Grated Expectations

Spring Skiing at Whistler

May 22, 2014 by Katrina·0 Comments

Rosemarie, Lauren and I went spring skiing the other weekend up at Whistler. It was my first time spring skiing and I had tons of fun! The weather was soooooo nice.

The snow was still decent, up near the top it had the consistency of white sugar. I felt like I was spreading sugar on toast with my skis. Some runs the snow was a lot more stubborn which added an extra challenge, but it was still ok. A lot of the harder runs were already closed because of low snow cover, so in general we had a very nice relaxing day of skiing.

Lauren did quite excellent for a first time skier! Rosemarie had arranged a private lesson for him as a gift so he did that all morning and then we met up with him for lunch and skied with him after lunch. Rosemarie and I entertained ourselves by trying to do spins and ski backwards.

It was really hot out. I think it was 18 degrees in the village that day, and around 12 degrees near the top. I had jacket vents open and my snowpants unzipped (with shorts underneath). Very breezy!

Rosemarie’s ski selfie.

Tasting Plates Main Street 2014

May 18, 2014 by Katrina·5 Comments

Before we even attended the Tasting Plates Gastown event I bought tickets for the next one… Tasting Plates Main Street. And I’m glad I did because it was awesome! Now I want to get tickets for the next one, Tasting Plates Latin Flavours. I’m addicted! (Early bird tickets on sale until the end of May, who wants to come?)

Tapas 23

First stop was Tapas 23 for registration and (L-R):

potato crusted wings – tasty but you couldn’t tell that it was potato crusted
albondigas (meatball) – okay but not memorable
brussels sprouts with balsamic, almonds and cheddar – ultra delicious! brussels sprouts are so trendy
braised pork belly – the best part. sweet and perfectly cooked

Miura Waffle & Milk Bar

I was very excited for Miura Waffle since it has been on my Restaurants To Try list for like 2 years. How did I not know that it’s located right next to the bus stop where I change buses on the way home??!! We got to try (clockwise from top):

dessert nachos (nori chip, chocolate, banana and strawberry) – way better than I expected. the nori taste worked well with the sweet strawberry
kachan karaage waffle sando (ginger fried chicken with asian slaw on a waffle) – nice and juicy on a great waffle
nori nachos (nori chip, salsa and sour cream) – kinda tasty
teri-vani waffle sando (ice cream with teriyaki sauce on a waffle) – was scared to try this, but pleasantly surprised! good ol’ sweet salty combination!!

Rosemary Rocksalt

This place is also located right next to where I end up spending MANY minutes waiting for the bus on the way home. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before because it’s really cool looking inside. Very hipster. Their bagels and rugelach were AMAZINGGGGG. We tried:

Montreal smoked meat sandwich on a rosemary rocksalt bagel – piled high with meat, nice smear of mustard, on a GREAT bagel. the flakes of salt complete it
lox and cream cheese on a bagel – really nice
chocolate walnut rugelach – AMAZING. crunchy, buttery, sweet, perfection. please send me 9000000 more of these.
chocolate raspberry rugelach – Scott loved it

Will 100% be returning to Rosemary Rocksalt for more bagels.

Main Street Honey Shoppe

Have you ever tried raw honeycomb? I hadn’t, but the little cracker with gouda and honeycomb was da bomb. I would love to eat this again but where the heck would I get some honeycomb??? Scott had cheddar with honeycomb. We also had little samples of almond cake, brownie and a ginger buckwheat cookie. Everything was made with their honey and very nice. I especially enjoyed the super moist bouncy almond cake.

We also got to try like 15 kinds of honey which was really cool. They all had different flavours depending on which flowers the bees visited. The honey tasting wasn’t special for the event, you can go in any time and try them, which I recommend! I didn’t even think I liked honey but now I know I do!

I also spent a while chatting with one of the staff about local honey for allergies. Apparently the belief that local honey can help with allergies because it contains local pollen in it and you build immunity from ingesting them is false. It is actually the phytochemical nutrients and propolis which help increase the body’s immunity, remove toxins, and act as an anti-inflammatory. Cool!

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co

Next stop, pizza! We had:

farmers market pizza (balsamic marinated rhubarb, tomato, pesto, goats cheese) – really tasty. I looooooove cherry tomatoes and goats cheese!
naturally meaty (beef, sausage, tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, asiago, fresh herbs) – ok but I don’t care for one of the herbs they use, not sure what it was though

Shaktea

Last stop was tea and treats. I only tried the non caffeinated African dream rooibos. It smelled great but I didn’t like the taste as much. We also tried a chilli brownie that was pretty spicy! And a matcha date ball.

