Pocketful of Memory Cards

No, it's not deja vu, I posted this photo yesterday on Wordless Wednesday.  I wanted to give you a closer look at the ingredients I gathered for the vanilla mahi mahi I made for dinner Saturday night.  I found the provenance of the ingredients to be very multi-cultural so in essence, Canadian!  I fear that those of you who are proponents of the 100 mile diet will be appalled by the distances driven, sailed across and flown over to allow me to make this tasty recipe, but if you're a regular you know what a fan I am of shopping for local products so I hope you'll allow me an occasional  indulgence. First of all, the recipe is based on a delicious  meal we had at Norbert and Thildi's pension  Tevahine Dream in Rangiroa,  French Polynesia.  (If you check out the link, fyi a "mosquito nest" is not one of their amenities, however they do have "mosquito nets".  I think the mosquito nests were on Huahine, but that's another story...)  ...

Summerhill Pyramid Winery ,  Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

When my husband came home from his trip to Haa Nee Naa Lodge with fifty pounds of fish I jumped at the opportunity to share the spoils with friends while hosting my dream dinner party on our back deck.  I seems I've been seduced by TV shows and movies where people gather around long tables in the gardens of Tuscan villas, laughing while they sip wine from nearby vineyards, and serve themselves from plates piled with roasted vegetables and meats.  Hunks of fresh bread are swirled in olive oil pressed from their own orchards and faces glow with pleasure in the candlelight.  It looks like such an idyllic evening I've been keen to recreate it Okanagan style. It was approaching thirty degrees with no hint of a breeze as we set up the table early yesterday afternoon and I feared it would be too hot to eat outside.  We hung some white sheets along one side of the deck to keep out the sun and set up a fan with the hope that it would keep us comfortable until t...

I dashed into the Cod Father's this afternoon after a sudden inspiration to see if they had any fresh pickerel in stock.  Lucky me!  They had some just in from Ontario.  It's usually from Manitoba and though it's a treat when you haven't had any for a while, Manitoba pickerel just doesn't seem as good as the fish we caught in the lakes near Sioux Lookout Ontario where I grew up. Tonight we'll be having a traditional Sioux inspired dinner with pan fried pickerel, wild rice that I know for sure comes from near Sioux because my dad sent it to me.  Gayle McKenzie's cucumber salad will be one of the side dishes and I think I might dig into the frozen wild blueberries for dessert.  I have no idea what I'll do with them, so feel free to share your suggestions. My Mom with the result of a good day's fishing in the early 70's

  We took a few steps off the Mission Greenway this afternoon, onto the rounded cobble of the creek bed.   Pitou and Max  both seem to enjoy being close to the water, but had no desire to venture into it.   Naturally Pitou managed to find a dead salmon to roll in.  Luckily Max was keen to help clean him up so I only had to open the back windows in the car on the ride home. It's hard to believe it's the first of November and we're still enjoying these sunny days.  It's cooled down, but it's still beautiful and I've forgotten already that the last two days were cold and grey. It makes me wonder what the winter will bring, but not for long.  For now,  I want to enjoy every drop of sunshine that we get.  What will be, will be.

Wednesday morning we set out to hike the Lighthouse Loop of the Wild Pacific Trail . It's a fairly easy 2.5 km trek that winds its way atop a craggy shoreline, with views of Barkley Sound and the Broken Islands, past Amphitrite Lighthouse, through dense forest and along a rocky beach...not necessarily in that order. We started our walk late in the morning and by the time we were finished it was almost noon so we stopped at the highly recommended Jigger's fish and chip truck. I'm not a lover of seafood but I do like Halibut and this was the best fish and chips I've ever eaten.  Since we showed up just before opening, (you could see them cutting the fresh chips by hand), we got the first fry of the day. It was a truly delicious lightly battered, tender, non greasy sit-down restaurant quality meal.  At $14 for one piece, and $18 for two, it's certainly the most I've paid for food from a chip wagon, but this would beat the fish and chips I'...