Vegging , week 1

Actually there has been very little vegging going on around here this week, what with dealing with the snow storm, work, flat tire, gym, tanning, getting ready for holidays, and cooking there has been no time for relaxing.

And yes cooking has been high on the activity list, the switch to a vegetarian diet means trying out new recipes which has been fun but it takes time as a lot of it is new. 
And there is a huge learning curb trying to replace the meats with a healthy diet, learning about proteins, carbs, fiber, vitamins, fat, etc.. things that before we didn't pay to much attention to but now realize we have to know about in order to stay healthy. On top of that Ev and I have dissimilar tastes and eating habits, after being married for twelve years I've gotten to know how to cook for the two of us but now that meat has left the equation, well it's like starting all over again, between what is not liked and what upsets the stomach compromises have to be made about what can and cannot be cooked and eaten, it's a bit frustrating at times but I still find this whole new culinary revamp fun.

I have found some good recipes on my online searches that are keepers and are being added to our new veggie home cooking book. 

My favorite so far has been 

“ Eggplant Parmagian I “

Ingredients

1. 1 eggplant, cut into 3/4 inch slices
2. 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
3. 8 tablespoons olive oil
4. 8 ounces ricotta cheese
5. 6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
6. 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
7. 1 egg, beaten
8. 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
9. 4 cups pasta sauce

Directions

1. Sprinkle both sides of the eggplant slices with salt. Place slices in a colander, and place a dish underneath the colander to capture liquid that will sweat out of the eggplant. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Mix in egg and basil.
3. Rinse the eggplant in cold water until all salt is removed. In a large skillet, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Place one layer of eggplant in the pan, brown each side. Repeat with remaining eggplant slices, using additional oil if necessary.
4. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, evenly spread 1 1/2 cups of spaghetti sauce. Arrange a single layer of eggplant slices on top of the sauce. Top the eggplant with 1/2 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layering process until all the eggplant and cheese mixture is used. Pour remaining sauce on top of layers, and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake 30 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until sauce is bubbly.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2016 Allrecipes.com 

Printed From Allrecipes.com 3/3/2016

I didn’t have fresh basil but I did have some fresh coriander so I chopped a bit of that and added it to some dried basil instead and I also added a couple of cloves of garlic (chopped). The eggplant I coated in breadcrumbs before frying, this dish turned out great !! Ev was hesitant about the eggplant, I promised her she would like it done like this and once she tasted it she was a convert ! as far as this dish goes but unfortunately eggplant won't be a staple in our new diet. 

Now Ev has been sticking to the new diet but I have been eating meats, yes I know I’m a sinner !!, but no, we have in our freezer a few containers of frozen foods that I have made during our carnivorous days, I like to make a big batch of whatever it is we are cooking and then freeze some for another day, that way we are not always slaving over the stove. So I am going to finish all the old foods we have left in the freezer as I think that throwing them out would be very disrespectful to the animals that gave their lives for it, once it is all gone I think I will fully join Ev in this new lifestyle ! 

Here is a sampling of our kitchen activity. 
This was an awesome potato-spinach dish with mozzarella,recotta and cheder cheese in it , very good !!!

Of course being a vegetarian means eating tofu so this was our first go around with it, Ev eat it but is very hesitant about it, I fried this lot and we had them with some fried eggs, asparagus and leftover potato/spinach casserole, yum yum ! 

And last night I fried the rest of the tofu and adding it to a noodle dish Ev made . I am finding that with the extra exercise I am hungrier and have to eat more if I am going to maintain the workload.

 And tonight an awesome " Quinoa and Black Beans " dish with corn kernels, onion, garlic, cumin, black pepper and fresh coriander, very very tasty !! 

More recipes to come in future posts 

The Challenge

Just a week ago or so I increased my weekly exercise from spinning twice a week to three times. 

I’m in training again after a five year hiatus !!. 

My challenge comes this September in the form of a Tough Mudder event at Mount St Louis Moonstone. And why you may ask ? , I know I do, the response  “ because it’s there “ as the popular answer from the crazed adventurer goes; well yes and no. 

Yes, because I desperately need a challenge and this one is there waiting for me to just try it, five years have gone by since my cross Canada cycling adventure, five years of searching for something to do. 

And no, because this has more to do with my long dragged out mid-life crises then anything else. ( more another day on that ) 

Age in itself has never bothered me but the changes that come with it has started to bug me big time and this past year has been difficult I must say.