All in all, tons of great food. We didn’t have to wait at any of the restaurants like last time, which was a bonus. Can’t wait for the next event!!

Crafty WIP

May 9, 2014 by Katrina·9 Comments

I decided a few weeks ago that I was wasting away too much time on the internets and I should try to do something more productive. I happen to work right across the street from a Michaels so it wasn’t hard to get a bunch of craft supplies and get started. Here are my current works in progress.

OK well this one is pretty much done, but I still need to iron and figure out what to do with it. Frame? Cardboard? Decorative pillow? (probably not the last idea).

My sisters-in-law always post lots of cute cross stitches on Instagram and they inspired me to try it. I do remember doing cross stitch at some point when I was like… 7, but I don’t think I even finished the kit that my mom gave me at the time. Cross stitch designs are pretty awesome these days… not so many cats in baskets, haha. Now I have to figure out what design to do next.

Granny stripe afghan. My mom taught me to crochet when I was little, I think I made about 3 squares and then quit. I guess I have more perseverance these days because I haven’t lost interest at all yet. This thing is massive… about 7 feet across!! King size! It’s exciting having it become more blanket-like every day. But each row takes me 30-40 minutes, so I still have a looooooong way to go.

I’ve been stopping at Michaels after every shift at work to buy another ball of yarn with a 40% off coupon. I hope I get some shifts next week because I’ve caught up and need more colours at the moment.

Australia Ticket To Ride. This project started off as just Sharpies on poster board, but then I accidentally drew a super ugmo points thingy on the side and had to paint over it to forever rid the world of its hideousness. Then when we tested it out ~some people~ couldn’t tell the difference between the yellow and green, and the orange and red, so ~apparently~ I have to redo that. And then if I’m redoing the tracks I might as well make the states look better (who makes the land part of a map blue). So basically I have to paint over the whole thing. But the water part looks pretty cool painted, so I’m excited about the whole thing. I just have to stop being so lazy and get my paints out some day.

Until next time… can someone wash my paintbrushes for me?

1 Second Everyday: April 2014

May 6, 2014 by Katrina·0 Comments

Few days late but here it is, my April video for my 1 Second Everyday project.

Portland Meals

May 5, 2014 by Katrina·0 Comments

We only actually ate two real meals while in Portland. If you read my drinks and snacks post, maybe you can understand why.

the huckleberry pub

Burgers and beer at Huckleberry Pub. I had the Black & Blue burger (burger with pepper, cambozola, bacon and pickled vegetables), and Scott had a BLOTCHA (bacon, lettuce, onion ring, tomato, cheese, avocado). I guess the H stands for hamburger? Heh.

I drank a Peachy Keen and Scott had a flight of Oregon craft beer.

The burgers were great and the fries were awesome. This meal was right after our epic 4T hike so it was very satisfying. I liked that my burger had a hefty slice of blue cheese on it, and the pickled vegetables were yummy. The black pepper taste was very strong though so don’t order if you don’t like black pepper that much.

screen door

We arrived at Screen Door fifteen minutes before it opened and there already was a huge line. It’s a pretty big restaurant though so we decided to wait. Someone came and took our names and party size so at least we could walk around or sit down while we waited.

I ordered the Fried Oyster Benedict (bacon eggs benedict with crispy cornmeal fried oysters), and Scott had chicken & waffles.

The food arrived super hot. I definitely burned my mouth on the first few bites but it was so delicious I couldn’t stop eating, haha. They were not kidding on the crispy part of the fried oysters. They were super crunchy and then tasted like ocean on the inside. Delightful. The eggs benedict was very rich and tasty too.

Scott’s chicken & waffles had THREE pieces of crispy crunchy tender chicken on it! The waffle was quite soft. He covered it with maple syrup for that sweet/salty combination.

It was an insane quantity of food. I didn’t even touch one half of my eggs benedict and left a lot of potatoes and still was almost in pain from eating so much. Scott didn’t finish his waffle and took an entire piece of chicken home in a doggy bag (which he made into a delicious sandwich the next day for work).

We didn’t have lunch or much dinner that day after that delicious feast.