My Weekly Adventures: Hangouts, Adventures & New Projects!

We’re a little behind schedule for this time’s Weekly Adventures! Summer is here. Events and outings are being more plentiful. Some are still tentative or being planned. This summer is already pretty busy but a happy busy since its all fun stuff!

This time’s Weekly Adventures will have a ton of stuff from event recaps to outings with friends and some gardening update. I’m probably forgetting something.

Let’s start! 🙂

Our First Winery Visit

I’m a huge fan of wine especially as I’m getting older. I’m far from connoisseur and this is not exactly wine. Its ice cider, very specific to the Quebec region because there are rules in Quebec apparently that specify whether it can be considered that. Neige from La Face Cachee de la Pomme is one of my favorite brands and when they had this tasting I bought the deal on Groupon right away. It did take us a few months to actually book a time to do the tour and tasting but it was a lot of fun.

The full post is right HERE if you’d like to check that out!

Movie Night

I actually don’t talk about this a lot but I am a patron for two Youtubers that I love a lot! One of them is Mr. Kravin and one of the perks of the lower tiers that I’m in (because that’s all I can afford) is that we got a movie night with him. I never knew that was a thing. Usually its anime night and I tend to skip out on those a little but then he went on this site called Rabb.it and put on Halloween to watch together. I own Halloween and I mean like the entire franchise because I had to the Halloween marathon three years ago, I think. Its a pretty neat idea to actually have someone watching a movie together while being in different places.

It makes me wonder if the movie bloggers of our community should try to do something like that since it has voice and facecam so it would be like instant discussion. Haha! It was a ton of fun. I don’t really care much about the perks since when I contribute to be a patron on Patreon, its because I really want to support the content creator. Being a recent content creator myself (kind of?) on Youtube for Game Warp Podcast, it definitely puts into perspective how important it all is.

Grand Prix

Last weekend was the Grand Prix weekend in Montreal. Like the past few years, I went out with friends to hang out and look at some awesome cars and join into the festivities. There really isn’t much to say that I haven’t said in my post HERE.

For those that recently dropped by, Weekly Adventures aren’t usually like this post. Summer means I do more event coverage around Montreal (and vicinities) so those are my adventures and all I can do is recap them here in case between summer blockbusters and your fun summer that you miss some cool posts. 😉

Dinner with Friends

Fruit Platter at Allo Mon Coco

Two Eggs with Sausages and Bacon, Allo Mon Coco

Tropical Sangria at Barbie’s

Nachos

Soup of the day: Tomato and Vegetables Soup

Garlic Shrimps with Rice

More fun time with friends! I had nice brunch at Allo Mon Coco.  My friend is preparing for his next marathon so he took the healthy route with a fruit platter and of course, I’m not, so I took my normal with eggs, sausages and bacon. Its awesome! Breakfast food is my absolutely fave.

At night, I had a nice hangout with my girl friends. Its been forever since we’ve got together.  We’ve been busy with home or work stuff but now, we finally got together for dinner then afterwards went to Starbucks to have a nice chat and catch up some more. And, we might even be planning a little outing soon plus, a movie together is coming up soon as well! The summer is filling up and I’m super excited! 🙂

Game Warp: June News Blast!

If you saw this post the past week, you can skip ahead unless you know, you didn’t check out the episode then consider this a reminder. Our News Blast is a rather short one but with some good content. Game Warp is a part of my life now and Elwood and I are working hard to build it so excuse our shameless self promotion. The gaming world is well-established right now and we are trying everything possible but the only people that can help are the lovely people we already know from our lives and our blogs. That is you, my friends! If you have friends that like gaming, share our Facebook page with them or the video or whatnot. Everything little bit helps us out. I promise you that we work super hard and to make it better, we were supposed to be once a month and now we are getting three shows in a month, starting this week with the June News Blast. Each one has a bit of different content talking about new releases and then our featured review will appear as well. There is a video to go with it as visual aids or gameplay. Give it a look and help us spread the word!

By the way, if you ever need to retrace videos, you can head to either That Moment In or I’ll also have the posts for Game Warp on the menu set up some time this coming week.

