Mustard Pickles

I wanted to share with everyone a recipe that I found while in Nova Scotia. I have to thank my friend's mother, Carol Bray, for sharing it with me. She lives on a farm and shared this lovely pickle recipe with me. I haven't tried it yet, but when I start living closer to the land I will definitely start to pickle. Someone should try it and get back to me though.

Mustard Pickles

Day 1

7 cucumbers
5 onions
1 c coarse salt

Peel and remove seeds from cucumbers. cut in small pieces. cut onions into small pieces and mix with cucumbers.

Sprinkle salt over cucumbers and onions and let stand overnight.

Day 2

3 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1 T dry mustard
1 T tumeric
1T celery seed
2 c vinegar

In the morning drain and rinse the cucumbers with cold water.

Add vegetables to sauce mixture and heat slowly. Cool until cucumbers are translucent. Ladle into hot sterile bottles.

And voila! You have pickles!

Wowed at the Pow Wow!

So the first week of my orientation has passed. I'm amazed at how quickly the orientation is going. I'm also really impressed by all the cultural opportunities I've had since my last post. I went to the annual Coady Welcome Social, a Pow Wow and a Joel Plaskett concert.

The Coady Social was basically an opportunity for the Coady to interact with the community at large. Everyone in the Antigonish area was invited to meet the participants. Every fall the Coady, and greater Antigonish, welcome participants from around the world who come here for leadership training. The Coady took out all the stops to show them Nova Scotian culture. They included musical performances from a First Nations woman from the Micmac band, an Acadian singer, a gaelic singer, and a group of local feminist women's choir. They were all fantastic. But, honestly, they just reminded me of the wonderful diversity of Canada. I feel so lucky to get to discover more about the culture of Nova Scotia.

Then, even more excitingly, I went to my first Pow Wow. I have to admit that I felt somewhat guilty that my first pow wow occurred thousands of miles away from home. Indigenous people make up a large portion of Saskatchewan's population so it seems somewhat ridiculous that my first Pow Wow wasn't until I was 23 years old and living in Nova Scotia. One of the elders asked me why I hadn't been to one since loads happen in Western Canada. He also said you don't need to be invited. Of course, I couldn't fathom going to a Pow Wow without an invitation. I actually felt privileged and honoured to be invited to this one. It was really wonderful to celebrate with the MicMac. I also saw a lot of other people from outside of that community at the Pow Wow. I didn't realize they were so inclusive. It's even inclusive among the different First Nation peoples because the dancers come from all over.

My favourite part of the Pow Wow was the dance for the dead. They sing a song of mourning and dance for the people who have died this past year. The family and friends of those who have lost people are invited into the circle to dance with the dancers. Then, and here comes the coolest part, other members of the community are invited to come into the circle to shake hands or give each mourner a hug. It is a beautiful example of group healing. I loved dancing in the circle as well. I felt like I was being embraced by the community because others were dancing beside you and around you. Even though I've danced much closer to people in clubs, I have never felt solidarity like in the Pow Wow circle. Usually I am focused on keeping my little huddle of people together with other dancers buffeting us on all sides. But in the Pow Wow circle everyone was welcome and we moved in one continuous line and direction. I liked it. If you've never been to a Pow Wow, I'd suggest going to check one out. We're so lucky in Canada to have diverse cultures in our own backyards if we'd only explore them.

Today, our group facilitator explored another First Nations tradition with us. We participated in a Talking Circle. I think a talking circle is a fairly universal practice, but basically you hold a object (usually a rock or a stick) and whoever has the object is the person who is speaking. The group listens to the person's thoughts without interrupting before passing it on. I really like this practice because it's not so much about responding to other people as sharing your own truth or experience.

I found it to be an incredibly moving experience. The rest of the youth associates shared such beautiful, wonderful thoughts. All I can say is that I feel privileged to be a part of this group.

First Days at the Coady!

So I've finally arrived for my orientation at the Coady International Institute located in St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. And it's true, Nova Scotia is beautiful and friendly. Everyone at the Coady is always smiling and laughing together. I'm very happy to be part of such a great support network. I think most of you know that I'm going to Kenya through Coady's Youth in Partnership Program, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. Definitely look into the program if you are interested in development work. For this post, I'm just going to share some of my best moments from the first 3 days I've been here.

