Bayless garden cocktail party

Almost 3 months back, Conrad and I enjoyed a dinner with RAD and some other Frontera Grill regulars at the Frontera Foundation's annual Dinner Like No Other fundraiser. Details on the blog, of course.

If I didn't mention then that we successfully bid (well, not technically, but long story, and it all worked out well) on a group cocktail party at the home of Rick and Deann Bayless. And being the big fanboy I am, I was thrilled.

Summer came to a close, and last Thursday evening, 11 of us gathered in the magnificent Bucktown garden of the Baylesses. The Baylesses, I should note, were not there. Which, I admit, is kind of odd, but not unexpected: they have restaurants to run. Instead, Deb, Fabi, and Harmony took good care of us. We were handed a choice of drinks (margaritas for most of us, of course), then guided around the gardens. Wow. I wish Jeph were with us - he would have been tickled at all there was. Native plants, fruiting trees (dwarf pomegranate!),
baby lettuces, squash on trellises, grape arbour, and more. Quite something.











After we'd wandered around and examined all the plants and asked a ton of questions, we gathered around the guacamole bar.

Deb talked to us about the food, and Fabi poured cocktails and told us about the wine, too. Dusk came upon us, and after a few hours, we left, quite pleased with our silent auction win.

Church and State

Sometimes we dawdle.

Monday afternoon - Labour Day - we took our leave of Kendall and headed out to the ferry, intending to make our 3:00 sailing reservation. Typically, though, we'd allowed ourselves a generous amount of time. Also typical of us, we decided to meander and wander and take our time on the way.

Although the Okanagan is better-known for its wine, there are pockets of wineries elsewhere in the province, and the often sunny, mild climes of the Saanich Peninsula apparently suits production. We'd seen signs on the highway indicating that wineries were nearby, and when we caught sight of one familiar name - Church and State - we decided to take a little time and go see it. Our thinking, of course, was that we'd dash in, taste one or two wines, then dash out. Ah, such dreamers are we.

We drove past vines and up to a large, modern building that turned out to house a restaurant as well. Inside, we wandered past the wines for sale and bellied up (we eat a lot on vacation) to the bar, so to speak. Tastings. Not free, but we were willing. An encouraging sign was the presence of other couples and small groups, tasting and talking.

Ultimately, Conrad and I each tasted four of the wines (and shared what we tasted with each other). I often find that BC reds are thin, not as good as I want them to be (with happy exceptions of course), but Conrad and I agreed that the Merlot was the best of the lot. Delicious wine, and we bought a bottle for us and a bottle for a friend. Second place? The rose. Surprise! No, we enjoy roses, and why not? A bottle for us of that as well. After that, we were divided. I liked the Pinot Noir more than Conrad did, which is unusual for us, and the rest were nice enough but not so much that we wanted to buy more.


By the time we were leaving, we were chatting with a man seated nearby, Hugh, whom I mistook for the winemaker. It seems, however, that he is the sommelier (I hope I have that correct) for Sooke Harbour House, arguably the finest restaurant in the country and the scene of our greatest meal ever, back in 2003. Nice to chat with, and my social nature took over, of course. So it's not surprising, then, that between the wine tasting and the conversation, we missed out reservation. Heck, we missed the entire sailing. A little later than intended getting back to Vancouver (we were on the 4:00), but aren't diversions like that kind of the point of vacation?

Canadian food

I get a little defensive when confronted with the ludicrous notion that there is no such thing as Canadian food. Hogwash. Of course there is. And much of it is good.

Here's an attractive example (though honesty compels me to admit that it was overly sweet and the base was too dry): a Nanaimo bar that I had for dessert on our lunch with Kendall in Victoria. Bonus points to American friends who can pronounce "Nanaimo" correctly!

A pleasant lunch with Kendall near Victoria's Chinatown. Not superlative, but easy and casual in a place, QV bakery, that had a certain character to it. Rain poured on and off outside, while we had a relaxing time at our table.

question for my horticulturally inclined friends

Friends - those of you who garden - what is this? A thistle, right, and past its season. Looks rather like an artichoke - the two are related, I recall. I'm curious, though. Handsome plants standing tall amid the other flowers planted in some park gardens on the south side of False Creek. We saw these impressive ones last night on a stroll back home from dinner.





Jeph? Anyone? Let me know!

speaking of bunnies...

Here's mine, and a darn cute one, I must say!

infestation

Waaaaay back in the days of the dinosaurs, I studied at the University of Victoria - UVic, as it's known. A new-ish school (my first semester there, it celebrated its 25th anniversary) with modern-ish buildings and lots of green space built within and outside of a ring road and tucked up near some nice and really nice neighbourhoods a distance from downtown.

I have only lukewarm memories of my degree program, but I have strong positive feelings for the university overall. This past weekend, on a quick overnight visit to Victoria to spend time with my best friend from UVic days, we drove up to campus and strolled a little.

