Kenora Cuisine

The annual Manitoba Travel travel assignment was a great opportunity to get some good stories, photos and of course content for this fantastic blog. I travelled to Kenora for the first time ever with two lovely ladies, Jacky and Lindsay.

We arrived Monday night, starving, around 7:30ish. We drove around to find somewhere interesting and local to eat, but we ended up at Casey's which is a chain restaurant. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our mouths that night as we ordered wings to start before each of our different kind of stir frys arrived. We had peri peri and apple BBQ wings. I'm usually not a wing eater because it's just way to much effort but they were pretty good. I loved the apple BBQ, but the peri peri was way to spicy for my wimpish self. It also had a hint lemon which I was not a fan of.

I ordered cashew chicken stir fry, which was amazing. Some of the veggies should have been cut up smaller to eat it better, and I had to search for the chicken, but the proportions were just divine. The sauce and spice were just perfect, and we ended getting two meals out of each of our stir frys as there was just so much.

The best part about Casey's was the boozy drinks. We all had X-rated lemonade, followed by a white grape punch. The lemonade one was to dye for! (note: exclamation point, I mean it.) It had real, and very fresh, strawberries and you couldn't even taste the vodka. We all sipped it so slowly it was so good. We ordered the second drink mostly because it came in a fish bowl like glass.

Casey's filled us up until bedtime, but when morning came we thought we should try to eat at one of the local treasures. After visiting city hall to find out what we could about Kenora, we headed to the suggested Greek restaurant called Plaza. It turns out we all had the Greek salad pita with chicken (Jacky was the only one who had it with olives). It was so delicious. The proportions were really good, and the chicken had so much flavour. It was probably marinated. I am really glad though that I didn't ask for the soup the other girls had as an appetizer. It was a lemon soup, which I knew I wouldn't like, but I had a little taste of it anyway. It tasted like a chicken soup with lots of lemon and some cream. I was not a fan but the other girls said they liked it and would have it again, even though they said it was quite strong.

I think we had more treats than we had actual food. Before saying goodbye to Kenora we stopped at the Nibbler's Nook and stocked up on some really unique treats. We each got a half pound of fudge and few other interesting finds including Lindsay's Kaluha coffee.

Kenora definitely has some food highlights that I would love to go back and investigate.   

Just Eat It.. or not

So I'm having a really hard time actually wanting to try something new..

Last night, my mom tried to get me to try some mango-lime salsa, and I could not bring myself to bite a chip with some. Picky, I know. But I really hate salsa, no matter how mango-y or delicious you may say it is.

So, this week, I'll just share a little diddly from the parody king Weird Al. My brother and I have three Weird Al CD's and we were obsessed with the show he had in the 90's. (His best song has to be the 13 minute song about Albuquerque, HILARIOUS) This song fits what people are constantly telling me... Just Eat It. But no thanks. 

Slice of Summer

It feels like a lifetime since I had a good steak. I'm definitely becoming summer deprived, especially bbqing. And the other day, I relished in what little bit of summer I could with a mango martini and a damn good steak.

To commemorate Valentines Day and our 4 year anniversary :), my boyfriend took me to Earl's for dinner. Man, I have only been there once a long time ago and it was amazing, it was one of those meals that I go home and think about how good it was.

We had warm spinach and feta dippy stuff with warm crunchy little toast things. Then we both got steaks with potatoes and veggies. I hadn't had a steak since summer and it was feaking awesome. It had that wood grilled flavour. ***** out of *****

Mushrooms, Martinis and More

So my pay day coinciding with my mother's undying love for minestrone soup at Olive Garden created a perfect situation to try something new for my blog. I've been slacking at the whole actually trying something thing. I'm a Taurus, and we don't like change. I wanna eat cereal, PB&J, hot dogs and salad FOREVER. (oh, and now sushi ;) )

I didn't try something totally crazy because I was a starvin' marvin' and all I wanted was stuffed mushrooms. I actually really, really hate mushrooms. In salads, on pizza, in soup, in stir- fry I hate it. ALL OF IT. Except stuffed mushrooms from Olive Garden and Red Lobster. I would harpoon anyone between myself and a cheesy stuffed mushroom. But i promise you the ones from Sobeys tastes like ass.   

nom nom

: )

Unlimited salad and stuffed mushrooms sounded like a plan, but there's nothing new you say? But wait, there's more. I got a freakin' marshmallow martini. I know, I didn't know they had those either. I was actually pleasantly surprised how tasty it was. I've had their chocolate martini before and it was just too sweet and too much liquor to taste good. This martini has 2 oz. in it but it wasn't an overwhelming taste of alcohol like the chocolate one.

It was frothy, and the right amount of sweetness. I did get a little sick of it after a while because it's a flavorful drink, but I would most def get one again. Good on you O.G.

A blog about ketchup

Being the picky lass I am, there are not only things I won't eat, but there are alot of things that I won't eat without a condiment. None more so than ketchup. I'm seriously obsessive. Hot dogs, burgers, fries are meaningless without ketchup. This is what I do :

Put ketchup on the bun. Close the bun. Open it back up and put more (the first layer just gets soaked up). Put a big pile of etch up and dip it.

