Summertime ~ Tuesday 4

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Summer time is upon us. 

1. What special memories do you have about summer when you were younger?

I remember warmer weather because our summers were very short in the far north. We kids would play outside until midnight because it was so light outside. The sun didn't stay out all night but at midnight it still looked like twilight.

I also remember the annual trip to Bible Camp which I absolutely loved because there were lots of summer activities and lots of good food as well as good company and new friends from all around northern Alberta. I lived in British Columbia (BC) and the camp was in northern Alberta. 

See the highway (SE) from Dawson Creek to Saskatoon Island Provincial Park

Each year my Sunday School teacher and her husband would drive one of my siblings and I to camp along with two of their children. It always seemed like a long drive in the hot sun but according to google it's only about a 1.25 hours drive southeast from Dawson Creek, BC.  Camp was only a week long but it seemed much longer because we did so much in that one week.  Specifically I remember lots of outdoor sports like softball and swimming.  I loved singing around the campfire roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. We did a lot of church of course and Bible study along with crafting and other things. One summer my house mother was a missionary lady from Africa and that is when my interest in Africa began.

There was always a special church service on the last day and a nice luncheon to which the families of all the campers were invited.  Then everyone headed for home to their different locations. It was always a sad day for us young people to part with our friends and fun activities.

2. What is the highest temperature you've experienced in summer? What about so far this summer? How do you weather the heat or humidity?

I'm not entirely sure but I think it was about 43 degrees Celsius or 109.4 degrees Fahrenheit.  Some summers can be very hot here in Canada.  In those summers we usually have a lot of wildfires all over the province where I live and often in other provinces as well.  So far this summer it hasn't been too bad in BC.  The hottest day I can recall so far is about 29.2 degrees Celsius or 84.5 Fahrenheit.  Lytton, BC has been the hotspot of the province so far this year at 36.9 degrees Celsius or 98.4 Fahrenheit. Lytton is the town that burned to the ground due to heat and wildfires a few years ago. It still hasn't been rebuilt and right now there are wildfires in the area where the town is located.

When it's hot or humid I try to stay home. If I go out, it's usually late in the day. I also drink cold drinks and eat fruits like watermelon and cherries.  I keep the fans on when I feel overly hot and will sometimes put an ice pack on my neck or back.  We don't have air conditioning.

3. What's been on your menu so far this summer?

Usually in summer it's too hot to eat regular food so I keep the menu light with lots of salads and fruits like watermelon and cherries.   We have lots of corn on the cob, peaches, nectarines and apricots and wild caught salmon from the ocean.  The weather this summer has been much more bearable so far. It's almost the middle of July and our temperatures have been in the 22 - 26 Celsius range (71.6 - 78.8 Fahrenheit).  Not too hot at all. Quite comfortable in fact.  Right now (Sunday) it's overcast and has been for several days. It looks like rain but so far there is no shower in sight.  July is usually a very hot month but this year the temperatures are several degrees cooler than usual.  It seems like the very hot weather is being experienced in Eastern Canada this year and in Europe.

Given the nice temperatures we've been eating more or less the regular food we eat.  However, because it's summer I'm also making an effort to make a few summer type meals. For example, on Thursday we had a delicious vegetable salad and a Chicken Bacon pie from frozen. Today I made BBQ ribs and a Penne Pasta Salad chock full of vegetables and feta cheese.

Chicken & Bacon Pie

BBQ Ribs & Penne Salad

Penne Pasta Salad.  I was very generous with the feta cheese.

Another salad we like to have in summer is Potato and Egg and I plan to make it early in the week along with some hot dogs on buns.

4. What is on your reading list this summer... anything to recommend to us? What's on your TV this summer. Any music you're liking this summer?

There are a number of books on my reading list this summer:

I recommend Mansfield Park for Jane Austen fans.

I recommend both books. First one is set on a sheep farm in Australia, 2nd in NL., Canada.

I recommend if you like stories told through letters.

I recommend for insight into understanding how we spend money.

I recommend if you want to understand the immigrant experience.

I recommend if you like twisted mysteries.

I recommend The Hotel Nantucket if you like cosy reads set in beautiful places.

I recommend if you like spy stories where the spy is a woman.

