Niagara Icewine Festival Part 2

Read part one here where we headed to Niagara College, Chateau des Charmes, Southbrook, and Cattail Creek.

Hillebrand

Next stop on our little winery tour was Hillebrand. We’ve bought some of their wines from the LCBO (ie. the only place you can buy booze in Ontario. Literally.) and enjoyed them, so in addition to the icewine Matt wanted to do a tasting of their Reds. None of them really jumped out at me.

We grabbed a sample of their Vidal Icewine paired with warm chili topped with cocoa nibs. I remember liking the icewine, but loving the chili. Matt claimed it wasn’t as good as my mom’s chili recipe, but I thought it was some stiff competition.

I really liked the quaint atmosphere of this winery. We sat by the fire pit as the sun was starting to poke out for the 3 minutes of sunlight that we got the entire day.

Pillitteri

Pillitteri Estates looks pretty unassuming when you approach it, but it’s definitely a winery you shouldn’t miss. It has, by far, the best selection of icewines, not surprisingly since they are the world’s largest icewine producers. We got a pairing of a shiraz icewine with a cheese tart as well as a tasting of 4 of their higher-end icewines. My favourite, and the best one of the day in my opinion, was the 2007 Chardonnay Icewine. It was really flavourful and sweeter than juice. Matt liked the Vidal Sparkling Icewine, which was my second favourite.

Konzelmann

Last stop was Konzelmann Estate Winery which is located in a fancy stone castle in a beautiful property right on Lake Ontario. Matt wanted to do a tasting here, but we got there just as they were closing up shop. I was a bit disappointed that their icewine sample didn’t actually include icewine. Instead they gave us their Canada Red wine paired with “Trainwrecker Beans” which were a version of baked beans that included bacon, beef, icewine, and red wine. Oh and beans. The trainwrecker beans were to die for and luckily I got the recipe. I hope to make it soon and share the recipe with you guys!

Angel Inn

5 o’clock rolled around and all the wineries were closing up shop so we headed to our hotel to check in. We stayed at the Angel Inn which I picked for 2 reasons: 1) the room was cheap, and 2) the first floor is a bar which I thought would be both fun and convenient.

The hotel room was a bit of a dump. It was clean but run down and not well maintained. It felt like crashing at a friend’s house after a long night of drinking. Luckily Matt and I have low standards.

The bar has live music until 12:30 in the morning, which didn’t matter much to us since we were at the pub downstairs drinking anyway. It would have otherwise been impossible to sleep until after the band stopped.

After walking around the deserted streets (the town basically closed down at 5 and there was nothing to do until dinner) we headed back to the inn for dinner.

The pub itself was really good. There aren’t many places to eat and drink in Niagara-on-the-Lake that are casual, fun, and laid back but the Angel Inn is a classic English pub that fits the criteria. They had a good domestic and imported beer selection on tap and even had their own brews (I liked the Angel Wheat beer).

Also the food was delicious. I’ve been on a pie kick lately (what’s better than a warm pie on a cold winter day?) so I was happy to see a variety of English pies on the menu. I went with the shepherd’s pie which trumped Matt’s steak and guinness pie, but not by much. We followed up dinner with a sticky toffee pudding cake and a too many more beers : P

Shepherd’s Pie

Steak and Guinness Pie

Sticky Toffee Cake

Our friend Nathan who moved to Niagara Falls just last week met up with us for drinks later on which was awesome because I was in Florida when he moved away and didn’t get to see him before. Plus Nathan might be the most knowledgeable person I know which makes any conversation with him very interesting.

Since the Inn didn’t have breakfast we headed up the street for breakfast at Escabeche at the oh-so-swanky Prince of Wales Hotel. I just had some overpriced yoghurt and granola (which was, ya know, just yoghurt and granola) and Matt had eggs benedict with the most delicious Hollandaise sauce I’ve ever had.

We headed back home right after breakfast. I asked Matt if he wanted to hit up any of the Twenty Valley wineries on the way home.
“No”, he said, “we need an excuse to come back.”

As if I need an excuse to drink wine?

Niagara Icewine Festival

My present to Matt for his birthday was to take him to visit some wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Matt loves wine and going to wineries so I thought it would be something that he’d really love. We often visit the Lake Erie North Shore wineries here in Essex County, but we’ve never tried any in Niagara so we were pretty excited.

We hit the road on Saturday morning for the 3 hour drive through snow and sleet. We hit up 7 different wineries. Seven. I know that sounds like a lot, and with normal tastings we would have both been completely shitfaced after visiting seven wineries.

