Trip to Ottawa: Part 2!

This was part 1, in case you missed it! Since hubby drives to allow me to take photos, I like to share them with him, at least.

We frequent a bird lover's store, Gilligalou, and I had a gift certificate from hubby's aunt. I bought a new feeder, because you can't have too many of those!


From there we went to Starbucks for a coffee. Sadly, it was very, very noisy as they process the coffee beans there. Poor hubby bonked his knee on the awful tables, as did the guy sitting beside him. We were happy to drink up and go.


Ottawa has had a ton of snow. The walking is treacherous. The temperatures were above freezing, up to 8 C. yesterday, and there was some flooding of streets.

@ottawacity There's a lake on the corner of Preston and Willow St @BlacksWeather #ottweather #ottawa pic.twitter.com/7aHsygkEBx

— Suzanne Lukowski (@SuzanneLukowski) February 18, 2017

Then there is GCTC. My teacher friend and I used to hold season tickets for their shows. We'd meet in Little Italy for dinner, there are lots of restaurants from which to choose!


Walking was tricky. I had to take a photo of this pair. They were walking towards me. Avoiding the slush. The woman almost walked right into me, and I stood my ground. She expected me to move to avoid her as she avoided the slush, and walked on my side of the sidewalk. Then there was the ramp. It's tricky!!!!


From there, we went back to Holland Ave., to the restaurant where we were meeting the kid. No photos, of course. He's pretty reluctant to have his photos taken. The place was packed. We could have made a reservation. They sat me upstairs, whilst hubby fed the parking metre. I said I was waiting for hubby and son. She asked my son's name. 'Terry', I said. He arrived, and they sat him with us. The server came over and said, you didn't tell me he was THE TERRY! Apparently, he likes to eat there! Needless to say, we had a terrific visit, me, Terrence and my 2nd accountant husband! (Apparently, he goes by Terrence, these days! Who knew?)



While we sat there, finishing our meal, the song Summer Breeze came on their music system. It was funny, since when Terry's father and I were just getting acquainted, I borrowed his father's record album of Seals and Crofts. I worked in Pay and Services for Canada Post on Front St. in Toronto to pay for university. His father worked upstairs.
Back to the car, and home.

Winter comfort food

It could be rabbit stew?
Nope. Ms. Bunny, if she can escape the coyotes, cats, wolves, the mink, hawk, and all the other predators, there is no way we could do that!
She likes to feed on the grass in the evening and the dark morning hours.

Instead, with son Jesse Martyn visiting from Vancouver, fresh off of his Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat gig he had in Kamloops, I popped a stew into the crock pot. It simmered all day. Smelled so good!

I wanted something different. I wanted, too, to disguise the lamb (not a fave for hubby). We ended up giving Jesse a quick tour of Perth, and I didn't want to be stuck in the kitchen.

Jesse and I went to the LCBO and grabbed some wine from Niagara-on-the-lake. In case you think I'm being paid for all this, I'm not! Jesse was at Shaw Festival for a couple of years. We had fun visiting him. We usually visited a couple of the wineries. Reif Estates, Malivoire, too.

These NOTL wines bring back good memories for us.

Such a beautiful town.

Good to see Jesse! He lives in Vancouver.

I dug out our 5-ingredient Slow Cooker Recipes (Better Homes and Gardens, 2004). While many go to the Internet for recipes, we have a couple of cookbooks hanging around.

I adapted this one, and it was a fine meal. With some lovely bread chunks, and red wine, We had a fun dinner. 

We don't often see Jesse during December. He usually has to work. This was a pre-Christmas visit and whirlwind tour for him, visiting family and friends.

Lamb Stew

• 2 lbs. lamb cubed
• Indian Masala spices
• potatoes, cubed (a couple per person - you want leftovers!)
• two onions, two carrots and whatever else (celery?)
• 1 14½-ounce can of diced tomatoes

1. Plug in the crock pot. Turn it onto high for now.

2. Heat up a frypan, throw in the lamb cubes. Sprinkle the cubes with the spice. (You can do this a half hour ahead. I didn't bother as I was slow cooking it on low all day!) You want to brown the outside of the meat, turn them over and around, and sprinkle a generous amount of the masala on it. My recipe suggested 1 tablespoon, but you can judge it for your family's taste buds!

3. Once the meat is lightly browned, throw it in the crock pot.

We had leftovers!

4. You want to add the veggies that take the longest to cook first, e.g., potatoes. Then pile on the carrots and whatever else. I added some chunks of onion, large enough to be speared by a fork!

5. On top of this, dump the canned, diced tomatoes, liquid and all. Put some water in the empty can (¼ or ½ cup or so) and swish that to get all the good bit and put that on top of your stew. Do not stir for now, as the meat should be on the bottom.


6. Turn the slow cooker to low, if you have 8 - 10 hours cooking time. Otherwise, you can cook it on high for 4 hours.

We had some nice bread chunks to sop up the liquid. The recipe suggests you top the serving bowl of stew with yogurt. Twas a lovely dinner. Even better the next day!