And that brings me to an acceptance ( finally ) that I am not the same any more, I’m not 25 or 35 or even 45 , no I’m 58 and I don’t like it and I can’t do anything about it. But then again I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept it without a fight, so I’m going to push the limits and see how far I can go, I might be getting older but I’m not old yet ! 

The plan was ( and still is ) to increase the spinning over the winter and as the weather warms move to outdoor biking and then start the upper body exercises, cross training, jogging ( I hate jogging !! ) strength training and flexibility. 

All of this should be enough of a challenge on its own never mind doing a Tough Mudder as I have been on a not so slow down hill slide physically for the past year or so  a loss of upper body strength has been worrisome and it’s going to take a great effort to get at least some of what I have lost back. And mentally there have been some dark times too that I will have to work on. 

I am hoping this Tough Mudder challenge will put me back on the right path both  physically and mentally.

So bring it on, I’m ready !!!

The reluctant vegetarian

A few days ago it happened, out of the blue “BANG” Ev announced she was never again eating meat ! , all because of a post she viewed on Facebook , ahhhh !!!. 
At first I wasn't sure what to make of this, was she really going to do it or would it pass in a day or two, but no, true to form once she makes up her mind there is seldom a turning back and she (we ???) is now a vegetarian.

So after lecturing her profusely about the draw backs of doing this all of a sudden on her health etc ... , I went online and started to do some research myself, and try as I may I could not really come up with one good solid reason for her not to go ahead.

It was just a matter of time really before one or the other of us would follow this path as we have talked about it in the past many times, funny enough I had thought that it would be me first as I have struggled morally with the barbaric practices used in the mass rearing and housing of animals for human consumption and the inhumanity of the slaughter house for a long time, but no, social media in just one post viewing managed to alter Ev’s view of the world and she is the first of us going down this path. And me for now the reluctant vegetarian/carnivore.   

Now this is a major life changing event, after all eating is a principal part of one staying alive, goes hand in hand with breathing, modify one or the other and you can be in trouble. 

So back to the internet in search of vegetarian recipes and here again another challenge as Ev at the best of times is a finicky eater, recipes abound, but recipes that she will eat not so much, she is not as bad as my grandson who will automatically say in response to just about any new food put in front of him “ I don’t like that !!! “ , but she is a close second in that regard, so after much consultation a menu for the week was agreed upon and a grocery list put together and off on a new adventure we headed. 

Here is a sampling of  the bounty we brought home, kind of exiting really !! 

And now once again a new stage in our lives begins, and to be totally honest I don’t mind it at all ( I think ) , I get to experiment with cooking new foods and I will most probably slowly follow Ev into a vegetarian lifestyle . I did gain one concession , she will for a little while eat fish ( if she can ) so tonight we are having baked salmon and a spinach mashed potatoes casserole ( spinach , potatoes, sour cream, cheddar cheese , onion , etc ...) if it turns out I’ll put the recipe up. 

 Flags  

So here we are smack dab in the middle of the World Cup  

At first one could be forgiven for not knowing it was going on, after all Canada has no team represented this year , not for a lack of trying as we participated in the qualifying rounds as did most of the world but did not qualify , but as the tournament progresses the evidence of interest was apparent in the few flags one could see attached to car windows as we drove to and fro. Now more then a week in there is a United Nations of flags being flown around town !!! , and interestingly the occasional Canadian flag , which makes me wonder is it an insecure Canadian misunderstanding soccer fanaticism ? and finding it necessary to show national pride and rebuke the horde of supposed invaders ? or is it like my daughter says an early celebration of Canada Day ?? 

hummm ... 

Ok enough with that , so once again here I sit as rain falls outside , not as bad as last week just thunderstorms this afternoon . And once again no adventure this weekend either , the house beckoned , it needed attention again , well not so much the house as the yard , procrastination during the week meant a trip to the dump with the pruned branches and then lawn mowing which I really dislike doing on my day off but since we don't own goats I had to start up the ferrari and cut . 

Keeping the place tidy takes time !!!

Ever since we moved here Ev has wanted a flower bed under our front maple and I have done everything possible to dissuade her , but this past week two very sad Hosta plants appeared plonked down at the base of the tree , 

more of a hint was just impossible ! , 

so off I went and bought soil and two additional "perky" Hostas and with a little work and a few extra stones a found in the back yard vola a flower bed was born . 

