DEAR TYLENOL...

Whatever it is that you put into your magic pills, they really do work like magic. Nothing, absolutely nothing, makes me feel better when I have a cold like your little yellow, Daytime pills do.

Thanks very much,
Dominique

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It's amazing how my body responds to medication. It won't respond to Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus or orange juice or chicken soup or anything like when I have a cold. It only and I mean, only, responds to Tylenol Cold. It's like they're in cahoots or something. Of course, knowing that I only had one measly yellow magic pill left, I was very hesitant to take it but also knowing that I couldn't miss another day of work, I had no choice but to pop the pill on Thursday morning, right before I started my eight-hour shift. But that was on Thursday morning and finally broke down yesterday afternoon and bought another $15 box of magic, orange pills. Ugh, damn Shoppers and their convenience prices! Figures that I'd end up downtown feeling utterly miserable and in desperate need of some Tylenol. So yeah, the new Cold Plus (the regular Tylenol cold plus mucous relief, what joy!) kept me going for another 4-6 hours. I managed to get through Kiki's Delivery Service, which I did not get through the night before (sorry Sean!) and while Sean wanted to take a nap after the movie ended, I was all fired up and awake. But I did manage to take a nap with him anyway.

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But let me back up and show you some eats...from the 30th...pre-sickness:
Breakfast was the standard half WW English muffin with PB and coconut butter:Lunch was organic roast chicken drumstick and veggies:Snacks included grapes and strawberries:Along with the very last half of a chocolate walnut and dried cherry brownie (man, those were good!) and two squares of Lindt Sea Salt for my second breakfast:Sean and I were heading downtown for a concert after work so we decided we'd grabbed dinner in the city. Before that though, I decided to snack on some prosciutto sandwiches (read: prosciutto sandwiched between water crackers) in the car. Before the concert we dropped by Dufflet to pick up their lemon/lime coconut tarts:

Sadly the tarts were lacking the tart flavour that I've come to expect from Dufflet. Sigh. Their lemon tart is, in my opinion, one of the best tarts in town, so this was truly a disappointment. It was way too sweet and you could hardly taste it. The coconut top did make up for it--but not entirely. Not a repeat purchase. (And I think that's the first time I've ever said any negative about Dufflet Pastries.)

And then went to Steve's Music store so I could pick up something to clean my drum kit but it was closed. So we then headed to Whole Foods so I could stock up on the essentials (ie: Vita Coco) but they were all out so I ended up getting some watermelon, water crackers and other stuff. In the end we didn't have enough time to grab something to eat so I just ate my watermelon.

After the concert we ended up in the parking lot for almost an hour before we were able to get out and by that time I just wanted to get home to sleep since I had work in the morning. Thank goodness for the prosciutto and water crackers I had eaten during the drive into the city and in the parking lot.

PS: For those of you interested, the concert was Vampire Weekend and it was totally awesome!!!===

31st...Wednesday
I decided to try something new for first breakfast:Strawberries with two two-bite cranberry and orange scones from Whole Foods. The scones are a little on the sweet side but they're tasty. They kind of suck all the moisture out of your mouth but I like my sweet scones like that.

Lunch was organic roast chicken on a bed of pale red kidney beans along with roast veggies:It really does pay to make your meals way in advance!

Snacks were the usual grapes and strawberries:
Along with half a chocolate-dipped macaroon from Dufflet and two squares of Lindt's Sea Salt chocolate for my second breakfast oatmeal:Chocolate was consumed, macaroon was not :(

And as you saw earlier, dinner was the following because I was feeling downright horrible:===

1st...no April Fool's jokes here
With sickness setting in, I didn't really want to eat anything but I knew it would be a bad idea to skip out on first breakfast. I knew a scratchy double-toasted whole wheat English muffin wasn't an option so I went with two cranberry orange scones with Earth Balance (yay, finally) along with some Olympic green tea and vanilla yogurt, grapes and strawberries:

I assume it was all very yummy because I couldn't taste a thing!