But this wasn’t a normal wine tasting. We got tickets for the icewine festival so at each winery we went to we tasted an icewine that was paired with a dish.

Icewine, if you’re not familiar, is a very sweet dessert wine made from grapes that were picked after they had frozen on the vine. When the grapes freeze the sugars concentrate so the icewine has the most delicious sweetness. It is phenomenal.

(click on any of the pictures to make them bigger)

Niagara College

The first winery we hit up was the Teaching Winery at Niagara College. I really liked their tasting area and felt slightly jealous of the students who got to go to school there and learn all about growing grapes and producing wines. Sounds way more fun than my math degree.

We didn’t actually have any icewine here but we tasted the 2007 Dean’s List Meritage which was a really good full bodied red. I might have bought a bottle if it weren’t $50(!)

Chateau des Charmes

Next stop was Chateau des Charmes, a huge, classy joint which was definitely the fanciest winery we’ve been to. Here we had an icewine cocktail paired with a New York Cheesecake and a Salted Chocolate Cheesecake. The latter of the two was probably the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. I wish they would have served us the icewine straight up so I could have tasted what it was like, but the cocktail was delicious.

Southbrook

Southbrook was a really impressive winery. It was the number one winery that I wanted to visited because it is a biodynamic and organic winery. They don’t use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides in order to maintain the integrity of the soil. They even have chickens and sheep (my favourite animal!) that graze between the vines and naturally fertilize the vineyard. So cool.

We sampled their cab franc icewine paired with an icewine cannoli. I can’t quite remember the flavours of the icewine, but I remember thinking the cannoli shells were really tasty.

Cattail Creek

Next we went to Cattail Creek which is a much smaller winery that reminded me of the smaller scale wineries here in Essex County. They paired their vidal icewine with butter chicken and mango chutney which was cool since I’m used to icewine served with dessert. I found that their vidal icewine wasn’t as sweet as I like my icewine to be, but it was still pretty good.

Packing List for a Destination Race

When I was getting ready to leave for Florida, I found that it was really helpful to make a packing list of everything that I was going to need for my big marathon race to make sure that I didn’t forget anything.

I put all of my “race day” stuff in a separate bag within my luggage so I wouldn’t have to do much to get ready the night before the race. All I needed was to pick up my bib and put out my race day bag on Saturday night so I was ready for the brutally early 3:20AM wake-up call on Sunday morning.

Word to the wise: Put all your running gear in a Carry-On, because if it gets lost, you’re fucked. Just imagine getting to your destination and not having your running shoes with you. Not good.

The night before the race I laid out my stuffed fanny pack, bib, race clothes, and running shoes

Race Day Packing List

Clothes:

-Running Shoes
-Socks – 2 pairs, in case it’s too cold to wear just one
-Underwear – especially if you have a certain pair you prefer to run in
-Shirts -bring an extra long sleeve shirt in case of cold weather
-Running Shorts or Tights or both
-Sports Bra
-Headgear – headband, hat, hair ties, hairpins
-Compression Gear – shirts/pants/shorts/sleeves if you wear them
-Warm clothes for the start – sweatshirts, sweatpants, gloves, hat, earmuffs (You can toss these on the side of the course mid-race. Most races will collect them to donate)
-Extra safety pins for your bib

Gear:

-Sunglasses
-Camera & Battery Charger
-MP3 player, Earbuds, & Charger
-Vaseline/BodyGlide/athletic tape for chaffing
-Bandages – in a ziploc bag to carry with you
-Food and Fuel – dates/gu/shot blocks/powerade/etc.; whatever you’re used to eating and drinking on course
-Knee Braces
-Fuel Belt with bottles or Camelback
-Extra Toilet Paper – in a ziploc bag to carry with you
-Fanny Pack – to carry fuel, bandages, toilet paper, and camera
-Watch
-Tylenol
-Sunscreen

Paperwork:

-Race Forms/Waivers, Bib, and Chip – if you get them in advance
-Proof of time – if you want to try to move up in corrals
-Pace charts
-Travel Itinerary
-Passport -if necessary

Islands of Adventure Theme Park

On Friday morning Tina and I woke up bright and early to make the 6:30am start time of the Fiesta 5K Race at Epcot Centre. Tina was running and I was cheering her on. Before I knew it, she finished the race with an impressive sub-25:00 time.

When I caught up with her after the race was done, I asked her how it was and she said:

“It was a dream I never knew I had!”

which I thought was the most eloquent way to put it and which got me really excited for my own race on Sunday.

