Hello?? Is This Thing On?

I am so sorry to have neglected you over the spring/summer/fall.

Ugh.

You know when life just gets in the way of doing the things you've been meaning or wanting to do?

Yeah, that's kinda what happened.  But, I'm back now and next week I have a whiskey tasting to go to with Macallen Whiskey courtesy of Matchstick.com...so that will be my first 'official' post back!

Until then....these are the things I meant to tell you about...

I drank a lot of tea (David's Tea & ironically enough Gretzky's Green Tea (which I originally bought as a joke because of the ridiculous packaging and it actually turned out to be pretty good!))

Soda bread with currants (which I hate, but made anyway thinking I might have some sort of revelation that I like currants. I still don't)

Had a first date at the Black Bull in Toronto and consequent dates around the neighbourhood... 

Drank coffees at the Dark Horse Cafe in Toronto

Found a little chocolate shop and tried out some unique chocolate

Drank nearly a gallon of apple cider

Made hazelnut cupcakes for my *gasp* 36th birthday

Celebrated the World Cup by taste testing a bunch of Walker's World Cup flavoured crisps

Convinced my cousin Kim to eat Vietnamese food

Made curd (seriously people...I made curd!! Keylime curd to be exact and black raspberry curd..black raspberries that I had painstakingly collected myself)...the curd then became swirly tartlets.

Made tons of pasta with very simple toppings (lots of fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil and feta..divine!)

• Tried out a few new sushi places
• Consumed Irish Stew made with Guinness out on a chilly, albeit summery patio at the Waterfront Pub
• Drank various kinds of ciders and ales at C'est What
• Planted spaghetti squash...fried up and ate some of the blossoms
• Had drinks with friends and dates at various locales in the city..and they were great!
• Planted heirloom tomatoes, basil, cilantro, lime basil, sugar snap peas
• Drank lots of peach-basil sangria and still did not manage to photograph it

.....and managed to lose 30 pounds doing it all!