All the comforts of home

If you’ve been pregnant before, you’ll know that what was previously a perfectly serviceable, even comfortable and pleasant home becomes the Source of All Discontent at some point during the 40 weeks of gestation.  I’m there at the moment, and can barely stand the sight of anything in our condo.  It all infuriates me, from the bed to the stove to the shower. 

What’s funny is I’m not entirely sure why I feel this way about a place that I heretofore considered to be a solid representation of whatever home means to me.  The world of pregnancy websites tells me that I’m “nesting”, a term that of course brings to mind all sorts of birdy imagery.  It just seems as though the magnitude of the clear up and clean out that we need to do before the baby’s arrival is perhaps a bit too much.  Instead of lining a nest carefully and diligently with feathers, I want to rent a dumpster and throw all of our belongings into it. 

Of course we won’t be doing that, and have taken a more selective approach to making sure that we have the right stuff in the right places.  The baby’s crib has arrived, but we won’t be setting it up for real until after my parents have gone home (about two weeks after the baby has made its world debut).  I’ve used the image below as my inspiration for what I’d like the baby’s room to look like eventually – it’s about as non-baby as you can get, but the colours and general sense of room zen are what I’m really going for:

Image credit: https://abigailahern.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/nate.jpg

We’re being really choosy about what we buy for the baby, as we don’t have any extra space at all in our 875 square feet of beautiful downtown Toronto.  We’ve agreed that the only necessary home items are this crib, bassinet, bouncy seat, and change pad.  No toys, no random accoutrements – we just don’t have the space.

We’ve cleared out our closets and made room for baby clothes, went through stuff in storage boxes and separated out stuff we think the baby will enjoy, and hidden stuff that we’d rather never be broken or misplaced.  We’ll clean our soft furnishings, move a 1930s dresser in from my parents’ place, find actual bookshelves instead of the makeshift stuff we’ve been using, and maybe then my nesting instincts will be satisfied.  Maybe.  A few extra feathers here and there won’t hurt I guess.  

Going Rouge

Summer is becoming fall very quickly here in Toronto.  I'm a low-to-mid twenties kind of girl (degrees celsius, of course), so I'm enjoying the transition.  People are layering and canning and putting summer away, sort of bedding down for the winter still to come.  Our social calendar goes into overdrive at this time of the year - I guess everyone tries to get all the visits and the dinners and the drinks in before it starts to snow and we're more homebound.  

This time of year makes me want to go outside; to just go and see trees with leaves and green grass and flowing water, none of which can be seen here past November.  This past weekend, we went to Rouge Park, which is currently run by the Rouge Park Alliance but is on its way to becoming the first National Urban Park in Canada. It's located in both Toronto and York Region, running north-south from Markham through to Rouge Beach on Lake Ontario.  We went through only a small section of trail (Orchard Trail), but it made me want to see more of the massive Park and also to let others know that it exists and is more than worth a visit (or five - it's really, really big).  

Links and Photos

Trail Heads

Map

History

While on our walk, we heard the creek and also plenty of birds.  We startled a blue heron that was fishing in the creek, which then flew right over our heads on its way to a place with less annoying company.  Our walk took about an hour or so, and it wasn't hard hiking or anything - just pleasant mild exertion.  

You should go.  We'll see you there.

Hot town, anda in the city

Toronto has a shimmer about it in the summertime.

I'm not talking about the streets themselves, or the weather... it's more about the people who live here or who come here to visit making things seem really shiny.  Everyone and every place seems extra beautiful, extra special, extra real.  Whether they're old or young, talking and laughing in a group, or a couple, or a solitary person with somewhere to get to (and fast), they're out and they're on patios or they're in backyards or they're just walking or on the TTC or on their bicycles... being gorgeous.

And it's nice.  Really nice.  I've lived downtown for over seven years now, and each summer has astonished me.  This summer has been no exception.  

We spent yesterday morning just wandering about the Beach - walked a beach/boardwalk combination from Northern Dancer Boulevard over to Kenilworth Street, then back along Kew Beach Avenue.  The beautiful residents and visitors made the already lovely surroundings sparkle, and it was a really excellent way to spend a couple of hours.

  

To make sure we had energy for such a jaunt, I made breakfast of anda bhurji, an Indian spicy scrambled egg dish (recipe below), and warmed some chapatti.  This was first made for me by my mother-in-law, and it was love at first bite.  You'll note that I've added corn - I had roasted some Ontario corn the night before, so I had some leftover that I added to the recipe.  Corn is not a traditional add-in, so don't worry if you don't have it.  It added a nice touch of sweetness to the dish, however.

Anda Bhurji (spicy scrambled eggs)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup of minced onion
Scant1/3 teaspoon of turmeric powder
2 cloves minced garlic
1.5 inches of ginger root, peeled and minced (about 1 tablespoon of pureed ginger)
1 to 3 small green chillis to your taste, deseeded and minced (alternatively, you can cut a slit down the side of a whole green chilli or two and throw them in like that)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
6 eggs (free range, organic - think of the hens, please!)
1/3 cup of water or milk
Half of a tomato, diced small
1/2 teaspoon of garam masala (my favourite blend is also included below)
1/4 cup of cooked or frozen corn
Lots of chopped cilantro - probably about 3 tablespoons' worth
Want it spicy?  Add 1/4 teaspoon of Indian red chilli powder (not to be confused with Western chilli powder, which is a blend of spices - Indian chilli powder is just ground up chillis)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in frying pan on stovetop - medium heat.   Add onion and turmeric, and cook until the onions are softened and becoming translucent.  Then, add your garlic, ginger, green chilli, and ground cumin and fry for two minutes, till the garlic loses its raw smell.  

While onion mixture cooks, beat your eggs in with the water or milk till a little frothy. 

Add diced tomato, corn, cilantro, garam masala, and optional chilli powder.  Stir well.  Let cook 1 to 2 minutes.  Then, add the egg mixture, and salt and pepper the whole concoction.  Keep stirring to scramble the eggs.  Once it looks like it could be ready, taste to see if salt is to your taste.  Add more if necessary.  

Serves 4.  Eat with chapattis or on its own.  

Garam Masala blend
Notes: 
1. I will unequivocally state that everyone probably has their own preferred taste when it comes to garam masala.  This is just what I prefer.  It's great to experiment with your own blend.
2. You need a coffee grinder that's dedicated solely to grinding spices for this.  If you use your regular coffee grinder, it's probably going to make your beans taste like Indian food for at least three grinding sessions.

1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
2 tablespoons of whole cumin seeds
2 green cardamom pods
4 black cardamom pods
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cloves
1 dried red chilli pepper
Pinch of grated nutmeg

Buzz everything up into a powder in your spice-specific coffee grinder.  It'll keep in an airtight container for about a month or so.  

You can also dry roast the spices before grinding them, but that gives a different flavour.  I tend to prefer this one for most cooking.