After rushing back to our hotel and showering, we just barely made our shuttle bus to Universal Studios – Islands of Adventure theme park.

I was really excited for this theme park for one main reason: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I’m a Harry Potter fanatic and I have been pretty stoked to visit the theme park since it opened.

Maybe it was all the hype, or the fact that it was swarming with people (even though it’s the off season) but, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t all that impressed.

It’s small. It looks a lot bigger in pictures than it actually is. There are only about 5 real shops that you can go into and they are packed with people. Forget going into Ollivander’s Wand Shop unless you want to wait in line for it. Although I didn’t mind too much though because I wasn’t planning on buying anything.

The rest are just shop storefronts, although they do have some pretty attractive window scenes that showcase a lot of “magical” items like a screaming mandrake, moving bludgers, or a scribbling quill which I found to be really interesting to look at.

The jerky motion and spinning from the park’s signature ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, inside Hogwarts castle is a nightmare for anyone who gets motion sickness (ahem, me). Although Tina loved it and literally came off of the ride jumping with excitement (though she stopped jumping as soon as she saw my green pallor). The description makes the ride sound tamer than “it’s a small world” but it’s really a vicious beast of a ride.

There were some things that I really loved about the place, like the Frozen Butterbeer which tastes like cream soda but has the added deliciousness of a layer of melted ice cream on top to simulate the head (it’s a little on the sweet side, so if you don’t like sweet things then you won’t like it)

I am going to try to recreate this stuff at home!

I also thought that the details of the park were spot on with the books and movie (besides Ollivander’s which is actually in Diagon Alley and not Hogsmeade) and you get a real feel for being in Hogsmeade. I think if there were less people I might have enjoyed exploring it a little more, but me and big crowds don’t mix.

One thing that I did love about Islands of Adventure though, Seuss Landing. I wanted to pack my bags and move in to this little world that looked exactly like it was ripped from the pages of a Dr. Seuss book.

I found the Cat in the Hat ride to be a bit jerky for my liking, but it was still fun to experience. My favourite attraction in Seuss Landing was “If I ran the zoo” which is basically a playground for 3 year olds (and yet, equally fun for 26 year olds!)

We met the Lorax under the Truffula Trees and isn’t he the cutest?

Tina and I went to both Universal Studios parks and of every attraction the children’s playgrounds were my favourite. I guess I like interactive stuff that is meant for toddlers. It’s my style.

Camp Jurassic in Jurassic Park

I also loved the Toon Lagoon park which was full of cartoon themed shops and restaurants that offered a lot to look at.

Tina and I lined up for Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges and didn’t realize until the last minute that it was a river raft ride which meant that we were going to be getting soaked.

It was worth it.

In summary:

Harry Potter World is too crowded to be all that fun, but the butterbeer is tasty. Seuss Landing is hella awesome. Me and 3 year olds enjoy the same entertainment.

Hello from Orlando!

My friend and I arrived in Orlando yesterday afternoon to sunshine and palm trees. It’s been years since I’ve travelled anywhere where there is palm trees.

The weather here is perfect: in the low 60s, but felt warm enough in the bright sun to walk around without a coat. I guess this weather is unseasonably cold for Florida so I saw a few people sporting very heavy down jackets and one lady was wearing a fur coat. Someone even told me to “stay warm”. Oh Floridians!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Downtown Disney which is store after store of Disney paraphenalia. And since Tina and I are both sick and were exhausted we came back to the hotel for a nap. Our hotel has a hot tub and a pool (which is ICE COLD) so we could lounge in the hot tub and then run and jump into the pool for our own spa-like experience.

Today we’re heading to Magic Kingdom! Woot!

I’ll try to check in again but I’m on a hotel computer and I have some anxious kids standing behind me waiting to use it.

Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland

Frankenmuth– central Michigan’s hokey Bavarian themed town that draws crowds for their outlet shopping, “famous chicken dinners”, and the World’s Largest Christmas store: Bronner’s.

Frankenmuth is only about an hour and a half drive from Windsor and most Windsorites have been at least once in their lives. Matt’s family used to go every single year when he was a kid so, needless to say, the novelty has worn by this point. It’s been year’s since I’ve been to Frankenmuth so I was a bit excited for the trip that we took this Saturday.

We started with a quick lunch at Big Boy and then off to the outlet malls at Birch Run. I could write an entire post on how much I hate shopping and Birch Run didn’t do anything to help turn me around. It was packed with people. I felt rushed, and overwhelmed, and claustrophobic, and tired, and unimpressed. I left the place empty handed.