The first day of orientation included introductions to oodles of people. However, there was one very special group of people that I had the pleasure to meet. The Coady also runs a Diploma program for experienced development workers from all over the world. It turned out that there are a ton of Kenyans in this year's program. As a mixer, we (the interns) and the diploma participants played Lifeboats. So we got into lifeboats with people who shared your birthday month or your favourite colour (December and Blue for the curious). When it came time to get in a lifeboat with my fellow countrymen I became an honourary Kenyan. The Kenyan participants enveloped me in a big hug to welcome me. I felt truly welcomed. Dorcas, a participant who lives near Bungoma, where my placement will be taking place, gave me a Kenyan name. She called me Nafula. Now you may think it's an arbitrary choice, but I assure you Kenyans don't just give arbitrary names. She said that they base your name on the time of year in which you were born. Since I was born in the depths of a Canadian winter, she called me Nafula, meaning rain. Of course, snow doesn't exist in Kenya so not so many words for it in her language. I suppose rain will do. I am honoured by this name because her daughter is also named Nafula. I felt so proud to already have a Kenyan name. I'll be sure to tell it to the friends I make in Kenya.

I'm not in Kenya yet though so right now I'm busy socializing with the other interns. One of them attended St. Francis Xavier as an undergraduate so she took us for a hike. We hiked through a forest up to a ridge from which we could see the ocean. The hike took us through green, mossy forests, but also through some lower swampy areas. I knew we were in Canada because we saw a beaver dam. Go Canada's national animal! I'm so happy to have experienced some of the landscape in Nova Scotia. I think Western Canada still has my heart, but it's definitely a winner on the prettiness factor.

We've started to really settle into the nitty gritty of working around here though. I'm in an Intercultural Training course for the next two and a half days. I'm enjoying having the chance to think about how to be interculturally effective rather than just diving into it whole hog. Tonight we're off to the bar to the open mic night. I've been hearing lots about Nova Scotian music so hopefully it lives up to its reputation.

Goodbye, Saskatchewan

I flew out of Saskatchewan early this morning. It was so early in fact that I slept through take-off. Luckily, routing from Regina being what it is, I was able to say a proper goodbye to my prairies while awake from Calgary. In fact, I flew over them not once, but twice this morning. Thank you WestJet for keeping me in the prairies for as long as you possibly could.

I do have an excuse for my sleepiness. I went to my cousin’s wedding the night before allowing for little sleep before my 6 o’clock flight. I did have the pleasure of saying goodbye to most of mother’s extended family as well. It was my first family wedding in a while so it was a nice experience. My cousin and his new wife also served one of my favourite Saskatchewan meals: steak. He is a beef farmer so it does make sense. I have to admit that I love steak especially from home. I’ve tried it other places and nothing quite lives up to my expectations. Now it will be another 8 months before I get Saskatchewan beef.

I’m in the Nova Scotia airport writing this post while I wait for my bus. I had the pleasure though of seeing an exhibit about an organization called WaterCan. They bring clean water to parts of Eastern Africa, including Kenya. As I saw these photos, I realized how incredible it is that I get to go to Kenya to do development work. In a little less than three weeks, those photographs will become real people for me. I will know the names of Kenyans and begin to have an understanding of what their lives are like. I have to admit that I can’t wait.

The exhibit also almost made me cry. The statistics about how many people live without clean water or proper sanitation was heartbreaking. We take clean water and garbage collection for granted. Here’s the stat that really struck me: 40% of children under 5 are saved by teaching people to wash their hands with soap. I’m amazed that something so simple could be so life changing for so many people. I also need to confess at this point that I dug out my hand sanitizer before writing this post.

I just got off the plane in Halifax and ran into that exhibit. I take it as a good sign that I’m supposed to be going to Kenya. I will keep you all posted on how orientation goes tomorrow!

Ice Wine Party!

