The bucket list

Tags

Friends, Holiday, home, memories, Music, New Year, Travel

In the 1980’s the expression my bucket list started to appear in conversations when people spoke of things they wanted to do or visit. Then silly lists started to appear of the 10 things you had to see or do before you died. The expression the bucket list is now part of general conversations and it seems most people expects that you have a bucket list. I don’t!

Always being the contrarian, I don’t have one. I do not see why you need to do or see this or that during a life time, I just don’t get it.  Until the 1970’s travelling far and wide was not common, until the age of mass tourism and cheap destinations, few travelled. Nowadays it seems everyone travels and have a bucket list, though travelling now is not has cheap as it was once when you could visit a country on $10. per day, remember those travel guide books, impossible now.

I can say that I spent my life travelling and living abroad so travelling some more now is not appealing, unless it is to a favourite city where I know where to go and who to see, like Rome, Vienna, Salzburg, London, Berlin, Palermo. What I have not seen in the world is no big deal and I do not need to go. There are places I really do not want to go back to, I did not enjoy them when I was there, example China. Some place have changed so much I don’t think I would enjoy them today as it would clash with my memories of them, example Egypt.

Travelling at Holiday time is also something I do not want to do, it seems that stories of things that went wrong and exhausting tales of family gatherings and all manner of unpleasantness abound. As someone said, you do not choose your relatives it is an accident of birth. Staying in town and with friends is our tradition. A nice meal at home with people we enjoy and same for New Year’s Eve, quiet and pleasant.

Now we still don’t have any snow maybe a sprinkle would be nice, not too much, just like icing on the cake.

And because this is the Season, my favourite Christmas Hymn heard in Roman Catholic Churches at Midnight Mass in French Canada. It was de rigueur as part of the religious service then.  Ça bergers, assemblons-nous!

 

Shopping street in Rome, Via dei Condotti on the left is BULGARI at no.10 and just a few steps further you arrive at Piazza di Spagna and the famous steps, all decorated for Christmas.

Festive dinner ware

Tags

dinnerware, Family, Food, Holidays, home, memories, plates, tradition

Many decades ago I inherited a set of dishes which have been in my family (maternal side) for 80 years. This dinner ware was always used for family occasions like Christmas, Easter, special dinners etc. It belonged to the second wife of my maternal grandfather. My grandfather became a widower in the late 1930’s and had one son and five daughters. They all lived in a grand house on rue Filiatrault in Ville Saint-Laurent, all that remained of a fortune which disappeared in the 1930’s through mismanagement and the crash of 1929.

The story about this dinnerware and its provenance is interesting. My grandfather born in 1904 whose family had been considered very wealthy and he had attended private schools including the college Notre Dame on Queen Mary Road and had his own car in 1920 which was a luxury, in the imagination of the neighbours the family could not be considered less despite a reverse of fortune. His second wife also came from a former prominent family the LeCavalier who were social rivals in this small town, now a neighbourhood of Montreal.

When my grandfather remarried he was now working as a fireman and police officer he would become later head of the police for Ville Saint-Laurent. Having little money and for social reasons could not use what had belonged to his first wife, he had to make a show of what his new second wife brought with her, dowry and wedding gifts etc.

I remember many childhood Christmases in that house on rue Filiatrault and the trophy Moose head on the left side of the front door. It was a very nice place with formal rooms with columns and beautiful wood floors and a small study at the front were my grandfather read and met with his visitors, in later years it would become the TV room but he watched very few programs, there only was 2 French language channels then in black and white. He did watch the weekly television serials produced by Radio-Canada which are today classics of early television. But he listened to a lot of radio, news and other programming including everyday the agricultural news, though he was not living on a farm, many other relatives had farms including his own father who had a big tobacco farm just North of Montreal. Agriculture and land ownership in French Canada was a big status symbol.

So this dinner ware was cobbled together one piece at a time from powdered clothes detergent, I forget which brand but it seems it was Tide. The marketing ploy was to get women who had families and lots of clothes to wash to buy the big boxes of detergent and inside was a piece of dinner ware, you just collected them. This way his second wife, whom we always called Aunt and never grandmother because that would have been inappropriate to the memory of my maternal grandmother who had died in her early thirties of heart failure due to bearing far too many children.

