sunday like the Santa parade.

We had a lovely dinner at the Club last night and enjoyed the Parlour fireplace. Many members who live within walking distance came. This is a good beginning to the Xmas Season.

Photo taken from our den, showing the famous Water Prince Corner Shop at the corner of Prince and Water street in old Charlottetown. This restaurant specialty is lobsters and seafood. They are famous because many celebrities have been for lunch or dinner and left testimonials. The Regis and Kathie Lee show was also taped at the location a few years  back and many tourists coming here to visit will make reservations. Being neighbours we can just cross the street and get a table. Not a big place just about 20 tables, but the food and service is excellent. The Winter Lobster Season started about 4 days ago and 250 boats went out to Sea, it is very dangerous work on the Ocean with waves and winds which toss boats about. Many here on the Island will have lobster for Xmas dinner at home, remembering to use sea water to boil their lobster, tap water won’t do.

One of the many fireplaces in the Club, this one is made of Pink Sicilian Marble which cannot be found anymore. Imported by the original owner of #2 Haviland Street, the young widow Esther Full-Lowden in 1869. This was her parlour to receive friends, after her death in 1896 the Mansion was rented out to the USA Government and this room was the American Consul’s Office, with 18 foot ceilings and fancy moulding. It was wonderful last night to sit by the fire and enjoy drinks with other members.

Today is very quiet with the storm raging outside. Sunday should be quiet also, I may go out to the Farmer’s Market to get my Dresden Stollen from Sabine and Michael S. who are natives of Dresden.

Today is also my late father’s Birthday, he would have been 89 years old. Here the two of us having lunch at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal around 2014.

 

The Holidays are coming…

Tags

Cards, cuisine, Food, Friends, gifts, Holiday, Nigel Slater, traditions

For those of you like my friend Dr Spo in Phoenix who wonder if Christmas is near, well after Thanksgiving back on the first Monday in October, we all know there is Halloween but heck it’s time to plan and set dates and menus. Just this past weekend we went to two cocktail parties and two dinner parties. We have already planned our Christmas Eve and Day, menus set etc… For New Year’s Eve 2020 things are in motion and should be well organized fairly soon.

Today Will and I were looking at Nigel Slater’s recipe for Plum Pudding. He is a British Chef and we love his recipes. He writes for the Guardian newspaper in London. So off to the Bulk Barn to buy all the fruits needed for the Plum ”Christmas” Pudding. Buying these ingredients, it really put me into the mood. Next Sunday 24 November is stir up Sunday so time to start the process.

Ingredients

• 350g/12¼oz sultanas
• 350g/12¼oz raisins or currants
• 150g/5¼oz dried figs, chopped
• 125g/4½oz candied peel
• 100g/3½oz dried apricots
• 75g/2½oz dark glacé cherries, halved
• 150ml/5fl oz brandy
• 100g/3½oz ginger in syrup, chopped, plus 2 tbsp of the syrup
• 2 apples grated
• 2 oranges, juice and zest
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 250g/8¾oz shredded suet
• 350g/12¼oz soft muscovado sugar
• 250g/8¾oz fresh breadcrumbs
• 175g/6¼oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 2 old sixpences or coins

Method

1. For this recipe you will need two 1.5 litre(2½ pint) plastic pudding basins with lids.

2. Soak the sultanas, raisins, currants, figs, peel, apricots and cherries in the brandy overnight, giving it a good stir now and again.

3. The following day, in a large bowl mix the ginger, syrup, apples, orange juice and zest with the eggs, suet, sugar, crumbs and flour.

4. Stir in the soaked fruit and spice.

5. Grease the two pudding basins and divide the mix between them. Add coins now if using.

6. Cut two circles of greaseproof paper to cover the top of the pudding and fold a pleat down the centre to allow pudding to expand.

7. Put lids on the basins and steam puddings for 3½ hours.

8. Let puddings cool before removing greaseproof paper and covering tightly with cling film and lid. The puddings can now be stored in a cool, dry place until Christmas.

9. To reheat, steam pudding for a further 3½ hours, turn out and flame with brandy.

Can’t wait to flame the pudding, such a treat.

 

I also added this recipe by Nigel because it is not Christmas without Stilton Cheese. 

