R.I.P. Tony

This morning at 6:50 am...While at my desk in my home office, reading my work emails

I got the news that Anthony Bourdain passed. That news shook me to the core.

I had never experienced that live of pain for someone I've never met.

I sat there at my desk unable to work anymore, just staring at my keyboard.

Then I got a text: Bourdain is dead! from my friend M.

I don't remember how exactly I heard of Anthony Bourdain....Maybe it was when we got a channel unlock and we got the travel channel....or was it from a book review?

all I know is that he took my culinary knowledge to the next level! I know most of the strange and exotic ingredients because of him and my curiosity.

I watched all the No Reservations episodes, then I found A Cook's Tour, The Layover, Parts Unknown and I read all his books....some multiple times.

I loved his curiosity...He wanted to visit countries we never heard of or did not want to visit....He ate weird stuff, he visited families in their homes and was always appreciative and gracious about it.

He really appreciated the time and effort that was put in a meal.

I loved that he was a load mouth opinionated man that did not care for mediocrity.

His tweets were legendary.

I am so sad for his family, his little girl, his girlfriend...

no little girl should loose her Dad.....

Bye for now

Porky deliciousness and off the bucket list

Some you win and some you loose....

On the winning side: The food trucks are back in Montreal after an absence of 66 years. The mayor who had them outlawed was Jean Drapeau and he found them tacky and unhygienic.

In late May 27 licenses were awarded and the trucks will rotate to 9 designated areas.

I have been very excited ever since their coming was advertised because I have been drooling over the Eat Street tv show.

I have been following their schedule because 2 of their stops are near my job....So last thrusday I chose

Camion Pied de Cochon (Pig's foot truck) which is an offspring of the very famous Pied de Cochon restaurant (Anthony Bourdain's favorite ever).

                               I arrived at 11:05 am just to be sure....

                              I had heard rumours of delays and long lines....

                             

                                Oooh the windows are opened!

                               There is a savoury window and a sweet window.

                               The menu is small but decadent.

                               On the savoury side: The savoury donut; yes you read that right! Instead of a bun you have a donut , and it is split in 2 and stuffed with maple brine pork roast, ham and pig's tongue.
                               Add some ballpark mustard and onions and cheese (extra).
                              I never tasted the tongue....but the harmony of this was fantastic!  It tasted a bit of smoked meat or corned beef.
                             I was wise to bring a green salad from home to complete this; otherwise I would have felt stuffed if had the porky lunch box: The savoury donut, a fois gras poutine,a sweet donut and a maple soda.
                            I will be back to taste some of their other fare...
                           

                                  Porky perfection!

                               Now to remove something from the bucket list....

                               I don't have a big bucket list...I'd like to take Dan to Paris and Italy, 2 places I was lucky enough to visit. But mostly I want to have enough money to pay the bills, renovate the house and put some aside.
                              There are something I've never eaten....Like a chili cheese dog
                              In Quebec those are called Michigans with cheese....
                              I had one last night....

                               
                

Well like my mother used to say....

Nothing to write home about!

The sauce was too acidic, but bun should have been toasted and the dog too.

 

But the fries were fantastic as usual!

 

Be well!

25 on 31 is not that bad!

I'n sure you remember that back at the beginning of the month I undertook the 1:365 picture challenge.

Well I'm happy to say that I posted 25 times in January and that is AMAZING to me!

Here's today's picture taken in December in Massena NY .....

Joy and cheer the McRib is here! And I don't care! Molded processed pork with pretend bones and god knows what in it don't float my boat!

But the sign sure cracked me up!

Do you watch 'The Taste' ? I hope to see my friend Anthony freak out, but he can't totally be himself  because he is on network tv! Oh well.

'night night faithful readers....

Did you know?

While I was out of work I really explored my Pyrexia and was a total Flickr NUT! I'm even one of the moderator of Pyrex in Action

But since I started working ....not so much. I had times when I didn't even see the point.

In the last few weeks I've experienced a renewal and I go visit nearly every day.

Today I wanted to bask in the glory of Delphite and re-found this....

A beautiful galery in Flickr Mind Hive....sigh, all those pics make my heart all a flutter

Check it Out . And yes I will toot my own horn, a lot of those pics are mine!!!