As I mentioned, I bought some ice wine at Inniskillin, a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Last week, I had the chance to throw a party where Bre and I cracked a bottle with our Mothers paired with some special appies. I had fun finding out which flavors went with which wines (the Inniskillin site was really helpful for this). I picked apricot and parmesan cheese as the flavors I wanted to explore. The woman who gave us our tour actually suggested parmesan as a pairing for Vidal ice wine.

In the spirit of appetizers, I made parmesan crisps topped with apricots. Parmesan crisps are super good and super easy. I would completely recommend them if you want to look classy without a lot of actual effort. All you need to do is put 12 tablespoons of parmesan in little mounds on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 500 degrees for three minutes. And voila! You have parmesan crisps. You could put them with dip, eat them plan or top them with something. This time around I sweetened the cheese up with dried apricots on dollop of ricotta cheese and sprinkled with toasted almonds. But I urge you to experiment with the flavors you might want to try.

Parmesan Crisps topped with Apricots
Inspired by Parmesan Crisps at TasteBuddies

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (use the large holes)
Dried Apricots
Ricotta Cheese
Almond Flavoring
Sliced almonds (toasted)

Using a tablespoon, spoon parmesan onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Make 12 mounds. Bake for 3 minutes at 500 degrees.

Mix ricotta cheese with almond flavoring to taste. Cut up apricots into 8 pieces. Toast almonds if not already toasted.

Assemble each crisp by spreading some ricotta, placing two pieces of dried apricot stuffed with a slice of almond.

Fruit Crisp

I decided that, since I like to cook, i would add the odd recipe. The next couple will be recipes because I've been at home doing some cooking with some lovely local ingriedents.

I actually came home to beautiful rhubarb (saved by my wonderful Mother) and what else can one do with rhubarb but make a crisp. Nothing says comfort food quite like a crisp. There's sweet, gooey fruit underneath with crispy sugary goodness on top. Some like to add the silky smoothness of ice cream, but I have to admit that I like my crisp straight. I usually take dessert straight without whip cream or ice cream to flatten the taste of a good dessert. However, it does make it look pretty.

I decided to challenge myself this time by not using either brown sugar or cinnamon in this one. Instead, I grated some cardamon I found in the cupboard to give it a sweet, spiciness and used maple syrup to sweeten it. I used maple syrup in the topping as well which made it quite a bit crispier. I liked the crunch of this topping in comparison to the softness of brown sugar. I also bulked out my rhubarb with some fresh apples and saskatoons. The saskatoons gave it a nice purple colour, as well as a Saskatchewan flare. However, 5 cups of almost any fruit would work. Apples and blueberries . . . peaches . . . plums . . . yum yum

Fruit Crisp

Filling
1 ½ c rhubarb
2 apples
1 ½ c saskatoons
1/3 c maple syrup
1 tsp. Cardamom
1/2 tsp. All spice

Topping
1 c oats
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1/3 c maple syrup
1/4 c butter (melted)
1 tsp cardamom

Cut up all the fruit and spread it in a casserole dish. Mix in the spices with the maple syrup. Let sit while mixing the topping.

Combine dry ingredients with cardamon. Add maple syrup and butter until it forms a crumbly topping. Spread over the prepared fruit. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 C.

Go, Riders, Go!

I had the good fortune to go to a Rider Game at Taylor Field since coming home. I’ve become more of a football fan since leaving the province. Sometimes I wonder if they put some green dye in the water to make sure the people of Saskatchewan become Rider fans. My family is evidence of the amount of love showered on this team. My brother and sister both have partners from outside of Saskatchewan who now happily identify themselves as Rider fans (my own boyfriend also numbers himself among the Rough Rider fans). This game was special though because my little niece came to her first game ever in her whole life (we’re not counting the ones she attended in her mama’s tummy). I have to say she’s the happiest baby I’ve ever seen. She grinned her way through the whole game. And for the most part she even clapped at the right times. Although, smiling Mommy, Daddy, Granddad, Grandma, and Aunt might have influenced her clapping decisions just a little bit.

