We are nearing the end of our Oscar Movie Mondays and this week's film was "The Master" with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. It was bad. I mean, "I-fell-asleep-halfway-through" bad. I'm just so tired of having to watch these nominated films when nearly all of them are dour, depressing and downright dull. Come on Academy, give me something that can make me smile or laugh. Remember the days of Slumdog Millionaire, Life is Beautiful, Chicago and Forrest Gump?
In any event, we did make our own version of Torpedo Juice, a home made chickpea spread that was NOT hummus and did NOT have anything to do with the movie (this was obviously my contribution) and cookies bought by someone with their MasterCard. Well, there you have it.
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One of my favourite Hamilton winter daytime food-related downtown events on a Wednesday is SoupFest. In support of Living Rock, dozens of restaurants compete for the title of Best Soup and Most Creative, among others. For me, it's a great excuse to come and eat soup on a cold February day. This year, I went with Tracy and I sampled the following:
Baci Restorante - Salted Caramel Apple with Smoked Chicken
4th Course Bistro at Copetown Woods - Roasted Tomato with Pancetta & Mascarpone
Jack & Lois - Garlic, Double Smoked Bacon and Chive
Vicar's Vice - Cheeseburger Soup
As awful as it sounds, the Cheeseburger Soup was amazing and I was not at all deterred by the fact that I had dinner plans for super burgers at The Works later that day. The Salted Caramel, while creative, tasted like melted candy and cavities. But mostly, the afternoon was a great time to catch up with my friend and avoid mascots. What is it about mascots that think grown adults want to interact with them? I just keep my eyes straight ahead and ignore them. Or try to trip them. Those big dumb feet don't have a chance.
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Secrets. Is keeping them the worst? Or is having them get out the worst? I've been thinking a lot about secrets recently. I find that I have a hard time keeping secrets about myself from my close friends. I've always been a fairly open book because I think it's one of the best ways to develop and grow friendships. What's the point in being friends with someone who doesn't let you in at all? However, there are a couple secrets that I can see the purpose in keeping under wraps. But I find it hard! Sometimes it's all I want to do, is spill.
And then when a secret gets out, by choice or not, there is a whole other level of stress. Keeping a secret inside at least guarantees that I am in control of the information and how it affects people. Once someone else knows, it's out there and who knows what will happen? This makes me nervous. But when you get to unload a secret, there is a sense of relief as well. It just depends which is more overwhelming: stress or relief. I've been flip flopping between the two all week.
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It was finally time for our Annual Ski Trip to Blue Mountain. In reality, only 2 or 3 people actually take advantage of the slopes while the rest of us juggle our time between the hot tubs, eating cheese and the snow roller coaster. This year we planned to leave on the snowiest Friday in memory. A crazy storm blasted Southern Ontario and I spent most of the morning shovelling my car out. Once I finally got the car on the road, I was stranded no less than 20 feets from paved main road paradise. There I sat, helpless, until someone offered me a shovel and three gracious men pushed me out. It was awful and all this just to get to the end of my block.
Luckily, my parents lent me their trusty car with snow tires, heated mirrors and heated wipers - it handled beautifully. We made our way to Collingwood and from door to door, including two friend pick-ups and a stop at McDonalds to calm my nerves, the drive took us 6.5 hours. Somehow, our friends who left later from Guelph and Toronto arrived in only 2.5 hours. The drive sucked, either way and we were relieved to make it there safely...and ready for a scotch.
We were only able to arrange for a two night trip this time and it seemed to fly by, but it's always fun to get ten friends together in one place. Our itinerary:
- Snow rollercoaster, screaming optional
- Hot tubbing, sunburned nose optional
- Cheese...all of it
- Smoked Salmon, Costco sized
- Giving fake names at Starbucks
- Basking in the sunshine in Adironack chairs by the frozen lake
- Ice skating
- Disgusting mouth pictures
- General show cavorting, slamming into snow covered stone wall optional, although not for me
- Charades
- Poker
- Laughing loud enough to get security visits three times in one night
- Engaging in snowball fight with hooligans
- Salted caramel brownies
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I like this wedding dress. That's all.
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I don't even feel bad that this block of havarti looks exactly like a pound of butter. Or that I ate it all, over the past week. Not bad at all.
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