Aha! Tricked you!

No, I am not writing this from Italy! I am writing in my usual spot in Charottetown with the weather network on and Tracy beside my singing "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. I was supposed to be in Italy at this point but alas Charlottetown is full of surprises and dumped 30 cm of snow on us! My flight was cancelled as was all flights leaving Charlottetown. But as with most things you're patient with in life it worked out fine. I got to spend one more night with Tracy watching movies and eating mac'n cheese and garlic shrimp. The revised plan is that I leave from Charlottetown at 11:55 and get to visit not only the Toronto, Frankfurt, and Florence, but the Halifax and Rome airports too!
So, you'll have to wait another day to get some good pictures...unless I decide to chronicle my airport adventures, hmmm.

The Farmer's Market and my first KISS!!

I have been working at the farmers for the past 7 months and have loved it! It's taken me this long to get pictures of the people I work with though, so here we go.

Firstly, this is Kim who is my boss and who I work with every Saturday. Kim is from Holland and smokes the salmon himself and its probably the best smoked salmon that exists in this world. I feel completely confident in saying you have never tasted such yummy fish. Here is Kim and I at the booth where we spend our Saturdays:

Our neighbor on the right is Steve. Steve is hilarious. He's German and bakes bread. He also makes the most delicious whole wheat chocolate croissants. Yum. Here is Steve and Me (he's usually wearing this tweed suit jacket, it adds to the 'Steve' look):

And last but not least, Garth and Peggy. They were my neighbors on the left. Garth loved to give me parsnips, potatoes, and carrots. We've have had an endless supply of them in the apartment since the winter. They are also a source of endless entertainment on Saturdays, Peggy and Garth are not married but bicker like a married couple, it is hilarious! Here we are:

Now, you should know that if Garth was not in his late 60's and missing teeth I would marry him. He is charming, sweet, and kind...and loves telling dirty jokes. We have fun. I had to say goodbye to him yesterday and it was so sad....he kept saying "I'll miss you, girl." Awwww.

On to the kiss, right? Are you ready?

I had my first kiss on Saturday, not from any hot and young market boy (there are a few of those) but from this guy:

Yup, I printing out the wedding invitations this afternoon!

Cuppie Cakes!

This is gonna be fun...are you ready?

Okay so remember these from a couple weeks ago?

They were awesome, until these came along:

And these:

Extra cute!

We also went a little crazy with the left over melted chocolate:

And then even a little crazier:

Yum!

Ohhhh, you thought I meant the cuppie cakes? They were yummy too!

Signing off for now!

I love you guys!

I had been expecting a package from back home before I left for Italy but I never expected this:Walking home from the post office I could not stop smiling! As I passed people and they saw my beautifully decorated package they smiled too. I didn't open the package right when I got home, instead I just stared at it.

And then I opened it. There is only one thing better than actually being with your family and that is receiving a package from them. Seeing their writing and touching the things that they just touched days ago.

Thank you! I love you all!

P.S. Didn't someone's Grandmother once say "If you make faces like that one day your face will just stay that way"? I better be careful.

Pitas!!

Yesterday we decided we would have Tuna Melts for supper. But, wait, what were we going to eat them on? We didn't have any bread (I was supposed to make some earlier!!), we didn't have bagels, we didn't have anything suitable to be a tuna melt base. So, we made pitas.
I had seen something about homemade pitas on a different blog and thought they'd be fun and exciting to make. They were!

Here I am patting out my little pita balls.

And rolling.

Watching the pitas puff. I was excited.

Wow, I pull of a really good 'crazy' face....and this was actually one of the 'good' ones.

These are the finished pitas. They turned out pretty good for the first attempt. There is still some tweaking that needs to happen, but was was pretty happy, and the tuna melts were delicious!

Oh, and one last picture. One pita didn't work out so well, so I made a mask out of it. I'm planning on taking it with me to Italy and going to a masked ball in Venice.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Today is my darling mother's 48th birthday.
I'm going to get an earful when she realizes I did a whole post on her! Heehee!
It took me a while to dig up pictures of my mom...she has mastered avoiding the camera...but I managed to find a few.


Here's my Mama. Isn't she gorgeous?

She came from two of my favorite people!

I admire her strength.


While she loves many things in her life, wine would probably make the top 20 list!

She has a beautiful smile and sparkly eyes.

She knows how to surround herself with good friends.
And at 48 she still knows how to play.



I love you Mama! Have a wonderful birthday day. I am SO glad you were born!

TRACY'S BACK!

My lovely roommate Tracy came back from her spring break yesterday and I'm SO glad! It was fun being the only one on the Island for the week but it's definitely nice to have someone to talk to that I can actually see. And I just like her, so...yeah. Anyway back to the food, right? Tonight we decided to have a tart/pie night. We had caramelized onion and goat's cheese tarts with Caesar salad for supper and papple pie (that would be peach and apple) for dessert. It was delicious! And cute! We drizzled our papple (doesn't that word just make you giggle? It makes me...everytime.) pie with what's becoming a staple in this apartment, our brandy caramel sauce. Tracy made it this time and used some left over peach juice so it was technically peach brandy sauce. What ever it was it damn good! I took a swig of brandy too...

Just kidding, I didn't.

"But there's a picture of you doing it, Revanna."

Fine, okay I did it. I was trying to make my Grandpa Forbes proud. Uh, Gramps? Are you watching?

And once again, back to the food...

We made the papple (heehee) pies in Tracy's mini 'pots', cute!

Then we drenched them in our brandy sauce.

We also made mini peach pies with the leftover pastry. They were cute enough to kiss!

So I did.

I've used the word 'cute' far too many times in this post, I've got to end it.

