Port Moody turns 100 and Vera's hamburgers

Saturday dawned cloudy but quite warm, a perfect day for a parade.  Port Moody turns 100 years old this year not a spectacularly long time, but a significant one. The City decided to celebrate by having an old fashioned down home parade, so we walked over to watch.

There were several marching bands, including one very enthusiastic Chinese drumming band, which was accompanied by their leader holding up a small red boom box playing rather tinny  Chinese music.

There were some nods to the past such as people riding penny farthing bikes, which when asked, told us that they used a ladder to mount, and really dismounting was the problem.

There was a fairly large contingent of first nations which seemed appropriate, because they had been here far longer than 100 years.

Olympic mini cup cakes

At work we decided to celebrate the coming London Olympics by having our own mini Olympic games.  So what is more appropriate for a mini Olympics than mini cup cakes.

We organized 4 events, running relay, egg and spoon race, 3 legged race and shot put (with bean bags), there were six teams China, Romania, India, Philippines, Canada and of course Team Great Britain.

The event lasted about an hour and there was much hilarity as batons (bananas) were squashed, equipment failed (nylons tying legs together ripped) and sadly Canada and India failed to win even one medal. We put this down to Canada being really much better at the Winter Olympics and India's athletes were underfunded and lacked proper equipment (there nylons ripped). I am proud to say however that Team GB won the medal count, we can only hope the same is true at the larger games in London.

A day at the races

When I said I was coming to England, my friend Jacky told me that another school friend suggested we come down to the south coast and go to the races with her.  She is a member of Goodwood race track and we should bring hats and fancy dresses! I had visions of drifting around in the sunshine in my fascinator, fancy dress and amazing shoes bought for the occasion. Drinking champagne and sitting outside in the warm sun.  The weather Gods had different plans the day dawned with pouring rain and high winds, but the races were not cancelled.

So we had a picnic to prepare and pack and of course as it was the Jubilee week we would take the Queen with us in the picnic basket.

There were over 13 of us going in several vehicles, but we had the picnic in the back of our car.  The idea was to have a type of tailgate party at the car which we had parked just a few minutes walk away from the champagne tent in a grassy field.

Our portion of the picnic was coronation chicken, served in corn tortilla trays, salmon wellington, white asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and individual pissaladiere. I made the pissaldiere exactly the same as before  but in 2 inch squares, and as we did not have any olives we placed a small piece of roasted pepper in the middle of each one.

PCA Family Boat Festival

The Pleasantside Community Association (PCA) held it's first Annual Family Boat Festival this weekend. Since I am on the executive of the association I was involved in organizing this event. As usual my involvement would be mostly to do with food.

This being a family event, that had to break even, and I had no idea how many people would be coming we decided to keep in simple, hamburgers and hot dogs.  Nothing gourmet here, no food porn pictures, but the hamburgers were not bad though I say so my self.

But the event really wasn't about food it was about bringing the community together to enjoy the beautiful place that we live in and enjoying a glorious summer day.

The main event was the boat races, we had races for kids with parents in a couple of different age groups and we had one young boater as young as three!

Nostalgic lunch in Bellingham

It would have been my Mother in laws 90 birthday on Sunday, she passed away a couple of years ago and is sadly missed by her family. My sister in law used this as a motivation to get the 5 siblings and their partners together.  She lives in a very unusual house down in Bellingham Washington State.

There is a lovely deck which they have just finished, with a view looking over Fairhaven to the Pacific.  Though the sun was shining it really was too cool to be sitting out yet but it will be wonderful when the weather warms up.

Mary Ann cooked every ones favourite dishes that there mother used to make.  Some exactly as she had done them like Macaroni cheese which she had made in one of her mothers baking dishes.

Fall Fair - Ioco Ghost town days

I found my self this Sunday as I always do at the beginning of October baking dozens of cookies for children (some larger than others) to decorate with icing and sprinkles and then quickly consume. It was Ioco Ghost town days.

The Imperial Oil Company had a company town called Ioco  From around the turn of the last century up until the  late 60's.  This was a true company town with it 's own bowling green, tennis courts, social centre, school and church.  It was situated just outside the gates of the oil refinery on the Burrard Inlet.