I love cooking, for sure. Lately it’s been hard because I’ve been trying a food allergy elimination diet so there’s a lot of stuff I can’t eat right now (egg, dairy, chicken, beef). As you can imagine, there’s not a whole lot I can cook that tastes good without those, as they are the base for almost every meal.

So I’ve been learning to cook with a lot of restrictions but still try to make things delicious.

Last night I tried my hand at making a risotto with scallops.

For the risotto: I used Arborio rice, vegetable stock, cipollini onions, olive oil, and a mushroom reduction. I mixed in some separately cooked broccoli and mushrooms to try to be a little healthy

For the scallops: Just salt and pepper, cooked in a little olive oil and some bacon fat for flavour.

Toppings: Just a little crumbled bacon, and a sauce made from basil, garlic, and onions and lemon juice (similar to a pesto).

All in all I think it turned out delicious. The plating is a bit ridiculous… a TOWER OF FOOD! Haha. But It was still fun to make.

Do you have any recipes to share that have to deal with food restrictions?

I have a really high tolerance. But I don’t drink very often. So that often leaves me in a strange spot when it comes to social drinking.

I actually never really drank any alcohol until halfway through the first year of university. I had a bet to win and a long story short… basically my drink of choice became Canadian Club whiskey. Kinda gross, eh?

Over time, my staple drink has become tequila. At first it was Jose Cuervo, but in the past couple years it’s almost exclusively been Patron and some other nice tequilas. I’m not much of a social drinker because it’s pretty hard to sip tequila or play drinking games with tequila. (Although I’ve done it, and well, it’s not pretty)

To be honest, I prefer a fizzy drink like Pellegrino to alcohol any day and I’m perfectly happy to have fun without drinking. But don’t tell my friends that. So how does someone who doesn’t drink very often, find a good social drink?

In recent years I’ve started to enjoy the occasional sour apple martini. Most places don’t make them very good, but if you can find a good establishment that can do them right (West, Blue Water Cafe, George, etc) then they are amazing.

I’ve found a mix of good vodka like Grey Goose, some lime juice, bitters, apple juice, and sour apple mix (e.g. Sourz) usually works pretty well. I still can’t quite seem to replicate it though like West or Blue Water. I wonder what their secret recipe is?

In the past couple months I’ve become a huge fan of the Mojito. However, a lot of places usually don’t carry mint and can’t make one for you. The summer months it is definitely easier to find.

I love me a good mojito, and more and more I think it is becoming my social drink of choice. I usually make them with white rum, club soda, a touch of real ginger ale, lime, and lots of muddled mint.

So yes, tequila will always be my favourite drink… but do you have any recommendations for a good social drink? I’d like something that is not too sweet, and is refreshing?

Also, do you have any famous drink recipes to share? Especially for a sour apple martini or a mojito? I’m dying to find out a good one!

Oh P.S., just to end off this post I thought I’d share the waffles we had on Sunday. Yum!

I know I don’t write a lot about my personal life, on my blog, as far as personal blogs go But I thought I would deviate a bit from the norm to write about something close to my heart. And I know I don’t post many photos of myself, so excuse the narcissism but it’s necessary to talk about my time together with Allan.

Yesterday Allan and I celebrated our second year together. It seems like it has been a lot longer… I guess we’ve just done so much together in such a short period of time. He’s the centre of my universe and I can’t even begin to tell you how much he means to me, and how happy he makes me.

I never thought it was possible for two people to spend as much time together as we do. We’re together 24/7, much to the chagrin of our family and friends. The weird thing is, we just don’t get sick of each other. We drive to work in the morning together, and drive home together. And we miss each other all day until we see each other for the ride home. We surf, snowboard, play video games, and cook together. We have pretty much the same friends, and we get along well with both our families. We travel together, go skating together, do errands together… it’s a little overkill, I admit. But for some reason it just works.

He often complains I don’t write enough about him on my blog, so I hope this makes you happy, Allan

We first met at work, believe it or not… yes, the office romance. We both worked at the same video game company and were good friends for about a year.

We first bonded over snow sports in Steamboat, Colorado when we flew there with a couple of work friends for a trip. Yes, believe it or not I was a skier. And I couldn’t help but follow his snowboard around on my skis.

We started getting to know each other better from numerous work parties, social circles, hockey games, and a number of activities.

It wasn’t long before we planned our first official trip together where we ended up becoming a couple… to La, Push Washington. (Yes, this was before the Twilight insanity) A surfing trip and a sightseeing trip…

We ended up staying at the Quilete Reservation, we surfed a couple times, went to the hot springs and Hurricane Ridge, and walked many forest trails.

Eventually it was full blown surfing trips that summer to Tofino with friends.

He taught me how to skimboard.

