Tons of kids and meeting new friends.

Diamond has grown so much.

Diamond with sweet Phyllis.

Lovely Shani with cutie pie Naama. Shoshanna...those cheeks!

The kids were all ready to start their own band.

Naama on drums, Shoshanna on tamborine and Ari on guitar.

Max, Diamond and Sarah making their own necklaces.

Obviously visiting Jhanine and her family means spending time with all of Jhanine's friends. Old and new. Even though Diamond is only 3 years old, she attends a Jewish Academy. That's given them both the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. The house always seemed full of kids and their mommies. I met a lovely new friend named Shani and her daughter Naama. They had both recently moved there from Israel. We actually spent quite a lot of time together. We cooked and baked a lot. Jhanine's next door neighbour Sherry picked the wrong time to start a diet. I feel a little bad that Sherry wasn't able to stick to it while I was there. I kept tempting her with Carrot Cakes and Chocolate Pavlova and White Chocolate Toffee cookies and Scones and Lemon bars and my chicken mandu...she really didn't have a chance. Next time she'll know to avoid even thinking about starting the diet until after I'm gone.

Jhanine and her family are not particularly religious. But, whenever I visit, I do feel a little immersed in the Jewish culture. All her friends are Jewish. In fact, this time I even attended the Israel Independence Day celebration at the Venetian hotel. It got to be so funny, Stacey told me I should just consider converting....I told her I didn't think my Roman Catholic mother would be too happy with that. :)

First day in Vegas and meeting someone from history

This is a photo I took flying somewhere over Colorado.Amazing views from my window. I think I'll always have to fly during the day from now on.

I'm here in Vegas!
I arrived yesterday at 11:20PT. In the past, I've taken the late flight that arrives at 11pm. This time I thought I would take the early flight and have a whole day. The weather in Toronto was miserable...cold, rainy, foggy. The flight was delayed at take off by about 15min but we still arrived early. The weather was perfect the whole way. Since I'm a single woman ( I just assume most single women do this.) while I'm waiting at the Gate, I check out all the passengers. Usually zeroing in on any attractive men travelling alone. Is it too much to ask that one of these men could be sitting beside me on my flight? I think not.
Anyway, when I got on board I see an older man...old late 60's, he looks like an aging hippy/classic rock enthusiast sitting in 5c. (I'm in 5a) The seat between us is empty. Mildly disappointed I put my ipod on an proceed to go to sleep. After a couple of hours, I wake up. We are somewhere over the Dakotas. "Jerry" starts chatting to me. Just conversation. As the conversation keeps going, he mentions performing at Woodstock with Janis Joplin and performing in Toronto on a "Train" tour before Janis died. How the Toronto fans were just terrible because they didn't want to pay the $18 for the show and were hopping the fences to try and watch for free. He even shows me a picture of Janis he has in his wallet. Wow. Drumming with Billy Idol in Toronto at the ACC. Playing with Brian Wilson. He's singing a lot of the vocals because Brian's voice is just shot from booze and cigarettes. He tells me he's been living in Vegas for 10 years now. He's performing with a singer named Michelle at the Tropicana. He was quite a character. He talked to me about music and different shows I should check out while I'm here. Which acts are worth seeing and who is just so terrible it's funny.
It was quite entertaining. I felt like I was getting an inside perspective.
The view from my window was spectacular. I normally don't get to see the mountains in Colorado or the desert leading up to Vegas because I'm travelling at night. This time the weather was calm and gorgeously sunny. I took a few shots that I'll post later.

Jhanine picked me up and we had lunch. I was starving (I hadn't eaten in 7 hours). Then we relaxed at home, talked, napped. We met her friends Sherri and Dave and their daughter Shoshanna who live next door for a pool date. Apparently tonight we are having dinner at a country club with Tim (Jhanine's lawyer friend). Dinner out is already more than I had expected from this trip. (Normally we don't go out for dinner) It should be lovely.

Crazy Weekend

This weekend was absolutely crazy. I spent so little time at home and got so little sleep. I'm exhausted.

Friday morning I woke up very early...around 4:45am. I only got 4 1/2 hours sleep :( With memories of watching Charles and Diana's wedding when I was 11, how could I not watch William and Kate's. It was really lovely. They both were so sweet and obviously in love. She was absolutely gorgeous.