Second breakfast usually involves oatmeal but this time I decided to swap my lunch for breakfast:Organic chicken soup with orzo, egg drop and a hidden chicken thigh. Sadly this chicken thigh was not even close to organic. Bad times ensued. Double sad that I was at work. Triple sad that I ate this soup earlier than I normally would have because I was sick. Ughs all around! Note to self: do not assume something in Whole Foods is organic unless the label says so!

Lunchtime was oatmeal with two chocolate squares and the following grapes and strawberries:along with this box of Vita Coco:I wouldn't normally have finished both boxes of Vita Coco so quickly but I was sick and being sick means I make excuses for lots of things.

Here is the chocolate and macaroon I had that still did not get consumed:Sean and I had plans to get our hair done later that evening but plans fell through when the time turned out to be inconvenient. We headed downtown anyway so that I could go to Steve's to pick up some cleanser for my cymbals and we grabbed some Korean food for dinner. No photos...it wasn't that great anyway. My dumpling and rice cake soup was really nothing to write home about though Sean's cold noodle soup looked way better. I forgot that Korean dumplings tend to be heavy on the ginger and ginger in savory form makes me want to gag. I was really hungry so I managed to eat all but one. Blech. Dinner left my Korean craving very unfulfilled.

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2nd...Good Friday
Breakfast was eaten in the car on the way to the city:Whole wheat English muffin with PB and coconut butter on top. Clearly I put way too much coconut butter on top--hence the oozing. Some of it even dripped onto my makeup bag in the background. And yes, I did lick the CB from my makeup bag. I can't waste good coconut butter!

Lunch was had several hours later after Sean went from this...to this:HOT! Wow Sean looks so young now! I think we now look like an age appropriate couple rather than him looking super old and me looking super young. Don't let that "before" shot fool you--his beard used to be longer than that. Plus I now this his hair matches his clothing. Before his hockey hair didn't really match his (I hate to say it), "indie/hipster" clothing.

I also got my hair done but I just got my colour touched up. Photos to come. A full review of Caplansky's will also follow but for now, here's the smoked meat sandwich and fries that I had for a late lunch (it was a little after 4pm):I was smart enough to only eat half of everything and take the rest to-go. This lunch was consumed while my nose was running non-stop. It was kind of gross. After lunch we had plans to hit up Greg's Ice Cream on Bloor St. but my cold had other plans. We had to hit up the Shoppers stat for above-mentioned Tylenol. I was going down--fast! After a quick stop into the devil store (just kidding!), we came out with a box of orange-coloured relief, I popped one of those into my mouth and then Sean and I stood in line for some ice cream--just the thing to cheer me up! Sean ended up getting a scoop of orange marmalade and I got a scoop of Fifty's Frost--a malted chocolate.

After that we headed back to Sean's place. It had been a long day in the city and I was ready for some downtime. Upon arriving at Sean's, I was hungry again so a snack was consumed:Tea along with a bowl of fruit...blackberries, pineapple, canteloupe and some sketchy blueberries that I ended up tossing into the green bin. I felt bad about it but Sean reassured me that no one else would end up eating them.

And that's was the end of the day's eats.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: CAPLANSKY'S DELICATESSAN

Yeah that's right...I went to Caplansky's a third time and guess what, third time's a charm because I managed to snag photos this time--yay! I think it's safe to say that I can do a proper review of the place now.

Caplansky's is open 7 days a week, opening at 10 on the weekend. This is important just in case you decide to head downtown really early and make it there before 1pm, when parking is free along Bloor Street. Get there with plenty of time to spare as service is either super fast and friendly or super slow and friendly. Either way, it's friendly, which is always good.

Here's a peek at their menu, which is actually the placemat. It comes in three parts. Part one is breakfast:Breakfast is served all day and includes Smoked Meat Hash (smoked meat with hash browns), The Special (three eggs, smoked beef bacon, latkes, toast and coffee). There's also other stuff like Salami and Eggs and The Leo and so forth.

