Experience Regina!

This says it all...


(Saskatoon post coming soon!)

Easy Apple Tart

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet puff pastry, cut into half
• 3 - 4 whole apples, cored, halved, thinly sliced, not peeled
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1 egg (for pastry egg wash)

1. Preheat your oven to 415 degrees

2. Place your sliced apples in a bowl and add the brown sugar and salt and mix together (I used my hands as it was easier).

3. If you haven't bought ready-rolled pastry, roll it flat and cut into 2 rectangular pieces and placed on a greased baking tray or baking parchment.

4. Place your sugary apple slices on your pastry, overlapping slightly. 

5. Brush the outer edge of exposed pastry with a beaten egg. 

 

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the pastry has turned golden-brown.

7. Dust with icing sugar.

 8. Enjoy with a giant dollop of vanilla ice cream and then have seconds, and then
have thirds.

They're creepy and they're kooky

Happy Halloween!

I made a 'Death by Chocolate' cake for work. I must add that it was not poisonous in any way, this was just the toxic 'look' I was going for:

 

Me and the other Art Directors made the effort to dress up. However the same cannot be said for most of the accounts team. BOOOO (both in the disappointed and Halloweeny-way).

 

 ^This is not a real corpse, it is a foam man we use as a prop.

 

 ^Laura's AMAZING make-up and Neha, one of the few accounts peoples to Halloween it up.

^ My cray eyelashes - they were interesting to wear with glasses, all squished up against them.

And last but not least, a very special Halloween message from Maple...

This is her first 'outfit', she didn't seem very impressed, but she was just so cute I'm going to have to persevere and get her some more clobber.

Calgary Road Trip - Part deux

We arrived in Calgary around lunchtime and checked into our hotel. We then met up with our friends Ellie and Matt who were in Canada on holiday from the UK. It was really nice to see some familiar faces, Ellie and I have been friends since we were about 14 years old, so we had lot's to talk about.

We headed to the Calgary Zoo to have a walk around. Despite Calgary's recent floods the Zoo was still open with just a few enclosures closed to the public - and it was only 10 bucks to get in!

Here are some snaps from the owl sanctuary...

 ^ Hedwig

 ^ Ellie and an eagle

  

 

^ The one picture of Matt I got! (spot the T-rex)

We then headed back down to 17th Ave to check out the bars and restaurants...

 

 We spend the evening drinking discount beer at Boston Pizza and wondering the streets (but not in a hobo way).

The next day we visited a mall as David needed to go to an Apple store. It's probably the closest official Apple store to Regina!

There was also a 'British Shop' in the mall, which stocked such wonders as Walkers Crisps, Wine Gums, Yorkshire Tea, and various football-themed (soccer to you Canadians) lunch boxes. I was really happy to find these Fruit Pastilles as I worked on the 'Happy Pack' promotion in the UK :)

 Then it was time for a round of large slurpees and another eight and a half hours on the road to Regina.

 Maple was pleased to see us, but she was mostly pleased to have a paper bag to play with. She has been sitting on it like she's trying to lay an egg for about 3 weeks. Awwww.

Life lately, according to my iPhone

1. Our first Saskatchewan Rough Riders game!, 2. New Vans + blurry cat, 3. "Beef dip" (thinly shaved roast beef in a hot baguette, with gravy dip), 3. Cool Whip (fake frozen whipped cream), 4. Percy Pig delivery from Mum!, 4. Me and my homegirl, 5. Alan Partridge costmetics, 6. My fave slurpee flavour - grape, 7. Maple photobombing me (taken by David), 8. Fake Canadian Bourbon biscuits (not the same).

Calgary Road Trip - Part 1

On the weekend of September 14th, David and I drove from Regina to Calgary for the weekend. We left this fluff ball behind, but don't fret readers, our friend Nathan came and kept her company...

We set off at 4am in the dark and started our 8 and a half hour journey (with rest stops included).

Our first stop was at the town of Swift Current, where we enjoyed an EPIC breakfast from Smitty's. I had the 'Farmer's Skillet', which is a hot dish filled with a a whole omelette, green peppers, spicy sausage, onions, tomatoes, grated cheese, bacon and a bottom layer of crispy hash browns (fried potatoes to the Brits), oh and it also comes with toast in case you need more food! Breaky heaven.

 Smitty's also had some delightful wolf-inspired artworks in the foyers, that claimed to be the 'perfect gift for any occasion', how true.

We reached our halfway point, Medicine Hat and indulged in a Canadian favourite, Tim Hortons. David had a coffee (bleurgh), I had a frozen lemonade (yum) and we shared a box of Tim Bits. Tim Bits are 'doughnut holes', or tiny round doughnuts that have different fillings and glazes, meaning you can try lot's of types without having to scoff a whole tray of doughnuts. Very clever.

Where the name Medicine Hat came from, according to our favourite and most reliable Internet source, Wikipedia: The name "Medicine Hat" is the English translation of 'Saamis' (SA-MUS) – the Blackfoot word for the eagle tail feather headdress worn by medicine men – or 'Medicine Hat'. Several legends are associated with the name from a mythical mer-man river serpent named 'Soy-yee-daa-bee' – the Creator – who appeared to a hunter and instructed him to sacrifice his wife to get mystical powers which were manifest in a special hat. Another legend tells of a battle long ago between the Blackfoot and the Creein which a retreating Cree "Medicine Man" lost his headdress in the South Saskatchewan River.

In Medicine Hat, we also had the pleasure of viewing the World's tallest teepee, which reminded me of those weird gas structures back home. 

We reached Calgary at around 1pm. I don't know whether it was because of the good weather, but the city looked really nice and clean, like a super-sized Regina with a bit more ethnic diversity (and a Topshop, but we'll get to that in Part deux).

Steaks and sporrens

We visited one of Regina's 'Celtic' restaurants. Celtic is when they couldn't decide between the Scottish and the Irish and decided to go for some sort of hybrid. This one is called The Knotted Thistle. There are humorously named burgers and something called Irish nachos (amazing).

Amongst the Celtic faux-stained-glass windows and Irish music you can also find waitresses dressed in teeny-tiny kilts, knee high socks and sporrens (see sneaky photo below). Delightful I'm sure if you're a middle aged male with vague Scottish roots. Not so appealing however, if you're female. Unfortunately, scantily clad waitresses are a common theme here in Canada - I don't know whether these dress codes are enforced by the managers or whether they choose to dress like this but I think it's a real shame that shorter skirts = bigger tips.

David had the 'William Wallace' burger and I had the steak sarnie, which was all open-faced and yummy...

(That big dish of brown stuff is a lake of gravy, just for dipping chips/fries in!!!)