1. I just realized that I'm not as daring as I used to be. Now that I'm in my thirties, I feel more cautious. It's hard to explain. When I was younger, I'd just do things on a whim. I'd fly by the seat of my pants, I'd be really spontaneous and I'd do crazy things. A girlfriend of mine would call me up and ask what I was doing and we'd decide right then and there that we were going to drive to New York for the weekend...or drive from Toronto to Montreal just to have breakfast at Chez Cora's! There were other crazy things I'd do, but I won't mention them here! ;)

*sigh*

Now, even with little things like getting my hair cut, I feel more 'prudent'. I always get just a little trim...nothing drastic. I got my hair cut last month and to me it was a big adjustment from having long-ish hair. Today, I felt like being a little more daring. My mom, a girlfriend of mine and I went to get our hair done and this is what I got:It's a little fun and light. Perfect for getting ready for summer!

2. I never knew that spontaneous combustion could actually occur. How on earth does something start to go on fire by itself?? I saw examples of spontaneous combustion in movies and in books, but never knew it could happen in real life.
My husband and I were in the truck last summer and he was telling me how bales (of hay or grass or whatever) could self combust. Another friend of ours told me that she and her dad were moving bales in their barn and two of the bales started to self combust! They just started smoking! I suppose from moving the bales, if the conditions were right (oxygen levels, etc), then it could happen. It's really interesting if you think about it. Trust me, this is not something I probably would have ever thought of if I were still living in the city!!!3. I'm off to Montreal tomorrow morning to spend the weekend with my grandmother. As much as I love, love, love living on the Island, I just miss my family sooooooooo much! My grandma will be eighty-eight years old this August! I'm really close to my family and need to be with my grandma when she's in Canada. She spends the winters in the Philippines and the summers in Canada. I need to spend as much time with her as I can!4. This year we have more maple syrup than last year. Hubby and I just finished bottling our first batch and still have more to do. We're almost done. Aren't these the cutest? They look like little maple syrup soldiers all lined up. I'm not sure if Hubby thinks I'm weird because I need all the labels facing the same direction and everything needs to be uniform. *sigh* I know, I've got issues.5. Don't forget about the contest I've got on right now :) I'll announce the winner on Tuesday!

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of curling up on the couch with my mom and a box of Kleenex, bawling our eyes out as we watched the most poignant, memorable tearjerkers on TV. My mom and I would just sob and sob! My dad used to ask us why we even bothered watching movies if we were going to cry like that.

I just treasured those moments with mom. Tears and all. Even after all these years, I will never be able to forget those wonderful movies we watched together.

Here is my list for the "Top 5 Saddest Movies Ever Made":




I'm a huge believer in "what goes around, comes around" and "you get from the universe what you put out". Having had the recent good fortune of winning an amazing prize, I would like to pass on a little good fortune to someone else.

If you can name all of these movies, the year these movies came out and the main actors in each, then you will win a neat little prize. What's this prize, you ask? As you know, I love promoting my friends and their businesses. The winner gets some of these:

**Contest closes on Monday, April 21st at midnight.** I will announce the winner on Tuesday, April 22nd. In event of a tie (or multiple correct answers), I'll write your names on a piece of paper. Hubby will choose a name at random. If your name gets picked, you win!

Even if you do not wish to enter the contest, drop me a line and let me know what your "Top 5 Saddest Movies Ever Made" are! :)

I was looking for a particular grammar usage book when I came across a box filled with memories. There were CDs in there that I had been searching all over for. There were presents from students I had forgotten about. There was a Japanese wooden toy, a traditional Mexican calendar (I think that's what it is!), several Korean magnets and bookmarks, as well as a glass portrait of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus (with a wooden stand) given to me by my Mexican students. At first, I wasn't sure if my Mexican students were kidding me when they gave it to me, but they were serious :) Being an ESL teacher, I get some pretty interesting presents!

