A fun weekend despite it all!

The weather here has been pretty lousy- gale force winds, rainy/drizzly (not super rainy, just cold and grey) and very, very cold for May. Like a high of 12 degrees with insane wind every day. Yay… I am FREEZING in May. Coldest spring yet? Maybe??

But despite that, I had a nice time this weekend, and I wasn’t sure that I would. I have been struggling with the boring, endless stuck at home going nowhere fast cycle with no friends and boy it was really grating on me. I am still quite injured with my two leg stress fractures and it was just EATING at me.

This weekend went great!

I was out at the barn, didn’t have a good ride on Oats on Saturday and it was my fault- it was very chilly and windy and I felt quite on edge. I quit when we got a nice relaxed trot going (Sat is only w/t) and did a very long walk coolout. After our ride, the younger rider at the barn was taking his mini horse out for a cart ride but needed someone to come, and I didn’t have anything else going on so I went! It was really fun 🙂 and great to do something new eh?

Fun!! Go Duffy

We did that, and then I zipped out to Greenhawk to buy Quest (vet is coming on Tuesday for dentist/shots/wormer) and I could get a good deal there rather than by the vet. I also had an ulterior motive- I wanted to stop by the cafe Politano, b/c the had megashakes and I HAD to try it!

Yummy, but I would try something new next time!

So I did!

I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t have any Reese’s Pieces, which was a bummer, but the shake itself was very tasty and boy, was I full afterwards 😉

So all in all, a decent Saturday for a pretty grey, blah month/year.

Trip of a lifetime: Phase 1- Salvador!

We began our grand adventure in the city of Salvador. We flew to Sao Paulo first, spent the night and flew out to Salvador in the morning. I was a bit leery, it was chilly in Sao Paulo and I was like, I left our summer in Canada for this?

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Looks just like LA eh? Beachfront in Salvador Bahia.

The scenery outside Salvador is really interesting- the airport is very far from the old city centre, like 1 hour and a $50 cab ride, which we were not expecting! There were favelas as far as the eye could see, horses tied to grassy medians, a bit grungy and just, well, so different.

We were staying in the old town, the heart of Salvador as I like to think of it. It’s super cool, huge cobblestones that are extremely treacherous to walk on, the streets are very steep, and there is not much traffic. The hotels were fantastic- we stayed in two and they were sooo neat. Older buildings, well kept, fairly quiet and clean and just so funky!

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Pelhourino district

We stayed in the Pelhourino district, home to Brazil’s first elevator (Elevador Lacerda)- which is huge and connects the lower-town with the upper town (Pelo).

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Elevator just to the left.

The food was fantastic- we ate fish moqueque two days in a row!  It is a traditional fish stew with dende oil and shrimps. We also drank extremely strong caipirinha; a drink made of muddled sugar, limes and Cachaça. I could only drink one!

There are a lot of street vendors, but you can politely tell them to go away and they will leave you alone. The streets are deemed to be a bit dangerous at night, even in the very-touristy Pelo district, so be aware. We didn’t have any problems, but hotel doormen, taxi drivers, and restaurant staff were all warning us to be careful….So they were very wary and looked out for us a lot.

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SALVADOR!

The market was a bit blah, but the beach, the fort, the restaurants, the drinks, the hotels and the scene & heat is not to be missed!! Salvador has a little bit of everything– you won’t regret visiting.

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Stand-up paddleboard surf comp

We spent 2 half days in Salvaor–landed there from Sao Paulo, and then the next day we took a trip to Morro de Sao Paulo, and then came back from Morro de Sao Paulo to finish our stay in Salvador before zipping off to Rio for the Olympics. I definitely recommend checking out the Pelo district and enjoying one of the many fine, cheap restaurants in Salvador.

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So long, Salvador. At Barra lighthouse.

The history is fascinating, and the architecture/elevator is not to be missed.

 

Food that I like and dislike: A thorough examination

Didn’t ride yesterday as Oats had the day off – much needed for the both of us, honestly. For him, he was worked Sat-Tues, which a quite intensive dressage lesson. For me, I am feeling brain-fried so best to take a day and rest my calf muscle, which is actually feeling fine right now and I think I’ll be back to running again in a day or so.