Hope you enjoy the episode and the next one is coming up soon! 🙂

E3 Press Conference Coverage

Game Warp is my life now. I just mentioned that. It would be hard to pass up on the biggest event in the year for gaming. That’s right! E3 happened and ended yesterday! However, we’ve been checking out the live press conferences and put together some recap highlights in case you want to get a quick look at whats coming up for whichever console or gaming company. Here are the links. Its been super busy but just so much fun! Check it out! 🙂

EA Press Conference
Bethesda Press Conference
Microsoft Xbox Press Conference
Ubisoft Press Conference
Playstation Press Conference
Nintendo Treehouse

Gardening Hurdles and Updates

This a quick update on the garden. For one, I am officially feeding two rabbits in my garden. They started, as captioned above, with eating my lettuce. Starting this week, they’ve been having a tasting of all my kales and a few days later, they went to test out the broccoli as well. Operation Rabbit Prevention is now on! I am going to put up a fence of some sort this weekend to make sure that rabbits will not access the garden before its too late.

On a happier note, I think the few strands of catmint are attracting cats to the strawberries and raspberries area to sit once in a while so rabbits haven’t eaten my strawberries and we even managed to get one harvest which I need to bake something soon.

And also, the best thing in the garden is zucchini. They are strong and looking great. No picture of the eggplant but as of this morning, it had one blossom, meaning at least one eggplant. Awesome!

That’s really it for now. I’m getting materials later today and then getting to work on the garden for Operation Rabbit Prevention. I love rabbits and maybe I’ll grow a lettuce garden just for them in some corner but I also like seeing harvests so consider me selfish for now as I work on this gardening project. I’ll have an update next Weekly Adventures!

The 3 Brewers Beer Launch Rhubiscus

I’m not beer connoisseur and in no way will I ever be. In fact, I can’t even drink that much beer. However, my darling friends thought about me when they saw a beer launch which they had an invitation for a beer sample for at this restaurant called The 3 Brewers called Rhubiscus. I love rhubarb desserts and hibiscus drinks so this is right up my alley.

Now, thats a sample, right? Look at the size of that drink. I only took a few sips for my own health reasons. While I can’t say that I love the beer, it isn’t bitter which is a good start. I couldn’t figure out what the aftertaste was but I guess it had a little bit of hibiscus flavors. Hibiscus is a tough flavor to master. The one place I’ve been completed pleased with was in Egypt and then recently was last year at Aux Vivres during Just for Laughs for their Hisbiscus lemonade. Not a huge fan. One of my friends likes it more. I’m guessing her husband was okay with it and not excited. Its a new experience, right? Plus, we had great company for dinner. Fun times! 🙂

Cute Kitty Pic

Upcoming:

• Netflix A-Z: C & D Selection
• Baking & Cooking
• Game Warp: next  two episodes for June
• and more…

Pinterest Spring/Summer Inspirations!

Its been forever since I’ve shared some fantastic Pinterest stuff! Mostly because while pinning is super fun and therapeutical, putting together the posts can be tiring.  Just deciding what to do takes so much time that it becomes less therapeutical than it actually is even if I love putting those posts up.  However, maybe this is what Pinterest is going to be: Therapy or Inspirations! Spring is pretty much almost over and hints of Summer is landing in Montreal.  The last few days have been hot and humid and I love it! 🙂

This also means spring cleaning and garden/outdoors stuff needs to be taken care of! I have some rhubarb to harvest and maybe make some nice drinks.  The heat also means that I kick in a much healthier lifestyle.  Lots of things that I seek out Pinterest for! Lets look at some of my faves and ones I hope to pursue if not now, eventually!

The Anatomy of Sangria

Hot summer days calls out to me in the form of Sangria. I don’t drink a lot in general but a great sangria is so hard to resist. This infographic breaks it down in an interesting way and peaks some new ways to use different ingredients next time.  For the record, I’ve recently realized that I’m intolerant or maybe allergic to red wine so any sangria’s now have to be with white or rose wine. I have also done a autumn sangria with brandy and that turned out pretty good.

Popsicles

I’ve tried out a few popsicle recipes before and I’m not really good at it but its something I’m trying to learn to do better. This one looks delicious.  They are called Fruit Salad Ice Pops.  I love fruits and especially fruit salads and wrapped up in a popsicle. Yummy!  I’m already thinking of what fruits to get to make it and wondering where those popsicle molds are.

Infused Water Combinations

Last year I started getting into infused water. I like cold drinks and water is super healthy so I’ve tried something with blueberry and basil before if I remember correctly.  This summer, I want to keep with the healthy stuff and try some other ones.  These ones are pretty neat especially detox and weight/sugar control and metabolism booster. I guess everything but the lower blood pressure one looks like choices I want to try out.

Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet

For those of you who are new here, I’m lactose intolerant or at least it seems to be in an extreme phase again.  Its really built a love and appreciation for Sorbets in my life. I’ve been wanting to try to make sorbet for a while and if these recipes say its easy, I’ll believe it! Its one of my goals this summer to give it a try.  This combination particularly looks great. I love strawberries and watermelons and yet, no one really pairs these two together. I wonder what it’ll taste like.

Liquid Sunshine

I know, its a lot of alcoholic beverages here! In general, there’s a lot of drinks. Thing is, I was going to do a cruise dedicated post after my cruise recap last year and I forgot about it. I flat out forgot. That’s just how I am. A year after, I remembered and was thinking maybe this year, I’ll start a little drinks segment to experiment different recipes.  I don’t mean alcoholic cocktails, even if they are resistible, I don’t usually drink that much but even for like lemonades or infused waters and other healthy stuff. I think its well worth a shot! 🙂

That’s it for this Pinterest Inspirations!
Originally, it had a ton of other stuff for the garden and whatnot, but I just wanted to keep this fun and short! 🙂 

Let me leave you with this lovely quote!

Happy Friday! 🙂

My Weekly Adventures!

Instead of boring you with my little details, this time, I spaced it out deliberately to two weeks.  I had nothing to report back with so it just makes sense to get this in now with a little bit more activities. This time around, its slowed down quite a bit.  I’m trying to clear up my schedule a little and just relax, catch up on some sleep and find back some energy.  Plus, I need to get ahead with the blog so its all a work in progress. We are also trying to get the house in order and looking nice enough for any relatives that come and want to visit 😉

1) Second visit to Poutineville

As mentioned in the last Weekly Adventures, we went on our second visit and I met even more of my fiance’s friends.  Crazy stuff, eh? This wedding, I tell you. Its making life colorful.  And I mean, his friends are really colorful like their personality and their thoughts are hard to catch up with.

Anyways, I finally had the poutine at Poutineville.  Its not so much real as I wasn’t sure about the gravy so they suggested the Italian meat sauce instead. Its kind of what we call Michigan-style (instead of hot dogs, we have fries and cheese).

Chicken & Bacon Poutine with Dairy-free Cheese and Meat Sauce

Then, like the last time, a visit to Chocolate Favoris.

Gelato choices

Sorbet choices

Ice Cream with Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Dip

Banana Mango Strawberry Sorbet

Its turning into something of a tradition.  I just might want to refrain from Poutineville for the next few weeks until after the big day. So that, all my hard work is not put to waste, right?

2) Nike Re-Run

Last weekend, Nike Running app sent me an email telling me that on Saturday, a run that we did would give us the chance to have a Nike Re-run video.  Now, that sounds awesome and what’s great about having this blog is I love trying out new little things.  So, I got in an afternoon run on Saturday even though I was so not feeling like it.  But I did it and kept to my workout goals. I was thinking that maybe I wouldn’t get it because the run wasn’t all that great.  My time was a little meh. But on Sunday, I ended up getting the email prompt to get the video.  We got to choose the time log and pick whichever one.  My routes are more or less the same.  It varies in direction, side of the street or going through the park or whatever small streets.  I actually need to map out a new path to explore the other side of the new neighborhood I moved in.  Still, here is what I yield.

That is my fastest time I’ve done so far. I haven’t quite beat that time yet as an average.

http://nrcre-run.nike.com/us/en_us/nrcre-run/shared/0a8b587cc02123dd6fb2a56cc3af1f4e/1

Oh right, and I run against traffic because it feels safer for me and the lights don’t change when I plan on crossing the road or whatever.  I just like to run with as little interruptions as possible. On a side note, a few days later, I ran my fastest km…but still, this is my best average pace.  Lets hope it improves 😉

3) Quantico’s Set

If anyone is interested in seeing the new series Quantico, they have been shooting in Old Montreal right in front of the old Royal Bank building. They had done filming on and off for 2-3 weeks at least.  It looks really impressive and my guess is that its going to be the series headquarters or something.  The series already has me intrigued.  Its right up my alley of what I usually watch for TV series and with it being filmed so nearby, it has me even more interested 🙂

4) Vist at Seigneurie de l’ile d’Orleans (and some spontaneous stops)

We bought a voucher for a visit to this garden at l’ile d’Orleans a while back and its edging near expiry and we even missed the peak season to see the lavender gardens but we did buy it so we took a little day trip out to l’ile d’Orleans and visited a rather green garden 😉  I apologize but I only have my fiance’s pictures.  My pictures haven’t quite made it in the computer yet. However, I will be doing a full post on this if the pictures do turn out good.  I think I did some artsy stuff playing with the focus and whatnot. Not sure how it turned out.

