an unfolding story of food & adventure.
As part of my quest to find the perfect Flour Tortilla, pork lard was one of the ingredients deemed a “must-have” if you wanted to be authentic. Initially, I substituted butter and shortening for pork lard, but I felt that just wasn’t cutting it, so I took it upon myself to solve my lard woes, and render some myself. It’s super easy, especially using a slow cooker, as I do here. Just add pork fat, and water, and let the slow cooker do the work!
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Corn with butter is magical, but Mexican Street Corn is on a whole ‘nother level (I mean just look at it)! Sweet corn flavour, smothered with a zesty, smokey sauce, all topped off with fresh cilantro, and salty queso fresco. You definitely won’t stop at just one cob.
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Valentines Day was magical this year, filled with rose petals, and love songs. As you might expect. Wait, no, it wasn’t. Bob and I aren’t the kind of people to be hung up on calender dates. Valentines Day brought roses, lemon squares (a weakness of mine, handmade by Bob), and some great downtime before I headed to work. That’s the reality of working two jobs and being a student. This too shall pass. What was really special was the day after Valentine’s. Sunday the 15th. Bob and I had been talking about making time for adventure in our own city, and enjoying what the prairies have to offer. We do quite well! So, we decided to snowshoe as our main plan for the day. Anything after that we would just decide as we went along – these are the plans I love.
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Tofino left me breathless on many occasions, whether it was taking in gorgeous views on our hikes, sipping “Adventure Coffee” atop a rocky cliff, or dining at Canada’s “Best New Restaurant”.
I remember waking up surrounded by cedar, in our glorious Tonquin Beach suite. It was spacious for two, had ceilings tall enough to walk straight (a stark contrast from our Kitsilano Hobbit hole), and very tasteful decor. We were so content, and hadn’t even left the house yet! (Did we have to?) We could have happily relaxed in our bed, enjoying coffee and toast, gazing into the surrounding Tofino forest. Alas, we didn’t drive halfway across the country to sip coffee and relax. There would be plenty of time for that later….
My wanderlust is insatiable. That’s mainly how our Tofino trip came about. Bob possesses a contentment that I’ve yet to find, while I’m always dreaming about the next adventure. As I write this I have visions of Newfoundland, Greece, England, and so many other ambitious plans. All in due time. We had talked about going somewhere like Seattle, but decided that our time frame was a bit small for all the stops we wanted to make along the way. After brief deliberation, we settled on a trip immediately after Christmas, planning for Saskatoon-Golden-Vancouver-Tofino one way, and heading home via Tofino-Nanaimo-Kimberly-Saskatoon.
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The Adventures of Bob and Shan…
It all started with a hashtag.
It’s how @shanannigans first stumbled into the virtual life of @bobdeutscher. The fateful hashtagging of #YXE on a picture of a yellow, snow covered wagon wheel got the attention of this mysterious, beautiful blonde. A seemingly insignificant event which proved to be quite significant later on…
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