't is the season ...

It's been an awful long time since my last post ... heck 't is the season to be jolly!

So, where to start... let's bullet!

• Went too see José González (Mr. Yukimi Nagano nowadays , lead singer of Little Dragon, KOOP and other jazzy Swedish projects) and support act Cass McCombs. Live Cass sounded more like Simon & Garfunkel, José was his introvert self, but what an amazing guitar technique and what a sound!
• Went to see another Habs game. Our Montreal Canadien took on the Toronto Maple Leafs who haven't won a Stanley Cup since '67. The tricolore have been going through a dark period lately, but they were up for the game, and unfortunate for my colleague Penny (who is a real Torontonian, jersey and all that) Montreal had a smashing 4-1 victory. There's a big rivalry between Montreal and Toronto (who has the best bagels, best restaurants, best music and of course hockey is part of the rivalry.)
• Even before winter officially started (December 21st), we were hit by 2 snowstorms. Each time a lot of snow fell down. Until X-mas they were still cleaning the snow. So did we, even Nyfiken did his share.

• We had a little X-mas party with university friends from Tinneke. I made my "world famous" paella. The w-end before Christmas we went to Ottawa and met up with the Ginthers.
  Tinneke stayed with the Ginther family her first time in Canada (9 years ago) in Saskatoon. It was our first introduction to this great country. We returned to Canada 2 times before moving here, so one could say it started all with them.
  We will spend New Year's in Ottawa as well.

• We spend Christmas just the 2 of us. Of course I was cooking all day. On the menu: bruschette with grilled eggplant with mint and garlic, grilled zucchini with cumin and lemon and grilled mushrooms with white wine and truffles. Starter was grilled lemon with mozzarella, anchovy, tomato, basil. Soup was a strong Sicilian fresh lobster broth. And main course was homemade pasta with a pancetta-arrabiata sauce with grilled swordfish. Dolce was a home baked fig almond pie. Drinks were Prosecco Santi Nello, an organic Nero D'avola and fine grappa. An Italian X-mas so to speak. (Thanks to the great cookbook Jamie's Italy)
  And to throw in a quickie: buy a Pandoro (very light Italian X-mas cake), and make french toast (pain perdu in French, soggy bread for people from the UK) with it. You can add a little bit of Amaretto or cinnamon to the eggs. Serve with caramelized apples and some ice cream. Delish!

• I am enjoying a couple of days off in between Christmas and New Year's. I could work on my new cooking blog, my marketing blog, my music, my guitar skills, my taxes, my whatever, but I've decided to be a couch potato. Lately I've been seeing: Once (to be frank, the movie is kinda worthless, but the music is excellent), Eastern Promises (the new Cronenberg, pretty graphic and pretty violent with a great Viggo Mortensen), This Is England (about growing up in the UK in the 80ies), Reprise (I guess 80ies as well, but then in Norway), After the wedding (a great Danish/Swedish movie with Mads Mikkelsen), the last 2 Seinfeld seasons I bought. Oh yeah, I am totally hooked on Heroes now as well.
  

Bon Iver

Last week we went to see Elvis Perkins (a Dylanesque folkie) with Bon Iver as support act. Soon releasing his debut album on Jajaguwar (label of the Besnard Lakes). Bon Iver (like in French bon hiver without the "h") is a great name, because it truly is my winter soundtrack). Recorded in a wooden cabin during a harsh Wisconsin winter, you can feel the cold and darkness creeping its way into the songs.

Speaking of winter, all of Canada (and that's quite a chunk of land) was hit by a snowstorm. Here in Monteal, we had 50cm of snow, of course it created the expected traffic mayhem and snowplough drivers are working around the clock. The weather guy said this might be one of the fiercest winters .... so we better brace ourselves!
Of course winter brings the necessary cold and flu symptoms, so here's my cure: make a juice cocktail from all the kinds of citrus fruits you can find around the house (oranges, blood oranges, grape fruits, limes, lemons, clementines) and take 2/3 juice 1/3 vodka. The juice will give you the extra needed vitamins and the vodka will kill all the germs :-) If you don't feel better after one, just drink a couple more, I promise you will feel a hell of a lot better!