L’ile d’Orleans in summer is definitely different from winter.  It was full of people.  We did end up stopping at a newly opened La Nougaterie which is a place that I love which makes amazing soft nougats.  Apparently, they just moved to this location for two weeks and I caught it completely spontaneously.  We bought some little nougats and had some tasting.  If you haven’t tasted these nougats, you have to.  I look forward to getting it at the arts and crafts show for their Christmas flavored one.  Its like heaven in my mouth.

The last stop we made before we left was at Cassis Mona et Filles which is a winery that focuses on blackcurrant wines and liqueurs.  They have a really awesome recipe using one of their Fruité liqueur and the syrup based one along with club soda and fruits that makes THE BEST sangria I’ve ever tasted. We, of course, got that. They also sell some more dry wines like their Port.  I almost couldn’t swallow that one because it was rather dry.

5) Garden Updates

Its almost time to close the gardens but we had a surge of heat wave and my plants are all confused.  Its good though.  We’re getting our big batch of strawberries and raspberries.  I’m considering to get a blueberry plant for next year.  I have a bit of space next to all these berries but it might not work so well because sun doesn’t hit that corner as much.  Anyways, next year’s projects aren’t anything to discuss now.  Look at those strawberries and raspberries 🙂

Raspberry plant

Strawberry plant

Confused plant doesn’t get any more than my clematis.  It has the hardest time staying alive in that spot.  I was starting to think about moving it again but didn’t know where just yet.  Then the heat wave hit and its having a ton of buds.  I sure hope the weather holds up so that it can bloom.  I haven’t seen one flower bloom on it yet.  Better late than never, right? 😉

Clematis

Finally, we are seeing signs of the fall chrysanthemums coming out.  Its budding and about to bloom.  The big one is from the previous owners and my little ones last year, only one survived but its more than enough with whats there now since the marigolds are still blooming.

6) What’s Next…

• Netflix A-Z: I-L movies (next two weeks)
• The Classics Adventures: book review and corresponding movie review
• Alaska Cruise: Day 5 & 6
• PRIORITY: Baking Through Disney: recipe & next movie

That’s it for this time’s Weekly Adventures! Short and sweet! 🙂
Happy Friday, my lovelies! Enjoy your weekend!

Drinks: Strawberry-Basil Infused Water

Summer is finally here!

Its actually feeling like summer in here as the rain has pushed out of the picture this weekend and we were in the low 30s Celsius.  I finally wore my shorts, tank top and flip flops and did a ton of garden work and started working on harvesting stuff.  I’ll give a garden update very soon with My Weekly Adventures. However, my basil has grown a lot while being indoors and it was time to do a harvest for it.  Then our little visit to Costco reaped a big package of strawberries. Then I found my pitcher for infused water so everything worked out perfectly great to make another infused water to help with a little refreshing detox.

STRAWBERRY-BASIL INFUSED WATER

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
Water

Depending on how your pitcher is or whether you use it in those infusion bottles, the quantity will vary.  It’ll also depend whether your ingredients will float all together.  My pitcher here is pretty cool because it has a tube to put ice, another netted layer where I put my herbs and then directly in the pitcher (as you see) are the sliced strawberries.

I kept it in the fridge to infuse for more than 4 hours before I tasted it at night. The strawberry and basil both came out very well.  And the mix was rather delicious.  What I worried about initially was that the basil was such a strong herb that it would mask the taste of the strawberries but I was wrong.  While you could taste the basil, it balanced really well with the strawberries.  What’s nice is that you can adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking.  If you like basil more, then go for it. You can add more to make it taste more of basil than strawberries.

