Camping and tubing

Jenn and I are going camping at Elora Gorge this weekend with a few of her friends. We are looking forward to the maiden voyages of our tent, camp stove and solar lantern. Plus the weather is supposed to be great. Elora Gorge is about 45 minutes North of us. As the name suggests there is a fairly large gorge with some mild rapids below. The best part is that you can rent tubes for the day to ride “the rapids” and a shuttle picks you up to take you back to the headwaters afterward.

Last weekend I attempted to make a soufflé for the first time but to turn a phrase, “it fell flat”. It was a crab soufflé. I accidently got a little yolk in with the egg whites so they did not stiffen properly despite my beating the heck out of them. It still tasted alright but it never rose the way a soufflé should. However I am undeterred and plan on making a chocolate soufflé next weekend. My potato latkes on the other hand turned out sublime. They were sooo delicious with syrup.

There is busker festival going on in Waterloo today and I was thinking that I might leave early today to see what there is to see.

Doctor do I smell burnt toast?

Thought I would start rolls yesterday in the bread maker before I left for the lab so that when I got home they would be ready. Ah the best laid plans. Little did I know when I got home Jenn had placed them in the oven to rise. And me being the blockhead I am, I forgot to check in the oven before turning it on to heat up a baked potato. Since the rolls were covered in a tea towel they went up in flames! But despite the rolls being dense burnt nuggets they were still quite good if you cut off the singed portion.

Jenn and I are actually getting much better at tennis. We can actually keep a volley going for a longer than a blink now. Plus we have finally managed to get back out biking again. My tire tube had a puncture which I fixed only to realize I had another puncture. But my patch jobs seem to be holding well.

I have yet another conference which I am preparing for now. Dr. Lee asked me the evening before the abstract submission deadline. So I spent a very late night writing that. But I finished it and will be attending the Aquatic Toxicologists Workshop at University of Toronto in October.

Tomorrow I am going to try my hand at making a crab soufflé. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Hope you are all having a sunny week because we are!

-Robbie

Zebras, lions, wallabies, spider monkeys, giraffes, hippos, rhinos…

A couple weekends ago Jenn and I decided to visit the Toronto Zoo and the African Lion Safari. Our favourite animals were the spider monkey, the black leopard, the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and lions. We also had the opportunity to see an elephant show while at the safari and Jenn has said she will get me one for Christmas. I’m not holding my breath. Anyway, pictures speak louder than words and we took lots. Enjoy!

 

 

Grand Bend and Burns

Last weekend Rob and I took a drive up to Grand Bend which is North West of Kitchener on the edge of Lake Huron.  It is known for its beautiful sandy beaches and the warm waters of the lake and it definitely lived up to its reputation!  The weather was great, nice and sunny with a strong breeze which made it deceptively cool.  The water was amazingly comfortable and easy getting in and the waves were huge!  They were bigger than any waves I’ve swam in at New River Beach and continuously pounded the shore line and everything (everyone) in the way.  I have never seen Robbie have so much fun as he did that day.  He must have spent a good 3-4 hours jumping and diving over the waves, he is like a fish!  I also enjoyed the waves and I had piece of mind as there were no jelly fish, clumps of seaweed or other notable sea creatures to be seen which I have always been very conscious of when swimming on the beaches of PEI and NB.  Despite this ease I could not compete with Robbie for time spent in the water and quite enjoyed reading a book on the beach.  I am now suffering from a bad (both in severity and stupid looking) sun burn on my legs despite multiple sun screen applications and am now thinking that I should only read at home, in the shade, or with pants.  Lesson learned; obviously in this day and age blonde people require 100 spf and must apply every 15 minutes!  We were both totally exhausted by the time we got home from battling the sun and waves but we are already planning on going back again sometime soon!

        

 

Here are also some pictures of my flower pots that I planted and keep out on our patio!