What surprised me the most was unearthing these next few oldies! It was a bittersweet moment. I found oodles and oodles of art work that I had done. Funny... I noticed how I only feel inspired to draw, sketch or paint when I'm experiencing conflict in my life. I haven't doodled, scribbled, painted, drawn or sketched since I left the city. Odd.
Yonge & Eglinton was my subway station. I used to sketch while waiting for the subway.
A few years ago, I spent Thanksgiving in Georgetown, Ontario with my college buddy, Stephen and his family (and friends of the family). Georgetown is a lovely place. The Highland Games = a must see!
I called this one Inseparable. Back in the city, I always had my cell phone in hand. It was rare to not see me texting or chatting with someone on my cell. Rude. Sad. Inconsiderate. Of course, I didn't think I was being all those at the time!
Portrait of Richard, an artist friend of mine in Toronto.
Portrait of my lovely cousin, Jey.Of course, I always wear my heart on my sleeve.

This post is for Jeanna. I LOVE YOU!!! ;)A few weeks ago, Jeanna was hosting a contest on her blog. She asked readers to look at a photo that she posted and name at least thirty candies from when we were kids. Do you remember any of those classic nostalgic candies from the 60's, 70's and even 80's? I remember them! There's nothing like old time candy to remind you of your childhood!

To my surprise, I actually won. Today, my parcel arrived! Going to the post office, I felt like a kid in a candy shop! I love getting stuff in the mail! It was lunch time, so I decided to tear it up and get to the post office. Upon arrival at the post office, I jumped out of the truck and dashed up the stairs. I felt as though I my feet couldn't carry me fast enough! Almost tripping over my laces, I made it to the door. A box from the U.S. sat on the counter waiting for me.

Woo hooo! I almost burst out into song (but I refrained, lest people discover that I really am kooky). Trying to tame the urge to sing "I'll take you to the candy shop, I'll let you lick the lollypop" is not an easy thing to do!

At home, I barely had time to take off my jacket and shoes before ripping open that box!

*sigh*

Jeanna, you are the best! This is what I saw when I opened up the box.Wait! That wasn't it! Beneath the layer of multi-flavoured popcorn, lay other goodies waiting to be discovered!The show stoppers were definitely these hilarious Udderfingers, Cow Pies, Cow Pie Minis, and MooChews!
Hubby and I took the liberty of sampling the Cow Pie Minis. Ohhhh my goodness! For obvious reasons, we chuckled at the idea of eating chocolate named "Cow Pies". We live on a farm...enough said! ;) These delightful little treats were full of gooey sweetness. They reminded Hubby of Turtles with their rich chocolate, creamy caramel and fresh pecans. Mmmm Mmmm Good! I love the packaging too. It says "Home of Homer Holstein"! LOL! If you live on a farm, you can appreciate how funny and cute this is :)

I told Hubby that these are treats and we are not to finish them in one go. This doesn't exactly fit into our healthy living lifestyle, but that's okay!

I
LOVE
CHOCOLATE.

Not too long ago, Hubby and I had the opportunity to eat at Issmi, a Japanese restaurant in Toronto. Though I am a fan of Sushi Inn in Yorkville, and tend to stick with sushi places that I know and love, we gave Issmi a try. I'm sure glad we did!

One of my former students recommended the restaurant, so we decided to make that our meeting place. Hubby and I dined with my former students and just drooled over all the delectable dishes.

The restaurant is a quaint little place and the service is excellent. Our waitress (in the photo above, posing with the owner of the restaurant) was friendly and helpful. She was also very knowledgeable with regard to the menu.

Green tea and a few dishes of edamame were brought to us while we waited for our meal.
The avocado salad was very impressive. I had never had anything like it before. The avocado had a very light, buttery flavour and the dressing was lovely. It was that special dressing that comes with "Japanese" salads, which is really funny because my Japanese students always tell me that they don't have that in Japan! Come to think of it, I don't recall ever having "Japanese salad dressing" in Japan either! Nonetheless, I LOVE that stuff and the chef at Issmi does a fabulous job with the dressing.
The sushi and tempura bento box was impressive. The portions were large, so I only ate half and took the rest with me.

Hubby had the beef teriyaki and enjoyed it tremendously. He said it was better at Issmi's than at some of the other places he's tried it.

To finish off, we were served a little something sweet. Just a little bit of green tea ice cream to end a wonderful meal. I had longed for green tea ice cream, as it reminded me of my teaching days in Japan.

