Ottawa 2018 Haul!

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the radio silence yesterday and well…today as well, I guess! Its been a bit of taking time off every week to sort out my own stuff. Usually, this weekend is when my friend has his Ottawa half marathon and I tag along to help him out. However, this year, I opted out of this duty. Instead, my husband and I both went down to Ottawa to hang out for a little today before his first race for the 5 km. Its humid and a little rainy and well, the sun has arrived back in Montreal but not sure how its doing in Ottawa since I’m home as I’m typing this.

The trip came with a lot of stuff on the to-do list. Yes, I shop with to-do lists if not, I might end up going crazy and just buy everything or sit there and be indecisiveness. Shopping with a goal is what my husband calls it. With that said, we had an idea of what places to hit at Rideau Center and Ottawa before heading back home. This is as timely as this post can get because we just unloaded and I took pictures and here we are!

Rideau Centre 

Eddie Bauer

Eddie Bauer

Marathon weekend is always sales weekend for Eddie Bauer. Normally, Eddie Bauer’s stuff is expensive and usually rightfully so because its very durable especially for the hiking lovers like me and my husband. However, the only time we buy it is during sale time or else it would just be way out of budget. This year was a 40% off on everything in store. We both wanted to get new caps and new hiking pants. I got the blue capris and the blue cap and he got the beige pants that can be changed to shorts and the lighter color cap.

Disney Store

Disney Store

For those who don’t know, I collect Disney plushies. I had stopped the actual normal sized plushies for a while and was trying to get all the Animator series ones which are much more reasonable in storage. Regardless of that, when I see one that I like, I always tend to pick it up. I’m actually planning on keeping track of my collection over on Avenue of Daydreams some time this year. It would be fun to have an archive of the many things I collect and that seemed like a nice place to do it. Either way, Flower from Bambi was on sale so I picked it up. At the same time, I also saw little Piglet as well. I have a Tigger which is in the same style. These two were definitely coming home with me.

Squish Candy

Squish Candy

Last year I had gone to Squish and got the Prosecco Bears and they were super delicious. They expanded their cocktail line and this time, my husband chose the Bourbon Cubes ans Sake Sakura and I chose the Wine O’Clock. I’m hoping that these will turn out to be equally delicious. They had a few other ones with sangria and such and those definitely has peaked my interest but for another time.

LCBO

LCBO

Embracing the love of trying out VQA Ontario wines, LCBO was a must-go. I found a Riesling to try out eventually and my husband’s colleague had recommended the Big House Pinot Grigio and we saw it so we ended up picking up the bottle and he wanted to also get the can version. As for myself, I also saw another Cider from Brickworks Ciderhouse. I had tried another one earlier this year and was really impressed so having some high hopes for this one also.

Second Stop: T&T Supermarket

T&T Supermarket T&T Supermarket T&T Supermarket

I mean, I’m pretty much thinking about groceries all the time so T&T Supermarket is always one of my stops. I don’t usually post about it but this time, we had some interesting finds. The herbal drinks from Hung Fook Tong had a new flavor. My husband picked out the Orange Ramune soda drink. I always get some dimsum, which I did but ended up eating on the trip back so not shown here. But there is also some pot stickers and vietnamese chicken lunch box and some BBQ Pork. The main goal this time was to get some sticky rice for the Dragonboat Festival. They had fresh ones which would be preferable if I had gone 2 weeks later but for now, I got the frozen in case I don’t end up going. However, the snacks we picked (and saw) were quite unique to say the least. Lay’s had these cucumber chips (and they also had lime flavor). I wonder if its an excuse to feel like you were being healthier when making that choice. Then we saw these Potato Wish brand which had the Steak and Red Wine Flavor and well, it looks like Ringolos but they are called Roller Coaster.

That’s it for the haul!
Nothing too special but a few unique finds!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Dessert: Jell-O Candy

An oldie but a goodie is here today!

My mom’s hit dessert when she used to throw me birthday parties when I was a little girl are these yummy Jell-O treats. Its probably why to this day, I love Jell-O so much! Not even sure why. Much opposite from my husband who doesn’t like the texture. These little rainbow Jell-O candies take a few hours and a little patience but not a whole lot of ingredients. They look colorful and usually are a cheerful addition to a party.

Jell-O Candy

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Ingredients
(for 5 layer Jell-O Candy)

5 boxes of Jell-O Candy (go for 3 darks to contrast with 2 lights)
5 pouches Unflavored gelatin
Boiled Water

Other items:
Liquid Measuring Cup
9×13 inch Glass Dish

How to make it

  1. Pour one pouch of Jell-O and one pouch of Unflavored gelatin into your liquid measuring cup. Dissolve with boiled water, aim for the 300 – 350 mL mark in order to have enough liquid to cover the bottom of the glass dish.
  2. Let it cool, then pour it into the glass dish. Make sure it covers the entire bottom.
  3. Place it into the fridge for 30 minutes or until it is solid.
  4. Boil more water (if needed) while you wait and prepare for the next layer.
  5. Follow instructions 1-4 for the next layers.
  6. Let sit in fridge overnight (optimally), if not, for a few hours. The longer it has to cool in the fridge, the better the texture.

Colorful and simple, although a little bit more time consuming and requires some patience, but the payoff is well worth it. Maybe a bit of it is nostalgia talking and because I really love eating this. I make this as a treat when there’s some special occasion. In this case, it was for my friend’s birthday and she likes this Jell-O candy thing.

TMI Podcast: Random Chat Halloween Show with Filmmunch and The Creative Fox Den!

Welcome back to another podcast over at my co-host David’s site, That Moment In! This week is a special episode all about Halloween.  We talk about horror movies, characters, our costumes and even about candy. On top of that, we have two members of the TMI family joining us in this fun and they are Nelson from Filmmunch and Mel from The Creative Fox Den.

Hope you enjoy & Happy Saturday! Stay awesome! 🙂