Our last day in Canada

Our last day in Canada was filled with a shopping trip to Roots (A Canadian legend....wonderful clothing with a warm, casual feel), picking up a few Cuban Cigars, and stopping into Urban Fare.  Urban Fare was a find! A super cool high end grocery store with a cafe, bakery, flower shop, and so much more! (Think of a smaller version of Whole Foods but even more upscale.)

We stopped into Urban Fare looking for nanaimo bar.  This is a Canadian dessert and our concierge had directed us to check out the bakery at Urban Fare. Nanaimo bar is a three layered dessert that is a super-rich treat! First layer is coconut and graham cracker crumbs, second layer is creamy custard and third layer is chocolate ganache. Fabulous!!

While we standing in line to pay we also picked up a box of Maple Chocolate Canadian Toffee.  Traditional crunchy almond toffee but hit with just a hint of Canadian maple flavor. Heaven!

So now that we had dessert out of the way.. time for something a little more savory.  We found trendy Milestones bar and grill.  A fancy little grill serving up traditional pud fare with a hip modern twist.

We had Kobe Sliders,  Classic Caesar Salad, and the soup of the day was Mushroom.

The Mushroom Soup was the best thing we had. A blend of three types of mushrooms. Portobello, button, and shitake; all blended into a smooth creamy texture topped with home made garlic croutons, scallion, and drizzled with a rich hearty extra virgin olive oil.  I wanted to bathe in it!

The Caesar was ok, fresh and crisp, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I hope you enjoyed our posts about Vancouver and we'd love to hear about your favorite places when visiting our neighbors to the north.

King Crab Ravioli

Sometimes you just feel like something that is easy and delicious! I do quite a bit of shopping at Sam's Club and every once in awhile find a treasure.

I came across King Crab Ravioli the other day and just couldn't pass it up.

I wanted to make a simple sauce that would enhance the flavor of the ravioli's and not overpower the flavor of the crab. I made a simple garlic butter chardonnay sauce to coat the finished ravioli. (Recipe follows.)

Mike and I were lucky enough to have his mom join us for dinner the night we made these.  All three of us agreed the ravioli were delectable!

Garlic Butter Chardonnay Sauce;

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbsp salted butter

3 cloves garlic minced

1/2 cup good chardonnay

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and butter in medium high skillet.

Add garlic and saute until lightly golden.

Add chardonnay and reduce until sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Cook ravioli to package directions, drain and add to saute pan.

Lightly toss and serve immediately.

Gelato!

We have discovered an amazing indulgence! Talenti Gelato!  

We first discovered this at Whole Foods but have since found it at Safeway and King Soopers for about $1 less per container.  These gelato's are so rich and creamy and packed full of intense flavor!

We've had the Caramel Cookie Crunch, the Tahitain Vanilla Bean, Banana Chocolate Swirl, Carribean Coconut, Sea Salt Caramel, Toasted Almond, Sicilian Pistachio, Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, and can't wait to try all the others.

The ingredients are simple, pure, and delicious. Chock full of whatever is listed on the label.  The Carribean Coconut actually reminds me of my grandmother's coconut cream pie!

The next time you need a sweet treat, pick up a container of this and just try to not finish the entire jar!  I hope you love it as much as we do!

Whole Foods Dinner

One of our favorite traditions is to spend the afternoon shopping together for an amazing dinner.  We love to go to the Whole Foods right around the corner and do a lap around the store looking for what surprises they have in store for us that day.  Their staff is always so friendly and regularily gives us free samples of new items to try.  They put out a beautiful spread and we love the time spent together looking at all the goodness we will enjoy together later that day! 

What a beautiful display to welcome you to the store!  Definitely feels like October after our first snow and the beautiful display of gords, seasonal mumms and pumpkins!

Decisions, Decisions.....hard to choose when everything looks so good!  And this was only one section of about four at the seafood counter, never mind the butcher's section!

Dinner was incredible! Dover Sole stuffed with Blue Dungeness Crab, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Oven-Roasted Brussel Sprouts, and beautiful Harvest Medley Potatoes. Jeran and I love to cook (and eat!) together, and whether that means everything from scratch, going semi-homemade, taking it easy and buying premade, or going out - dinner to us is about spending time together and enjoying each other's company. This dinner presented some unique challenges as everything was prepared in the Oven, yet required different temperatures and cooking times. But that made it fun more than dinner, it was an adventure!