Issmi is located near Yorkmills Subway Station.
1984 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5M 4A4
Tel: (416) 488-2500

Did you know that Häagen-Dazs has green tea ice cream???
Of course, this is not something Hubby was crazy for. He isn't much of a green tea (or any tea for that matter) fan. In Japan, I used to buy Häagen-Dazs green tea ice cream from vending machines. Japan's got vending machines for almost anything you can think of!

Oh, wait! It's Tuesday! *sigh*

What does one do when one has an entire "day off" to play with?

If you're crazy like I am, you do this:

1. Make a huge batch of curried butternut squash soup
2. Keep an eye on the next batch of maple syrup while Hubby is doing farm chores
3. Do Turbo Jam
4. Mop floors
5. Vacuum entire house
6. Compost in the garden
7. Clean dining room
8. Clean living room
9. Clean games room
10. Clean guest room
11. Clean greenhouse
12. Groom Chance (that dog is crazy looking! He's got burrs in his thick coat! Arrrgh!)
13. Cat litter
14. Make supper
15. Clear old raspberry canes so the new ones can come in (This took me over an hour and a half and I'm only half done!)
16. Laundry (3 loads)

Man! It feels like I did a lot today, but looking at the list, I only got seven things scratched off! Argh. Imagine what it's like when it's not a day off?
Since I'm in the sharing mood, I thought I'd post my Curried Butternut Squash Soup recipe with you.Flipping through my vegetarian bible from when I was a university student, my eyes wandered across the dog-eared, food stained pages. You know a book is treasured when it looks used and as though it has had better days!

I love, love, love butternut squash (or "squish", as Hubby likes to call it). I love it sliced in half, seeded, and baked in the oven as is. No need to add anything to it. Butternut squash is perfect on its own. I also love making this green bean and butternut squash dish, but today I felt like having soup. The soup I make is a slight adaption of Mollie Katzen's Curried Squash and Mushroom Soup from her Moosewood Vegetarian Cookbook. Though I love the original recipe, I've made a similar soup with my own touch. For some reason, I didn't like the mushrooms in the soup, so I omitted them. I also changed a few other things. Here's my recipe:

1 butternut squash
2 1/2 c. water
1 c. orange juice
1 Tbs. butter
1 c. onion, chopped
2 or more cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
pinch of cayenne pepper

The cookbook calls for the squash to be halved, seeded, and placed face down on a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven and baked for 40 min. I usually do this and the squash comes out very sweet and buttery. This time, I didn't have 40 min to bake the squash first, so I cut the squash up into 1 in. pieces and cooked them in a pot with a bit of water. Once soft, I used my hand blender (you could scoop little batches and put it in a blender/food processor and puree). Puree squash and water, and gradually add orange juice.

In a skillet, heat butter (or oil if you want to make this dish vegan) and add onion, garlic, salt and spices. Cook over medium heat until the onion is almost translucent and everything is sauteed well. Add the saute to the pureed squash. Blend together and you're done! Yummy!

For Jimmy:
This is what we see from our living room window...
We spotted ninteen deer yesterday around supper time. Driving back to the Island from Espanola the other day, I counted seventy (Yes, SEVENTY!) deer, two raccoons, six Sandhill Cranes, and too many Canada Geese to count.

Growing up, I loved lingering about the kitchen while my grandparents cooked up the most delectable traditional Filipino dishes. My grandfather's Kaldereta was always a popular dish! No one in our family has been able to make it the way he used to make it!

I loved listening to my grandparents talk about life in the Philippines and moving to Canada almost forty years ago. I often wished I could capture all their stories on paper and keep them for posterity. There's just so much material that I wouldn't even know where to begin!

Though my brothers, cousins and I never learned to speak, read or write in Tagalog, we are able to understand most of what is spoken to us. I wish we were taught the language because now that I'm in my thirties, I'd love to pass more of my Filipino heritage onto my kids when Hubby and I start our own family.

Growing up in Montreal, Canada, I feel like I don't really know my Chinese and Filipino background. I know this phrase sounds horrible, but I kind of feel like a coconut. White on the inside and brown on the outside. It's a terrible thing to say, but that's how I felt growing up. The only time I was reminded that I was brown was when I looked in the mirror! Other than that, I didn't even realize that I wasn't 'white'! All my friends were 'white', we spoke French and English at school and English in the house. I didn't attend any of the Filipino Association clubs or events. I majored and specialized in English Literature in university. Many of my courses were about "Western Civilization". I took countless courses in Women's Literature, British Literature, and the only time I realized how much I was missing out on my own cultural background was when I took a course in literature and the immigrant experience.