Little does my niece know though that it takes a special person to be a Rider fan. Rider fans go out in rain or shine in their best green and white outfits. Most even boast owning t-shirts in both colours so they have some choice come game time. I’m always amazed at the outfits sported at Rider games. Sometimes the fans are more interesting than the game on the field. Personally, I’ve always liked the watermelon on the head. And buying a fake, plastic watermelon from the Rider store is cheating. If you’re going to go with the watermelon, you should be authentic. I liked the guy near us who added to his watermelon hat with a green broom on top. I thought that was original.

Although, perhaps, crazy clothing is not the true mark of a Rider fan; it is sticking with this team through thick and thin. The franchise celebrated its 100 year anniversary. It’s an amazing achievement for a team that has won 3 Grey Cups in 100 years. We are tied with teams who only lasted ten years. Yet, the fans still come to watch them play. I’m living proof because I’ve been going to Rider games for as long as I can remember. You can bet that the Rider fans will cheer on their team when they’re doing well and complain loudly when they’re doing poorly. This game proved no different. True to form, the Riders gave us plenty to complain about when failing to punch it in from within 5 yards of the goal line THREE times. They still got field goals, and I suppose points are points. In honour of me being home, they were kind enough to win with a score of 37-24 for us. At the end of the day though, with all their faults, the Riders are a Saskatchewan institution.

Roadtrip!

I’ve traveled from Regina (a.k.a. home) to Eastern Canada several times now (and back again). But this time, we took a slightly different route by dipping into the States. I added to my state-count by 4, but we actually went through 8 (for the curious: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota). Unfortunately, I can’t say that we saw much besides the scenery on the interstate. We did catch a bit of Illinois by popping into Chicago (if an hour and half drive through heavy traffic to downtown can be rightly called a pop) and Minneapolis.

At the same time, there is a certain joy and freedom to a roadtrip. There’s always the possibility that there’s something waiting for you just off the interstate. Wisconsin is actually a surprisingly great state for tempting you off the interstate. Signs abound for antiques, cheese, and resorts, complete with waterslide parks, which we unluckily only glimpsed longingly from the highway. We did stop at one of the antique shops. I have to admit that this one did not appear to have any swanky antiques: it looked like a grandmother’s house. Then again, I have never been good at finding either antiques or vintage clothing.

By contrast, Chicago was a nice place. I liked the vibe I got from Chicago. It felt like a cultural oasis in the mid-West. My favourite part of town was Millennium Park. This park included neat modern art, a cool fountain, and, a performing arts auditorium in the signature style of Frank Gehry (Guggenheim architect) with a large grassy area in front for outdoor performances. I wanted to go to the symphony, which was playing for a summer festival, but it poured rain that night. We hung out at Gino’s Pizza instead waiting on some traditional Chicago deep-dish. I have to say this pizza was something else. I use that phrase because I can’t say that it’s the beats delicious Italian thin crust, but it had a distinct flavour and texture all of its own. The crust had a fluffy, goldeness to it that was distinctly American. I think they might have added cornmeal to the crust to make this texture, but I’m not positive. I enjoyed the green spaces of Chicago, although we spent most of our time at the shops along the Magnificent Mile. Weirdly, Chicago had lots of honourary names for streets, such as the Magnificent Mile, which is really on Michigan Ave. The picture below is my favourite honourary street so far in my limited experience of Chicago.

The last place of any significance that we stopped was Minneapolis. We learned our lesson in Chicago so we stayed out of downtown Minneapolis. However, the developers were onto us because they built us a shopping complex, The Shoppes at Arbor Lakes, near the interstate. I can only describe this complex as a pedestrian downtown-like centre with oodles of parking on the outskirts. It had several boutiques, mixed in with box stores, a plan which was designed to give one the illusion of a quaint, downtown shopping experience. I have to say it made for a lovely stop and I bought a cook book and some coffee.

Those were the major stops along the route from Kingston to Regina, but there is one more little thing to mention. By North Dakota, we had entered my beloved prairie. The traffic lightened up and you started to be able to see your dog running away for three days. For me, being able to see for miles in every direction makes me feel free. Definitely, the landscape of my childhood and my heart.