Let's go to the Ex!

I didn't end up doing any baking last weekend but I did go to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition or simply, "The Ex") with my brother. It was an insanely beautiful day and we had a lot of fun watching some shows, walking around and talking, but most importantly eating all the bad food we could fit into our gullets. After all, the Ex is an EXercise in EXcess :).

As a kid, we went to the Ex a few times but it was never a "thing" like it was for my parents (or Mom specifically), who mark the end of summer with the advertisements for the Ex popping up on TV. For those who don't know, the Ex is essentially a cross between a giant fair and a giant expo. Every year it runs the last two weeks of August, ending on Labour Day. There are rides, games, shows, art exhibits, tonnes to buy, and lots and lots of food. Fried food :).

Nutella Pecan Cookies

I have a confession to make. I don't really like Nutella. You can add it to the list of things that make me a bad Italian. The idea of it never appealed to me as a kid. In fact, I don't even think I actually tried it until I was an adult. Occasionally, I will eat it on toast as a "dessert" but it's not my favourite. As a result, I never have it around, which means I never bake with it. However, a few months ago my friend with the Ferrero connection handed me two jars out of the blue. I managed to make it through one (with a little help) purely on sandwiches and toast, but the other jar's expiry date was quickly approaching and it would go to waste if I couldn't figure out a way to use it. When I found a recipe that used an entire jar from one of my favourite blogs, I had to give it a try.

Austin: Complete

Home

Thoughts: written between the hours of 8PM and 9PM EST.

- Free wireless internet should be mandatory at the airport. People are already tired and cranky from flying and/or waiting, why prevent them from connecting with family? Are you really that hard up for money?

- Not enough people said y'all in Austin. Now that I'm in Georgia, waiting for my connecting flight, I really want someone to call me sugar.

- I wish I was better at randomly striking up conversations with people.

- I waited over five hours for my flight today because I had nothing to do after my meetings. See the first note and the one directly above for more insight.

- I kinda just want to get home.

- When I went out for dinner on Wednesday night, I finally saw someone with a cowboy hat and boots.

- Wanting to see that probably makes me a jerk (the y'all, and sugar thing probably do too).

- Forest Gump is a fantastic movie, sometimes I forget that. It kept me company Monday night when I couldn't sleep.

- Why are jalapeños served with, in, or on-top of nearly everything I ordered in Austin?

- The washrooms in the building I had my training doesn't have automatic faucets, this lead to me standing in front of the sink wondering what was wrong with the water.

- Mary mentioned that I ordered a lot of cold weather food on Sunday despite being so hot. It occurred to me that seasonal food is not a concept for me. The two exceptions are my Grandmother's Italian Wedding soup, only served at Christmas; and eggnog (and that's a drink).

- Speaking of Christmas. A conversation with my instructor about Christmas music made me curious as to the quality of -Christmas dubstep. A quick search lead me to this. Awesome!

Austin: Day Four

Okay I think I'm done. I'm ready to go home. Need to get back to my house and some food that doesn't have jalapeños in it :).

The morning started as my instructor promised with a giant donut, some regular donuts and donuts with hotdogs in them...

What?

Austin: Day Three

Whew! If there was any day that was going to kill me, it was probably going to be today (though I am slightly terrified about tomorrow).

It's only myself and Lidia left in the class, and as relaxed as it was when there were four people, it's even more relaxed now. A bonus of there just being the three of us is that we were able to choose where we would order our lunch from and our instructor prioritized the day appropriately: determine lunch first, then start the lessons :).

We ended up deciding on Mother's Cafe and Garden. It's a vegetarian and vegan place, something i'd never thought I'd eat in Texas, but we all kind of felt like eating a little lighter.

Our menu for the day was spinach salad, a gorgonzola farfalle pasta, and a spinach lasagna (I suppose it's not that light). And to top it off our instructor's sweet tooth suggested that we order the Belgian Chocolate Chip Cake and Almond Mocha Torte. It's vegan food, that means it's super healthy right :)? Besides, we were going to share everything so we didn't need much convincing.

Austin: Day Two

Thoughts:

- Although it's really hot here, I find myself cold more often then not because the AC in our training room hovers somewhere around 0 celsius.

- Everyone that has a thick accent isn't from Texas.

- The downtown core of Austin feels like a real city. They should consider renaming the outskirts :).

- Despite being one of the least masculine straight males around, and relatively non-competitive, I still wanted to crank up the treadmill when another guy got on the one next to me. I didn't need to. He couldn't keep up to my 8 mph pace anyway.