P.S. Today I was debating what the opposite of cute is...any opinions?

Jeez, I just can't do it!!

A Sunday Drive

I love driving. I love Sundays. So, today I decided to combine the two. I went for a Sunday drive! Kim, the guy that I work for, and I went for a drive to Charlottetown's North Shore. It was gorgeous.

Kim told me all these stories about different things about the Island. Like how PEI was part of North Africa before the big drift, hence the red dirt! So it's like I'm on a piece of Africa...well, not really, but I'm gonna pretend!

It was fun!

We also saw some people skating in the bay:

It would have been fine if there wasn't open water just a little bit away!!!!

They made me SO nervous. I was afraid that one was just going to disappear into the water while we were watching!
They didn't.

We visited a few harbours where Kim bought mackerel and eel. We also visited a little fishing village where the boats were getting ready to go lobster fishing.

I even say a trailer made it to a home. Cute, ain't it?

The water was the most beautiful color of blue. This picture doesn't really portray the color of the water very well, oh well, you can just stare at me and my bright jacket!

It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I loved seeing the ocean. Oh yeah, I should tell you, I don't really see the ocean every day...I see a bay with salt water that is currently frozen everyday. Not as exciting. It made me happy to see the real ocean!

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

Look what I found!!!

Finally! I am so happy!

Meet my new friend...

Everyone, this is Halloumi. Halloumi this is everyone!
Halloumi is a semi soft cheese made from sheep's and goats milk. It has a similar texture to mozzarella but is squeakier, so fun to eat. Now, the amazing thing about halloumi is that when it is heated it DOESN'T MELT! It's like magic! Tracy and I got a bit from Superstore last weekend and experimented with a couple of slices. We ate some without frying it and were really impressed. So we decided to bring out the old mini frying pan and fried some up.

All you have to do is place some slices in a cold pan, place it on medium heat.

When it turns golden brown, flip it!

Once the other side is sufficiently browned take them out and prepare to be amazed!

Now go out and buy some Halloumi, I promise you won't be disappointed!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh! (Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

I love the Irish. One of my major dreams is that somehow I become an old Irish sheep Herder who's goes around in wellies saying "Och, lassie, that wilna do!" or something like that. Hey, a girl can dream! Now, that I've revealed a strange, but true, fantasy I think I'll just pretend I never it said it and I'll just move on...

Yay! It's here! It's St. Patty's day! And before we begin the festivities I have to make you sure you are wearing something green or something related to Ireland. We had this discussion on Valentines day, please respect the holiday and wear appropriate attire. It's really shouldn't be that hard, socks and underwear to count. Okay, so now that you've all returned your closets and put on something green I think we can continue.

I started the day with a St. Patty's day breakfast, pancakes, sausage, and a 'pot of gold'. Heck, I'd take a bowl of perfectly ripe mango over a pot of gold any day! I enjoyed my brekkie while watching the St. Patrick's Day Ellen DeGeneres show. I love that girl, she makes me laugh...especially when she attempts Irish dancing with a fake blond curly wig. Heeheehahahoho!

On to the sweet stuff! I made two treats this St. Patty's day, one was cake balls:

Are those not the cutest things! This was my second attempt at cake balls, my first was at Christmas when I made ones shaped like Santa hats, for some strange reason I didn't take a picture of them! Oops! Well, you'll have to wait till next year.

I also made some Shamrock cookies:

And yes, those are green hearts. What do hearts have to do with St. Patty's day, you ask? Well, I love St. Patty's day and I LOVE heart shaped things. Enough said.

I sent some cake balls with Tracy when she went home this week and I dropped the remaining off at the school for my favorite (and only) librarians.

I ended the day with Potato and Leek soup and Italian Potato bread that I pretended was Irish Potato bread!

I hope all you lads and lassies enjoyed your St. Patty's day! Hopefully I'll be back in a few years for St. Patty's day so I can whip you all into shape!

Éire go Brách! (Ireland Forever!)

P.S. I would just like to note that I spoke to Annie Rose and Kirsten today and they were both in proper St. Patty's day attire. Way to go girls!

Happy Sunday!

Wow, it's Sunday again. Did you know that I have had 27 Sundays since moving here? When I say it like that it doesn't seem like that long of a time! I'm writing to say that I have unofficially finished my 1st year of school! I do still have do a course this summer to make up for what I'm missing when I go to Italy. But that's not the point, I finished my first year of college! Yipee! I now have 2 weeks off before jumping on a plane and heading to Italy! Yipee! Ah, Sundays are good, the potatoes I have roasting in the oven are going to be good, and life is good!
I'll be back with some more posts this week, and hey, it's St. Patty's day on Tuesday, you know there will be something about that posted!

Yoga with Rodney Yee (and Tracy)

Tonight I tried out one of Tracy's yoga videos. I have been doing some different videos and decided to shake things up tonight and try out Rodney Yee's yoga video. Because Tracy is sick she just sat on the couch doing homework while I did yoga. It works out pretty well having her sitting there because points out things I miss, like "oh, flex your foot, that's what Rodney's doing". She's a handy yoga coach. Except when she is reduced to giggles at the sight of Rodney Yee's, ah, well, thingy. Rodney doesn't wear much in his videos. Let me illustrate:Yup, that's it. So there I am trying to be relaxed and peaceful but keep getting interrupted by Tracy giggling and then saying something like "on the balls of your feet, hahaha, balls!" or making comments like "he should really invest in a codpiece". Oh, it was relaxing! Just thought I'd let you know what kind of whack job I'm living with. Ha!
She's still giggling...maybe it wasn't really Rodney Yee..maybe it was the Buckely's she's been chugging back. No. No, it can't be the Buckley's, I think it's just her.