Showing posts with label Byward Market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Byward Market. Show all posts

Saturday, 13 July 2013

Hunter-Gathering and Moths.

It's a hot evening in Ottawa, so I decided to enjoy as much of it as I can and I sat out reading on the balcony tonight. Once it started to get dark, I got smart. I turned on the lamp just inside my balcony door and left the blinds open so the lamp lit the balcony and I was able to continue reading. I had a few mosquitoes come and bother me (and have a bite on my ankle to show for it) but that was about it. Finally I decided to come inside. I'd just got all my stuff inside and closed the balcony door when I turned and saw a giant moth flying through my living room. Crap. I followed it into my bedroom. I turned on my hall light hoping it would attract the moth, no such luck. So then I got my swiffer and decided to try to chase it back into the living room. Now I don't know if I actually hit it or just scared the bejesus out of it, but suddenly it took off, bounced off the bedroom wall then bounced off the ceiling in the hall, the then wall and then back into my bedroom, off my dresser and under my bed. And I haven't seen the fucker since. I just stood there and watched in disbelief. I tried putting out a few items from under the edge of my bed to see if it was there (2 pairs of running shoes and some dirty laundry) but no moth. I don't know where the hell it went. Maybe it's dead. Maybe it's hiding. Maybe it's made a new home in the underside of my mattress. I have no friggin' idea. Stupid moth. I've turned off the bedroom light and am hoping that it will come out on its own and head for the lights in the living room and kitchen. Funny thing is, had it been a spider, I would have tore the bed frame apart looking for it. A rouge moth, I'm kind of ok with.

I had a rather nice day today. It was hot and sunny but not too humid. There was a nice breeze which helped things out too. I did one of my favourite things today. I went to the Byward Market and got lots of fresh, local produce and meats. There's something so very relaxing and wholesome about doing that. I don't know if it's due to the fact that as a kid and into my early teens I spent most Saturdays helping out in a HUGE garden so I'm used to being around fresh produce or maybe it's something even more primal than that. Maybe it's a throw back to the hunter/gatherer days and going out to get fresh food is one of those basic things engraved on our DNA. Either way, I love doing it and it makes me happy when I get to cook it all up too. Tonight I had a very tender NY strip steak with 2 cobs of corn (first of the season) which actually had a lot of flavour to them for being the first of the season. I was quite impressed. All the vitamin D I soaked up probably helped my happy state too. And the frozen yogurt. That made me pretty damn happy as well.

I'm not sure if it was all the fresh air I got today or the 3/4 of a can of Pear Cider I drank earlier, but I'm rather sleepy now. I think I'll go and take one last look around for the moth and the call it a night.

Oh! And my hand/wrist is feeling much better and it doesn't really hurt to type anymore :)

Good Night!

Sarah

My haul from this afternoon's trip.

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Ooopsie!

It would appear that I'm getting a little forgetful as of late. As in I've forgotten to blog for two nights in a row now. I think I might have been tired.

I remember there I didn't blog Friday sometime Saturday while I was walking to the grocery store. I realized that I didn't blog last night while brushing my theeth before bed. At that point I'd already shut down my computer and turned the lights off and really didn't have the energy to fire everything up again so I said screw it. And here I am now.

My first day back at work on Friday was actually a really good day. People were genuinely happy to see me and Xtina, the new HR Casual had managed to get almost everything sorted out and organized so I was able to focus on the things that I had to do. So all in all, it was a pretty stress free day. Next week shouldn't be too bad either. I'm filling in for one of the finance ladies for the week, so one of our staff is filling in for me. I'll be on the same floor as everyone, just a different section. I might be able to hide from the chaos, which is fine by me!

Yesterday was an awesome day. The sun was out and it made everything look so crisp and beautiful. I opted to walk to Farm Boy (a local grocery store chain that prides itself on carrying fresh, local supplies) which is several blocks away instead of going across the street to Metro. It turned out to be a very nice walk in the sun and I got some very yummy things. After lunch, I ventured downtown to the Market. I hit up the Italian store and got some amazing sauce (wood oven roasted garlic tomato sauce) and a Canoli. I've never had one before. They're incredible. I don't know how I've never had one. So good. I then went to the butcher shop and got nitrate free sausages which went into the pasta I made last night, some double smoked bacon which I'm going to try this morning and a piece of marinated pork tenderloin which I'm having for dinner. After that, I went to LUSH and got some more of my favourite lip balm, one of their sugar scrubs and a bath melt (it smells so yummy and makes your bath water a pretty shade of pink). I couldn't get over how many people were at the BeaverTail stand when I walked by. As popular as ever, which is a good sign.

My last bit of shopping was buying a new pair of slippers on my way to back through the mall, en route to the bus.

After shopping, I met up with my buddy Xtinktor for coffee. Starbucks was too crowded so we got our drinks and headed to the mall to sit. We had a nice chat and visit, talking about our holidays and families and of course, talking about music. That's probably the one thing that we talk about most. It was nice to visit and the caffeine kick was very welcome.

Finally I made it home and started dinner. It was very, very good. I love the sauce I bought. I'm going to have to go back and get more. LOL. I think it's one of those things that everyone should have several jars of on hand, just in case.

I should get moving and get some tea or coffee into me. I bought a bunch of loose K-Cups when I was at home so I could try some new flavours. It's fun testing them out. I need to make breakfast and get on with my day too. I do love quiet Sundays. I'm going to attempt to clean and re-organize the kitchen today. Wish me luck!