       

Picnic & BBQ

Jenn and I enjoyed a delicious picnic in the park on Thursday evening with one of my friends from school, her daughter and Mom. I made crab and cream cheese tortilla roll-ups  and we brought chips and watermelon while my friend Sophia brought some rosemary chicken, canola greens, mango and homemade bread. Every Thursday night during the summer they put on a free concert followed by a movie on a giant inflatable screen. This weeks movie was Percy Jackson and the Olympians the Lightning Thief. However we didn’t stay for the whole movie as it started to drizzle out and we had seen the movie before. I’d give it only three stars anyway.

                              

Last night we went to my friend Richelle’s place for her annual summer BBQ and the cheeseburgers were delicious. We played some new dice game that I really enjoyed followed by a guitar jam session in the living room. Richelle’s husband plays in a band and we are planning on going to see him play at a local watering hole tomorrow night.

In other news, Jenn’s ring arrived this week, but unfortunately she has to send it back to get resized as it was a tad too big. So she won't be getting it back for another 3 weeks or so. I tried to snap a picture of it but it came out a little blurry.

                                          

Today, I spent five hours in the kitchen cooking a labour intensive but delicious meal. I made homemade rolls, blueberry pie, quiche Lorraine, a pastry cinnamon roll, a cauliflower casserole, orange juiced pork chops and crunchy potato balls. I was hot and tired and the kitchen was a disaster by the time I was done but  Mom’s pastry recipe turned out superb. My only complaint would be that the orange juice was a little too concentrated in the pork chops. I did them in the slow cooker with undiluted O.J. from concentrate along with several other ingredients as the recipe called for.

                                           

I’ll leave you with a picture a gaggle of geese that decided they wanted to cross the road in front of us the other day.

                                        

Birthday ribs and raspberry trifle!

So another birthday gone by and I had a great day minus the four hours I spent in the lab. But following that Jenn and I took part in Kitchener’s annual beer and ribfest. It was a hot humid day but Kitchenerites were out in numbers. The line to get beer tokens was ridiculously long and as we had tried all of the craft beers before anyway, we decided to beeline it over to the ribs! Each of the six rib vendors had their trophies set out on tables from previous years ribfest winnings from across the province. Although the ribs were a little pricy at 9.00$ per 1/3 rack, they were delicious. I didn’t even care that my face was smeared with rib sauce.

 

Following ribfest, Jenn and I played some Frisbee in the park. We have been playing a lot of Frisbee and tennis lately. I’m the better Frisbee player but she is the better tennis player. The best part of the day was the massive raspberry trifle she had made for desert. It was delicious. So delicious in fact that I had it for breakfast the next day. As you can see, despite it’s size, it is already half gone.

Here is a picture of the beautiful wine rack that she got me. It is already full!

Aaaaand Jenn’s ring should finally be arriving next week. It was originally supposed to be 14k gold but was upgraded to platinum at no additional cost because that is all that they make that setting in. Here are some pictures of the ring I originally picked for her, but it’s profile was a little to high. The ring she picked, the diamond is flush with the band.

Beer n’ Ribfest

As the title suggests, it is Kitchener’s annual Beer and Ribfest this evening. Jenn’s friend Liz and her new paramour who also happens to be named Robbie are going to meet us for the event which will host a number of Ontario craft breweries and specialty rib vendors. Best of all it will be outdoors in Victoria Park with live jazz entertainment.

I finally got around to cooking-up the alligator filet that has been frozen in our freezer for 3 months. This past weekend I made Cajun style alligator jambalaya. It was good but I found the flavour of the alligator underwhelming. It was a little bland. Luckily I had also added some spicy sausage we bought at the market which livened the dish. I also made lamb chops in the slow cooker which even Jenn loved despite her apparent dislike of meat or dairy associated with sheep or goat.

Last night she and I attended a tri-birthday party potluck. Two of my lab mates were having birthday as well. We made spanakopita again as we had phyllo pastry left over from when we made it at Christmas and I must say this was probably our best batch. Practice must make perfect.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Louis Tussauds Wax museum at Niagara falls. See if you can recognize the celebrities :)