Next up is lunch which is available starting at 11:Lunch features sandwiches (obviously including their famous smoked meat) along with BBQ brisket, a smoked meat burger and so forth. The only thing I've ever ordered from the lunch portion is the smoked meat sandwich. Duh!

Dinner is on the far-left of the menu and begins service at 5pm:Sean and I have never had the pleasure of enjoying any of the offerings including the 10oz. chopped steak, Caplansky Salad, liver and onions or other things. One of these days,my friends, one of these days. Down at the bottom you've got Deli Classics:Check out the chopped liver, knish and pickled herring because I haven't had the chance to and on the far-left bottom corner is the special combos:The sandwich combo is what Sean and I both decided to roll with this particular visit--and on another previous visit. Sean ordered the soup while I rolled with the fries. Here's Sean's matzoh mall soup:And my stunning basket 'o fries:Glorious. Seriously. I mean that about the fries. I didn't grab the opportunity to taste Sean's soup as the matzoh ball was made out of schmaltz (chicken fat which I'm pretty sure wasn't organic) and chicken broth (again, which I'm pretty sure wasn't organic). But these fries...they're the closest I've come to Montreal-type fries in Toronto. Slightly sweet, soggy and perfect. They come unseasoned so Sean sprinkled on some kosher sea salt (which was on offer, awesome!) and malt vinegar (awesome again). I'm one of those people that does not like vinegar on their fries, but Montreal fries and fry-truck fries (you know the ones I'm talking about) are the only exception. We also grabbed a side order of extra pickles:
Mmmm...sour pickles and then came our sandwiches:
This is a serious sandwich folks. It comes on rye which is not toasted and does not come dressed in mustard. Blasphemy? No, because there are at least 3 or 4 different types of mustard set on your table so you can choose the mustard of your liking. This day's range of mustard including a horseradish variety, two different types of spicy mustard, the regular yellow kind in a yellow squeeze bottle and a honey mustard. Okay so make that five different kinds but you get the picture. There's really a mustard here for everyone. I'm almost 100% sure of it.

Oh and the meat...the real reason you're probably reading this? Well it's the closest Montreal-type smoked meat I've tasted in Toronto and even Sean's parents agree that it's pretty darn good. (FYI: Sean's parents were born and raised in Montreal. They moved to Ontario shortly after Sean was born.) It's tender, juicy and I forgot that upon ordering, you get the choice of how you like your meat: lean, medium or fatty. During my first visit I went with the medium but upon this visit, I went all "balls to the wall" and choice fatty. It was a choice well-chosen. I suggest everyone put their diets aside for one meal (or go jog an extra mile or two) because the fatty meat is definitely worth it.

My thoughts on Caplansky's? Well clearly I'm a fan of their sandwiches. Can you believe that I actually finished off an entire one the first time Sean and I visited? I'm a little crazy like that. Subconsciously I think that I can consume as much food as Sean does, if not more, despite the fact that he is a full foot taller than me. During this visit though, I was a little more sane and decided to polish off half my sandwich and save the rest for later. And I could not wait for lunchtime to roll around at work the next day.

THREE CHEERS FOR LOBLAWS

I made another trip down the natural/organic section of a chain grocery store today and thank goodness it did not cost me $75. This time the store of choice was Loblaws and the cash out of my pocket was a measly $33, thanks to a $30 cash bonus from my dad. Thanks dad!

Today's buys were not as plentiful...I think partially due to the fact that the natural section of Loblaws is in one section and not spread out like Sobey's and it was far busier than the last time I had been in there. It was actually very surprising! I could not believe the amount of people looking at natural/organic and alternative dairy. One guy was looking at at a soy cheese product, another guy was buying organic frozen meat for him and his daughter for dinner that night. Another woman was checking out rice milks and cereals. Overall it was very refreshing.

The variety of stuff available at Loblaws has also greatly increased as I was able to get my hands on Earth Balance! Yeah, that's right bloggies...I'll now be able to partake in the vegan butter goodness! I can't wait to try it out. I think I'll wait for some bananas to ripen and then hope that my mom's cold has gone away by then so that she can make some of her famous banana bread. Nothing in my mind is better than spreading butter on some freshly baked banana bread. And no one does it finer than my mother.