Have a good day!

Sarah

We got lots of snow!


Sunday, 23 September 2012

Elvis, Roy Orbison and A Flock of Seagulls

It's currently 12:34am. I am awake, thanks in part to the bottle of diet Pepsi and bag of M&Ms that I've been nursing for the last 2 hours. A co-worker lent me "Snow White and the Huntsman". Horrible movie. I very much disliked it. It is cool to see Charlize Theron as the evil queen. She did a good job. And Chris Hemsworth is easy on the eyes. But the rest of it...so not worth the 2+ hours. I ended up past forwarding through a lot of the final battle scenes because I just wanted it to end. "Mirror, Mirror" with Julia Roberts definitely gets my vote for the Snow White movie of 2012.

Anyhow, it was an interesting day. I braved the shitty weather (which actually cleared up a bit) to venture downtown to the market. With today (ok, yesterday at this point) being the first day of autumn, I was inspire to cook and if you're going to do it right, you need the best ingredients available. So a trip to the market to get fresh and local food stuffs was the order of the day.

I got celery for $1. A mixed bag of onions, potatoes and carrots for $5 (about a half quart of each), a turnip for $1, a head of broccoli for $1 and 2 heads of cauliflower for $1.50. I think I did well. I also hit up the Italian store for some hard to find pasta and special canned tomatoes and lucked out. The cheese I needed was on sale there so I grabbed it too. I got some freshly made turkey and apple sausages from the butcher and a trip to the Sushi place for lunch rounded out my market experience.

On the way back, that's when things got entertaining. While waiting for the bus, I noticed a man in an electric wheelchair. The thing was, he kept getting up out of the chair, would talk to his buddy, walk around and then sit back down. He did this about 3 times. He eventually turned towards where I was and that's when I saw his shirt. It said "Elvis Presley Roy Orbison Impersonator". And wouldn't you know it, the dude did look a little like Elvis (over weight, old Elvis). Sideburns and all. Some ladies stopped to ask him if a certain bus had passed and they thanked him by saying "Thank you. Thank you very much" and then laughed hysterically. They then took a photo with said Elvis/Roy impersonator, who once again got out of his wheelchair for the photo op. Odd indeed.

After I got home and had lunch, I had to run to the grocery store to pick up the few things that I didn't get in the market. On the way home, I could hear some seagulls making quite the fuss. I live close enough to the river that the seagulls are around. The fact that there's a Wendy's across the street and the woman 2 houses down feeds the damn things, keeps them around. Anyhow, I had just made it across the street when 4 seagulls came flying out from the front lawn of my apartment building and swooped over me, low enough that I had to duck. The lead seagull had half a bagel in its beak. That explains all the fussing. The 4 stupid gulls then proceeded to circle around and chase one and other at a rather low altitude. I guess the bagel was heavy. Stupid birds. Thankfully I managed to get inside my apartment building before I got shit on, so that was good.

For dinner I made a lovely soup. You can read all about it and get the recipe in my new blog: Cooking Shenanigans This blog is strictly for my kitchen adventures (or misadventures, of which, there are many). You know, one blog wasn't keeping me busy enough. LOL.

Thankfully I get to sleep in tomorrow. With my luck, I'll wake up at 6 or 7 and not be able to fall back to sleep.

I think it's bed time. Good Night!

Sarah

Taken in St. Stephen, NB in 2006



Sunday, 26 August 2012

Just An Ordinary Day

I had a very lovely day today. I ventured down to the Byward Market for their sidewalk sale. I got some special "healing" bath salts for 30% off so that was nice. My buddy Xtinktor came with me as he needed something from the Apple store. It was great having someone to chat with and to carry my heavy veggies for me. LOL. I hit up the Italian market and got some very nice Capicola ham and Spicy Pancetta to put on the pizza I made tonight. I also picked up fresh cauliflower, peaches, blueberries, potatoes and corn. I love having access to a farmer's market. It really is a wonderful thing.

For dinner I made pizza, including the dough from scratch. Sort of ran into a problem there. I use 1 cup of whole wheat and 1/2 cup of white flour in my recipe. I don't have any white flour right now, so I substituted some gluten free all purpose flour....big mistake. LOL. The dough rose but the texture was off and it wouldn't stretch properly, thanks to the missing gluten. Oops. I was able to press it out flat on a cookie sheet and continued on. It tasted just fine.  Live and learn, right?

I watched "Back to the Future 3" this evening. I love those movies. Xtinktor and I were talking about older movies today, specifically Ghost Busters (another classic) and the Indiana Jones series. Why can't they make movies like those anymore? Ok, the 4th Indiana Jones was more recent and there's supposed to be a Ghost Busters in the works but there nothing quite like those anymore. Sigh. Maybe I'm just feeling old. Actually, I said something today that made me feel old. I said "I can remember watching that on VHS". Damn.

Can't say I really have much on my mind tonight. The double chocolate cupcake and glass of wine that I had earlier seem to have cleared out my brain for the time being :) I was thinking about how nice it would be to have someone to cuddle with while I was watching the movie tonight, but then I was hot and decided that I would have just been hotter with someone next to me so why bother? Yeah. I'm blaming that thought process on the wine. Might account for why I was being warm too.

Ok, enough rambling. I need to get me some shut eye.

Good Night!

Sarah