It was then that I understood that though I am North American and have lived here my entire life, I've got so many things that I need to learn about who I am and where my roots are.

This post is a result of this strange wave of thought I had as I made a dessert that reminded me of my grandmother's leche flan. I can't give out my grandmother's recipe because it's a secret family recipe...and because it's so time consuming and labour-intensive that even I can't make it! My cousin brought me a box of Dr. Oetker's Creme Caramel. Though I try not to make any convenience foods, the box was just sitting there in our kitchen. It reminded me of my grandmother and her wonderful leche flan. For a brief moment, I was transported back to my grandparents' home in Montreal. My grandmother was making her leche flan and telling me all the naughty things my mom and her siblings used to do. In that moment, I could even smell her. It was that unmistakable scent of Johnson's & Johnson's baby powder, rose water and Oil of Olay.

I was thinking, would it be horrible for me to ask my eighty-six year old grandmother to slave for hours in the kitchen making her fabulous leche flan when she returns to Canada for the summer months?

I don't even like eating sweets!

Isn't it funny how certain fragrances, aromas, sounds, and music can trigger memories from deep within?

...so you could smell the hint of wonderful sweetness in the air! We started boiling our maple sap today. When you step outside the house, it smells like pancakes and maple syrup!!
Since we're only making maple syrup for ourselves (as well as friends, family and students), we only do small batches of maple syrup. Last year, since we were just experimenting with making maple syrup, we just put the syrup in mason jars.This year, we got these cute little jugs!

It seems in the past few years, our culture has become one that embraces 'Reality TV'. With shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, The Bachelor, Hell's Kitchen, Beauty and the Geek, The Biggest Loser, America's Next Top Model and Big Brother, one can't help but wonder what new shows creators will come up with next.

I have a love-hate relationship with some of these types of shows. Though one part of me is adamantly against the entire premise of some of the shows, part of me feels drawn to them and wants to know what will happen next.

With the emergence of these new shows, the wheels started turning in my head. I recall having a conversation with Hubby last year about how it would be funny if someone would create a show about a farmer trying to find a wife. Lo and behold, last week we saw a commercial for a new TV show called "Farmer Wants a Wife". Isn't that funny?

Having lived in the country for nearly four years now, I can see how it may be difficult for a farmer to find a wife. Much of their days are spent on the farm. Many farmers spend long hours doing chores and doing other farm related things. There's calving season, planting season, haying season...and there's always something going on at the farm! It's not hard to see why it can be difficult to have an active social life.

If you think about it, where or how would one normally meet someone? When I was in the city, it wasn't so hard to strike up a conversation with someone at clubs, bars, sporting events, the gym, the bookstore, a coffee shop, get-togethers with friends, art exhibits, poetry readings, art galleries, the park, and so on. A few years ago, internet dating was also popular. I'm not sure if it still is.
I suppose that in the country, one would meet someone through friends, mutual acquaintances, social gatherings, etc. That's if you can get away from the farm long enough to do so. It also seems that not so many young people are as interested in farming life as were the generations before them. Let's face it, farming is a tough life. It's a lot of work and there is a lot of time and money invested in farming. It's a rewarding life, but certainly not an easy one.

I wasn't surprised that a TV show like Farmer Wants a Wife was created. Here I was, thinking that I had thought of it first! ;)

Though Hubby isn't really interested in reality TV shows, he has mentioned on several accounts that "The Farmer Wants A Wife" sounds like something he'd like to see. I took the liberty of checking out the link to the Australian version of the show, and all I can say is...

Boy! Are some of those farm boys ever cute!?!?!

Did I tell you that I have a weakness for Aussies??

The U.S. version of the show is basically about 10 city girls who are tired of their fast-paced lives and vie for the attention of a bachelor farmer who wants to settle down with the woman of his dreams. To win over the eligible farm boy, the women must prove that they are ready and able to live a farm life. According to what I have read on the internet, the show is much like The Bachelor, only with the twist being a rural setting and a farm lifestyle.

Anyway, as I mentioned, Hubby is interested in seeing what the show is all about.
Speaking of Hubby, check out his latest post here!