Other things that made it into today's shopping cart were three boxes of Carr's water crack(ers), a pack of prosciutto (sans sodium nitrate--woot!), Nature's Path Rice Puffs (for some granola bars I'll be making later), Garden of Eatin' Crunchitos (another form of my crack), Wonder+ whole wheat English muffins, organic 2% milk, Olympic organic probiotic yogurt in Green Tea and Vanilla flavour (I can't wait to try this out!) and random stuff my dad bought (a couple salmon fillets on sale, Kashi cereal, Kashi PB granola bars and basmati rice).

After today's super duper lunch with Sean and his folks, I figured a little health and wellness would do me some good. Nice segue way huh? Sean and his parents picked me up and we headed into the city to grab some grub at, you guessed it...Caplansky's! Or maybe not since Sean and I had eaten there just a week ago, hahaha. Funny thing is that once again, I managed to not take a single photo the entire time we were there! I had remembered to charge my batteries and clear up my memory card and pack the camera before I left the house, but for some reason, once we were seated, I just plum forgot...oops!

It was still a good lunch. Sean's parents both had the smoked meat sandwiches while Sean had the Leo (lox, eggs, onions) and I had the smoked meat hash. I was smarter this time around and only consumed half of my all-day-breakfast menu item and packed the rest to-go. I also snagged a bite of Sean's sour cherry pie (I think it was better this time compared to the first) and a piece of Mama Sean's dark chocolate bread pudding (yuuummmm!!!!). The pickles were also extra crunchy and sour this visit and a second plate just had to be ordered. The food definitely made up for the lengthy wait. It took an extraordinarily long time for our food to arrive. Actually, scratch that...it took an extraordinary long time for Papa Sean's soup to arrive. So long in fact, that I had completely forgotten that he had even ordered the cabbage borscht. It looked really good though and both he and Sean seemed to enjoy it. I didn't bother with a taste just in case it was made with chicken stock.

The rest of the day was spent vacuuming my room and cleaning my drum set. It was the first time I had cleaned my drum set since I got them over 11 years ago. Pretty pathetic right? I mean, I've cleaned them rather quickly, like a quick wipe down with a cloth here-and-there, but this time I wanted to do a really thorough cleaning. I ended up Googling how to properly clean my cymbals and the drums and while I didn't have any furniture polish or Windex around, I did have some safe and nonabrasive metal polish for my cymbals so I got to work. I put a LOT of effort into and man, my wrist was killing afterwards. Sadly, I wasn't even done! I wasn't even halfway done when I realized that I was going to finish off my dad's bottle of metal polish so I opted to stop and pick up my own bottle in the city in a couple of days. I know that a trip to one of the city's musical instrument stores will result in a lecture about keeping my drum set in tip-top shape (which I know I should have been doing), but I'm hoping it also results in a giant bottle of drum set cleaner. I have to get my drum set ready for the summer--details later!!

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Saturday eats...I did manage to get something into my stomach:Buckwheat cereal and Optimum Slim with unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze. It was my first time tasting the unsweetened vanilla version. It's going to take some getting used to, hahaha.

I did some intense weight-lifting Saturday night and decided to replenish with this:

A purchase I made at Sobey's a while back...Metromint Lemonmint water. And that was it for Saturday's eats.

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For Sunday, this is all I've got...I have photos of my leftovers, which I decided to eat as an appetizer to dinner earlier tonight...Leftover smoked meat hash (smoked meat, potato matchsticks), one egg, half a slice of rye with butter) along with two garlic dill pickles and a small but very full glass of OJ (unpictured).

Proper dinner was eaten not too much later than that because my dad was in the midst of baking the salmon filet you see below but I was too hungry and needed something to nosh on anyway:Second dinner (oops) was 1/4 of a salmon fillet on top of beans, with a side of sauteed romaine lettuce (don't knock it 'til you try it) and orzo cooked in organic chicken broth. Tasty but too much food. Now I feel a little bit ill.

