Is it going to warm up anytime soon!

Gosh, we had such beautiful weather at Easter and since then it's been little else but cold. But I hear the good weather is coming tomorrow. It's supposed to be 20 degrees, and we are so looking forward to that.
Some interesting comments on Friday's blog! I didn't know that Meghan (1) was a big fan as well. I too planned to watch the first Sex and the City movie on the weekend but I never made it to the video store. I will do that for sure this coming weekend. It will be nice to compare notes after we've both seen it. I talked to Kim on Friday and it looks like her and her friends might not be able to go as a group until the week after it opens, so I may be able to go with them after all.

It was not too bad a weekend, pretty relaxing at times. Friday night's Friday Payday Drinks ended up getting cancelled as everyone had other places to go. It was a busy night in town. I suspect now that the nice weather is soon going to be here, people will have more and more things to do on a Friday night, but I'll still keep sending out the invitations anyway.

I was very pleased to have been invited out for supper with Brenda, Bernie, Raymond and Marlene to the Lucy Maud Dining Room at the Culinary Institute. I really enjoyed myself and the food was very good. It was my first time there but I will definitely go back when Lloyd is here. I was very delighted to see they had Beef Carpaccio on the menu - one of my FAVORITE appetizers. I followed that up with a Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin. It was amazingly tender and delicious. I need to check into that a little further, as I recently found out you can purchase a small Sous Vide cooker for home use. I'm familiar with the process but had never actually had the chance to taste something cooked with that technique.

Sous vide (pronounced soo–veed) is a culinary technique in which vacuum sealed food is immersed in a water bath and cooked at a very consistent temperature. The cooking time is longer than other methods for the same food, but the cooking temperature is much lower. This low–and–slow method yields remarkable and unique results.

The term sous vide is French for “under vacuum.” This method of cooking was developed in the mid–1970s by chef Georges Pralus for the internationally renowned, Michelin three–star Restaurant Troisgros, in Roanne, France.

We started our dinner with an amuse-bouche of a little' sandwich' comprised of a date filling sandwiched between two tiny pieces of crisp double smoked bacon. It was very tasty, but I felt the bacon was a little overcooked.

But the rest of the meal was delicious. It was an extremely pleasant evening and I didn't feel like a third wheel at all.

Early Sunday morning I got up and went into town for a haircut and just to run a few erands I'd been needing to complete. I stopped at the Farmer's Market and picked up some veggies, including some nice fresh fiddle heads, then filled up my propane tank on the way home. I can now bar-b-que again!

Saturday afternoon was quite lazy - a nap first then parked in front of the computer to catch up on missed episodes of Glee, that I got turned onto during my flights to Arizona. The story line is a bit hokey, but the music is great.

Sunday morning I was up at 6:00 and spent the first 2 1/2 hours drinking coffee and reading a book. Brenda called around 8:30 suggesting we go kayaking as the sun was shining so beautifully. That was our plan, after attending a pancake breakfast at the rec centre. They were having a cake auction, too bad Lloyd wasn't there. He loves those things. Unfortunately the morning was marred a bit by the unfortunate collapse of an elderly gentleman from the community. It took quite some time for the ambulance to arrive but in the meantime someone was doing CPR on him. I've not heard yet how me is. Without the store to keep everyone in touch and up on what's going on in the area, news isn't traveling quite as fast as it used to.

Because the weather wasn't so good, Brenda stayed home and did some bookwork after I stopped in to have coffee after breakfast. Once I got home I decided to make a cobbler with the rhubarb I'd bought at the market, and then I thought, what the heck, I should invite the Van Gaals for supper. I'd also bought a tiny pork loan so split that open and put some ham and apple slices inside, before sealing it back up. I attempted to cook it on the Bar-b-que but it was so windy, there didn't seem to be enough heat, so I eventually brought it inside and finished it in the oven. It was a pretty simple supper, just the pork, some oven roasted fingerling potatoes, carrots and fiddle heads, and the rhubarb dessert. It was so nice to be able to cook a nice meal, as I don't usually do that just for myself. The bonus is that I have enough for supper tonight. I truly enjoyed my evening with Brenda and Bernie. It's always interesting conversation and generally a good time was had by all, I think.

Lloyd had been trying to arrange for some fresh lobsters to be shipped up to him for a dinner with the guys at the airport, but in the long run he can buy it up there for about $1.00 more per pound than he can buy it here, from a fish place in Kitchener, so that's what he plans to do. I'd not mind going up for the weekend but I have high hopes of getting some yard work done. First on the agenda for the weekend is a yard sale at the rec centre. I can rent a table for $10 and I've got quite a few things I can get try to get rid of.

With any luck we'll get some kayaking, or at least a walk or two, in during the three days.

I received a really nice email from Jana. Please say hi to "les mamas" for me This should be a pretty relaxing week for everyone, just what they all need right now. Jana, if you read this (and I know you might!) can you pick me up a bottle of vanilla? My last one is almost done and I can get Lloyd to pick it up from you. I'll pick it up on my next trip to Ontario.

Now it's Monday, and back to the working world!