When I went for a week to Cuba a couple years ago, I totally forgot to bring ketchup. People told me to make sure I do, and I was just like meh, it won't be a big deal. Boy was I wrong. They had a limited amount of this ketchup like stuff in red bottles, and if there was none in the bottles there was like a tomatoey paste in a dish. Sickening. So I started hoarding the bottles in my beach bag, and sharing with other hotel friends that did the same. Next time I'm going to bring the Costco size ketchup.

Love u ketchup :)

Directions Conference

breakfast remains

Eating in social situations always poses issues for me. It can be so so awkward, whether it's at someone's house or at an event like yesterday. The Directions Business Conferences was yesterday and a few crecommers, including me, won a draw for a few tickets. So a handful of us Cre Comms mixed in with about 500 business students, had a day of interesting info sessions. There was even a session for Moksha Yoga CEO's, which I found particularly neato. But as for lunch, it was all one meal, unless I lied and say I was a vegetarian or celiac. Man, a buffet would have been awesome.

So  breakfast when I got to Canad Inns was baskets of muffins, croissants, and plates of fruit. This day was starting off excellent. I had a blueberry muffin (that I actually thought was chocolate) some pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, apple juice and my first coffee of three.



bad pic, but i was being inconspicuous



Lunch rolled around and I found my seat, and I thought it was weird that the dessert was already on the table placed around the center piece. Omg what a horrible centerpiece. Ridiculously fake plant things in a in a square glass container with dark blue glass pebble things. If they took out all those fake plants, filled it with water and a few floating tea lights, oh dayum it would look good.

So my plate was placed in front of me and I was really not excited. It was lasagna, and I despise lasagna. But I was a starvin' Marvin so I was planning on eating everything. I was really disappointed though how it was all placed. As I've been getting older I don't mind when certain foods touch, but like the lasagna was all up on the salad. So, I had leave a strip of salad that was infected. Then they had a delicious bread stick placed on top, but of course it got all soggy from the lasagna. I was just not impressed. But overall the food



cheese cake

was pretty good. I think I liked it so much because it was Canad Inns food, so it wasn't too fancy, just plain. Not too much tomato sauce, or spice. And I also had my third cup of coffee, which was probably not a good idea for my belly.

Well as I already said I had a good look at the dessert and it was my least favourite: cheesecake. I've tried cheese cake many many times, and it always looks so yummy and I really want to like it but I just don't. I've tried it at weddings, at my grad, store bought and even my grandma's homemade. But I gotta say I really liked this cheese cake. My fellow cre commers said it wasn't the best, but I think it was the best cheese cake I've had but probably because it didn't really taste like regular cheese cake. More cake-ish and sweet like whipped cream or something.

Overall, it was an alright meal, not my first choice but managed without starving. I'd give it ***

the Wonderful Wedding Show

Oh other people's weddings, i adore you.

Nothing is better when some one else is getting married. There is no stress on your own part, and you get to see what that person would do for a $20,000 party. Yes it's about the love and the beautiful couple, but you get to see the essence of those beautiful people in event form.

I have been invited to very few weddings, as there hasn't been very many weddings in my family and I'd have to give my friends a good ten years before anything like that goes down. Other peoples' weddings offer a chance to dress up, free food (and hopefully free booze) but you never think about how that wedding came to be so majestical and who has to scrape the wax out of the votive from the candle you were playing with.

This past summer I became apart of the Events by Emma crew. It combines things I love to do: meet new people, craft, design, and have the most fun crew to work with. I have always been interested in interior design, but EBE takes those elements of good design into a whole other fantasy level. Even though the wedding turns out being glamourous, the work isn't so glamourous. But, I wouldn't have it any other way, I'm not the type of person who can just sit there, I like to be moving (which is why I'm constantly fidgeting in class).

Lifting, windexing, carrying, pushing dollies, packing, unpacking, packing, dishes, more dishes, dishes, crafting, laughing, organizing, more laughing. It’s still fun, just not what people picture. It's not like the J.Lo movie.

Since school has started I decided to not be a part of EBE until summer starts (CreComm and a weekend job is enough for me). But the girls at EBE invited me to come and check out what they put together for the Wonderful Wedding Show at the convention center. EBE had a booth on the third floor with all the other booths, but they also had an entire banquet room devoted to "Inspiration by Colour". There were probably twenty or more tables, each designed with a specific colour or theme for brides to get an idea of all the options there are, instead of thinking traditional. From mysterious navy, to a burlap themed table setting, I could not take photos of all my favorites. Here are just a few highlights of my favourite EBE work at the wonderful wedding show.

This is the main booth, all done in sophisticated white. It was probably the tallest booth there. That is our fibre glass gigantic alter thing. Flowers can be cascaded down the top, or it's a great way to incorporate lighting. 

Inspiration by Colour (pic stolen from fb, Sacha Bouchard)

one of my favs, wood inspired, my mom took this pic lol

close up of this beaut

burlap inspired, adorable with just baby's breath

green! clean, sophisticated with some spunky details

cascading orchids in a lace rimmed cylinder vase

antique table setting. DROOL

EBE is one of the top 5 planners in Canada, and I just feel so blessed to be 

able to see the beautiful creations that fit each couple so well.