I’m pretty happy that this time’s infused water was a lot more successful than last year’s try at blueberry and lemon mix.  I think a huge part is in choosing the right combo and also slicing the fruits so that it infuses better. Now, onwards to try out a few more blends over the summer.  I’ve been thinking of putting more drinks (cocktails included) section.  It sounds like a fun idea, don’t you think?

Here you go! A nice simple summer drink to help refresh and stay healthy! 🙂 

Pan-Fried Brussel Sprouts & Spaghetti Squash with Sauteed Tomato Sauce!

The first week of recommendations month is always a bit of wrapping up bits and pieces.  So no one recommended these recipes but I just happened to have made them on Sunday.

Sunday night I was on cooking duty which pretty much took me just right up till the Oscars began.

My challenge was with two ingredients in two dishes: brussel sprouts and spaghetti squash. After rummaging through Pinterest, I finally decided on doing the Pan-fried brussel sprouts as the spaghetti squash needed the oven to cook.

Pan fried brussel sprouts

The recipe for that is right here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pan-fried-brussels-sprouts/

I’m just learning about the world of brussel sprouts.  I did another recipe before HERE! That was pretty good too. This was is quite simple to do and honestly, I added all the ingredients as I felt it was necessary and its pretty good.  If you want, it always seems to suggest to add some meat to it to add to the flavor. Since this was done early, my mom decided to reheat it in the pan a bit with some chicken broth.  The result was very good 🙂

Moving on to the second dish, by the time the brussel sprouts were done, the spaghetti squash was almost done and I need to prepare the sauteed tomato sauce.

Spaghetti Squash with Sauteed Tomato Sauce

Originally, the recipe I have here is for a “gremolata”, which they say is this herb condiment with parsley, lemon zest and garlic.  I can’t called this a gremolata because I didn’t have fresh lemons hence, no peel. I ended up making the sauce only.

Here is the recipe: http://www.afamilyfeast.com/spaghetti-squash-gremolata/

I made only one modification in this (other than not doing the gremolata).  If you look at the recipe it says yellow tomato, but I used yellow peppers.  I’m not exactly sure what a yellow tomato is…

Still, this was really good.  I liked the tomato sauce with it and it gave a really good flavor.  I used the leftovers for the next two days with a bit of rigatoni pasta and brought it for lunch 🙂 When I have lemons next time, I’d definitely try to make the gremolata and see how that tastes!

Strawberries

I ended the dinner with some delicious strawberries as dessert! Healthy and awesome! 🙂

How do you make brussel sprouts? Have you had gremolata before? How do you like your spaghetti squash (if you like it at all)?

Banana”berry” Bomb Muffins!

Two weeks in a row! I’m getting a bit impressed by myself! I’ve been craving muffins for weeks but  I just never have the right ingredients.  This time, I was going to get bananas and strawberries for making a smoothie but instead I figured it’d be a good match for this one.

Last night having a crazy week. I figured I’d use my ultimate stress relief trick and do some baking while watching Dirty Dancing.  I reviewed that HERE if you’re interested in checking that out 🙂 Now lets see how it turned out!

Fresh out of the oven!

This was inspired from a recipe in the Looneyspoons Collections cookbook. The name is Bananaberry Bomb Muffins which actually applies to this one also even though the berry used is different.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

1 cup quick- cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup each all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 small)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside (or line it with muffin cups like I did).

2) Combine oats, both flours, sugar, ground flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Mix well and set aside.

3) In a  medium bowl, whisk together bananas, butter and egg.  Add banana mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Gently fold in blueberries.

4) Divide batter among 12 muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.

I made a few changes to the actual recipe. I completely removed ground flaxseed/wheat germ because I don’t have any or more like I remember buying it and have no idea where it vanished to. As for bananas, I used 3 and they were not ripe.  I had just bought them the other day (but I was on its way to being ripe).  And I did end up replacing the blueberries with strawberries. Just remember to cut them in a bit smaller pieces so that it keeps the texture of what blueberries would have.  That was my logic behind it at least.

Doesn’t it look awesome? I really like seeing the whole red treasure inside the muffin effect.  Its totally unintentional but thats exactly why this muffin is very moist and I love them that way.  Its had a good balance and the oat really helps soften the taste.  Its not too sweet but not bland because it has a fruit explosion with the banana and strawberry.  Feel free to try it with blueberries if you’d like.  I know I will one day.  I’m just more of a strawberry girl than a blueberry one.

What type of muffins do you like? How do you like banana or strawberries in baked goods?