I actually was quite happy with the results , I think Ev was in shock : ) 

The next day she calls me in a panic , me thinking the worse I get ready for BAD NEWS , but it turns out that it was just bad news , apparently our healthy population of squirrels discovered the new bed and were digging it up with gusto !! , who knows why , I don't really understand these squirrels that well , just about every house on the block has a bird feeder and even though a lot of them are the squirrel proof kind they still manage to raid them , our guys have become amazing jumpers , if I didn't know better I would think they are flying squirrels , and with all that year round buffet available they should spend the summer relaxing and lounging about , instead they still find the need to spend hours burying bounty all over the back yard with slim hope of getting to it in winter when it's frozen in the ground and covered but a couple of feet of snow , 

but I am not a squirrel so who am I to question their logic ?

The result of putting in the new bed is that every day when I get home now I park and walk over to the tree and have to put back handfuls of soil that the varmints excavated out in their daily ritual , yesterday I actually caught one red handed , but he wasn't  bothered by me until I pulled out the camera and then he v lined it to the neighbours property .

Saturday also was game 2 for Argentina , with a last minute , very last minute win against Iran clinching a birth into the second stage of 16 , this time we hosted the BBQ .

I am on a Canadian beer kick ever since my cousins came to visit , and it has nothing to do with the flag invasion going on : ) , it was my brother who suggested we treat them to some local brew to give them a flavour of Canadiana , so I bought a six pack of Mad Tom IPA from Maskoka Brewery and instantly disliked the first bottle I drank , but since I had six and I'm not inclined to waste I have been drinking one a day and I have found that I actually like them as long as I drink them straight out of the bottle and not a glass , ah I'm getting weird in my not so young days !!! 

Cheers !!

Markets , moral dilemmas and Futbol , a packed weekend !

So here I am sitting listening to thunder in the background waiting to see if we get hit by a tornado , there have been watches and warnings most of the day but this line of thunderstorms heading our way comes with this warning for Enviorment Canada : 

" At 5:20 p.m. EDT, Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado. " 

And its heading straight here , yikes !!!!!

I'll keep you posted .

This weekend we ventured out into town , I've said this before , Newmarket has been a pleasant surprise , lots of green spaces and activities and a good number of good restaurants within walking distance , I enjoy exploring it !

We left the pups at home much to their dislike and headed to the Farmers Market , a regular Saturday event in town during the summer , an appetite built up in my often questioned  "three block walk" to the market so first we headed to our regular breakfast eatery The Maids Cottage.

With our bellies full we perused the antique car show on Main St and then had a leisurely walk around Fairy Lake.

A lot of avian activity around the lake, we encountered this roadblock of a herd of geese napping on the path 

And laying solid claim to this patch of grass for use as their nursery 

In the water under the bridge , mom duck and babies putting on a show for food scraps which they were getting plenty of .

There was an Artisan Marked all set up with lots of real nice nicknacks that we did not need but all the same we bought some interesting solar patio lights 

We slowly made our way back to the Farmers Market arriving to music in full swing on the stage

After enjoying a few songs we moved on to the goods which are always amazingly mouthwatering as this bunch of succulent radishes illustrate

We were limited to the amount of produce we could purchase as the fridge at home was well stocked with dull truck ripened vegetables and no sense buying more then one can eat as it then just ends up in the green bin. But we did get some lovely fresh asparagus and some free range eggs 

Morally the question of where does our food come from bothers me , I've tinkered with the idea of becoming a vegetarian but I don't think it will happen , so the question arises how to live ones life knowing that other life has to make the supreme sacrifice for that to happen ? 

So I struggle with this on and off taking the easy way out of mostly ignoring it . One aspect of food production that I find unpalatable is large scale farming , animals penned for their whole existence not able to enjoy any part of the living experience , hens being one example. 

I like eggs , eat a lot of them and I am going to try from now on to just buy free range eggs to ease my mind that at least for part of their lives these chickens get to feel the sun on their backs, get to peck at fresh grass and socialize with one another , they get to be chickens . 

I now its not much but it is a first step and we shall see where it takes me 

With produce in hand we headed back home and out again to the Marsh to purchase the last of the flowers for the garden and then it was an afternoon of planting that morfed into a huge tree pruning event in the search for extra light in the backyard for all these plants , the end result is that we now have a very large pile of branches in the middle of the lawn needing to go to the dump. 

  But the back yard does look beautiful !!

Sunday was game day , the World Cup is on and Argentina was playing their first match . Lisa invited us to her house for a BBQ so we all watched and cheered together as we emerged victorious against Bosnia- Herzegovina

GOOLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!!!!!! : )

Oh , the thunderstorm as long passed , no tornado but it did get pretty dark and windy for a bit boy did it pour ! 

