sweet weekend

this weekend i took my second trip to halifax since we moved to gander. my girls and i have developed a formula for a great weekend over the past 10 years or so. sangria in the late afternoon is very important.

hanging out in the sun on a tiny city porch.

and since it was halloween weekend,  jenny was working hard on the handmade costumes we wore

i think they turned out awesome

and then my flight home got cancelled due to a snowstorm in gander. so i ended up staying an extra night, and heading home on this tiny little airplane. the pilot didn't even close the partition during the flight. pretty cool

so good to see the girls and hang out in halifax

this week...

new kayak on gander lake

i love the look of stacked wood

all the street signs in the area are shaped like canoes. love that

some homemade "wedgies"

best brownies i've ever made. no flour, no eggs, no butter, no sugar. from this recipe. and i am a serious brownie person. i get them everywhere we go. i hate caky or fluffy brownies. i love when they are fudgy, chewy, soft. just like these.

going to see my girls tomorrow. so pumped

can't wait

can't wait for this in 2 days. taking a little trip to halifax

snow

so this is what our driveway looks like this morning. i think we need to make a trip to canadian tire to buy scrapers and brushes. locals weren't kidding when they said winter starts early here. luckily we just booked a trip to mexico in 2 months

unreal amazing raw chocolate layered cheesecake

so jon got me a food processor, and now i can make all these raw recipes that look so good. i made this cake on the weekend, and i seriously think it was one of the best desserts i've had. and it's healthy. like, there's nothing bad in it. i used this fake cheesecake for a layer, and this fudge cake for another layer. but basically, the main ingredients are nuts, banana, coconut, cocoa.

i never thought i'd be someone who wanted a kitchen appliance as a gift.
also, my wedding planner is so close to finding my wedding venue. very excited

highlights

 so on friday night we checked out the chinese food restaurant in our town with our neighbours. the place was called highlights. the decor was unreal. the toilets were covered in blue carpeting, which seemed most unusual, but somehow appropriate?

we got a round of slings because it appeared to be their signature cocktail. they were actually so good.

they had some pretty huge goldfish in tanks in the walls. this place was actually so fun. the food was pretty good, and it felt like we weren't in Gander anymore.

i got a triple fortune cookie, which i'm sure is really good luck

best time we've had in a while.

typical sunday morning

sunday is my fav day of the week for sure. especially since we work a lot of saturdays now. 

best start to a sunday: coffee in our favourite mugs. jon's is the brown one, stolen from the shoeshop in halifax on one of our first dates. mine was found deep in a cupboard at jon's cottage on pei. and our bodum that we take everywhere.

super secret surf spot in central NL

 i'm no surfer, but i know a beautiful beach when i see it.

windmill bight. good waves, cool rocks, white sand. luckily only 3 people read my blog, so i think the secret is still safe.

cookie skillet

we had these on the weekend, and shared them with new friends. i feel that making new friends is so hard when you move to a tiny town and you are not a student anymore. and since we live in a military town, the population of twenty and thirty-somethings is pretty transient. please don't move away new friends!

i have wanted to try these for a while, from a fav food blog, 101 cookbooks. just a normal whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe in a big skillet. they were really good, but really not like a cookie. more like a square or bar or something. very thick. recommended, especially if you do not own a cookie sheet but you do own a skillet...

last weekend's finds

 a new plant for our hall.

 public library finds

 j's homemade sushi. amazing

 a truck filled with moose antlers. only in newfoundland?

a drive to see the fault line of newfoundland. turns out it doesn't look like anything.

also, on the weekend we got a little closer to finding our wedding venue. i have gotten so excited about so many venues only to find that each one won't work for us. and jon found a secret surfing spot on the island. surfers here are super tight with locations of good waves here. i will post about it later in the week. so possible wedding venue+secret surf spot=great weekend

wild berry scones

more berry baking. scone recipe from this from the blog eating is art. these were amazing. and semi-healthy. used partridgeberries and blueberries i picked on the side of the road :)

little tiny harbour

we took a little detour to little harbour on the coast of newfoundland. some sights:

house on stilts

hand holding

iceberg sitting

former hamburger joint

natural arch

more natural arch

chilling in little harbour watching the icebergs

same

surveying the scene

morning glory

these are the best muffins for fall. full of carrots, apples, coconut, walnuts. i do everything as the recipe calls for, but sub half the oil for applesauce, and use spelt flour. and i do not use raisins. so not a fan. i thought i didn't like morning glory muffins, but they are jon's fav. i have made this recipe a bunch of times, and i think i eat more of them than jon now. so good. they taste better than they look, really.

love canadian artists: adam cohen

this song is so good. leonard cohen's son, sounding a lot like his dad.

stroll around cobb's pond

we took a walk around cobb's pond in our town on the weekend. we saw some sweet nature scenery. 

this mushroom looks fake. i think i might become a professional mushroom photographer

everything is so green and lush right now

 we got really caught up in trying to catch these little birds on film. i was wishing for one of those cameras that can take a bunch of photos in a row

 the blue jay was way too smart to eat from jon's hand. but the little grey birds were loving it.

 turned into quite the little nature walk.