Chacun a son Gout

Once upon a long time ago Wilf and I were in a pub in London. We were looking at the bar snacks, and on offer were packets of potato chips – crisps – in the flavour ‘roast beef’. I decided that was too weird to eat and passed. And I’ve always kind of regretted that – after all – a bag of chips? Don’t like ’em, don’t eat ’em. Since then we’ve been to Japan twice and Turkey and India and have sort of adopted ‘Sure, I’ll try that’ as a motto to live by.

And then I was in our local Fairways market. And there, in the ‘ethnic’ section was a display of potato chips from Scotland:

Steak flavoured crisps! I’m in. And, after tasting them I’d have to say – apparently texture contributes a lot to the taste of something. Do they taste like steak or beef? No. What do they taste like? I don’t know. But you know what they aren’t? Salty!!! Half the salt of a similar sized package of North American chips.

Of course, if I’m going to continue on my path of ‘brave eating’ I guess I’ll have to go back and get the package that was beside the aberdeen angus steak flavour.

What do you suppose ‘Haggis and cracked black pepper’ is going to taste like?

Pie, again!

In the thirty years since I last paid attention to the world of pies one thing seems to have happened. Or maybe it is a geographical thing. I went looking for raisin pie filling. Not to be found in Sidney. Do people not like raisin pie any more?

 So, I made the filling myself (thank you all recipes.com)

2015 – the year of the pie!

I’m usually the dessert girl for potlucks – I love baking and making cakes. But pies have always been this mysterious thing for me. I have it in my head that piemaking is a difficult thing. So, I don’t do it.

At my parent’s house on Christmas Eve I watched my Mom whip up two pies – one lemon, one key lime. As I was sitting there, thinking how straightforward that appeared, Wilf drifted by. Soon Mom and Wilf were having a discussion about the easiness of pie and then they looked at me. Between them they figured out when I had last made a pie. A pecan pie. For Dad’s birthday. At our house in Toronto. Which we moved out of in 1990. So probably in the late 1980’s. Hmmm. Pointed looks from both of them.

‘Okay,’ said I. ‘2015 is the year of the pie. Not only that, I’ll bring pie for the New Year’s Day party.’

I present to you the first pie of 2015 – banana cream pie.

The crust is courtesy of Mr. Pilsbury. The filling is homemade vanilla custard from Cooks Illustrated with bananas and whipped cream.

I figure I’ll eventually get to making the crust from scratch, but the year of pie is underway!

————
So you’ll notice that this was actually posted in 2014. Turns out I was supposed to make a New Years Eve pie. This one was the first pie of 2014. Also the last pie of 2014.  And the only pie of 2014. It was very yummy.  More pie to follow. 

Christmas 2014


 
When we were writing this letter last year it looked like 2014 was going to be a quieter year than 2013, which seemed like a good idea after all the activities of that year. Then….. 2014 happened!
After 14 years in this house we finally bit the bullet and took on the big project – hardwood floors. In January we packed up the contents of the house, moved out and let the contractors at it. Six weeks later we moved back in to beautiful new floors throughout. Many thanks to Joan & Doug for letting us bunk in with them for the duration. Over the summer we had the outside of the house repainted, finishing off the sprucing up that began last year. And next year – kitchen counters?
Once again 2014 was a year of travel. Sharon’s Mom celebrated a big birthday with all the family in Las Vegas over Easter – shows, excursions & helicopters made for an action packed trip. In August both Sharon and Wilf had big trips. Sharon joined girlfriends Nan & Lisa in Birmingham, England to attend the “Festival of Quilts” – a week of shopping and looking at quilts at the Big Show! Later in the month Wilf’s fly-fishing club had an excursion to the north end of Vancouver Island to fish for salmon on the beach at the mouth of the Cluxewe River. According to the locals, it was the best salmon run in 20 years. It was a wonderful experience we shared together.
In September we returned to Istanbul – Wilf celebrated his 60thbirthday there and this year he celebrated his 75th in that great city. We enjoyed the city once again, then boarded a cruise of the Black Sea. After 12 days of interesting ports, including Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia we arrived in Athens, Greece then moved on to a week in a villa on the island of Crete. It was a truly memorable trip full of great sights, great food and time with good friends, Nan and Greg.
Christmas will be spent with Sharon’s parents and brother Bill in Victoria. We will cross Australia off the bucket list this winter and a family trip is planned for fall 2015. Truly, we are blessed to be able to travel the world and come back home to our wonderful spot by the sea. We appreciate so much our family and friends and look forward to another year of adventures.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Love,  Sharon and Wilf

