Charcuterie

It’s been an odd summer, but at least the temperatures have finally levelled out. I haven’t been outside too much this year with all the rain and killer heat, and as a result my bike still hasn’t left the shed. The Honey and I can’t complain about the rain because our garden looks fabulous this year. 

The last of our lillies finally finished and now our coneflowers are in full bloom. Our roses are steller and the envy of those walking by. Finally, our garden is doing well!!!

I’ve been going out for walks too because I am newly unemployed again (don’t feel sad, because I’m not). When I left the school behind I wasn’t without a job for long. A little café was looking for a baker and I wanted to learn more about the business and they hired me. It was rocky at the beginning – recipes not written down properly, mistakes in the recipes (then mistakes with what I made). I felt out of my comfort zone so I was also a quieter person and as a result a colleague, who thought he was the gift to the world, wasn’t very nice to me. I let it slide most of the time because I didn’t care about him in the least and even though I wanted to put him in his place, I didn’t. The Honey says I can be a bitch to people sometimes and it was a new job so I wanted to make a good impression. The guy obviously thought I was there because I needed a job – HA!! My position, their full-time baker, was an experiment and it turns out they didn’t really need someone full-time. I was there to learn about the business and I wasn’t really learning that much. The Honey was surprised when I came home after my second shift and told him all the things they were doing wrong (The staff were all wearing flip flops! How is that not a health and safety issue?!) and how it needed to be corrected. It had been many years since I’ve worked in hospitality, but shouldn’t the owners know better than me?

So it’s not a loss. My walks have given a chance to reflect and decide what I’m going do and how. I do have some plans and they’ll keep me occupied. For the last two years I’ve missed most of summer so I plan to enjoy it while I can.

A friend from back home (and the only one I’ve kept as a friend) came to visit for the long weekend because she needed a break from her life and her kids. As much as she loved them, she needed a holiday. We spent the weekend wandering around the city, popping into shops, eating our way through neighbourhoods. We discovered that Oh So Good in the market and Lapointes in Westboro have gf cake available, and they both were really good.

Our dinner plans went a little awry due to the crazy rainclouds/sunshine on Sunday giving my friend a killer headache. I had my heart on trying a restaurant in the market and seeing how disappointed I was, The Honey took me there. Brothers Beer Bistro has 3 gluten-free beers available so I figured they would be able to accommodate a celiac. They can with some effort switching things up and with the patience of our waiter, they did and it was worth it. Next time I’ll make a reservation just to make it easier on everyone. Our waiter was so kind and helpful and he did everything possible to make sure the food was safe for me (even the butter had beer in it), but knowing in advance would have saved him endless trips to the kitchen. This place will be ‘a treat’ to go to because BSG is one of my favourites and at $9 each, our bill grew quickly.

One of the items we had was charcuterie – a plate with cheese, meat and a few pickled items. It seemed really cool and we enjoy the selection. I was on my own Monday evening so I made myself another. With some special elk kielbasa from Elk Ranch and elk, cranberry, & apple sausages from Bearbrook Farm I felt like I was in for a treat in my own living room. I had a bottle of St Peter’s G-Free left and some white cheddar (oddly from Ikea) and made myself a stunning little plate. Sadly though the dill pickles I picked up at Herbfest were mushy and disappointing.

As I was finishing up my board I realized something. Charcuterie is much like an average Polish meal. I grew up eating something very similar to this (sans Dijon mustard), but in my mom’s Polish family we called it ‘lunch’.

And Bamm!

Well, it finally happened. I got sick. The Honey got a sore throat a week ago and it snowballed from there. He finally felt better last Monday, thanks in part to Caesar salad dressing kicked up with a tonne of garlic. However, the garlic didn’t ward off the sore throat that was beginning to be felt for me and the following morning it was in full force. Otherwise I felt alright so I trekked off to work. Within the hour I had a pain between my eyes, a heavy head, an itchy nose, and sore muscles. I knew it wasn’t my allergies as I had been taking those tablets for weeks (and they were wreaking havoc on my arthritis meds). I came home from work knowing that I probably wouldn’t be there the following day (and thankfully my bosses are understanding). Upon arriving home I gave my flower pots a quick water and noticed how well some of our plants are doing.

Ever since we moved to our new house and brought our peonies with us, they haven’t bloomed. We had a bud last year, but nothing materialized. Ironically, the scraggly ones popping up from the other side of the fence have one blossom each every year. This year, our plants have so many buds (and ants are crawling on them!) so my hopes are now set high (note: we now have three nice big blooms).

Our clematis is also doing phenomenal. Again, since we moved it, the four plants barely made it a foot tall. As of today they are climbing the trellis’ (trelli? pl?) with a vengeance. The Honey and I are floored.

Once inside I just wanted something to eat. I needed something in my stomach after a day of not eating much. I had a quiche in the fridge, but my tummy wouldn’t handle the eggs. I needed some toast and there were some avocados perfectly ripe in the fruit bowl.

I also had my eye one something to soothe my throat. I have a bottle of something special for those particular winter nights that warms me up from the inside out. For me, it’s an indulgence and why I don’t mind the hefty price tag. It’s so smooth and perfect for a sore throat. Only one hitch: it was 4:15. I have no problems uncorking a bottle of wine or uncapping a beer/cider at noon, but somehow this was different. Maybe because I was going to be under a blanket on the couch and in a horrible state. Later in the evening I did pour myself a bit and as always it tasted delicious and my throat instantly felt better. Maybe I should have poured a glass earlier.