Afterward we made our way to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, which I was much more excited about. In my years since visiting I forgot the awesomeness of Bronner’s. It’s like a Christmas department store in there! Everything is organized into sections and categories which makes it easy to find, say, snowmen ornaments:

That place has just about every Christmas ornament, tree topper, garland, village, and nativity set you can imagine.

Pickles. . .

Dogs. . .

Every Hummel that ever was. . .

Christmas Villages. . .

Of course, because this is Michigan. . .

Wildly inappropriate frogs.

And equally inappropriate penguins. Keep your hands to yourself, Pingu.

In the end I only bought 3 ornaments for our tree. I came away with a snowman swimming in a cup of hot cocoa (which I bought for both the cuteness and the irony), a candy-themed bulb, and a cupcake ornament for my sister.

And in true Frankenmuth fashion we headed out for a big German-style dinner. After a huge line-up for a table and a 40 minute wait at Bavarian Inn we finally got our schnitzels and rouladens and sausages and German Beer.

Prost!

Wildberry Dream Cookies

I’ve been feeling nostalgic for Norway lately.

I know I make it sound like I spent half my life there when really it was only a week vacation but I fell in love with Oslo and the beauty of Norway, even in the middle of winter.

The astronomical cost of everything there and long and cold winters are more than made up for by the friendly people, the beautiful scenery, and the very high quality of life.

I really do just want to run away there right now.

When Matt and I were staying in Geilo we stayed in an apartment there so we were able to cook our own meals. This proved to be extremely practical because the cost of food was through the roof.

One thing that we picked up on one of our many grocery store trips was, naturally, a box of cookies called Skogsbærdrøm Cookiene which roughly translates to Wild Berry Dream Cookies (according to google translate, of course).

I really liked these cookies. They had dried fruit in them as well as white and milk chocolate. They were loaded with deliciousness.

One morning while drinking tea with cookies and watching Norwegian news I was “reading” the side of the cookie package. A lot of Norwegian words are incredibly similar to English so it didn’t take me long to decipher that the recipe on the outside of the package was a recipe for the cookies was a recipe for the cookies inside!

My first instinct was “Sweet! Jackpot!” and I immediately ripped the side of the cookie package off and tucked it into my luggage. I would be making these at home for sure.

My second instinct was “Who the hell puts a recipe for their cookies on the cookie package??”

Norwegians do. They’re good people.

I typed up the recipe in Google Translate to make sure that I got everything right. Suprisingly, my own Norwegian to English translation was pretty much on the ball. I’ve held on to the recipe since March but hadn’t made this cookies until recently when my urge to go on vacation back to Norway was strong.

They were just as good as I remembered.

Related Norway Posts:

Norway in March
Norway Travel: The Food
Exploring Norway by Train, Boat, and Bus
Active Pursuits in Norway
Homecooked Meals

Skogsbærdrøm Cookiene

The recipe in Norwegian, for fun. Scroll Down for English.
(ca 20 store cookies)

4 dl hvetemel
1 dl havremel
150 g smor/margarin
1 1/2 dl sukker
50 ml farinsukker
1 1/2 ts bakepulver
1/2 ts salt
1/4 dl sirup
1/2 dl eplemos
1/2 dl vann
40 g torkede blåbær
40 g torkede tranebær
40 g rosiner
100 g hvit sjokolade
60 g lys sjokolade

1. Bland mel, smore, sukker, bakepolver, og salt slik at det blir som små brødsmuler. Tilsett så sirup, eplemos, vann, og rør til en deig. Bland til slutt inn bærene og sjokoladen.

2. Rull deigen forsiktig i en lang rull, ca 5-7 cm i diameter. Legg deigen i kjoleskapet i ca 30 min. Skjær deigen i skiver (ca 1 cm tykke) og legg skivene på en plate med bakepapir.

3. Forvarm ovnen til 400F senk så temperaturen til 350F og stek cookiene i 10-15 min – midt i ovnen. Avkjoles på rist.

Skogsbærdrøm Cookiene – Wild Berry Dream Cookies

(makes 20 large cookies)

These cookies are very sweet, slightly crispy, and loaded with chocolate and dried fruit. The recipe is a bit funny because the volume measurements are metric (and not even standard) but with a few tweaks you can figure it out.