                                                            Pyrex in the snow

It was quite an adventure! Hauling all the Delphite outside and to be careful not to make marks in the snow. Well it certainly made for beautiful pictures!

 A spot of tea?

 I've said it before and I'll say it again a thousand times : the color really gets to me. How come Corning never reproduced that same shade in the U.S? Well I guess we'll never know (seeing the non-existance of their archives...).

So take 5 and go explore Flickr you'll never know what you'll find!

Now I want to welcome my 2 new followers, 209 WOW! Now as I usually do if I can find who my followers are, I will visit. But The way Blogger is and the way the accounts are set up....some people don't have pictures, some people have the same names....well you get the picture.

Now I was very surprised to be followed by a person that has a 'private blog', you need to be invited to read this blog. Now tell me what kind of secrets do you share in there? Are you afraid of internet nuts, yes they are a plenty and they know who they are.
I'm curious, I want to know. It makes me feel awkward that you can read mine and you won't show me yours.
It's not like I want to see your privates!

Last year a blog I'd been following for ages (3 internet years is even longer than Hollywood years) went 'private' all of a sudden. That really saddened me. Heck that lady shared recipes, why go private?

Was somebody oogling your meatballs, stroking your crockpot? it's a mystery...

Why not just stop blogging at that URL and start another blog?

Well it's time to go beddybye, I wanted to squeeze something about Anthony Bourdain, but i'm afraid it won't make sense, so until next time Tony, I can't wait to hear off-color jokes in another country.

Cover up it will be cold tonight in my neck of the woods...Now where are my footsie pjs?

Sometimes I feel like.....

A Manwhich of course! Well I did, but no more. I just had one. On a piece of spelt toast. It's all about the shopping in my own pantry, fridg and freezer.

I purchased said can of Manwhich last time I visited a Target store last September and I saw a shelf full of these....

I don't know what came over me but I had to buy it! It must have been the 'One full serving of vegetables' on the label. Fast, easy and healthy! Sounds like a winning combination to me!

It was not! What I ate would've given a coronary to Anthony Bourdain, not for the fat content but for the what's in this crap content!

It was acid, so I added sugar, flat so I added sriraccha, and just where were those veggies??? I added garlic and green peppers, but nothing helped it. It feels like a liter of lava sloshing in my stomach. Yikkes! I need some Tums STAT!

It's safe to say that the leftovers will be transformed in a chili? Mexican lasagna? Don't know yet....

Truth be told when I bought that can I was fulfilling a childhood food fantasy....Manwhich sauce was created in 1969. My parents watched mostly american television and back then we had american commercials, so I saw the Manwhich spot a lot! I knew better than to ask my mom to buy it while on vacation, she would have none of it.

Now I can declare : Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, had indigestion!  

Next time I eat a sloppy joe, it will be homemade....yes I bet I have all the fixings in that pantry of mine!

P.S: I'm shopping in my closet too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best year ever! May all your dreams come true but mainely may you be healhty and happy.
May you realize that happiness lies in the most unexpected places and in everyday things.

Joy is coming home after a hard day's work, seeing little furry faces. Noticing a new bloom on a plant, clean flannel sheets, a warm meal, laughing with your sweetie, a drawer full of socks still warm from the dryer.

I know, I know I wrote that I was going to post yesterday but I was in couch potato mode BIG TIME!

I read, I ate, I watched tv, then Dexter....We need to watch season 4's last episode and Dan is a total wuss so your guess is as good as mine when we'll be watching it.

Today I cooked the turkey that was still frozen yesterday...I rubbed it all over with bacon grease, salt and pepper, it was delicious! We have plenty of leftovers and I'm thankfull for that.

I'm working tomorrow and I love to be prepared. Some cooked food in the fridg; I.E: cooked turkey, mushroom risotto and pumpkin soup. The wash is all done, my lunch is ready, my cereal is in a Tupperware with dried fruit, I have snack size baggies with pumpkin seeds, vitamins and jasmine tea bags. I just need to wake up, drink coffee and shower! SWEET!

We cleaned out the crap/tool/craft closet and it should be more organised....A work in progress!

The Danmeister is on vacation this week and I've heard promises of painting and door building.....We'll see lol!

