Nick and I took a little road-trip north to visit my parents for a few days last week.
While we were there we enjoyed a beer-tasting event of microbreweries from the region. While I’ve been to quite a few wine tastings, I have only ever been to a beer tasting once before. It was fun and interesting trying out the varieties of beer and really noting how different the flavours are. In the photo you can see that I also sampled some cider that one of the breweries was serving. All in all, my favourite taste of the day was the Amsterdam Natural Blonde Lager.
(My mom and dad)
(This cute dog and her family shared the table with us.)
Also, sharing the grounds was the the ‘Pork Circus’ that was in town! Nick gave it this nickname because it had the feel of a traveling carnival, but instead of rides and games there was plenty of pork to be had. Have you ever seen one of these barbecuing road shows, which are called Ribfest? It seems the different, primarily American ‘professional ribbers’, travel the country with their barbecues and special sauces, and cook meat, mostly ribs but there was also chicken and pulled pork. They win trophies and awards at each stop, based on being the crowd favourite in that particular spot. They are recognizable by their huge signs. Some people we chatted with were disappointed though, that their local friends who serve bbq at their restaurant were not allowed to participate, as this is a closed event that includes only those traveling together.
Rather than eat at the event, we got a selection of food and brought it all home to my parent’s place, where we ate the casual meal on china plates, with little finger-dipping bowls at the ready, which were my idea as I have a particular aversion to sticky fingers. Haha, I guess we’re not really rustic messy barbeque eaters! The food was very tasty though.
[Aside, these cookers-of-pork made their way to another Ontario town called Whitby over the week-end and yesterday afternoon the tent was struck by lightening!! 17 people were injured but thankfully, not seriously so.]
Also on tap for the short trip was a visit to the Goodwill for me and my mom. Might sound like a strange thing to do together, but we usually do end up getting a little thrifting in when I come to visit. For some reason, their Goodwill has really good kitchenware and this tip was no exception. I’ll do a separate post showing you all the great things I found!
One afternoon we walked along the water on our way to the best ice-cream I’ve had so far this summer. Ok, it was the first ice-cream outing I’ve had, but it was quite spectacular! mmmm cherry ice-cream.
All in all, it was a fun few days away!
xo loulou