 

A villa on Crete

And here we are, ensconced in a villa on the edge of the village of Panormo. We’re on the north cost of Crete, about half way between Heraklion and Rethymno. There are two villas together in a big – um – field. 
We are in the front unit, and looking past us is a big hotel complex. But behind our wall:
So nice! What’s the view like?
Yes! We have bonus goats. Or sheep. We can’t decide. They arrive every morning at about 9:00 and spend about three hours hanging out, grazing, lounging under the trees. On our first morning a pickup truck arrived with a bale of hay. While two guys dispensed the hay a third darted into the melee, grabbed a critter and put it in the truck. Someone was having goat – or lamb – for dinner. 
We’re right on the edge of things, weather wise. It is mostly very sunny and quite breezy. Okay, windy, especially by the water. Inland it seems downright hot to us. The locals are finding it chilly and it has even rained a bit. Nan and I have been making use of the pool. Getting in involves a lot of gasping and whooping, then we’re good. 
Particularly nice at night time!

A villa on Crete

And here we are, ensconced in a villa on the edge of the village of Panormo. We’re on the north cost of Crete, about half way between Heraklion and Rethymno. There are two villas together in a big – um – field. 
We are in the front unit, and looking past us is a big hotel complex. But behind our wall:
So nice! What’s the view like?
Yes! We have bonus goats. Or sheep. We can’t decide. They arrive every morning at about 9:00 and spend about three hours hanging out, grazing, lounging under the trees. On our first morning a pickup truck arrived with a bale of hay. While two guys dispensed the hay a third darted into the melee, grabbed a critter and put it in the truck. Someone was having goat – or lamb – for dinner. 
We’re right on the edge of things, weather wise. It is mostly very sunny and quite breezy. Okay, windy, especially by the water. Inland it seems downright hot to us. The locals are finding it chilly and it has even rained a bit. Nan and I have been making use of the pool. Getting in involves a lot of gasping and whooping, then we’re good. 
Particularly nice at night time!

Seeing the sights in Athens

Athens left me with rather a strange feeling. On the one hand, every time I looked up and saw this
I reeled back a bit.  I mean, the Parthenon! Right outside the window. Across the street, more good stuff (here’s the view looking back at the hotel)
We visited two fantastic museums. It was really something to visit the National Archeological Museum and see the mask of Agamemnon:
And these guys:
And then there was the New Acropolis Musuem. No pictures inside, unfortunately. The building is astounding in and of itself, as is the collection inside. On the top floor there is gathered the marble staturary and friezes from the Parthenon, arranged on the same footprint as the actual Parthenon. As we walked along we could look at ancient works and look out the floor to ceiling windows to see the actual monument on the hill beside us. Where there were historical drawings for reference plaster models replicated some of the missing portions. And then there were the blank spots awaiting the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum (it’s time,folks). 
We also paid a visit to see the Presidential Guards at the tomb of the unknown. 
Every hour, on the hour…
So what do I mean by the strange feeling about Athens? After all, we enjoyed the museums and the monuments, rode the subway, explored interesting restaurants – we even explored the torrent of tourist crap that is La Plaka, the old city. And yet. For whatever reason it just didn’t have the feeling of so many European cities – these weren’t streets that I wanted to stroll down to while away the afternoon. I’m glad I’ve been here, but it sort of feels like it’s checked off the list and doesn’t need to be done again (unlike Berlin. Or Tokyo. Or Paris. Or London. Or Seville. Or or or…..)

A return to Ephesus

We arrived at Kusadasi to find three other cruise ships docked – it was going to very busy in town and even busier at Ephesus. And it was – a sea of people:

Wilf and I have both been to Ephesus before, and we had a specific goal. When we were there in September of 1999 work was just beginning on the Terrace House excavation. In July of that year a very expensive roof had been installed to protect the worksite, but the public was not allowed in. Fifteen years later the site is extensively excavated and open for viewing. Worth the wait!
We could walk along on a system of elevated glass walkways, looking at the work that has been done and the buildings that have been revealed, complete with paintings and mosaics. It must be very exciting, as an archeologist, to make big discoveries. But oy, the grunt work that goes on. See the tables below?

Covered in a zillion pieces of white marble, it’s like assembling an enormous white jigsaw with no picture to follow. Yikes!
Once we had seen the Terrace Houses it was time to rejoin the fray
We had to have a picture of the most photographed cat on the site:
And then made sure we had a picture of ourselves in front of the library.