Walk With Me – Part I of a walk in Downtown Toronto
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Last week Nick and I took a long walk during which I took lots of photos. Nick occasionally got (quite a bit) ahead of me but I would run to catch up to him! What I wanted to do, aside from take nice pictures, was present a walking tour for visitors to Toronto, that took you from the shopping section of Queen Street West, to Yonge Street (near The Eaton's Centre and The Bay), and then a bit further east. I feel that this path offers an interesting alternative to a straight walk along Queen Street.
Since there are 14 sights included, I am going to split this into two posts, so as not to overload you with too many pictures in one go. This is the first half of the walk, beginning at Queen Street West and John St. to Dundas Street and University Avenue. (points 1 - 6 on the map).
Eddie Sunbeam
Food Friday : Olive and Cream Cheese Spread
Hold it ... before any non-olive-liking readers click away, please read this story first. I served this spread as part of the snack table at a party once. When I noticed that a few of my friends were conspicuously absent from the dance floor I went in search of them and found the group gathered around the food. They explained that they just could not drag themselves away from this particular dish and asked me what was in it. When I told them that there were olives in it, one said, "Oh, I hate olives", as she helped herself to a dollop of it on just-one-more cracker.
I have seen people lose their appetite for dinner by eating too much of this as an hors d'oeuvre. I also once gifted my sister with a whole crock of her own as part of her birthday present because she likes it that much!
And when I was making this batch yesterday, I asked Nick if he wanted a few tester crackers. He explained that he wasn't hungry but yes, he would try a couple. After he'd had them I asked him if he wanted any more before I put it away. He said "sure", and when asked how many, he responded "Oh ... about 23 crackers worth!"
This ideal snack to serve at parties and when friends drop over, can be made in under 10 minutes with items you can keep on hand, using your food processor. If you don't have a food processor you can finely chop the ingredients by hand and mix them into softened cream cheese with a hand blender or whisk.
Another bonus of this recipe is that it also makes a delicious pasta sauce ... just heat some gently and toss with cooked noodles.
Consider bringing some to add to the snack table at someone else's party, but be prepared to be slightly embarrassed by the raving of the guests and potentially annoying the hostess!
Ok, without further ado, or any more bragging about how darn good it is, I give you my recipe for Black Olive and Cream Cheese Spread!
Note that this is made with canned black olives, also known as Ripe Olives, which are not salty like green or Kalamata. If you substitute with salty olives eliminate the salt and maybe some of the capers, to taste.
Ebay Calling : A Feather Necklace and Fancy Scissors
I received a couple of small packages from ebay last week that I thought I'd share.
I was after a long silver coloured chain for a few pendants that I have. The key word was long, because I was looking for one to use with a few larger pendants that I wanted to wear over a turtleneck sweater and have them dangle a bit. So for $5.99 I used the 'buy it now' feature on ebay to get this 28 inch stainless steel one. I really like stainless steel chains because they contain no nickel (like silver ones do) and therefore don't irritate my skin. It's weird .. I can wear silver rings but earrings and necklaces cause an allergic reaction for me. Also, steel remains nice and shiney, very closely resembling white gold (which I can't justify spending the big bucks on considering the length of chain I was looking for).
Weekend Outings
On Friday I met my friend Annette for a game of pool at The Rivoli on Queen Street West near Spadina. We ended up skipping the pool game and just had a couple of drinks and talked. She and I used to hang out together all the time, but our lives have since changed and we hadn't seen one another for more than a year, so there was lots of catching up to do.
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