I would love to show you many of the buildings I remember: the residences, the gym, the library, the student cafeteria, the SUB. I wish we'd taken lots of photos of the handsome gardens. I'm sorry we didn't run into any familiar faces after all these years, so I have no stories of that either. No, none of those. Instead - good as it was to see the campus and feel the energy of the student orientation weekend - we were captivated by the campus bunnies.








Yes, yes, yes. Conrad and I have our little bunny in-jokes that spill through our lives and tend to nauseate everyone, so we did think it cute in a way. But I do read Canadian newspapers online, and I have been aware of this problem at UVic. The campus rabbit population has exploded to the point where there are colonies (buries? husks? warrens?) of rabbits all over. Big groups of them, not at all afraid of people, blithely munching away on the lawns and leaving droppings everywhere.

Cute, yes, but truthfully an infestation.

We left campus shaking our heads, laughing, but you can be sure I'll be following this story in years to come. I consider it a cute thrill to see an occasional bunny on my own campus, but this? Frankly, a little ridiculous. And maybe it's just me, but gosh, could those res students have a treat if the critters were caught and cooked.

black and white brownies

Was it a week ago? More? Our teammate Brian invited us and others over to his building's courtyard for his birthday. What to bring? Dessert!

I haven't done much baking lately, in fact. With Conrad out of town in much of August, I didn't have a chance to send things in to his office. Additionally, in the few warm spells we had this very odd summer, I was altogether disinclined to turn the oven on.

The weekend of Brian's birthday, however, was sunny but unseasonably cool. Autumnal, indeed. After a jaunt downtown on the Sunday morning, I got to work in the kitchen with a recipe that was new to me: black and white brownies. It seemed easy enough (and it was), and the other recipes in the Stars Desserts book have been good, so why not?

I think I'll make these again, though I'm not wild about them. I like cheesecake, you see, but I'm not a particular fan of it, and the white part of the brownie wasn't a blondie or other white cakey thing, but - essentially - cheesecake filling.

Conrad's office got the trimmings from the pan, plus a few, and we brought round a board with a nice bunch of still-warm brownies on it. I think they went over well. Alas, though it's always great to see Brian, and there were other friends there, too,


we had other plans that evening and had to leave rather early. One day soon, though, I'll whip up another pan.

beaches

Many people often joke about my deathly pallor. Heck, I often joke about how ghostly white I am:

• Casper the Friendly Ghost white
• Lightbulb white
• Fishbelly white (my favourite)
• Insert your own description here

And it's all true. I'm pale as can be. Moreover, it really does take some effort to stay that white. Vacations to the wet, cloudy cool climes of BC, or to Sweden or other places where sunshine is a suggestion rather than a frequent reality.

It may then come as a shock to you three or four out there that read this to learn that I rather like going to the beach. I love the views, I love walking in the water, I love swimming given warm enough temperatures. I don't love the potential for Portuguese man-of-war, I admit, however.

Our first full day on Oahu we were keen to get in a drive, stop at our favourite bookstore in Kailua, make it to the shrimp trucks for lunch, and otherwise see what we would see. So it was that we stopped at a small beach on the windward side of the island and headed to the water to feel it on our toes. And ankles. And calves. And soaking the bottoms of our shorts. A cloudy day at that point, but the water was comfortable, and we were glad to splash that little bit.









Come the Monday, our plan for the morning was real beach time. Back to Kailua, this time to Kailua Beach Park. We'd once had lunch there and always wanted to come back and relax on the beach. Slathered in sunscreen, we lay on our mats and towels for a couple of hours, defying the jellyfish warnings and dashing into the sea for some bobbing around. The sun was bright that day, good and warm, and just to make everything perfect, a couple of green sea turtles kept showing up just offshore from us.

week of blogging ahead

Friends - the three of you who read this - it's been a lovely weekend without constant Internet access. Conrad and I made it over to Victoria to visit my best friend from university days, and now we're back home at the Vancouver condo. All is well.

In days ahead I plan to hole up with good coffee and catch up on the blog postings - reading AND writing. Impatient? Head over to Flickr for a taste of what's what.

But for tonight, something I didn't cook for dinner (we had halibut cheeks instead).



(two of the critters infesting the UVic campus)

quick post before vacation onslaught

I shall be posting muchly in days ahead, I do so swear. We leave for Vancouver on Saturday morning, and I plan to spend lazy mornings at our favourite coffee shop, adding to the blog, sipping the oh-so-good coffee. I may even eat a baked good or two! Wild man!

So, stay tuned. More Hawaii trip to write up and some other recent enjoyable times in Chicago, such as tonight's cocktails in the garden of the home of Rick and Deann Bayless. If you love food, I won't have to explain that one. If you are not up on food, well... just trust me (and others) on it. No, neither Baylesses were there tonight, but we had other very good company and -- wait, I can't give it ALL away!

Check back in days ahead!