At 9:30am I raced out of the house to meet Alain, Dave and Garson at the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE to take part in the UFC Fan Expo. It was cool to see some of my favourite fighters and really get to see them up close. Everyone seemed so pumped and excited for the first UFC fight ever in Toronto and the Fan Expo. It really was a celebration of the sport and the fans who love it. A real love fest.

Enjoying the Expo with Dave, Garson and Alain.

5 of the 7 current belt holders. GSP and Jose Aldo had to go prepare for their weigh in.
Georges St. Pierre...one of the best bodies in Sport.

GSP! GSP! GSP!
This the beautiful Arianny Celeste. One of the UFC Ring girls.

Gar, rather than wait to get Arianny's autograph and a real picture with her, he prefers to look like her stalker. Ah...Love.

After the Expo, I immediately rushed over to Diana's to celebrate my cousin Jenny's 25th birthday. Diana did a great job with Lasagna and Pavlova. The babies were too cute and we had a great time just hanging out. I didn't get home until 2am.

Jenny, the birthday girl with her boyfriend Justin.

Samara helping Aunt Jenny blow out her birthday candles.

As soon as I got up on Saturday, I jumped into the shower and rushed to Bayview Village to get my haircut. It had been 4 months and my hair was looking too long and scraggly. As soon as I was done, I went to Sooky's place to meet up for lunch. We went to Reliable Fish and Chips. I had wanted to try it for a long time. It was pretty good. Diana and baby Marley joined us for lunch and we made our way to the Shops at Don Mills to do a little shopping. It was such a beautiful day. It was perfect to walk around and enjoy the outdoor mall as well as the sun and warmth. We made a stop at McEwan's for macarons and chocolate brownies and eclairs. Yum. We had a quick dinner at Linda. The food was good but Marley was too fussy and squawky to enjoy the meal comfortably. We said our goodbyes and I dashed to Willie Stout's to watch UFC129.

There I met up with Garson, Vivian, Nelson, Ron and Nick. The whole spectacle was quite impressive. The fights were all pretty good, except GSP's bout with Jake Shields...a bit boring. Jose Aldo and Mark Hominuk's won fight of the night and deservedly so...it was crazy! I've never seen a bump on the head like Mark's. It was the size of a baseball! (Absolutely no exaggeration...grotesque, just doesn't quite cover it.) Once I got home, I watched the post fight interviews and commentary. By the time I got to sleep it must have been 3am.

Sunday I woke up around 10am. After a little emailing, I made my Pavlova for our WS Book Club meeting that night at Maureen's. It was a lovely evening with wonderful company and delicious food. Maureen made Chicken Cacciatore that I got to take home for lunch the next day. It was still delicious. Now I'm really ready for a nap...

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Yummy!
Does anyone have room for dessert?

On a post note...a lot of people have been asking how my mom is after her fall. She got the cast put on and on Wednesday she went to see the specialist. He checked out the x-ray and removed her cast to examine her foot thoroughly. He told her that he didn't think it was broken, and if she doesn't feel any better in a week's time then to come back to see him...our medical system at work. Suffice it to say, my mom is ecstatic that she doesn't have to lug the heavy plaster cast. She's that much closer to the golf course. :P

Broken bones, oh no!

On Good Friday, my mom fell and tumbled. The next morning she was hobbling around with an ice pack under a tensor bandage on her foot. She was sore everywhere. When I called her on my way home from work, I asked how her foot was. She said it actually hurt more than earlier in the day. I suggested that she should get it checked out. So my mom and dad went to Centenary Hospital saturday night. In typical long weekend fashion, the wait in the emergency room was crazy. After 5 hours, she came home with some crutches declaring that she had a cracked bone on the top of her foot. Yikes! There was no one on staff at the time to put a cast on, so she has to go back today at 4pm and see a specialist on Wednesday. It looks like her golf season will be on hold until she's back on her feet 100%. (Right now she's trying to convince me that she doesn't need the cast...I'm trying to tell her that her foot will heal faster if it's immobilized in a cast. The next 6 weeks are going to be hell...)

