Afternoon Tea at Chateau Laurier

I am obsessed with all things British. 
If it didn't rain so much, I'd move there.

For example, a few of my favourite British things are: 
-Kate Middleton (my homegurl), and the Royal Family. 
-Tweed jackets. So rugged yet sophisticated! 
-Double decker buses (TWO levels to sit on?!!) 
-Pubs (self explanatory)
-Pimms (also self explanatory)
-The Spice Girls (girl power!) 
-Wellies (or just English country life in general)
-and TEA!!!!. Specifically, afternoon tea. 

Afternoon tea is not just drinking tea, in the afternoon. Traditionally, afternoon tea is a light meal eaten between 4-6pm. It originated amongst the wealthy in England, as something to tide them over until dinner time. From there, it has spiralled into a decadent and luxurious affair. Usually served on a tiered stand, you can expect scones (with clotted cream and jam), sandwiches, and a variety of cakes/baked goods for dessert. Oh, and they'll give you some tea, too. 

I was born to do this shiet. 

Ever since I discovered that the Fairmont Chateau Laurier (a beautiful historic castle-like hotel, in the heart of Ottawa) did an afternoon tea service, I've been DYINGGGG to go. Finally, I just made the reservation (ps - you need to make a reservation), rallied up my girlies, and did the damn thang. Weeeeeeeee!!!! 

The tea service is held in Zoe's lounge, named after Sir Wilfred's beloved wife, Zoe Laurier. The decor in both the hotel and the lounge is beautiful. 

There are two tea services to choose from: a Traditional Tea, and a slightly more expensive Canadian Tea (there's also a Little Prince and Princess tea for kids, too cute!). We all decided on the Canadian Tea. Yolo. 

To start, we were brought ice wine marinated strawberries. 

And, tea. I had Darjeeling for the first time! (The name intrigued me. Darjeeling, it just sounds so exotic. Like something a celebrity would name their child.)

The tea cart!

Then, our tiered stands arrived. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had afternoon tea once before: they brought one tiered stand for the table, and just kept replacing the sandwiches and scones as they disappeared into our bellies. This time however, we each got our own!!! And I was ok with that. 

The scones were phenomenal!!!!!!!!! I seriously luv clotted cream. Could eat dat stuff all day. 

And the service was great. A friendly gentleman with glasses. I wish I remembered his name. Well done, sir! 

Be warned: the Canadian Tea is A LOT of food. I felt like I needed to be rolled out of that place afterwards. Whatever. 

The sandwiches and desserts were good! Somewhere around average.  Not like it really mattered. Afternoon tea is all about the experience. A fancy afternoon of lady bonding with my fancy lady friends. In a castle! (kind of). 

Afternoon tea would make a great gift for mom on Mother's Day! Also a good idea for entertaining if you have a friend visiting from out of town. The Chateau Laurier is a historic and beautiful part of Ottawa. Take some time afterwards to wander the hotel's corridors and ballroom. And make sure to stop at the loo on your way out ;) (... but seriously, it's nice in there!!)

  

Ottawa Wine & Food Festival

Last weekend was the Ottawa Wine and Food Festival. 

I missed it last year, so you BETTER BELIEVE I was all over it this time around. 

My friends and I attended the Saturday afternoon Tasting Floor Pass. Held at the Ottawa Convention Centre, hundreds of exhibitors set up shop offering samples of wines, beers, spirits and foods from around the world - and around Ottawa. 

I WAS PUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Firstly, I was totally diggin' the crowd. Young professional men in suits (meow) and ladies in dresses. It felt like more of a club at times than a convention centre. A friend of mine told me to dress up, and I'm really thankful they did (I probably could have even dressed up a little more). I was worried I would be waiting in lines, but there weren't any!! Hooray. 

Now, to the food. 

We ate ourselves sillyyyy. GO BIG OR GO HOME. Amirite?? The one thing I was surprised to see, was quite a few chain restaurants and pubs. Like Real Sports, The Clocktower Pub... not exactly fine dining, but still fun! I think everyone agreed that the best thing we ate all day was the lobster... POUTINE!!, from Petit Bill's Bistro. 

Who knew such a thing existed??? It was awesome. But to be fair, I've never had a poutine I didn't like (poutine tasting for me usually goes down at 2:30 am, post bar library). I've never been to Petit Bill's! It's been added to my to-do list.   

The award for most interesting thing I ate has to go to the bison and wild boar on a stick. 

I love how straight up they were. They could have classed up the name, like "wild boar sausage hors d'oeuvres with a dijon butter".... Nope. Just wild boar. On a stick. 