 

 

Stilton Cheese for me always brings back wonderful memories of Christmas and stops on the way home in London to shop. The quality and variety on offer in London is truly amazing. In Rome Christmas shopping was wonderful for wines and quality chocolates, cheeses, meats, olives, etc… Munich and Dresden Christmas Markets loads of fun, great food and tons of atmosphere. In Warsaw we had the most beautiful trees and again all the special Christmas food much of it borrowed from Jewish European Cuisine. Copenhagen was also great for Christmas Shopping so many beautiful things in the shops, style and elegance.

Also this year we have decided to return to good old fashion Christmas Cards and mail them with postage stamps to friends. We had been doing a lot of electronic cards in the last 10 years and well it is not the same and we enjoy receiving cards in the mail, it is so much more personal.

Finally today we went to the Pharmacy to get our Free Flu shot. In Canada everyone can, if you want get a free Flu Shot. It takes minutes and that is it, simple, how civilized.

So yesterday I took a little nap on the sofa and my Nicky wanted to snuggle up and he, like all Dachshund loves to squeeze in, so there with his big nose breathing in my face. He is just keeping an eye on me.

The Cows Ice Cream shop love to sell souvenirs in the form of T-Shirts, Sweaters, caps etc. All of them have a funny saying on them and I saw this one in the window and I thought this is the sort of thing you want for Christmas, you know for that special cousin.

Roast Beef recipe

Tags

cuisine, Food, PEI, Recipe, Roast Beef

We buy our meat directly from a Farm outside Charlottetown about 20 minutes from us. The quality is very high and the butcher Drake knows his stuff. It is far better than what we use to buy at the grocery store. This month we got a roast beef about 3.5 lbs and last month we also got a roast beef same size. I also got a Veal roast which is my favorite but here in PEI it is very difficult to get, simply not on offer, I am told.

So I am trying this recipe below on the link and it all seems to be going very well, we invited guests for dinner. This being a long weekend, Remembrance Day 11 November, tomorrow will be super quiet and the only ceremony is at the Cenotaph at 11 am.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef

The Weather has turned cold around 5 C. which is 40 F. and very windy, a cold Atlantic wind around 40Km per hour, though bright sun shine.

 

First Fjord

Tags

cruise, Eidfjord, Food, Norway, Pinnacle grill, Sea, ship, voyage

We arrived in Eidfjord around 7am, this means we enter the Fjord and sail down about 58 Km. stopping in this little village of Eidfjord. A very quiet place, surrounded by very high mountains, our guide said 7000 feet and the depth of the water is about 800 feet. All of it created thousands of years ago by the retreating ice shield that covered the Earth.

This picture gives you an idea of the size and how rugged the mountains are. With our ship docked.

Now what I did not know was how important Trolls are in Norwegian culture and mythical history. They are everywhere, they are nasty and smelly and under 4 feet, Evil little creatures. They mostly have jobs with Facebook now or on social media.

Eidfjord, 956 pop, is a place for camping, kayaking, hiking and bicycling. Perfect in the Summer for families and located within an National Park, with great scenic views. If you have time you can visit Hardangervidda (mountain plateau) the Hardangerjokulen glacier, and other sights in the area, which would require at least 2 days. We had only 8 hours and the weather was not cooperating. On the day we visited, it was cold, rainy and damp. I did a little walk around in this very quiet village, only saw a dog looking at me through a living room window. The house are pretty and everything is neat, no troll in sight except for this one, made of wood.

I returned to the ship, and was looking forward to our return to the sea where we could admire on our way out the panorama of the Fjord and its many waterfalls.

The  Hardanger Bridge, longer than the Golden Gate bridge by 20 meters, we passed under it with a clearance of just 2 meters.

During our travel through Norway we heard a lot from the Norwegians about climate change and how very concerned they are about the warming of the climate, which has melted the glaciers, you can still see them but they are now remote at high altitude. Norway has around 60% electric car fleet  and hope that by 2023 it will be 100% as no fossil fuel cars will be sold in the country. The incentives to buy an electric car in Norway are generous, no tax on purchase, free parking everywhere, no cost on recharging your battery which take minutes, no toll on roads, tunnels or bridges. Given that gas is $7 a litre + 35% tax, you do the math easy to see why it is a good deal to buy electric. But there are also other measures I noticed in the grocery store, no plastic wrapping, lots of recycling everywhere, it is all very progressive.

