Hockey Night in Pittsburgh

General Nov 16, 2008 The Waffle No Comments We had selected the Radisson Greentree as our home base for the Pittsburgh leg of our sports trip.  The hotel is not really close to downtown, in fact you have to cross the city through the crazy interchange and bridge systems, heading towards the airport.  But to compensate, the rates are cheap, and they had a free shuttle to the hockey game and back! After checking in, we got ready for a Hockey Night in Pittsburgh.  We got lucky and hopped on the shuttle as soon as we got back to the lobby.  Arriving at the Mellon Arena, we decided to find a place nearby to quench our thirst.  At the doorstep of the arena though, the view is spectacular, as the Arena is built on a hill.  We stood there and looked at the Pittsburgh landscape from our vantage point – tall…

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Road trip to Pittsburgh

General Nov 15, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment As I told you in this post, Jerry and I went on a road trip to Pittsburgh for a formidable sports week-end. Nobody seemed in favour of us stopping at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, so we didn’t make the detour.  I still thought about it, since it would have only added an hour and 43 minutes of travel time.  But then, another 5 hours to eat the Beer Barrel Belly Buster would have been too much to make it in time for the Sabres–Penguins game at the Mellon Arena. Instead, we stayed on the I-90, also known as the AMVETS Memorial Highway.  Part of the Dwight Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the I-90 is the longest Highway in the United States, almost 5000 km long from Massachussets to the State of  Washington. We passed a bunch of service areas, and, as…

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Plus près de Paris que nous pensons

We celebrated Gaby`s departure today at lunch, and we were very generous in letting her select the location. She decided that we would have lunch at the Métropolitain Brasserie because she is quite a fancy girl. Located at 700 Sussex, The Met is a relatively new favourite for politicos, journos and lobbyists of all types. They claim it is at the corner of Les Champs Élysées for marketing purposes, but you are soon reminded of where you are when you look down Rideau Street. The place was opened in 2005 by the owners of The Empire Grill, and has been trying to attract Hillites with specials such as The Hill Hour, from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays, where oysters, jumbo shrimp, mussels and othere appetizers are offered at decent price. Oysters for instance can be had at 1$ a piece during the HH. As it was, lobbyists were out in…

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Pumpkin & Beef à la Bourguignone

Recipes Oct 25, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment I am discovering the joy of slow cookers.  I have got to say – it is pretty great to come home and dinner is basically ready. As Halloween is approaching fast, I carved two pumpkins and put them out on my porch. But instead of throwing out the carved pieces, I reserved most of it, hoping to do something with it. And I did, in this new halloween twist of an old classic. Pumpkin & Beef à la Bourguignone 2 1/2 pounds of beef, cut into 1-inch cubs 2 cups of baby carrots 1 medium onion, cut roughly 6 potatoes, cut into chunks 4 cups of pumpkin chunks. 4 tablespoon of flour 1 cup of beef broth 2 cups of red wine 1/2 pound of small white onions 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon of thyme 1 tablespoon of tomato paste…

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A porked papaya

Recipes Oct 21, 2008 The Waffle No Comments I don’t like papaya very much.  In fact, I think that most times, the flesh of a fresh ripe papaya tastes like vomit. So I couldn’t believe it that when I went grocery shopping at Provigo the other day I couldn’t resist buying a jumbo green papaya.  True, it was fairly cheap, 0.99$ a pound, but still.  Vomit. Anyway, now that I had it, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  I’ve had papaya in asian-style salads, often spicy, and didn’t mind it but, you know… I figured there must be a way to cook it in order to make it taste better.  And since it kinda looked like a squash, I figured that I should be able to cook it the same way.  To make sure, I looked for recipe on the internet and was confirmed in my thoughts.  While…

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