The dishes were made in England by a Company called Empire, later bought by Staffordshire, the pattern is called York Maroon, not hand painted, it was mass produced. Of the original set of 12 dinner place settings only 8 survive to this day. Through the years many pieces were broken or chipped but considering its age it is amazing it survived at all. The pattern is discontinued but what is still available is worth about $15 for a dinner plate or luncheon plate as it is called, or $9. for a small bowl or $35 dollars for a sugar bowl or serving dish.

When my mother told me that she had this dinner service for me, initially I did not want it, I could not really remember it and wondered what would I do with it. We did have at the time 8 other dinner service. I am glad I have it now and it is a good souvenir of all those Christmas turkey luncheons with peas and mash potatoes, the turkey was always very good, the desserts and the Hershey Kiss chocolates a treat once a year, not allowed the rest of the year, Tante Fernande was the cook. Memories of my childhood and all my aunts and cousins on those times together and all the little traditions we had to observed, the singing of traditional Christmas songs and the Christmas Family benediction by my grandfather as the patriarch.

The last Christmas was 1968, my grandfather died in 1969 and after that the tradition simply fell apart. We still went to my father’s side of the Family for New Year’s but it was a different affair with none of the homey touches. In the 1970’s my family moved a lot and our Christmases tended to be in hotels with trees prepared by the hotel engineer and food from the hotel kitchen.

This year we will probably use Tante Fernande’s dinner service. We are having Bisque de Homard to start made from scratch, Tourtière which is a  combination of veal, beef and pork and turkey with vegetables and of course Will’s Plum Pudding, the recipe by Nigel Slater flamed in Brandy. We had a taste test the other night with a small pudding he made, OMG is it ever good.

I hope you all enjoy your Holiday Season!

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you made your list?

Tags

Canada., Christmas, home, life, Music, Santa, Travel

Have you made your list for Santa?

What do you want for Xmas? I would like a BMW convertible or better still a Bentley Convertible, lots of Bulgari stuff and some nice cases of Bollinger Champagne. like in this photo in Lisbon.

 

Today 87 years ago, on 11 December 1931 Canada became a fully independent Country with the proclamation of the Statute of Westminster, George V was proclaimed King of the Dominion of Canada. These important changes were enshrined into our Constitution and Canada adopted its own Law on Royal Succession.  We were also able to finally make our own Foreign Policy independent from Britain and open our own Canadian Embassies around the world. The first one was in Tokyo, Japan and Sir Herbert Marler was our first Canadian Ambassador to the Empire of Japan.

 

Christmas shopping

Tags

Food, home, Jordan, London, shopping, Travel, wines, XMAS

Many years ago when I was posted to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the holidays I would fly back to Canada with a stop in London with British Airways. Amman  to London is about 5 hours. The fun of London was the shopping. The stores had so many fun items, you just wanted to buy it all. One request was to bring home to Canada a baby Stilton, the food hall at Harrod’s had such an item. The baby Stilton is the size of a human baby, this being Stilton it is pungent and needed to be wrapped up properly for the long flight home in Business Class. London is known for its great shopping and there was all kind of great gift food items and not to mention the visit to the wine merchants, what was on offer was mind boggling, not only wines and quality vintages but a great selection of Champagnes and liqueurs of all kinds, so many wonderful choices.

Not to mention the great restaurants and things to see in Museums and galleries. There was also the theatre and so many enjoyable plays. Yes that stop in London was lots of fun, it was always guaranteed to bring home unusual gifts.

And for Xmas how about this group Out of the Blue are Oxford’s all-male singing sensation and two times UK champions of a cappella. Featured on Britain’s Got Talent in 2011 and more recently being recognised by pop-diva Shakira and press all around the world, the group combines award-winning musicality with outrageously unprofessional choreography and mostly intentional comedy! Founded in 2000, the group is made up of students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. Each year brings a fresh batch of faces, voices and arrangements. They raises funds through their music for the Helen & Douglas House Hospice for Children and Young Adults a registered hospice charity based in Oxford, England, providing palliative, respite, end-of-life and bereavement care to life-limited children and young adults and their families. The Patron is HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

 

 

Only 23 days to go

Tags

Holidays, home, life

We are back from a fantastic vacation in Portugal. One of the best ever in all of our travels around the world. Now we are only 3 weeks from Xmas and this is my favourite song from Mariah Carey, it brings back so many wonderful memories. A few days ago Dr Spo asked about Xmas music best selection, well there you have it.