Dinner in one of the specialty restaurant Pinnacle Grill, very nice menu, beef is the main item.

 

 

As we come to the end of August

Tags

Beach, Charlottetown, Europe, Food, Parade, PEI, Restaurants

In PEI after Old Home Week 15 August, the last week of August feels like the end of the tourist Season, families disappear over night replaced by older couples with no kids. Motel and camp grounds empty and you know that as of 1 September tourist spots and restaurants catering to them will start to close. We will still have Cruise ship traffic until November but there will be less to do for the tourists.

The PEI Tourism Board has tried to lenghten the Season into a shoulder Season at least until mid-December but that is very difficult, the merchants are not interested for the most part. They made their money and now they move to Florida for the next six months. In the Spring we would benefit from early opening of tourist restaurants and bars around 15 April because the first Cruise ships do arrive on 1 May. But no, that again is difficult to do, many businesses open around 1 June, this makes for a very short Season.

Despite promising myself I would go to the beach this Summer we never went, until 15 July the weather was cold and miserable and then it became hot and unpleasant. We are both busy with volunteer work and one thing after another and we stayed in town.

We did go to Rustico to the Watermark theatre and discovered a new restaurant with very good food owned by a Portuguese couple. We also attended our friend S.D. Summer party in New Glasgow which is always fun. We went to Victoria by the Sea to see our friend J.D. at his antique shop. The Landmark Café has a new owner and it is great food and service as always. There were some other social engagements but other than that not much really.

On Monday we travel to catch a flight to Amsterdam which will make for a complete change of venue. Our friend B.P. is coming from Ottawa to babysit the puppies.

In the meantime here are some photos of our Old Home Week parade which is such a tradition here in Charlottetown in August.

The Royal Canadian Navy from HMCS Charlottetown

Lots of ACADIAN flags since the World Congress was taking place in August.  Looks like the flag of France but it has a Yellow Star on it.

The Lieutenant Governor of PEI with her Aide de Camp in the carriage.

The Belfast PEI, Bag pipes, they practice in the park across the street from our home. Nice group.

The Canadian Army PEI Regiment with their regimental flag (Black and yellow)

The float of the Mayor and City Councillors in a canoe no less.

The Royal Canadian Air Force Band

The Mi’kmaq of Abegweit (AKA PEI)

And the best band of the parade bar none, a group of music teachers and professional musicians including the Green Party Leader, who is also leader of the Official Opposition in the PEI Legislature plays the trumpet, talk of versatile politician. This group is known for its zany costumes, always a big hit with the crowd.

 

Fondant Potatoes

Tags

Food, Potatoes, Recipe

This is a recipe I love and want to share with you, so elegant, your guests will be impressed. Very old School of cooking but so worth it using only Russet potatoes.

Just follow the recipe here and enjoy:

203 miles or 3 hours and 28 min.

Tags

art., cocktails, Food, Halifax, Nova Scotia, vacation

This is the distance between Charlottetown PEI and Halifax N.S. by car or 3 hours and 28 min. A lot of people will go to Halifax for the day.  Halifax is an old sea port on the Atlantic, population half a million people compared to the small town status of 36,000 for Charlottetown.

Travelling by road to Halifax is not that difficult and the road is quite nice. You get a very different vibe as you cross from one province to another, once over the sea bridge to New Brunswick and then down the Highway to Nova Scotia, you know you crossed a border, I don’t know how that is done but everything looks different in the scenery despite being still in the Maritimes.

Halifax with its famous Citadelle. 

We are going for a few days for a change of scenery and to see friends and try out new restaurants and old favourites, staying in the historical downtown. The weather looks like it will be warmer.

We hope to return to a favourite of ours Bar Kismet, barkismet.com   excellent cocktails and superb cuisine and also try new places, Ostrich Club https://theostrichclub.ca and Field Guide   https://fieldguidehfx.com.