Spring Has Sprung

Life in our house has been pretty calm and quiet, and we’re quite pleased. All too often The Honey and I found ourselves exhausted and full of guilt because instead of doing something, eating healthy, or tidying up what was dumped at the front door, we found ourselves on the couch watching T.V (sometimes even falling asleep early). Our change in mood can partly be explained by the change in weather. Longer days and warmer temperatures mean that we’ve got the windows open and are outside more often. Also, since leaving teaching I’ve had more energy and a desire to do something. The couch no longer beckons me from the front upon arriving home.

Without the long hours of my job I was able to see my garden break the soil, begin to bloom and see the cycle of growth. Although such a small thing, it is so enjoyable especially since the last two years have been “Oh the tulips are in blooms” and being completely unaware of what was happening outside my ever-shrinking world of teaching/managing.

As the evenings have been warming up we’ve been going out for more walks. It has been a bit challenging this year as the river was much higher than usual and the path was flooded in many spots. As we near the end of May some trees and benches are still submerged and we can see how much it has come down in recent weeks (If you look closely, you can see the different colours on the rock marking the high levels).

We’ve been enjoying the blossoms in the neighbourhood. Most days I could smell the lilacs inside the house from across the street. The fragrance was so uplifting.

On one of our walks I couldn’t help smiling at a tree covered in lush white blossoms resulting in the tree looking like a giant q-tip. The Honey thought I was crazy, but with winter getting me so down, it was finally nice to have something so minute make me smile.

We’re always on the lookout for bunnies and we finally saw a small family – a few little ones and a parent. The kitts were so small they took my breath away.

We were also pleased to see some goslings on our weekend walk. We’ve been expecting them for weeks, but with the water so high and moving so quickly in our neighbourhood we understand the delay (although there are a few broods at The Honey’s work). Here there were four small broods so we just stood around in Saturday’s cold wind and watched and listened (I love the sound of them nibbling the grass. It’s so calming).

We’ve also been keeping an eye on a pair of birds in our backyard. A pair of starlings took over the woodpecker’s treehouse and their eggs hatched last week. The parents have been going back and forth with food (leaving quite the mess at the foot of our tree in the process) and the young have been growing and getting more adventurous. They began popping their heads up for a quick glimpse then on Sunday their tiny heads began popping out for longer looks, sometimes when mom isn’t there.

Although starlings are not our favourite birds, we have enjoyed seeing the process (the excitement for the pair when they found the woodpecker’s hole was ridiculous). We expect flying lesson to begin this weekend. Unfortunately, the starlings have kept away the other birds that ventured to our yard. The songs of robins and cardinals can only be heard from a distance. Still enjoyable, but not as much as when they are outside your window/door (although something was happily singing away at 3:30 this morning).

So while I have been quiet here, my life has been picking up and being enjoyed more.

Keep Calm

With me saying ‘bye bye’ to teaching recently I have had quite a bit of time on my hands. I’ve been catching up on my sleep and I’ve come to realize that my body is quite exhausted. Going to bed early and struggling to get up in the morning even though it is late shows that I have been very sleep deprived and my body needs time to rejuvenate. My naturopath reminded me that it will take time and I shouldn’t expect to bounce back after a few days of unemployment. I’m trying to eat better and working on things around the house. I sorted through most of my basement, the kitchen is fairly clean and laundry is on track. No more baskets sitting around and clothes on the drying rack for days on end. My biggest task will be to tackle our (and I mean ‘my’) bookshelves. The Honey has complained quite often that he feels overwhelmed and suffocated by my books. It is a little extreme and I sympathize with him. I’ve been feeling the same way lately and sadly, half of what I own is for work.

Unlike ESL schools outside Ottawa (and I’m generalizing here), the schools I’ve worked for here have had minimal materials available for teachers to use. There are the core texts and that’s really about it. A few schools have a shelf with some decent material, but it’s rare. Compare to overseas where the teacher’s room would have a wall of bookshelves with resource material for the using and borrowing. Maybe I was spoiled and worked for good schools, but coming back to Ottawa always left something to be desired. Every time I attended a conference, travelled/worked overseas, or ventured to Montreal/Toronto, I would return home with a bag of great books.

But now that I’m not teaching, what to do with them? A friend and I talked about this a few years ago when she left teaching to stay home with her kids. She didn’t want to get rid of them in case she went back to work. They were good materials and resources so she didn’t want to give them away or sell them if she was going to need them again in the future. Now that I have left teaching, temporarily at least, I don’t want to give them away or instantly get rid of them. There are some I have never opened or are resources I know I’ll never use again and they’ve been given to friends who are still teaching and can use them. But the others…? For those who have bought ESL material, they know how expensive it is. While it is less expensive overseas (especially in the UK) because material seems so readily available, the cost still adds up. And at a conference in T.O, I can easily drop a few hundred dollars when the average book costs $60.

 

So in the meantime, while I think of what to do, I’ll be going through my books and decide what to keep and what to pass onto friends. My business plan and research for opening an ESL school is already in a labelled box in the basement. Having been on a shelf since foreign economies took a downturn, I know that I won’t return to that idea. This break won’t take me back to that dream. In this sorting and boxing up, I’ll post on the ESL Life page the material I’ve loved, enjoyed and used throughout my teaching career. I’m quite proud of my collection and ironically, will miss some of the activities.