Vista 18–Victoria!

My good friend works at Chateau Victoria, (with the Vista 18 restaurant) in Victoria BC and she told me about this awesome promotion she has going on with the hotel/restaurant she works at – and I thought it would be fun to pass on the word – especially since it’s local!!

The menu sounds amazing – it has some gluten free options, as well as if you call ahead they are willing to put together an amazing dairy free dish!   My friend raves about the gluten free lasagne!! And on top of it, they have a great sounding kids menu too!!

So here is the deal – like them on facebook for your chance of a weekly draw for dinner for 2 at the restaurant AND a grand prize of one night stay in a one bedroom suite including dinner for 2!!

How awesome is that?   If you aren’t living close, I HIGHLY recommend liking them anyways and considering going to visit Victoria either way!  Victoria is one of my favourite places!   I will definitely be checking out this place, as they have a great martini and wine bar with small bites menu that is super intriguing for me!!

If you are interested, you can  LIKE them here!!

This is a super busy week for me, so sorry for the lack of posting – I can’t promise there will be much this week!

Salsa and Salsa–Mazatlan Mexico

This post is LONG overdue!

When we were in Mexico for our wedding in February, I was looking for fun activities for our group!  Being the foodie that I am, when I saw Salsa and Salsa it was a match made in Heaven!

Thanks again to Calla Evans for the amazing photos!

In total, 14 of our guests jumped on 2 trucks to start our fun!!

A little back story – Both the girls and guys had stags/stagettes the night before – so some people were feeling a little rough!!   It was also Valentine’s Day – hence the (very strong) margarita heart upon arrival!

When you show up, everyone gets aprons and chef hats!!

And you sit at your table with a partner, and have all the goodies in front of you!  Including stuff to make amazing salsa, guacamole and a whole lot of booze!

The lovely ladies that run Salsa and Salsa (Hi ladies!) knew we were coming and that our wedding was the next day – so they made it really special for us!!

They called us up to the front and gave us special hats decorated for our wedding (mine included a 10 foot veil) and gave us cupcakes to share with the guests!

Typical food blogger!  

IT was great!  They called us to the front many times during the whole day! (And made us kiss – or was that my mom!!)

Anyways – we had lots of great drinks including a REAL margarita (aka boozey mc boozertown!)

And a watermelon juice!

Lots of laughs were had and Calla did an amazing job of capturing every second!

The ladies were fantastic, teaching us how to make tons of salsas!

It was all so much fun!

Truth be told – we had to bring the (ahem hung-over) guys to come with us, but then ended up having an awesome time!

Especially since they had a lot more to drink when we got there!

Making real salsa is hard work!!  But so worth it in the end!

After we made Salsa – they taught us to SALSA dance!!  It was so much fun!

It was an absolute blast!!  I HIGHLY recommend this if you go to Mazatlan, Los Cabos or Cozumel…

Click here for more info!

It was so much fun!!   I' would totally do it again!!   If you aren’t heading to Mexico anytime soon, check out their recipe page for some amazing recipes!

Thank you to Leonique, Stephanie and Maaike for an awesome time! It was the perfect activity for the day before our wedding!!  

Thursday!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Sorry for the lack of recipes!  I have a bad cold and I hurt my back on the weekend, so I haven’t been much in the creating mood!

I don’t know where you guy are living, but I know here the sun is finally starting to shine and all the flowers are up and about!!   It makes me cheer up a wee bit!!

Cherry Blossoms!  Aren’t they so beautiful?

Another thing that is cheery - We were walking with the kids that I am working with yesterday in some trails and we came upon a baby owl!

Sorry the picture is so tiny, it was taken on a co-workers camera (Thanks Sandy)!!  But isn’t it beautiful?   The kids were SO excited and we even saw the mom in the tree’s behind them!

Here is a bigger one – can you spot it? (Another cell phone picture thanks to Cheryl!)

Lastly, Lance has been enjoying the nice weather too – he wakes up in the morning and heads outside until bedtime!!  He loves the warm sun!

and him and Chaos are still best buddies!  (And their shenanigans make me smile every day!)

Have a great Thursday – and don’t forget to check out tomorrow’s post – it’s about the awesome tour we took in Mazatlan!!

Best Husband

So I came home from a full day of practicum and then 3 hours of class to a very special dinner made by my hubby!!

Fish, potatoes, and veggies!  He even plated it beautifully for blog photos!! (good man!)

I got flowers and THEN… he BAKED me cookies!  Chocolate Love Affair Cookies even!!

Plated by him and served with vanilla soy ice cream and fresh strawberries!

I’d say he’s a keeper!!   Thank you honey, love you!!

I still can’t believe you baked me cookies – that’s a big deal!!  

 

Has anyone made you a special surprise meal?  What was it and was there a special occasion?!?

Beautiful Kale with a Kale Chip Recipe!

So the other day on Facebook, I was asking if it was ok to eat Kale that was flowering?

Mainly because my garden is overrun with it!

I didn’t pull out my kale at the end of last summer and a beautiful thing happened, it kept growing ALL winter!!

Now it’s flowering (making babies) and it’s very beautiful!

I loved the contrast of the purple, green and yellow! So pretty!

Did you see the bee in the middle picture?  Him and I made a deal, if I didn’t move to fast, or ask him to smile, he wouldn’t sting me  

So great!!

Then I made Kale chips and they were GOOD!!

I’ve made kale chips a few times before with the steps so go here for the steps and my favourite “sauce” recipe so far.

For this Kale Chip “Sauce” 

1/4 cup raw almonds

1 TBSP. apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup nooch

1-2 tsp garlic powder or fresh garlic

alt to taste

water (just enough to make it blend)

That’s all – Blended it together and then massaged onto my kale!

Into the dehydrator it went

And Volia – my beloved kale chips!!

If you don’t have a dehydrator – I have directions here for the oven method!

As a side note – if you have EVER eaten store bought kale chips and thought they were gross, make sure to try homemade ones!! They are WAY better!! I have never had store bought ones that I’ve enjoyed!