Crab and Sweet Corn Soup

During our lunch at Wah Sing, I did not eat any "meat" dishes. It was Good Friday. During Lent, I didn't eat meat on fridays and every week made a batch of Crab and Sweet Corn soup from a recipe I found online. The first time I made it, I was eating it by myself. My brother hadn't been too interested in the prospect, so I made him a pizza instead. As I was eating the soup, my brother, asked what I was eating. The smell was getting to him. I offered him a bowl. As he was eating it, he commented that he had no idea how good the soup would be. He had a second bowl. The next week, when I mentioned the soup, he automatically said yes.

So I mentioned to my cousins about the soup. They wanted me to give them the recipe, so I thought I would post it.

Meredith, you can substitute little chunks of chicken breast. (Probably 1 large breast) I would mix it with the ginger uncooked then add it to the chicken broth to cook for a couple of minutes(3 1/2 cups), then add the corn. By the time everything comes to a boil, it should be all cooked. Just keep the chicken chunks small. Enjoy!

Sweet Corn Soup with Crabmeat

3/4 tsp finely grated fresh ginger (I use a rasp)

3/4 cup drained canned crabmeat (I use a 120gr can of President's Choice Chunk Crab Meat)

2 tsp cornstarch

4 tsp water

3 cups chicken broth

1 14 fl oz can creamed corn

1 12 fl oz can corn niblets, drained

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (4 turns of the pepper mill, 1 pinch?)

In a small bowl, stir the chopped ginger into the crabmeat. In a separate small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and water.In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth, creamed corn, corn niblets, soy sauce, sugar, and pepper to a boil, stirring occasionally.Add the crabmeat and return to a boil. Re-stir the corn starch and water and pour it into the soup, stirring quickly to thicken. Bring back to a boil.
Remove the soup from heat and enjoy! The soup reheats very nicely. We always add a squirt of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce...Mmm!

Good Friday with the Cousins

A little blurry, but you can get a sense of the yummy cuteness!

There were no festivities planned for the parents, so the "kids" decided to arrange a gathering for the cousins alone. After much debate and emails going back and forth, we decided to go to Wah Sing for lunch then dessert and games at Sooky's afterward.

Wah Sing was Jenny's idea of limiting the work for everyone, since we would normally do a pot luck...;P

In honour of Jenny's upcoming 25th birthday I made cupcakes. White Chocolate and Lemon cupcakes. I made lemon curd for the first time and white chocolate lemon cupcakes from my new Heavenly Cakes book. Then topped it with a Cream Cheese, white chocolate and lemon frosting from Epicurious.

Although I didn't take a picture of Jenny enjoying her cupcake, I did take one of Hanny enjoying her second one. Diana had 3!

At Sooky's house, we played an energetic game of Taboo, played with the babies, Charlotte and Samara had an Easter Egg hunt and I got to play Angry birds on Sooky's new iPad.

It's nice to know that even if our parents are not organizing our family gatherings, everyone else is enthusiastic about celebrating the holidays together. Fantastic family.

Talia

During my visit for Mark's birthday, I snapped these pictures of Talia...so cute. Mer asked me not to post them, but how could I not? At 4 months, she's already a bit of a ham. Obviously the apple didn't fall too far from the tree...Marky...I'm not pointing any fingers. :P

I know what you're thinking...but not to worry. I gave plenty of kisses to those cheeks. In fact...I think she likes having her cheeks peppered with kisses, making slurping noises. I could have nibbled on those cheeks all night. Such a cutie pie.

Here are your damn cupcakes!...(with a little bit of history)