- It's too humid outside.

- The water here smells like wasabi tastes.

- My hotel room has 35 TV channels, 4 of which are ESPN. That's 11 percent of my TV viewing choices dedicated to sports. Why?

- The hotel keeps giving me free mini tubes of toothpaste. I'm hoarding them. Is that wrong?

- I thought I had more thoughts than this, but it seems I've forgotten the rest. Onto food.

Austin: Day One

I woke up nice and early to make sure that I didn't inadvertently sleep though the first day of my training. Apparently it wasn't necessary as it took all of ten minutes to get to my destination. And even though there was enough time, I decided to skip the hotel breakfast, despite the fact that it seemed packed with cereal.

There are only three other people in the training class, everyone seemed quite nice, and my instructor is of the quirky-jokey type, which is good because the material can get kinda dry. To start the day there was some complimentary marble cake, but I passed to simply enjoy my morning coffee. The last thing I needed was that much sugar, not to mention I was still digesting last night's dinner :).

Lunch was provided by a local barbecue place, though I"m not entirely sure which one. For scientific reasons, I made sure to sample all of the offerings: brisket, turkey, sausage, beans, cole slaw, and potato salad. There is a picture of it on my instructors iPhone (because I forgot my camera) that I will try and post later.

Austin: Day Zero

I made it to Austin!

YYZ

Flights were okay, I slept, I read, I watched WALL-E. My quick stop in Detroit didn't allow time to sit down, but I can confirm that construction of Delta City has yet to begin.

Cab ride from the airport was uneventful, but it left me with the initial impression that everything in Austin is too far away with nothing in-between. Oh, and it's too hot.

Check-in at the hotel went easy, the room is nice, much better than the last hotel I stayed in (*cough* Circus Circus *cough*). I asked the girls at the front desk where to eat and they suggested North by Northwest, which lo and behold, Anna also recommended. After checking their menu I determined I was in the mood for meatloaf.

Texas Forever

As I said in my return post I'm being sent to Austin Texas to do some learnin' for my new job. I suppose what I failed to mention is that I am leaving tomorrow.

I'm leaving tomorrow (Sunday).

Maple Syrup News is the Sweetest News: New Grading Standards

While writing up yesterday’s post I came across some interesting information that I figured I’d share because I wasn't aware of it, which is shocking because it's maple syrup news; the only thing more important up here is hockey. Although, fashionable toques is a close third.

It appears that in 2012 the International Maple Syrup Institute (yes, there appears to be such a thing) is attempting to reclassify the grading system for Maple syrup for the 2014 production season. The new classification will unify the grading between Canada and the U.S. (who currently have two completely different systems) as well as take some of the stigma off of the No.1/Grade A vs No. 2/Grade B classification that makes the latter seem like an “inferior product”.

The recommendation is to have two grades of maple syrup: a consumer grade, Grade A, that runs the gamut from Golden to Very Dark and a processing grade, which cannot be sold at retail.

Maple Oatmeal Pie

My return to baking this past weekend led me down the treacherous pie path. Some may remember my problems with pie, more specifically pie crusts, in the past. As well as my eventual triumph. However, it has been quite some time since I've made pastry dough and although I was pretty sure I was going to screw it up, what remained to be seen was how badly.

The answer... not too badly.

Oh, dogs. Sure, I like dags.

One of the things I agonize over the most is whether or not to get a dog. It's something I've gone back and forth on almost everyday for the last year and a half. The idea has become even more prevalent since my friends moved in with their dog Brinkley. Then exacerbated a few weeks ago when my brother got a puppy of his own. He's been obsessed with getting a dog since Ivy died last year. Now he spends nearly every moment of his day working with his puppy; when he's not in school of course, but I'm betting that that's all he thinks about while he's there too.

Granted, there is no way I would get a puppy, way too much work. I definitely don't have the time required to take care of a puppy. I also prefer the idea of adopting a dog, just because. Almost every day I look at the humane society websites to see what dogs are available. There have been a few over the last year that I was really strongly considering, but then almost had a sense of relief when they were adopted by someone else. Maybe that should be my answer?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Yesterday would have begun year three of my blog. Except I don’t think it counts for much when ten months of that year you didn’t post anything. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I wanted to try again. I’m not sure entirely why I stopped in the first place. Partially because I haven’t been baking much (or at all) but also the last seven months have produced more change in my life than perhaps any period of time before.