 

A picture of town

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, cruise ships, home, PEI

The picture of the waterfront of Charlottetown in mid-1960’s show how industrial the waterfront was with its port facilities, railway yard and vestiges of the 19th century ship building period. If compared to today’s waterfront park, the area is unrecognizable. In 1989 with the demise of the railway in the Province, all rail equipment was removed and instead parks and hiking trails were built, now covering extensive areas not only in the Capital but across the Province.

At the bottom of the photo is the old potato storage terminal, today it’s the Cruise ship terminal completely rebuilt and renovated. Behind it the rail yards  and a rail car repair shop now transformed into a great hall soon to become a Farmer’s Market. Next to it the old oil tank park of a giant oil company, the tank park disappeared and now the area is totally transformed into a lush green park known as Confederation Landing, a gift of the City of Quebec who shares with Charlottetown in 1864 the honour of hosting the conferences which led to the formation of Canada. Next to that more empty land now occupied by the Conference centre and the Delta Hotel, shops and restaurants. This coming Summer Charlottetown will welcome 94 cruise ships from various companies with over 100,000 passengers landing a few meters away from my house.

The waterfront today, you cannot recognize it.   

Little ideas for Christmas

Tags

Canada., Christmas, Delia, feast, Food, home, traditions, XMAS

Many years ago, well about 40 years ago, I remember a conversation about Christmas and meals, it had to do with what people did, one person mentioned that in her family it was always the same thing, turkey, mash potatoes and green peas, gravy and stuffing.

I thought how absolutely boring and awful, the same old thing every year, pleeeease!!!

My father always liked different things for Christmas and because he was an hotel manager, would ask the Chef to prepare something different, out of the ordinary.  One year I still remember, I must have been 15 years old then, we had Scallops in Moutarde de Meaux and cream sauce as a main dish on Christmas Eve.

One Christmas followed another and were always different and unusual. Even the tree was out of the ordinary. With my Dad it had to be, he wanted innovative, something not done by anyone.

We also had Christmas around the world, only to discover that this Holiday is very much a North American thing, in many countries were I served, Christmas was not really a holiday at all but a Western World import. The most beautiful Christmas trees and lavish food for the holiday Season was in Poland. In Italy there was no tree per se, because it is a Northern European tradition, but lots of other dishes connected to a time when Noël was a secondary holiday to Easter in the Christian calendar. In China it was largely a big consumer thing around Santa Claus, the Chinese under Communist rule had no idea what it was and pushed instead shopping as a Xmas concept, very sterile. In Mexico we had great traditions mixed with old native beliefs and will never forget that Christmas night we were in the Zocalo after midnight at the Cathedral built on top of the former great pyramid of the Aztec gods. We were able to hear the choir and see the giant choir books from the time of Hernan Cortes.

In Egypt and Jordan being Muslim countries the holiday was celebrated in a muted way though Muslims recognize Jesus as a Prophet of God and Mary has one chosen by God (Allah) with special reverence. In Jordan King Hussein Bin Talal, a great man if there ever was one, he would visit the Christians churches in Amman and bring gifts and greetings to his Christian subjects. King Hussein was a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. His son King Abdallah II continues this tradition.

We do keep one tradition at Christmas and that is to have a home made Plum Pudding and to rotate dishes each year, from crown of lamb to prime rib roast beef to roasted goose. But other dishes are also important to have.

Looking at recipes here are some favourites from Dame Delia, CBE and Companion of Honour ;

Potted Pork with Juniper and Thyme, with a Marmalade of Apples, Raisins and Shallots

Prawn Cocktail

Coarse Country Pate

Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

Duck Liver Pâté with Armagnac

Rillettes of Duck with Confit of Cranberries

Pheasant Terrine

Something truly different and fun for your holiday menu. I somewhat favour patés and terrines which are good for lunch and breakfast too.

 

A few events

Tags

Charlottetown, Cranberries, cruise ships, home, Kendra Kozek, PEI, pumpkin, thanksgiving

Life in Charlottetown is never dull, small town like Mayberry but lots to do. This week we had invitations from every night of the week and people to meet in the day time.

