Honey

On Saturday, I did a lot of driving. It was fun, except for traffic jams. The theme was honey.

I visited a honey farm and learned how to make honey. It was cool. I learned that it's best to hold still when bees are near you. They aren't stingers.

Roughly forty minutes away from the bee farm was a ribfest. I needed to grab lunch, so I got a full rack of ribs, coleslaw, baked beans, and cornbread. There was so much food that I brought the rest home for another meal.

I then drove to a mead store on a farm that also has beehives. I got two cans of mead and a bottle of apple peach jam.

My last stop was getting a sampler of mac and cheese, iced tea with honey, and cornbread. I then went home.

It was a great day. I was too tired to write anything last night, so here I am writing tonight before I hit the sack.

Errands and a street market full of food trucks

Yesterday, I ran my usual Wednesday errands much earlier in the day. I started just before noon and ended up staying out later, returning home at around 4:30 pm. It's one of the perks of being on vacation.

We have a couple of street markets in the greater Toronto area where you can order takeout from various food trucks. One is next door to me in Richmond Hill. They were set up during the pandemic in mall parking lots because you couldn't go into a food court or hall.

It has taken me over a year to drop by. I loved it. I ended up getting a mac and cheese steak on a potato bun. It was so decadent and delicious. 

I should visit this place more often.

Meeting up with my colleague for cheese tarts and bubble tea

I had a food perk to pick up on Saturday afternoon. I then met up with my former intern who is now my colleague.

We have been trying to get an application to work on his laptop. Our IT group sucks. We told them right off the bat that it was a profile issue. Well, they finally got around to resetting his profile. Everything works. Finally! We were both elated on Friday, but also annoyed at how incompetent this IT group is.

Anyway, he treated me to bubble tea. It was so thoughtful of him. He placed the order and I went to fetch it, as it was on my way from the food perk place and I didn't mind fetching the order. I wanted to split my food perk with him (I got four Japanese cheese tarts) because they are so good.

He loved the two tarts that I had given him. He loved them so much that he devoured them without taking a photo. Luckily, he saw me take a photo of all four before I handed two to him that I simply texted him my photo.

The bubble tea was amazing. I'm so glad that he recommended this place. I got this blue Curacao soda with small bits of pineapple. It was so refreshing and delicious.

We hadn't seen each other since last August. We see each other on a weekly meeting through video, but it's really not the same. It was great seeing and talking to him briefly yesterday afternoon.

Weekend, wings, and cupcakes

The weekend is finally here. Yay!

After work on Friday, I went out briefly to fetch some takeout for dinner. I got 50% off chicken wings and a four-cheese spinach dip with baked pita triangles. Delicious!

Later on today, I'm fetching a couple of complimentary cupcakes. I have been pretty good reducing my sugar intake for over a week. I will ruin it a bit with the cupcakes before I hop back on sugar-reduced train.

Have a great weekend! 

Taking it easy and cooking this weekend

It has been a relaxing weekend. I went out to fetch groceries and run errands yesterday, which I enjoyed. Today, I have been lounging around. I made breakfast and lunch, which I like doing on an easy Sunday.

I made banana bread french toast this morning. It turned out nicely. It was my first time making it.

I overdid buying dessert yesterday. I have Japanese-style cheesecake and cheese tarts, and banana bread. I'm glad that I thought about making banana bread french toast. It would be more difficult doing it with cheesecake!

Weekend, Blogger, and food

The weekend is finally here!

With the revamped Blogger, when you first write something in a brand new post, the editor moves the cursor over by one character. It's weird. I need to backspace to get the cursor left-aligned. I'd like to know who thought that was a decent feature to implement. Every other paragraph is left-aligned, as expected, as the default.

I am on a food journey this weekend. I have a $40 dinner to redeem. I have been going back and forth as to whether I should redeem it this weekend or next. It's cooler outside these days (at night, the temperature has dipped into single-digit territory on the Celsius scale), so I'm thinking some mac and cheese is in order. This eatery offers three types of mac and cheese, so you know that screams comfort food.

This restaurant's first location has been in my city for at least a decade. It recently opened a second location in Whitby, which is roughly half an hour away from where I live. That's where I'm going to pick up this food perk. I'm excited. I hope that all goes well.

Have a safe and happy weekend, everyone!

The weekend - the possibilities!

The weekend is here! I have a good problem. I don't have an agenda. I simply have a number of places that I'd like to visit.

I have my usual errands to run. I need Diet Coke. I'm out of cream cheese.

I also have some Groupons to use up. I like exploring new places.

It's nice to have a weekend where I have a ton of flexibility. It's also nice to unwind. Shorter work weeks tend to wear me out faster.

Poutine and fries

I went out to fetch some dinner on Tuesday night. I craved poutine, which is a Canadian dish. It's fries, with cheese curds, smothered in gravy. This place puts smoked meat on top.

I have a love-hate relationship with fries. I grew tired of them as a standard side with everything. Burger and fries. Fried chicken and fries. Sandwich with fries. Ugh!

There are some places where I don't mind getting fries. Costco has amazing fries that are lightly coated with batter before they are deep-fried. I like them with gravy. I also love McDonald's fries.

As of late, if I don't like the fries, I need some sauce or condiment to dip them in. It could be curry sauce, ketchup, or basil mayo. Otherwise, I will skip getting fries as a side, and go with either a side salad or onion rings.

Poutine is perfect. I get fries, cheese curds, and gravy. It's the perfect trinity of goodness in my books.

My smoked meat poutine was fabulous. I have been craving it for a while and I'm good now.

Cheesecake and generosity

I have decent team members on my team.

A colleague, who is my mini-me as far as work ethic goes, has a birthday coming up. I suggested that I get a cheesecake to celebrate within our team. I had visited this bakery a month ago and loved what I had sampled. The catch is that this bakery is five minutes away from where she lives. For me, it would take me an hour to get there.

She offered to pick up a cheesecake for our team to celebrate a couple of milestones. I had a coupon and gave it to her. The discount was for one cheesecake. She bought two after hearing my raving about it. The bakery gave her the discount on both cheesecakes. Nice!

"Excellent! I'm glad you got a discount on both," I texted her.
"Me, too. It was a start-the-car moment... lol," she replied.
"Let me know how much I owe you," I noted.
"Nah, don't worry about it. You always bring stuff in," she replied.

I'm glad that I'm rubbing off on the team. It was a kind gesture on her part.

Pizza and a phone call from my guy

After work on Tuesday, I was hungry. My manager had shared his crazy cheese bread from Little Caesars with me earlier in the day. I loved it so much that I went to the nearest one by my workplace, which was on my way home.

I ordered a box special, which consists of four deep dish slices of pepperoni pizza and ten pieces of crazy cheese bread.

As I was waiting for my order, I did a bit of Web browsing on my phone. I then turned my data off.

A few minutes later, my phone rang. It was my guy. Of course, the woman behind the counter said that my pizza was ready, but the pizza was round. My order had square slices. I had to handle talking to both folks at once.

"Hey, I'm at Little Caesars," I said to my guy.
"I hope that we can talk now. My friend from Quebec City is coming over to stay overnight, so I won't be able to talk like we do at night," my guy explained.
"It's okay. What's your long-distance plan like on your cell phone?" I asked him.
"I don't care. The company pays for it," he replied.
"That's sweet," I said. "If you had to pay, you would be asking me to talk faster," I joked.

It's fun teasing my guy. We both have unlimited long-distance voice on our cell phone plans.

We talked for half an hour. I was hungry, so I ate in my car as we talked. It was kind of like having a virtual date. The food hit the spot. I don't do pizza that often. I should. I like the food here.