Domestic food fishery is underway!

Life continues to be fantastic! Good friends out fishing, bringing home their catch, then filleting it in a most masterful way, then Hugh and I get to have lunch with fish less than 1 hour out of the water! Life is very, very good.

Last week's fun

I had the opportunity to spend 5 days taking instruction from one of St. John's finest oil painting people, Tara Bryan. It was fantastic!

These are 2 scenes I painted while also enjoying the company of Lesley, Janet, Paul, and Jennifer who also attended.

The Good Life

Summer is in full swing. Crab and lobster harvesting season are drawing to a close. What a better way to celebrate than to have a big seafood feed. Gordon and Anne are visiting from Peterborough, Ontario and this is their last night with us. We tried buns that were partially baked needing just 8 minutes in a 350 degree oven. They were delicious!

We ended with a rhubarb pie. Emma, our wonderful neighbour, brought in over the day before saying;" I stole this rhubarb from my sister Ninie, now you have to take half the blame."

What are friends for?

Amazing Visitors!

Kim and Ian from Ontario stayed for 3 days with us, in the midst of a rain storm that went on for throughout their stay. The first night winds reached 100 km. stirring up great waves and spray, then slowed somewhat but the rain was unrelenting.

That did not stop this dynamic pair, off they went to visit Norton's Cove Studio, Greenspond, the Barbour Heritage Village, then the beaches from here to Musgrave Harbour. They win the badge for being such great sports.

They also endured a hot water heater that died one early evening, having brief tepid showers until we had it replaced the following day.

These two clearly see life as an adventure and make the most of the situations they are in. What a joy to spend time with them!

Gardening in Newfoundland

These "sun tunnels" are my answer to lessening the effects of the wind, and increasing the sun's effect. Speaking of sun, where are you? The other bedding plants are somewhat protected, being on the north side because our prevailing winds are now from the south, or southwest as our summer weather patterns are attempting to be set up.




The yard work is almost finished, some more cleaning up and then we get to enjoy this wonderful business. Our guests have been interesting and fun. Looks like a great summer.

Anyone lost their killick?

This handmade, handsome object is a killick, an anchor and it showed up on our deck last week while we were away for the day.

It is boating season, and we are happy to have it because it is another step in preparing for a boat. The first was building a dock last year.

So thanks, our anonymous benefactor, it is awesome.

Day 3 and the fun continues

Awesome! The tastes and finished products continue to amaze me.

French Cooking Course - Day 2

I LOVE being in the kitchen with these wonderful guys who are so masterful at what they do! French cooking is amazing with the incredible attention to detail and the layers of cooking with sauces, and blendings of various tastes together to make something that makes me want to cherish each taste and savour it to identify all the delicate flavours. I'm hooked!

Today was chicken wings, scallops, and mushrooms with a fantastic brown sauce. Also, Tartare, egg, and a salad of celery root and green apple with mayonnaise. Finally, potatoes slices grilled with scallops in the center with a green pea sauce.

Appetizers- Day 1 of Cuisine Bistronomique

Well, we gathered at the local high school after I had been escorted to the school by Jannick Cormier, the representative from the local Chamber of Commerce. Imagine my surprise when I discover I'm the only woman, surrounded by 7 chefs whose first language is French. Christophe Darney, the instructor came from Paris on Sunday to instruct. Does life get better than that!

I felt challenged by the recipes written in French and using the metric system. Why have I wasted all those evenings in front of the tv? I might have forseen this possibility and prepared! My very rusty French from 30 years ago was challenged and sometimes it won.

I chose to be an observer today, and thoroughly enjoyed watching these masters at work with new recipes and the fantastic garnishes and finishing. There were whisks whisking, blenders blending, cutting, dicing, slicing, tasting, baking and exquisite attention to detail. Blew my mind!

St. Pierre AND the French Food

Doesn't this look interesting? Very tasty too! Served like dessert, but really a cold salad of avocado, grapefruit, snow crab and smoked salmon, it was delicious. The French bread and glass of Bordeau went well with it.

Check out dessert- Creme Brulee, with coffee was a lovely finishing touch.

St. Pierre is charming, most of it within walking distance. People I have met so far switch to English easily and graciously.

I chose a small hotel with about 11 rooms at the end of town, up the hillside. The walking will surely help to counteract the great food that I plan to learn how to make, and enjoy.

Looking forward to the rest of the week!

Off to French Cooking School!

I think I'm the luckiest person alive. I'm leaving Sunday to attend a 5 day course at St. Pierre & Miquelon with a chef from Paris.

I was emailed to bring my knives and "kitchen suit." Boy, will they be surprised!

When it's storming- cook!

We love storm watching- but it does limit one's activities. Hugh and I have read a lot of books this winter, viewed movies (loved Secretariet) and I enjoyed some new recipes.



Eggplant parmesan is delicious! I cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch rings, then dredged them in flour, beaten eggs and finally crumbs mixed with Italian herbs and parmesan. Then I baked them on a cookie sheet for about 20 minutes. I served them with a tomato and garlic sauce made with fresh tomatoes, garlic and onions sauted until all was soft. Fresh ground pepper gave it a delicious taste.

Paired with porkchops baked with onions and mushrooms, we had a great meal while the windows glazed over with ice, and the wind whistled. All the better to keep the fire burning!

A good winter storm

I apologize for the sound quality. The storm is on! so is the fireplace and dinner!

Unbelievable Weather and Happenings

The weather has been amazing! We still have no snow to speak of, mild temperatures (around 0 C) and many days without the ubiquitous wind. Though, before Christmas we had some amazing Nor' Easters' that brought huge winds down the tickle and moved the dock out about 4 feet on the far side.

Hugh and Colin, our dock builder were both quite amazed, and quickly gathered the necessary materials, technical knowhow and the labour needed for the feat.

Duke Kelloway of Davis Marine Limited brought cable, clamps, a chain winch, and a turnbuckle along with his brain power. He was front and center in helping, well actually he was the guy under the dock most of time! Colin, Duke and Hugh were assisted by our wonderful friends George Starkes and Lloyd Gale to fasten the dock to the rocks.



Hugh and I feel blessed to be in this lovely spot with such fantastic people who are so giving of their time, talents and strength to help their neighbours.
Thanks fellas.

It WAS a great Christmas and New Year's!

One of the things I love about living in Newfoundland is that Christmas is a fantastic party. Here the 12 days of Christmas are celebrated by lovely scoffs at one house or another from a few days before Christmas right to "Old Christmas Day" on January 6th.

Hugh and I started decorating the first week, adding lights inside and out, collecting limbs and boughs, spraypainting branches and our home made Christmas trees and stars. We celebrated with dinner parties, coffee parties and card games and of course, Joanne's personal favorite, a grand night out for New Year's Eve. We attended a dinner and dance at the Barbour Heritage Village and had a great time! Welcome 2011!!

The weather has been outstanding with a green Christmas and still no snow that has stayed. We have had some fair storms though! Good Southeasters in with winds up to 100 km and lots of rain! These storms played havoc with our dock moving it out at one corner about 4 feet. But that's the subject of Wednesday's blog!