First there was pumpkins to be bought at 0.99 cents to $5.00 for a giant one requiring two strong men to lift into the car trunk, a bargain. It comes from a Farm just minutes away from our home across the Hillsborough river.

We also had Farm  Day on Queen Street which is the main street of Charlottetown running from the river’s edge up North to the far suburbs some 5 Km  away. The Farm Day was held in the old town core between Water street and Grafton Street.

Lots of farmers present most of whom can be found at the Farmers Market on the weekend. I bought some fresh flowers.

We were invited by the owners of Dunes at Brackley Beach to their annual Fall party which takes place at their home, a very modern construction which blends in perfectly with the surrounding area by the sea. Here is a photo looking out unto the gardens towards the sea. The garden is part of their Art Gallery and restaurant and features Asian sculptures most from Indonesia. A very beautiful and unique place. http://www.dunesgallery.com

While we were on the rooftop a full moon appeared, at first as it was rising it was orange and then turned yellow.

We also went to a housewarming party in Saint Catherines PEI our neighbour Kendra made the cake, it was so good, Kendra is an excellent pastry chef. The cake had real flakes of gold on it.

Leaving the house, because it is in the country side the only light was a half moon, I made a left turn instead of a right turn on the road to lead me back to the highway and suddenly I was on his red dirt road in a dense forest, I thought am I lost, I could not recognize anything. However as is often the case in PEI rural roads they lead you back to the main road, suddenly I was on the highway near Bonshaw.

We are still having cruise ships visiting Charlottetown until 28 October. Today we had 2 one docked at the pier and the other out on the river.

I am so glad we did not buy a Palazzo on the Gran Canal in Venice, living here is the same feeling, look at this one turning around in front of my window. They are closer than they look.

They turn around a lot faster than you might think. This is a Princess cruise ship. All cruise companies visit us.

Finally today was Thanksgiving Sunday so here is our table, do notice the open window, it was quite warm around 22C which for the 8 October is not seasonal at all. But I am not complaining.

The turkey was perfect and so good, Just enough left over for a casserole or a few sandwiches. We also had 2 pies, one Buttermilk pie and the other a Gala apple and PEI Cranberry mix.

Les petites cérémonies

Tags

dinner, Food, Friends, home, life, meals, routine

We all have our little routines every day and develop new ones when life changes. Per example after I retired some years ago, I no longer had a need for business suits except for one nice dark Italian suit and a couple of blazers in case I need them for a special day.

Usually now it is casual wear and here on the Island it is more like vacation comfortable wear, though we have done formal and business suit on a few occasions.

I may or may not shave on a day because I have no were to go and am not meeting anyone that day. On the other hand dishes and laundry gets done promptly now that we no longer have a cleaning lady.

Meals are planned that morning for the day and I keep tabs on what we have in the freezer and the fridge. We also see friends on a more impromptu manner, not much is planned unless it is a special occasion.

Every night we have cocktails at 5:30pm after the dogs have had their dinner. We have a 3 course dinner around 07:30pm unless we are going out to a concert or event. We always use dishes and the table is set with cutlery and place mats. We have dinner in the dining room, a bottle of wine paired for the meal and tapered candles are lit on the table, there is also music softly playing in the background. It is the same routine every night.

When we have guests for dinner or lunch, we will have drinks first, we will set a menu and we will never serve the same menu to guests twice, if we had a chicken dish once, the next time they come we will serve something different. Depending on the season the menu will vary greatly, we never serve a salad as a main dish and I find it very gauche to do so. A salad is just an intermediate course served with a prepared dressing not something from a bottle.

When we have a party, there is one coming up in 10 days, we think ahead of what we will serve, are people coming for a meal, or just drinks and nibbles which means serving good quality nuts and olives, a paté or a hard cheese with selected crackers. In this case we thought of doing a salmon mousse or a chicken liver paté with wine. We will chose a wine something which will go well with the event and if people bring a bottle of wine, I prefer to set it aside and go with what I selected for that night in white and red. Recently we had a pizza party and I asked my guests what they wanted, some preferred vegetarian other with meat or cheese or gluten free. Then I ordered from a pizza place here in town which makes really good pizza on thin crust, it tasted a lot better than the stuff from a commercial chain. We had a great party.

All these little details make for routines which define our lives and make everything more pleasant on any given day.