He showed off a little with his surfing skills while I was still learning

He forced me to conquer my fear of heights and made me bungee jump…

He definitely had balls of steel…

… and helped me grow my own

He knows so much about nature, camping, common sense… he found these carniverous plants for us in Tofino.

We went to Costa Rica together…

Got our PADI scuba diving licenses together (in Vancouver) and went scuba diving together in Costa Rica and Catalina Island…

We’ve had many, many beach walks…

And lots of snowboarding days!

And had the chance to party in Vegas.

We went on a month long road trip to Portland, San Francisco, Tahoe, Mammoth, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Catalina Island, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Snowbird in Salt Lake City, Boise Idaho, Wenatchee Washington… and we surfed and snowboarded through the USA.

We like finding secret camping spots…

And Allan definitely knows how to attract the ladies

He’s also good at hacky sack…

He also happens to be one of the kindest people I know. Extremely smart, generous, and very very funny. He always finds a way to make me laugh. He knows me better than anyone else in the world world.

And, he has very very sharp teeth.

I love you, Allan! Happy Two Years!

My life has been a whirlwind lately. So much to do and so little time. But it’s always like that, isn’t it?

A long weekend in Tofino was just what I needed. Fresh salty ocean air, surfing till my body hurts, sleeping in a tent close to the ground, nature walks, sleeping in, and cooking over the camp stove.

I haven’t been that relaxed in a long time. Probably not since the last time I was in Tofino

We took the ferry early Saturday morning (don’t even get me started about the ferries) and set up our campsite in the afternoon.

We headed immediately to Long Beach for a perfect glassy sunset surf session. It was the best session of the weekend. Quiet, deserted… the only two people in the water. Pink sky, looooooooong long longboard rides on the waist-shoulder waves, and a family of 3 HUGE sea lions that came out to say hi. We rode waves for about 2 and a half hours until we couldn’t see anymore, and till we were frozen.

Our campsite setup isn’t the bare minimal that it could be, but it’s definitely not the big hullabaloo that I’ve seen is possible.

We’ve got a TARN 3 MEC tent, surfboards on the car, a camping stove, head lamps, a cooler, and lots of food. We sleep on foam mats and thin MEC mats with our sleeping bags. I actually like being close to the ground and being so flat. Feels great on the back. Our biggest luxury is definitely the heavy cast iron grill we put on the camp stove. Despite the weight, it’s totally worth bringing it… we wouldn’t be able to hike with it but I looooove cooking on it when we can bring the car!

Grass along the path to Wickaninnish Beach.

We lay in the tent most of the day Sunday and listened to the rain, the wind, and the ocean for hours. So relaxing.

At night we headed to Long Beach again for another sunset surf session. Not as glassy, and there were way more people in the water (maybe about 20?)… but it was still awesome. I caught my best wave of the weekend… a shoulder high steep wave that I rode left for ages… it just kept reforming. Loved it. We surfed again till we were freezing and it was dark…

Despite our 5 mil suits, booties and gloves… the frigid waters of the Pacific always manage to wear us down at the end of a surf session. It’s not like Costa Rica where I could surf all day in the warm water. But Tofino and the Pacific will always have their charms…

I love how green and alive everything seems to grow around Tofino…

We definitely like our cooking and camping. I love to use lots of garlic and shallots to keep the immune system going out in the cold… here we are prepping our breakfast.

A true breakfast for surfers! Lots of bacon and protein… tons of carbs with the crispy fried Yukon Gold potatoes… topped with garlic, shallots and peppers.

For dinner we had Wild Pacific Halibut (from last year’s fishing trip in Tofino), panko breaded and grilled over the cast iron, topped with peppers and bacon… with pesto pasta.

Loved the water droplets on the pine surrounding these yellow flowers.

On the way out of Tofino we stopped by the Wick to see if anything was happening at that beach… didn’t look too bad for a low tide session, and there were about 20 people in the water. Wish we could have stayed and surfed but it was time to make it back to the ferries.

Ah the end of a long weekend… always so sad. It was cold and rainy heading back. Whenever we come back from Tofino I wish that Tofino was home. I could see myself living there for the rest of my days.

Well, back to work.

Off to Tofino for the long weekend… can’t wait to get back in the water. It’s been a month since we’ve been there last I think. The cold, cold water. Swell is supposed to be small-medium for this weekend… should be fun. Lots of rain rain rain…

First weekend out camping in Tofino this year. Excited to get back to Greenpoint. How I’ve missed you!

Pretty sure my board is looking forward to being in the water again soon too. I might bring the GoPro camera to see if I can get some shots. Still not warm enough to bring out the underwater camera housing. Brrrrr!

Camping, surfing, campfire, cooking, and being out in my favourite place… what could be better? Well, I suppose the only thing better would be if they were still shooting Twilight out there

See you all on Tuesday Have a fabulous long weekend!