Hiking in the Nottawasaga Bluffs Conservation Area

Eleven years ago this past Saturday Evelyn and I got married , we held the festivities at the Farm where we lived, we rented a large tent invited our friends and family and under a couple of large pine trees we said our " I do's " , we eat and danced and drank a bit too, all what a typical wedding should be with a couple of small distractions, it just happened to be  Belmont day and Funny Cide was attempting to win the Triple Crown, similarly to California Crome this past Saturday . 

So a television was set up in the office for those that had to watch and with us being in the thoroughbred community there were quite a few packed into that office to watch the valiant yet unsuccessful attempt . Later in the day , much later ( around 11 PM ) another distraction when the old matron Ali, the one holdout broodmare decided that it would be a good night to finally have her baby , so up to the barn a few of us went to see that all went well which it did , we nicknamed the new foal 
" I do " 

For our honeymoon the next day we were off to Algonquin Park, we did some hiking and canoeing, we went  moose spotting along the road in the evenings and we fought off an amazing horde of black flies that would fill the car every time I rolled down the window to take a picture .

This past saturday to celebrate our anniversary we went hiking up to The Nottawasaga Bluffs Conservation Area, my research had shown there were some spectacular sites , caves , crevasses , lookouts and of course caches . 
After a long but very pleasant drive through some lovely farm land we arrived at the parking lot , with a map , water , snacks , flashlights and repellent !!!, we are learning : ) 

It was a beautiful sunny day for a change and we set off on the Ian Lang Memorial Trail to do a 4 km hike and search out a few geocaches , the trail started out nice and flat , pines first then into a lovely deciduous forest 

Many interpretive signs along the way explaining all the relevant details , here is part of a very large billboard with a summary of what fauna and flora can be found in the Conservation Area 

We found this unattended abandoned smouldering campfire in the camping area we passed , a good thing the forest is not dry !!. 

And then the sign we were looking for " Keyhole Side Trail " , at the time I did not realize we walked by our first cache without even looking for it , probably in my excitement to get to the crevasses. 

So into the crevasses we descended , an amazing labyrinth that one could traverse from above or below , we each in search of our first cache which was suppose to be a few feet away from a large birch tree in the rocks , we split up and searched and explored and searched some more 

We found the Keyhole , a very narrow hole in the rock one has to navigate on the trail.

And after a a good 1/2 hour we met up again to regroup and try again , we stopped by a tall birch in the rocks , I took my pack off , re read the description and Evelyn while leaning against the wall and listening looks over at the opposite wall and spots the cache !!!! 

We even found snow down here !! 

After the crevasses we got a bit turned around ( lost ) but luckily found ourselves as we headed for " The Dragon's Breath " our next goal. This charming brook came along just at the right time for the pups to quench their thirst. 

 As we continues along the way through the trees we first heard then saw this large group of hikers as they walked single file heading in the exact direction we needed to go, so we had to wait and let them get well enough ahead so we could geocache without attracting attention , as luck would have it we came upon this amazing lookout that they had just vacated.  

We spent a while here, later I found out that the group ahead of us were also geocaching ! 

Montana having a look down much to Ev's dismay , it was a very long way straight down ! 

Finally the group moved on and we were able to continue,  down into another crevasse we went in search of the Dragon

But search as we may along these deep walled corridors we did not find it, in places there was ice on the bottom which made getting a good foothold difficult to climb up or down to the possible hiding spots , there were a couple of times I thought I might not get myself back out !,  but with a good deal of slipping and sliding I did, my only consolation on this failed find is that the group ahead of us did not find it either and there were 27 of them !! 

Back out and into the birches.

The good will of many private landowner make it possible to join many of the trails we have here in Ontario as here for the Bruce Trail , one goes from deep forest to farmers field in a heart beat .

As you can see I like taking pictures and I am still trying to master my new camera, so I tend to linger behind snapping away, 

here poor Evelyn patiently waiting for me to catch up

The next cache required us to scale down this wall !!! which one of us did in a not so graceful manner , but I won't mention names : ) 

and after a short search , success !!!

And then the long hard climb back out.

The trail narrowed as we headed out after five hours of hiking and caching , we successfully collected 4 caches and the first part of a multiple but we left a lot unseen,  Freedom Rock,  The Best Caves and a few more caches ,  so we will be back to explore and hopefully descend into one or more of the 30 or so caves in the area . 

We managed to get home just in time to watch the Belmont and as on that saturday 11 years ago the dreams of a triple crown were left for another year .

We finished our day at The Goulash House , mouth watering wienerschnitzel  and chicken cordon blue made for a fantastic anniversary dinner .