So, I actually post a lot on Facebook about food (usually junk food) that I love or hate. I want people to share in my obsession (Reese’s!!!) and avoid the real duds- currently anything by Tim Hortons.

A clear winner.

A clear winner.

Love it:

Reese’s spreads– OMG. I could eat this all day with a spoon and no regrets. I particularly love it because I often feel shame about how many little Reese’s wrappers are surrounding me after eating them…With this, no millions of wrappers and paper cups, no shame! Just yum yum yum yum.

Pumpkin Scone– Yum! I made these with Kabocha squash puree instead. Delicious! I am a bit allergic to them right now at the same time though, so have to eat carefully (I have uncontrolled hayfever and it triggers many other food allergies at the same time, trying medication #3 at the moment to see if it works in combination with OTC drugs).

Any Halloween chocolate bars– except for Twix, I would eat fist-fulls of these alllll day.

Gummi coke bottles– bought a bucket of these and brought them to work. The bucket is almost gone. A clear winner!

Clif Bars– Love the new flavours, and have coconut-chocolate waiting for me at the barn….

Luna Bars– Tried the lemon flavour yesterday. Yum! A refreshing taste, though kind of a bitter aftertaste (maybe true to the lemon flavour?).

Peanuts– Love the red-skinned variety. Not from Fairway though, ended up with too much peanut skin ‘dust’.

Popcorn and Popcorn Balls- a clear winner! Made these on the weekend and am loooving them.

Pear chips– Just what they sound like. They are soooo delicious, I wish I had more pears to make them in my dehydrator.

Fruit leather- Made it in the dehydrator, with rhubarb and plums cooked and pureed smooth. Tricky to make, a bitch to clean after, but so good!

Nerds- These are still good, though the flavour selection sucks. What exactly are kids eating these days?

Aussie licorice– Any brand will do. Soooo good…

Milk to Go Sport– Delicious, milky goodness. Both the vanilla and the chocolate milk are not too sweet, contain a ton of calories (200) and protein for after races. Love the taste, and I am chronically deficient in calcium/Vit D and potassium, so these are great!

Hate it:

Muscle Mlk– anything by them is SO GROSS. Tastes like aspartame and tears. Gave me a two-day stomachache that i couldn’t shake. Yuck. Have a bottle of the ‘Extreme Vanilla’ in the fridge and can’t work up the courage to drink it…

Tim Horton’s Reese’s, Toffee, and Oreo doughnuts– You think you’re getting a big fancy doughnut splurge and all you’re getting is a shitty Boston Creme doughnut with some mini Reese’s cups stuck on top faking at being a good peanut butter doughnut. Eff you Tim Hortons! Also the Oreo one tastes like diabetes and the Toffee one had gross crunchy chunks of ‘something’ on them. Yuck! And I like sweet things!??!

Recipes that use too much freaking sugar- Yes, I’m looking at you, all dessert recipes ever.  There is just too MUCH sugar in them! I hate it! I love sweet things and these ‘1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar’ is so disgusting. I have been quartering the amount of sugar in recipes and still finding them very sweet! Case in point- I made an apple crumble that had way too much sugar and I found it too sweet with even a quarter of what the recipe called for, and husband made a peach cobble with way less sugar than needed, and it was still very sweet?

Willy Wonka Fun Dip/Lik m Aide– these are now gross. Not tangy, not good, not anything.Yuck.

Any ‘flan’ desserts– No, no thank you. No.

Starbucks– Any drink left full sweet there is icky and served lukewarm, and their bagels suck so hard. Their food in general is terrible actually, though the snack boxes (of apples, crackers, cheese and nuts) are hard to screw up, so I go with those if pressed. Yes Starbucks you can’t screw up pre-packaged apple slices, go you.

Pickles that include olives for some reason- No, I want my olives separate. Now everything tastes like olives. I like olives on their own, not infecting my pickles!