400 ml flour
100 ml oatmeal
150 g butter
150 ml sugar
50 ml brown sugar
1- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
25 ml light corn syrup
50 ml apple sauce
50 ml of water
40 g dried blueberries (~1/2 c)
40 g dried cranberries (~1/2 c)
40 g raisins (~1/2 c)
100 g white chocolate (~1/2 c)
60 g milk chocolate (~1/4 c)

1. Combine flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until you get small crumbs. Pour into a separate bowl and add the syrup, apple sauce, water. Stir to form a dough. Mix in the berries and chocolate at the end.

2. Roll the dough gently into a log, about 5-7 cm in diameter. Put the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 min. Cut dough into slices (about 1 cm thick) and place the slices on a plate with baking paper.

3. Preheat oven to 400F, then lower the temperature to 350F and bake cookies for 10-15minutes – in the middle of the oven. Cool on wire rack.

Prior Posts:

Week 4: Speculaas: Dutch Spice Cookies
Week 3: Poppy Seed Filling
Week 2: Cinnamon Bun Cookies
Week 1: Soft & Pillowy Coconut Frosted Cookies

Erebus Haunted House Review

On Friday night, I went to a haunted house.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone to one because most of the time they are extremely cheesy and not in the least bit frightening. And I want to be scared.

(Yeah, I realize that when you can’t even pay someone to make you scared then you have white girl problems)

But there was this one time when I was 8 years old and I got a free ticket to a haunted house at Devonshire Mall (I’ll forgive all you Windsorites for not remembering it. I have yet to find anyone that actually went to it). There was a person dressed as Freddy Krueger who got all up in my face, scared the living shit out of me, and wouldn’t let me pass by. I was terrified, and I might have even cried. For weeks after that I wasn’t able to fall asleep.

I still consider that to be the most scared I’ve ever been in my life. (Yes, yes I have led a sheltered life, thank you for pointing that out).

So back to Friday.

Matt and I went with friends to Pontiac Michigan to go to Erebus, which, I just learned after googling it 2 seconds ago, is the World’s Largest Haunted House.

It was cold on that night and there was a line-up to get into the place. Luckily it was moving pretty quickly so we weren’t too put off. But as soon as we got inside we realized that the line didn’t end at the door. We had to wait in another line which was, presumably, to pay for tickets (which were a rather steep $23) but everything was clouded by a fog machine so the front of the line was somewhere in the darkness and abyss.

Side note: In line I saw a girl dresses in a very convincing cheerleading uniform and varsity jacket that I was positive was a Hallowe’en costume. But no, she actually was a cheerleader. I thought cheerleaders were the product of American television and terrible, yet addictive teen movies like Bring it On. But no, they actually exist. Who knew?

Once we paid, we went upstairs to wait in yet another line. I was beginning to think that the horror of the whole experience was waiting in line until you pissed yourself and went mad. Eventually, I suspect over an hour later, we got in.

I have to admit that this haunted house was pretty damn impressive. The best I’ve ever been to for sure. I was surprised by how detailed and well-organized it was. It was really well conceptualized. Every room had a distinct theme that flowed easily into the next.

They really hit on every possible fear from claustrophobia (small spaces) to acrophobia (heights) to lygophobia (darkness) to bromidrophobia (body odor). Although I suspect that last one was unintentional.

Most importantly, to me, was that there were a lot of actors lurking in dark corners and getting ready to pop out at you at any possible moment. For the first half of the haunted house, I was the second person in our group after my friend Zack. He would go by these lurkers freely and as soon as I walked by them they would jump out and get me. Every. Single. Time. Of course, I loved it.

This is my favourite part of haunted houses. I want someone to startle me and make me jump and perhaps scream a little until I start giggling uncomfortably.

Anyway, I don’t want to go into the details of the whole thing because I think you should go before it closes after Hallowe’en and I don’t want to spoil it for you. It was definitely a good time and worth the wait and the admission.

The whole group after the haunted house experience.

If you go:

There is lots of parking in near Erebus in downtown Pontiac for about $4.
The cost of the Haunted House is $23 per person.
The lines are long be prepared to wait.
Forget about your cell phone. They will make you shut it off as soon as you walk through the door before you even buy your ticket.
Hold on to your glasses! There were parts where I was afraid I was going to lose mine. Unfortunately my brother-in-law actually did lose his.

Photography Challenge Day 12

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Day 12: Sunset

Photo Taken July 21, 2011 at Cyprus Lake in Tobermory Ontario.

This post is part of the October 30 Day Photography Challenge

Photography Challenge Day 7

Day 7: Fruit

Photo taken July 3, 2010 at the Marché Jean-Talon in Montreal, PQ.

This post is part of the October 30 Day Photography Challenge