Afterwords
We are back home. It has been almost three weeks away from the congregation so it is great to get back. Lots to do. Pioneer School was amazing. …. again. It just seems to get better each time. We are never going to know it all, and we definitely needed some honing. I won’t post much in the way of pictures or commentary on the School, but just a word on two meals. A kind sister whose daughter was in our class invited us all to her restaurant the 26th. Everything is closed in St. John’s on the 26th, so she opened up for a ‘private party’. She has a Smoke’s Poutinerie franchise. hmmmm …. We are a bit snobbish about this. We had poutine in the Magdalen Islands and they melted Mozzarella on top of it! ICK! Most places we won’t touch it. Just wait to get back to the Eastern Townships. We went expecting to be disappointed. It was great! I have had better, of course. How can you get better than buying it where the cheese was made the same day? But this was very, very good. The fries were perfect, the gravy was perfect and the cheese was as close as you can get this far from the source (they do get the cheese from the Eastern Townships apparently). Jeff, one of our instructors, serving us too! It was a really great feed. They serve all manner of combos – Pulled Pork, Chicken, Beef …. they Continue Reading →
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with 1 comment.
Formosa Tea House
The highlight of Saturday was the Formosa Tea House. We started off the day with breakfast at our B&B then headed out to face the ‘holiday crowds’. Actually not as bad as I had feared. I picked up a bit kit for my new Leatherman. Now I have a screwdriver for every occasion! Yea! Then it was time for lunch and we had decided to try the Formosa Tea House Leslie had read the review from the above link and it sounded well worth a trip. Parking was bit scarce, but it turned out that we had a great spot directly across from the restaurant. It is not a place to order the “combo platter”. The menu consists of about 14 or 15 things. They suggest that each person order about 3. Then if you share them you get to try about 6. I wanted to order 8 things. Leslie is sure she ordered 7. We got 6. Good thing too! Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Sushi and a stuffed bun. The Stuffed Bun is like an Oriental Kapusta Bun. Yum! This is Bamboo Rice. It is stuffed with a rice / bean combo. Really good. And it is a TEA house, after all so …. Another wrapped dish. Sticky rice. I loved it! Below you can see shots of the inside of the Bamboo rice and the Sticky Rice dish. Lots of very subtle flavors. Wonderful stuff. We will come here again!
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
Back to Abba
After five years we are back at the Abba Inn where we spent our 20th anniversary. It is an old manor in the downtown of St. John’s converted into a B&B. The rooms are nice, some are down-right special. The last time we were upgraded to a nicer room for the bargain price. This time we weren’t, but still nice. As you can see. We had plenty of our Anniversary picnic left over and scarfed that back for our supper. Along with our wine gift! Breakfast was not bad. Bacon and eggs, just a little over-cooked. We had company at breakfast. A Spanish couple from St. Pierre. Go figure! Now … off to face the town.
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
Pack Rats!
Nice day again today! We had French Toast for breakfast and then drove off to Grand-Falls for the day. In five years on the Island we have not been there and we decided it was time. We stopped briefly in Gander to renew Leslie’s license (to drive, not kill) and on we went. Grand-Falls was very nice. Smaller than Gander (commercially, at any rate), older it seems, and sprawling. We found a restaurant supply store (toy store) where Leslie was able to get an even bigger baking sheet and fun was had by all. We then cut across to Lewisporte where we had heard there was good Chinese food. Indeed! Delicious. I had a combo dinner that spilled off both sides of a large plate and was piled two layers deep. Leslie went for beef & broccoli that melted in your mouth. Yum! On our way through Gander I stopped to pick up some Knob Creek, the rest of Leslie’s gift to me! Yea! Now we are packing like mad (with brief blogging breaks {BBB}) as we will head out early tomorrow. We check into our B & B for a night and see what we can find in St. J’s! To be continued…..
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
(No Title)
And Tacos for supper! May not seem like “special” food to you, but I don’t remember the last time we had tacos! And Leslie was craving them too. That and more Black ‘n’ Tan did the trick! Give it another hour or so and we’ll stuff in Lemon Cheesecake and call it a day. Watched Fiddler on the Roof, Bucket List and now we can debate an evening show. Tomorrow we will be a bit more active. And less posting! ‘Night all!
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
Cajun Shrimp
And a late afternoon (supper) of Cajun Shrimp. Cook shrimp in butter, garlic and lemon until getting well done, add 1/4 beer, cook until evaporated. Add another 1/4 and repeat. When sticky and crisp add hot sauce. Munch. Yum! Supper (read midnight snack) much later!
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
Lunch! …
or as they say in Newfoundland, Dinner! Lunch is in a box or something you have before bed! We went for finger food. Some of our favorites. And Black’n’Tan … Guiness mixed with paler beer. And Vodka on the side. YUM! More cake after dishes.
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with no comments yet.
The Day
So here we are …. 25 years in. Who’d a thunk it? It has been a special year indeed, kind of a drawn out anniversary. We went with the Deveaus and Clarks to St. Pierre and Miquelon – as an anniversary trip. That was great. Then we spent a week with Marvin & Penny in their new place in NB! (thank you very, very much). Two trips. Then we discovered that we had a bonus gift …. a pioneer class immediately after our anniversary! Great way to end December. So here’s the plan: We started today with Poached eggs on Waffles. Then some gifts. Bling for Leslie. Leatherman for Jim Teapot and tea for … two! We actually started last night when a couple in the congregation gave us a cake! Which we dived into before remembering to take a picture! Oops. Another couple gave us a bottle of wine (she gave us glasses last year). We are still saving the wine! We also received some ‘paper’ and have some plans. Today, we watch movies and eat & drink. Tomorrow we are going for a drive to Grand Falls, just ’cause we never done it! Friday we are heading into St. John’s where we will spend the night at a B&B that we enjoyed on our 20th anniversary (Abba Inn). We have some restaurants that we want to try too. We’ll post more later. Saturday we bum around the town and munch some more. Then we head to our hosts Continue Reading →
Posted in 25th Anniversary by jimt with 1 comment.