My cousin Mark's birthday was monday. (He's Cat and Mad's younger brother) He's the same age as my brother and growing up it was like I had 3 brother's instead of one (Including Sooky's brother Eunho) He's a chocoholic and a Star Wars lover...so how could I resist baking him some dark chocolate cupcakes? Intentions were good, obviously, but the course did not run smooth... (A little back story) A few years ago, (probably a dozen) I wanted to make my brother a huge fancy bakery style birthday cake. A 3 or 4 layer monstrosity of chocolate and more chocolate. I had decided to make the cake part from a Duncan Hines Devil's food mix, since we loved the flavour, and make the chocolate ganache frosting from scratch. I had purchased all the ingredients from a nearby baking specialty shop. I baked the 3 layers from 2 cake mixes no problem, but the frosting...not so easy. As I was taking the chocolate off of the water bath, I could see it split. The chocolate fat and solid separated right before my eyes. I didn't know what to do. I frantically tried to salvage it but it was no use. I tossed the chocolate out. I had luckily purchase enough for a second batch. This time, the chocolate melted fine, but would not thicken...I added whipped cream to try and change it to something lighter and spreadable but...my baking skills were a little underdeveloped...and the frosting was this sloppy, soupy mess. So around midnight, I was off to Sobey's to buy Betty Crooker frosting. The next day, I went to work at my parent's coffee shop and assembled the cake there. 3 tiers, including dowels to hold it in place. It was massive. We were having dinner at my cousin Sooky's parent's place for Korean Thanksgiving... on the way there, a car in front of me turned without signalling and I slammed on the brakes, quickly grabbing my purse before it flew onto the cake sitting in front of the passenger seat. By the time I arrived at my cousins' place, I called the house, heart thumping from the close call and asked Hanna to come out and take the cake in...with my luck, I would have tripped on my way to the front door. Suffice it to say, it was a "huge" hit...but it was the most expensive boxed cake in history.

I haven't attempted a ganache/frosting since. Not out of fear :P but no real occasion for a big cake like that. I usually use buttercreams. But, buttercreams are not big on chocolate flavour and I wanted to max on flavour, so I scoured recipes on Epicurious and Food network. I baked cupcakes that came out perfectly. Lovely bump and nice fluffy texture. (A little light on the chocolate flavour...will have to look into that) The frosting is a ganache/buttercream hybrid from Michael Smith. I follow the directions. Without thinking I added the whipping cream straight from the fridge...I could totally see the chocolate split and this oily curdled looking sludge. UGHHHH! All I could think to myself is "I'm a pretty competent baker...yet there are people less competent who can seem to make beautiful frosting...why not me?" Instantly my mind is reminded of that birthday cake all those years ago. I actually felt a little pitiful, and I realized I don't have enough whipping cream to try this again, UGH! Frantically I searched on google all the ways to possibly "fix" the split. I added a little vegetable oil...I heated then chilled, then whipped on high speed in the mixer. As if by magic, the goop turns sticky...I see it sticking to the sides of the bowl...the texture looks less oily and curdled...the texture looks smooth and silky...I stick my finger in the bowl... WOW!!! It's FROSTING! Wasting no time I immediately pipe them on my perfect looking bases. I let them dry for a few minutes and put them in airtight glass containers for transport. I packed a bag with the StarWars cupcake liners and left it by the door. I had to be at work early. It was supposed to rain all day. So I left them in the car. It was 6C in the morning so I thought they should be fine. It was going to warm up but it would be rainy and dreary so I wasn't too worried. While at work, I heard thunder and the whole mall seemed dark from the clouds outside. I knew they were safe. Then around noon, the sun came out. It stayed sunny all afternoon...I asked everyone about the weather. Ron said it was sunny but cool. Susie confirmed it was warming up. At 4:30 I raced outside to find the front half of the car bathed in sunshine and toasty...Luckily I had left the cupcakes in the back seat. I felt the containers and they were still cool to the touch. (Yeah!) So I delivered my Dark Chocolate cupcakes...they looked absolutely perfect. Just don't ask me to make them again...my heart can't take it. Well, at least wait a little before you ask. (What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.:) Oh, and Happy Birthday Marky! I hope you liked them.

A little catch up...

I realized I had so many pictures of Pip and Sabrina from their last visit, that I hadn't posted yet(they were here for 3 weeks and left last weekend). Sabrina was so funny. In three short months, she went from a baby, not quite able to walk, to a toddler, constantly curious and on the move. While out shopping, she would look at clothing or jewelry as if she was a seasoned shopper. She would just hold, turn over, touch the texture of things, never pulling down or picking up. Just browsing. I wonder where she picked up that technique? :)

My favourite Spicy Dragon roll...I could eat at least 12 pieces...24 if I wasn't eating anything else...

Except they have the lightest, crispiest Shrimp Tempura...

We didn't get to try any of the new restaurants that I wanted to introduce her to, but we did get to at least go to our favourite all you can eat sushi place. So yummy and never disappoints.