There will be shopping and just plain fun. As I write this the Premier of PEI has just announced that the Provincial Election for the Legislature is now underway. He had been to see the Lieutenant Governor, H.H. Antoinette Perry today to ask for her to dissolve the Legislature so the election could take place. Saw the Premier a few days ago and he looked preoccupied and was not his usual talkative self. Everyone was expecting him to announce we would be going to the polls in April and yes we are on 23 April just after Easter weekend. The Green Party is very strong in the polls right now and the Liberals have been in Office for 12 years, many feel it is time for a change.

Looking forward to driving to Halifax, should be fun. The road will be Charlottetown to the bridge at Borden, then across the Strait 12Km, to Sackville, N.B. to Amherst, N.S. down to  Truro and straight to Halifax.

 

 

 

Towards Xmas

Tags

Canada., Christmas, Food, French, life, Montreal, Music, Quebec

This week listening to Radio-Canada in the morning I heard some old Christmas favourites from my childhood. One was Mon Beau Sapin, Roi des Forêts known in English as O Tannenbaum. This was the song the second wife of my maternal grandfather, we called Tante Fernande would sing each Christmas at lunch at my grandfather’s house when all his children and spouses and us grandkids would gather for the traditional meal, gifts and benediction. It was an old, I dare say a very old tradition going back several generations, the family patriarch would bless is family for the New Year. Tante Fernande would have cooked a turkey it was always an excellent birds and very juicy, serving peas and mash potatoes and cranberries which she called Atoka, dessert would be a mix of chocolates, Bûche de Noël and other sweets. I always thought that Atoka was the real name for cranberries but it turn out that Atoka is a Quebec recipe for processing cranberries after they are harvested. It gives a much sweeter fruit and has none of the tartness found in canned cranberries. Tante Fernande was a cook who did everything from scratch including her cranberries. You could not buy canned cranberries back then or if you could it was not done on good homes.

The dishes used to serve the Christmas meal was on two dinner sets, one was white with a dark blue and gold rim, the other set was their wedding dinner set which I have now.

There were other songs and my aunts knew one each, a favourite, one was Petit Papa Noël, my Mom use to sing that one. It is not an old song, the melody is taken from an old Ukrainian song and the words written in 1944 were about a child asking Santa to bring his father home for Xmas from the POW camp in Germany. After the war the words were changed erasing any reference to the war to what we hear today. It is a song that you would learn in school and my mother knew it well.  It was part of every Christmas music recital at school in French Canada. Tino Rossi premiered this song in 1946 and it became his Christmas signature song. Radio-Canada played it today as part of their weekend Christmas show it brought back a tidal wave of memories.

On this score the French service Radio-Canada is doing a much better job with their Christmas programming than the CBC who is playing a mix of commercial music. Tomorrow 23 December, the CBC will have an all day Christmas concert as they do every year from the European Union broadcasted live starting at 9am. Radio-Canada will have its programming, vintage shows from the 1940 to 1970. Despite the fact that such programming might be speaking to an older generation, it is still enormously popular.

Maybe it speaks about a time when Christmas was not about shopping and stress. The Media today puts a heavy emphasis on how stressful and unpleasant it is, with those awful relatives. I wonder why it has to be this way, not to mention the trove of bad news. It sounds almost perverse.

Gifts use to be in my mother’s childhood an orange which was a luxury then, books, clothing like a scarf or a sweater. For us it was books, sweets or the dreaded Fentex slippers your gradma knitted for you, some small amount of money like a $5. bill new and crisp or a board game. The adults were not stressed, no one was driving around shopping in malls, it was a nice holiday with a focus in Roman Catholic Quebec on religion and midnight mass recalling the traditions of Old Canada and France.

The other popular song and remains so to this day is J’ai vu maman embrassé le Père Noël sung by Line Renaud who is 90 years old. This 1956 version is one you will hear on the radio. Renaud was and remains one of the great French singer of her time.

Well we avoided the stress of Christmas and it is something I never quite understood why so many people whipped themselves into a frenzy.  I think that a lot of the stress is made up on false notions about gifts and having to please other people, it is somewhat artificial. I hope you all have lots of fun and enjoyment out of the Holiday Season.

My Best Wishes to You!