Kraft peanut butter with chocolate– Good, if you like the taste of emulsified oil products. And I eat Kraft peanut butter, so this is saying a lot. It is SO shitty, compared with Reese’s spread even. Gag. Why did you even do this, Kraft? To punish chocolate?

This pains me to write it, but…the chocolate cronut– Tastes like a cheap-ass chocolate pudding mushed inside a hard as fuck layered croissant. Too chewy, pudding goop falls everywhere and it is a total, try-hard mess. I can do this terribly at home, thank you very much, and save myself like $3.75 in the process. I am sad that one of my fav bakeries, ‘Crust’ screws this up like this. Ew.

Cakes from the Dutch Bakery. They look SO good, mouthwatering, delicious, and are not cheap. They taste like Styrofoam and oil, and cheap promises. You know how buttercreme is made with butter? Well, you can taste the difference, and these taste like the frosting is made with hydrogenated oil. Yuck. Don’t waste your money.

Oh, the boss is coming!

The Arkells were GREAT on Saturday. Personable, happy, and totally ready to rock. They stepped on stage with a great presence and just kept the good vibes rolling.

They played all their best hits, and a lot of new stuff too. They knew when to keep the new materials short, and the audience interested. Not that I didn’t like the new stuff, but when you follow a band, you also want them to show their ‘roots’ and history, so to speak.

Oh, the boss is coming!

They also relayed a fun anecdote- when they were first touring in Victoria, they played at Lucky Bar (that still exists) and didn’t have a place to crash – being young, broke and free willing, they relayed their sad story and a woman chatting with them offered her floor for the night.

They crashed there, and remembered her very fondly, for her generosity and free spirit. They called her out in the crowed, and my husband knew her! He said it was the type of thing she would do, and not think twice about- she was that cool and generous.

Great show, and ended with a cover of Diana Ross’ ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’ with Dear Rouge singing as well. Love it!

Highly recommend checking them out, they played to sold-out crowd at Sugar, and wow…You could tell it was sold out, felt like there was barely any breathing room! I was sweating to death!

Bath & Body- Crafty time~

Not only do I love riding, like running and being active, but I love crafts. Normally my crafts involve glue guns but I have been maturing in my skills…

So, earlier in the season I experimented with lip balms. I made peppermint ones and they were a success!

Now I’m combining my lip balm skills and adding in a lip scrub, so now people (friends, family, loved ones) can not only have a nice pepperminty lip balm but also a smoothing scrub to start things off!

Bubblegum lip scrubs and lip balms

Bubblegum lip scrubs and lip balms

This makes great little gifty things for Christmas.

I call my lip scrubs ‘Bubblegum’ lip scrubs and dyed them pink!

It’s so easy:

  • I used 1/2 cup white sugar,
  • 1 drop pink food dye,
  • 1 tsp vanilla (white),
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, and
  • 1 tsp cocoa butter (melted).

Mix the whole shebang together, add your pink food dye, and voila! Bubblegum lip scrub. Parcel it out into cute little containers. I used jam jars, with the labels removed and the lids spray-painted blue. Just boil them first!

Gifts

Gifts

This also feels super nice on your hands, if you want to make a bigger batch to use as a really nice gelato-type of hand scrub.

Next up- I am going to try my hand at making a peppermint foot scrub with salts. Should be good!

Nailed it!

So, some Pinterest-worthy fails…Courtesy of yours truly, my mom and my sister. Don’t worry, we did make more (actually, my mom did WITHOUT my sister helping OR me) and they turned out way better. Photos of that to come!

Macaron, oh those sweet little pillows of delicious ground almond. So tricky though. Why did these fail? WELL…
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We used was paper instead of parchment. Bad idea. As you can see, they got stuck.

We didn’t mix the egg whites for long enough before adding in the ‘superfine’ sugar.

Oh and we didn’t have superfine sugar and tried to substitute confectioner’s sugar. It did NOT work.

So, HAHAHA…Fail, Pinterest-worthy. These were just dyed blue, we made them in vanilla flavour. Tasty though! But the better ones tasted fluffier. Yummm