Night Scenes From the Streetcar : Two Ways

These are some street scenes that I shot last week, through the open window of a streetcar I was riding in, late at night. For those of you who know Toronto, I was on the Dundas Car, going westward, beginning at Broadview and ending in Chinatown.I've never tried that before and liked how they turned out. Then I played with them a bit using Photoshop Filters, to make them look like art. Hope you like them.Wedding Dresses

Tropical Fruit Shortcake Dessert

Last week I made this dessert-with-a-tropical-twist for a group of friends (at a patio dinner party seen here) and it was very well received, so I thought I'd share it here with you.

While it is strawberry season in these parts right now and I could have made regular Strawberry Shortcake, we were already using those in something else we made for this same meal (Berry Delicious Sangria), so I didn't want to repeat ingredients. Plus, I thought something with the flavour of the tropics would compliment the fact that this was being served outdoors on a beautiful summer's afternoon.

So I went with the same idea of having fruit, cream and cake together, but shook things up a bit by using two tropical fruits that I love, mango and pineapple. I also added a bit more tropical flavour to the cake by adding in some orange zest.

I prepared the fruit the evening before by cutting it into tiny cubes and adding a quick and easy syrup of sweetened water, with a pinch of salt. Soaking it overnight gave the fruit time to release some of its juices, resulting in a tasty sauce to drizzle over the dessert. I also baked the cake the evening before so our dessert was all taken care of in advance, making this a good choice for when you're making dinner for a group. All I had to do when it was time to serve it was cut up the cake, add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (lightly sweetened whipped cream would work, too) and spoon some fruit and a bit of sauce over each serving.

Out to a Concert : Fitz and the Tantrums

By coincidence, a bunch of bands we wanted to see all came to Toronto around the same time, so yes, this is the third concert I've written about in as many weeks.

On Sunday night we went to see Fitz and the Tantrums, a group of 6 from LA. It was a really fun show and I sort of wish it hadn't already happened so that I still had it to experience all over again.

Bits and Pieces : June 2014

Hi. Here are some photos that I took around town last month, that didn't find their way into any other story ...

Ice-cream Truck

A Sunny Saturday Spent with Friends

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sky.jpg" alt="sky" width="640" height="426" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24515 blk-brdr">We like to stay in town on holiday weekends, while many people do the opposite and clear out. The city gets so quiet, and it almost feels like you get it to yourself. So, as usual, we were planning a quiet one for the Canada Day long weekend last week. But then on the Tuesday before (while at the Foxy Shazam show together) we discovered that Andrea and Issy would also be around on Saturday, so it was decided that they would come over to our place for a barbeque in the afternoon. Then we were glad to hear that our friend Barb, as well as our neighbours Kim and Chris, and their dog Henry, could come too.