I anted to participate in a 365 picture project, but I didn't take any today :(

Here's the one I took yesterday

I'm still trying to work out the Iphone pictures...but I'm not so crazy about them.

Dan thinks that I developped an unhealthy obsession with Anthony Bourdain...What can I say? I got 2 of his dvds for Xmas. We had a marathon on Travel channel and I can watch him on my Iphone for free when in the comfort of my own WIFI. Like I told Dan: I love traveling with that crazy guy with the dry wit and potty mouth.

I'm sure we could hang out all together if we would meet.

His episodes about Quebec and Montreal really cracked me up!

Well until next time.....

Thank you for all your good wishes! Hugs and kisses to all ;)     

Monday Mish Mash

I've been having this....

On my mind lately....

and

this...

Yep some fried seafood....It would do mama some good!

Next week at this time I will be walking on the beach...Oh yeeeesssss!

But right this minute I'm making blackberry jam, yum! And running around trying to get everything ready for fall. Like close the pool, pool girl was busy this weekend! And ripping up the vegetable garden, this was a bad season for tomatoes! I have only a dozen and they're still green.

The edamame yield was better than last year and it's all frozen for future meals and snacks, I have 3 batches of pesto in the freezer and a last one on the way. The cukes were great and so were the cherry tomatoes. The lettuce was terrible, oh well! It happens!

I realized that I had a photo album full of recipes I have never tried! So I read them all yesterday and decided to chuck the book and make some room for all the free ones I found.

I'm catching up on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain  and I must admit he's not as bad as I first thought, in fact he's quite entertaining and makes me travel cheaply! Thank you for visiting Dubai, it's certainly a curiosity and now I know I will never go! Too hot,dry,dusty and I would spend the whole trip saying that they wasted their money on stupid things like the indoor ski resort. Imagine all the money and ressources wasted to operate this place!

I give nicknames a lot to people, sometimes it's upfront and sometimes it's nasty business behind their backs it depends on the case. Now my latest creation is 'Plastic Face' and the recipient of it is Leah Miller host of SYTYCD Canada. Leah is 29 years old and between seasons she had so much plastic surgery she looks frozen in time. I think it makes her look like an older Holywood actress trying to hold on desesperatly to her youth (Read that Mary-Louise Parker? with you vending machine nose?). Leah you ARE young, lay off the plastic surgery! You will so regret it later in life.

Ok about the vending machine nose...it seems that ALL the actresses go to the same plastic surgeon and he only knows how to make one nose! Watch tv and you will agree!

As you may or may not know; I take country line dancing lessons. It is great fun and great exercise!

 Since we learn at least one dance each week, sometimes my brain turns to mush and I get all the dances mixed up; so I turn to Youtube as a learning tool. Yep all the dances I've learned so far are in there; so I watch them and learn and unscramble my brain.

Of all the videos I've watched most are of all asian women dancing, line dancing must be really big over there....Here's a taste!

That is a fun dance but a terrible song! Tennesse Waltz surprise, shhisshhh! Most of the words are in german, the rest in english and every body LOVES that song. So I didn't sleep well last night all I could think of was that stupid song! LOL

And last but not least let's celebrated fall with this....

Pyrex, fall and pumpkin; how cute is that???

Have a great week, faithful readers! :)

New Guilty Pleasure

I hated him and I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t resist watching…
an episode…than another,
and another and before you could say tourtiere avec sirop d’érable (French Canadian
meat pie with maple syrup, it is quite good by the way) I was mesmerized, I was under
his spell....

I was an Anthony Bourdain’s fan. I found him so abrasive and so full of himself. But now I find funny and let's face it the guy will eat anything, mostly.
 
He actually makes me want to go to Istanbul and eat meat on a stick...But forget about Panama, too hot,too humid, too much ceviche....
 
Here's a taste
 




You may or may not like him but his show is sure entertaining! I bet he would get along with my Dad who'll eat just about anything and ate snake in China.

Today I'm looking forward to the church basement (Please Thrifting Gods be generous with the treasures and I hope the drum lampshades are still there) and also

Drumroll please!

I'm starting a new job today! yes I am! And I'm really excited of course, I'll be working at the postal counter at my local Shopper's Drug Mart. No crazy commute!

Have a great day and come back tomorrow for some Vintage Thingy Thrusday!