On the television I have several streaming services and I usually select a spy movie. I just finished watching the series The Agency with a stellar cast including Michael Fassbender. I've also watched several series on Paramount Plus:  The Marshals, The Madison & The Dutton Ranch.  On Brit Box I've watched The Other Bennett Sister and I'm now watching A Woman of Substance.  The latter is a series based on the novel by the same name which I read decades ago and which has stayed with me throughout the years.  The content is perfectly captured in the title. A young woman rises from abject poverty to become extremely wealthy despite all the challenges along the way.

I also saw quite a good, long movie on my library streaming service over the weekend.  It's called Tomiris, about the Queen of the Massagetae people on the steppes east of the Caspian Sea. I've been trying to find the exact location of the area where the Massagetae people lived but since historical records are scarce there isn't accurate information.  I do believe that the people didn't actually live in Iran but in what is now Turkmenistan and in the other countries of Central Asia with the words ending in 'Stan". In the movie, Tomiris is depicted as a woman destined to protect her people and their lands from the encroachment of Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great hailed from Persis, an ancient region in southwestern Iran in what is now called the Fars Province. Click on the link below to enlarge the map of the Persian Empire.




If you can find it on a streaming service you use, I'd highly recommend it. Please note you'll need to turn on the subtitles. If you're in Europe I've read you can watch it on Amazon or Apple TV.



As for music, I'm not one to sit and listen to music though I really do love it.
Recently though I heard this song on Instagram and I had to look up the singer. You might like him too. 
Dusty Rivers is an 80 year old blues and soul singer. He appears to be a real person with a real discography.  It also appears that he uses AI to generate his image in the songs on his YouTube channel. Anyway I really love his voice and have listened to this song a few times. The content of the song no doubt has to do with the result of aging and no longer needing to strive so hard. Perhaps he has also a better appreciation for different things as he nears his last chapter.

 I do spend more time listening to music on occasion and when I do I love to listen to gospel, especially the old hymns, the occasional contemporary gospel song and gospel songs in other languages.  I also l love folk music and the music of the 1970s.

Lunch at Woolworth's ~ Tuesday 4

Click to see full size.

It's time again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.   

Prices are soaring and there is no end in sight!  Wouldn't it be nice to go back in time to do our buying? Even restaurants were affordable back in the day.
You can click on the menu to see it full sized. 

1. Did you ever eat at Woolworth's?  

Yes!  When I was growing up we lived in a small city in the far north of my province. There weren't many restaurants. In fact, I only remember 3, Woolworth's, a Chinese restaurant and a cafe at the local Co-op and a few fast food joints. There was a Dairy Queen (DQ) but I think it was only open in summer for take out ice cream items only.  We also had a KFC which in those days was called Kentucky Fried Chicken or Chicken Village.  There may have been more restaurants but I don't remember them.  Anyway, back to Woolworth's. Mother took me and my siblings (3 of us in those days) to town once in awhile and it was a treat because she took us to Woolworth's for lunch. I don't think we ate anything other than French Fries with gravy and a Coca Cola but it was always a treat. I remember these days very fondly.

2.  What would you order from this menu?

Definitely the French Fries and gravy and maybe, on occasion, a Hamburger Platter.

3. Woolworth's had banana splits and sundaes.  Do you like sundaes? What kind?

I love both banana splits and sundaes. If I order a sundae it's usually a strawberry sundae.  Sometimes I ask for 2 toppings (strawberry and pineapple or strawberry and chocolate).

4. What restaurants are you favorites and what do you usually order?

I enjoy all kinds of food but when I go out I normally have Asian food, either Vietnamese or Japanese. I order Vietnamese House Special Soup (with the works) and Prawn Salad Rolls. Sometimes I order a bowl with noodles, peanuts, shredded carrots and celery, and topped with deep fried spring rolls and grilled skewered pork. At the Japanese restaurant, I order a Bento Box most often with beef or chicken teriyaki and mixed tempura along with miso soup, salad and a California roll.

I also crave 'Western Food' now and then but there are extremely few places to get it these days. I'm talking about places with menu items similar to the old Woolworths and then some. I like having pork chops, mashed and veggies or something like a soup and sandwich. 