I've had bison before (bison burgers) but never wild boar. I liked both! To be honest they both kind of tasted the same to me. Maybe I haven't developed my wild game palete quite yet. Lulz.  

Also, CHEESE!!!!!!!

Specifically, RACLETTE!!!! 

Raclette is a type of cheese, and a Swiss dish based on heating the cheese and scraping it off (racler = to scrape). 

I don't care who you are, melted cheese is DA BOMB!! They could have scraped it onto a shoe and I still would have tried to eat it. Not ashamed. 

Finally for dessert, blueberry cheesecake. With a chocolate crust! Deeeeeeeeelish. 

I obviously ate (and drank) way more than this, but these were the foods worth mentioning.

Apparently they're planning a spring edition of the festival! Come at me wine & food!  

Halloween

We luv Halloween! 

This year, the girls and I decided to dress up as "party animals". Get it!? (From left to right: a peacock, lion, dalmatian, and a deer, partying it up). 

I really enjoy group costumes. Especially ones where everyone can do their own thang, but still be part of a group. Everyone's costume can stand on its own, and no one needs to compromise! It's the perfect solution.

I love homemade costumes!!! Ordering one online just feels like cheating. I also happen to love tutus! So when it came to brainstorming ideas for my peacock costume, incorporating a tutu was a no-brainer. And they're super easy to make! 

You will need: 

• Tulle. For my tutu, I used approximately 5m worth. 
• Ribbon, for the waist band. 
• Bling bling!, or whatever you want to add to accessorize your tutu. I bought some peacock feathers and gemstones for mine, and glued them on with a hot glue gun at the end. 

Now let's get crafting: 

1. Take the ribbon and wrap it around your waist. With a marker, mark the spot on the ribbon where both sides come together, leaving about 6 inches at both ends. Tie knots where you made your marks. This will be your waist band. 

2. Next, cut your tulle into approximately 50x20cm pieces. It doesn't matter if your pieces aren't all the same size, you can trim straggling pieces off your tutu at the end. 

3. Tie tulle pieces onto the ribbon, in between the knots. The extra ribbon after the knots is to tie the tutu on you. Keep adding tulle from knot-to-knot until the ribbon is full. 

Here's an instagram of my almost-finished product. 

Halloween was a success, and my costume held up all night! I've been known to bust out some pretty aggressive dance moves, so it's a big relief it didn't wind up down around my ankles. Now I just need to find more excuses to wear a tutu..... 

Thanksgiving Weekend

 October has been a hectic month... 

A lovely month, but a hectic one! I've been mostly busy with studying for my med school midterms, which are finally over!!! YAHOOOO! Time to pawty. 

A few weeks ago, I managed to make it back home for Thanksgiving with my family. I usually spend this weekend sleeping and eating, hiding in a cocoon of rest and relaxation lazy. But not this time! My first day back, Mama Bear and I hit the highway northbound to Lake Superior Provincial Park. She wanted to go for a hike, and show me her newly discovered "secret spot". Now I can't tell you where my mama's secret spot is (she'd killlll me), but I can show you a few photos from our day ;)

I think I may have missed the peak of the autumn leaves by about a week, but the colours were still so pretty. 

Of course Bailey came with us! Such a good girl. The way she sits with her legs spread open kills me. 

This is my favourite shot of the day. Bailey is so fuzzy yet so serious! (She's normally so silly!)

I normally don't get to spend a lot of one-on-one time with my mama, so this day together was special. I think it's something we'll both always remember. 

Thanksgiving Sunday, my BFF Christine and I headed out to Mocking Bird Hill Farm, a.k.a. Farmer Bob's. Where I come from, Farmer Bob is a local celeb. The guy's a bawse. Every resident of my hometown has at one point been out to his farm for a school field trip/sleigh ride/pick your own Christmas tree. For the fall he puts on a corn maze, so Christine and I decided to get our country on and go check it out. 

After 2 hours in this mother, we ended up hitting 5/6 check points! Proud of us. 

We finally escaped the maze and wandered around the farm. Is it just me, or are pumpkins super photogenic?? I couldn't get enough of them!! I think it's the pop of orange against the natural farm background that I'm obsessed with. So seasonal! Luvs it. 

There's also a small petting farm on site. If only these photos could convey the smell of this place! But it was adorable, so it was worth it. 

This baby goat stole my heart. Look at him trying to steal some snacks from the vending machine! Such a sneaky lil fella. 

Definitely a Thanksgiving weekend for the books! Saw everyone I wanted to catch up with, ate........ everything. Now time to get back to the real world.