Well, Hello There!!

Long time no see. To quote Fiona Apple - I've been a bad, bad girl. I haven't put up a post in over 3 weeks! It's not like I've been loafing around, doing nothing. I've been clocking quite a few hours in at the bakery. I was also busy studying and I wrote the test for LCBO's Product Knowledge Level 2 and am waiting for my results. Right after that, my back had a minor flare-up. I'm doing a lot better now, so I have some food photos to show you.

Before I get to that, I was going through some pictures in my camera and found these that I had completely forgotten about. Since it seems to have ceased snowing, (for now anyway) these show us what we can look forward to very, very soon.

I've mentioned before that I live across the street from Lake Ontario and quite often I will take Simon for a walk along the waterfront. We like to watch the geese.

Simon sometimes barks at them, but most of the time he's not too sure of them, so we watch from a distance. They are beautiful (and protected), but they can be Nasty - with the capital n. I wish I'd had my camera when I came home from work the other day. There was a whole gaggle of them on my front lawn, squawking & pooping everywhere. I guess they decided the neighbour's lawn was better because they sauntered over there. They don't care about traffic either. If they decide they want to cross the street, they just go. They're total jay walkers.

Simon loves to walk this pathway at the park. The trees were given as a gift from our twin city Itabashi, Japan. Right now they're leaf-less and everything is still covered in snow.

He stops to sniff a lot along the way. I figure, it's his walk, let him sniff.

Futher down the walkway, just for our convenience....

These, like the leaves, disappear in the wintertime. I took a picture because the sign on the door just cracked me up.

Go with class? Do they mean 'choose us' or go as in "go"? Either way, I thought this was funny on the door of a plastic port-a-potty. Stinky, port-a-potty. Go....and hold your breath. Peewu! When I think outdoor toilet, I don't think class.

That's not a very good segue to food, so before I move on, I'll fill your thoughts with nice things like puppies.

OK, nasty thoughts gone....onto eats.

I still do occasionally eat free-range eggs and made something I haven't made in years - quiche! This is my take on Quiche Lorraine. I call it Quiche Carrie.

Some Lorraine recipes call for onions, some don't, some call for cheese, some don't, so I'm not quite sure which is authentic, but I like onions & cheese, so I include them. I used veggie bacon of course and since neither Jim or I like Swiss cheese, I used cheddar and a bit of mozzarella that I had in the fridge.

This turned out so well, even I was impressed. We had a salad on the side. I picked this wine:

From Fielding, this is a favorite of ours. It's a Sauvignon Blanc that gets a bit of oak aging & it's very delicious. Alas, this was our last bottle of this vintage. The members club Sample & Shop Weekend is coming up & I'm hoping to see the 2007 offered.

Dessert just topped the entire meal. I made Dreena's Sunny Pineapple Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze.

I cannot rave enough about this cake. It is out of this world! Jim really, really liked this and told me so after one bite. He usually doesn't comment too much unless I ask for his opinion, so for him to volunteer his thoughts after the first taste speaks volumes.

It's so moist and delicious. It stayed moist for days afterwards which scores big points for this 2 person household. I served vanilla ice cream on the side, along with steamy mugs of hot chocolate.

I wanted to show you my mug. I got a pair of these as a Christmas gift a few years ago. The picture on them is a Jack Russell! It looks almost as cheeky as Simon does.

I trust you all had a Happy St. Patrick's Day. I made an Irish stew of sorts that I will post about it a couple of days. Until then, Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I'm looking forward to the little mini vacation we get this weekend. Too bad Saturday isn't considered a holiday as well. It would make for a super 4-day long weekend. I also see a chocolate & sugar overload in my very near future. Check out this article for all that is bad in the way of Easter candy. Bring on the Easter Creme Eggs! I would say they are my favorites. I ate one while reading the article about how bad they were for me. (I'm not kidding!)