Last but not least, I love some good Mediterranean food like Chicken Souvlakia, roasted lemon potatoes, Greek Salad, and Middle Eastern vegetarian dishes and foods like Morrocan Chicken Tagine. I'm thinking of making a Tagine later this month for my brother's birthday dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Childhood ~ Tuesday 4

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4 and another chance to learn more about yourself and your fellow bloggers.

1. Were you an adventurous child at all?

I don't think I would describe myself as a very adventurous child. My mother was overly protective with me as the eldest and a girl. I was always told about the dangers out there and my time to do the normal things was strictly limited and observed. I developed a fear of doing a lot of things that other children did more naturally such as swimming, riding a bike and skating. I did do all of these things eventually but none too well and to this day I really don't do any of them.  All of my siblings took to these activities very naturally. I suppose too they were given a lot more freedom given that by then mom and dad had more experience as parents. However they were still given strict instructions about when to be home and so on. I'm glad for these kind of rules when I was young but wish I didn't become so fearful. It's something I've tried to work on in later life with some success.

2. What were some of your favorite places to go when you were a child? Amusement parks, movies, restaurants, zoo.  etc?

I enjoy all of these things as a child. My small town didn't have a zoo but each year the circus would come to town and practically everybody would attend. I enjoyed it a lot and was always nervous when the lion trainers would work with tigers and lions. This was in the days before such things as animal rights. I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as a travelling circus anymore in small town Canada. We didn't have amusement parks though once a year in late summer just before school started again, we would have the Fall Fair and Rodeo. The fair always included the carnival and was something we loved to visit into the late nights. We did have one movie theatre and dear mom would make sure that I went to matinees either with her or with my siblings and of course we'd have popcorn and pop for a treat. Restaurants were very few but we did get out to the Woolworth's Cafe once a month when mom went shopping or when it was back to school shopping. We also had a chinese restaurant where we had a treat now and then but not that often. 

3. What games did you play outdoors? indoors?

We played every game that was known in our parts both indoors at outdoors. Indoors at school we played things like dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, indoor hockey and probably more. Outdoors we played a lot of soccer, road hockey, baseball, cricket, track and field, hide and seek, roll over & tetherball.  I feel like I'm missing something from the list of games and sports. For quiet games indoors we played all kinds of things like card games (Crazy 8, solitaire, some played poker and some played cribbage) and board games (snakes and ladders, Chinese Checkers, Yahtzee and so on). In summer it would stay bright outside. Even at midnight it would be like dusk so we kids did a lot of playing outdoors in those times. We even played outdoors in winter because the sun would shine brightly and though it did get cold it wasn't cold each and every day. We'd make snowmen and have snowball fights.

4.  Where did you grow up and do you think it affected who you are today?

I grew up in a small city in northern British Columbia (I lived in more than one) and yes, I do feel it affected who I am. I love the city and all it offers. It suits my personality but I also have a huge appreciation for the small town way of life and it's people, animals, wildlife and so on. I think I would love to go back and live however what holds me back is the lack of services, especially good health care. In fact, the lack of health services and easy access to specialists is what keeps me from moving to most parts of my province. That and the cold weather.

Thank you for visiting. Please come again soon.

A Neighbourhood Walkabout

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday so far.

Today it got warm enough to wear sleeveless tops, sandals and shorts if you so desired. I don't wear shorts anymore and I usually wear a very light long sleeved top over a sleeveless one.  But I saw plenty of people dressed for very hot weather today.

I've been trying to get out for a walk and errands as often as I can but it was actually very cold and rainy for about a week.  As a result I developed a bit of a head cold but I didn't remain in bed. In fact, I probably needed more sleep and rest than I did get but I'm working on it.

These photos were taken when the weather was still cold and rainy earlier in the week.

Does anyone know what flower this is?

Did you notice the little door and windows at the base of the tree in the above photo? I've seen several of them when I go out for a walk in the neighbourhood.  I think it's so cute and whimsical. Seeing this kind of vignette takes me back to childhood and reading about elves, fairies and little people. Do you remember stories of the Littles, a family of little people with mouse like tails?  I haven't thought about these stories for years but it was a pleasant moment in an otherwise ordinary day.

I hope you had a pleasant moment or two as well.

Thank you for your visit. Please come again soon.

A Neighbourhood Stop

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you're well.

Over the past week, I've found it quite cold on several days but we are creeping toward warmer temperatures in general.

That usually means looking for cold treats to have while out and about.

I happen to love ice cream and so the local Dairy Queen (DQ) is one of my favourite places in the neighbourhood on a particularly warm or hot day.

My favourite DQ treat is a Banana Split but I don't have these too often since they've become quite expensive. I usually have a small sundae or a dipped chocolate cone. I know these treats aren't too healthy but when you grow up having these kinds of things with friends or on a family outing, it evokes happy memories and it's often hard to give them up completely.

In fact, the other day when I was there a man sat at the table next to me. While he was eating his sundae, he turned to me and asked  how I was enjoying my ice cream.  Then he began telling me about his memories of visiting this same DQ location all through the years. He told me he is 53 years old and had been coming to the location for as long as he could remember. 

His wife offered that he is a good dad and because he made sure to bring the children for an ice cream treat knowing that their daughter is a huge ice cream fan like myself.  It was nice to chat with them over a simple thing like an ice cream treat. Clearly,  the dad was nostalgic.  When his kids grow up they too will have memories of going out for ice cream together with their dad.  The mother is Japanese.  She told me she couldn't figure out her son can eat so much and why her daughter likes ice cream so much.  I told her her teenage son is a growing boy and needs lots of calories.  As for her daughter, well I understand being a fan of ice cream, lol.  I guess the mom didn't grow up eating ice cream so her outlook and desires are different.

Well friends, that's my little story for the day. I hope you have a great day with some fond memories either recollected or newly made.  I'd love to read in the comments what fond childhood food treat memory you have. Thank you for stopping by!

Baking Memories and New Plans

I love sweets. I always have. When I was much younger I used to bake a lot of sweets because back in those days we didn't eat a lot of them.  Though mother did bake most of our breads and the occasional cakes, pies, pudding or cinnamon buns it wasn't like we had dessert every day. I think these were considered an occasional treat or something for special occasions and holidays. 

I wanted it more often so I began experimenting making my own brownies, a variety of cookies, pies and other things I no longer remember. I even tried making ice cream from a little cook book for kids that I'd sent away for from the Carnation Milk company.  Perhaps some of you remember the cookbook.

Paperback selling on Amazon for $35.

If you wrote to the evaporated milk company you got a free copy. I see it is selling on line for a lot more than 'free'.   Even if I found my cookbook it would fetch nothing because somehow I burned the front pages quite badly though I don't remember how it happened. I still used the recipes that were not scorched, lol.

After a couple of years learning and experimenting I stopped baking altogether. I was worried I might gain too much weight.  I was always on the larger side even though I didn't eat that much. In fact, mother always used to worry about me because I never ate breakfast, hardly touched lunch and ate sparingly at dinner time. I just didn't have such a big appetite and most time I still don't. But if you give me a pastry, I'll probably try and eat it. So I stopped making baked goodies for that reason. I never really started baking again until retirement because then I more time to figure out how to bake breads and other things. 

Some of you know that I've had T2D now for some years.  As you age, the most diabetes generally get worse. I've really learned to eat differently and have tried all kinds of different ways of eating. I think the best approach is intermittent fasting but I still find it difficult.  Even if you do all the right things I find you get fatigued from always having to be vigilant.  

I also know that I still have a love of baked goods.  Some of them are sweet and of course a lot of them have a high carbohydrate content. So I'm finally going to try and learn how to bake goods using alternatives to white flour and other grains. I will go slowly so as not to stress myself. I been wanting to do this for a long while and I've picked up some good library books to get started. If I find one I like very much I may buy it but there is so much online for free too.

Here are some books I picked up. Most of them look very good. Not all of them are baking books. The big one called Simple Healthy is a regular cookbook. I bought a few ingredients to try out some regular meals before embarking on baking adventures.

I gravitate toward simple recipes.  Ones that don't needs a lot of fuss or a high number of ingredients. The Simple Healthy Cookbook seems to fit the bill. I like the look of the bakery books too but not yet sure how complicated things are.

Let me know if you have any experience with baking sugar free and gluten free and whether you have any cookbooks or websites to recommend. Many thanks!