STILL PLAYING CATCH UP

21st...Sunday (aka Fun Day with Sean!)
The plan was for Sean to pick me up after his 12-hour shift and for us to grab a bite to eat--that's it. It turned out to be a wonderful day together, despite the frigid temperature and the battle within my stomach. Since Johnny's Burger was closed when we drove by, I suggested Caplansky's, a deli specializing in smoked meat. It's about as close to Montreal smoked meat as you'll get so you better get there quickly. Sean and I were there around 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon and man, it was still packed! We waited about five minutes (less than the time our server stated, hoorah!) and were seated. Good stuff so far. Not so good, no photos. At all. My tastebuds took control so no photos were taken.
Sean and I both opted for the sandwich combo (both getting smoked meat sandwiches) but Sean got the matzoh ball soup while I got the fries. You'll have to take Sean's word for it when he says that the soup was good. I couldn't have a taste due to the chicken broth, which I doubt was free-range and didn't really bother to ask about. My fries arrived in a basket shortly after and the server was smart in placing the basket in the middle of us. No way was I going to finish off that entire basket of fries. No way was I even going to finish off that 7oz. smoked meat (I chose "medium" while Sean got the "fat") sandwich but I somehow did it. It was a mistake. My stomach was not thanking me for it later but my tastebuds and the tapeworm were very grateful.
We also got an extra order of pickles (yum) and Sean was practically swooning over his coffee. My water was good (har har) and their assortment of mustards was actually kind of impressive--not that I remember any beyond the one with horseradish and the extra spicy, which our server called "mango" because I think he meant that as being awesome(?).
The rest of the menu sounds amazing (the LEO looks to be right up my alley) but their smoked meat is definitely what everyone goes there for. I would definitely not hesitate to go to Caplansky's again and hey, maybe this time, I'll get a photo or two! Oh, worth mentioning as well...the waiters/waitresses were ultra friendly and not in an annoying way. They were not snobby or uptight or the least bit pretentious. They were totally down with getting into conversation but nothing too deep or lengthy (which was okay) and there was no need to ask for a water/coffee refill (it came right away) which is always a good sign.

The rest of the day was spent spending money, har har! I picked up a dozen macarons at Nadege:



And who is this blurry friend?To be honest, I have no clue who exactly this i but if I had my way, we would have smuggled him into the back of Sean's car. I just about lost my shit (seriously, ask Sean) when I saw this Chow Chow being walked along Bloor St. I had never seen a full-grown Chow Chow that wasn't in a pet store before so this was beyond exciting!

The rest of the day's eats included half a large Greek feta, half a large container of watermelon, a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk (whatever was in Sean's fridge) and some awesome cranberry apple ginger juice from Wilde, a pure, natural fruit juice that doesn't contain any sugars, preservatives and is not from concentrate. I don't usually go for things with ginger but as I've mentioned a million times already, stomach was a-hatin' this weekend so I thought the ginger would do me some good. It did.

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22nd...Monday (today, hurrah, we did it!)
There was a really gross amount of food in the mini fridge this morning so I made a half-assed attempt at emptying it out. First up, eating this peach danish from Prague:Tasty but the filling was really sweet and my sensitive teeth was not having it. Lunch was leftover orzo salad with half a salmon filet that my dad happened to be pan-frying as I was heating up my orzo in the micro--score!About an hour later my sweet tooth kicked in but remembering the ultra-sweet peach danish, I opted for a bowl of fruits instead:nectarine, grapes and strawberries.

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We're getting our new stove and fridge tomorrow and I'm beyond excited. It'll be the first time my family has ever had major stainless steel kitchen appliances. Woo! I am uber-excited for the new oven. I'm hoping that the temperature has been calibrated properly and that the my attempts at making macarons will not fail me. The first test will be a batch of cupcakes though. I've been wanting to make cupcakes or brownies for a couple of weeks now.

Oh, I forgot to mention the ridiculous weather we had over the weekend. Friday was glorious and I mean, glorious! The high was 18C and boy was I itching to get the heck out of the lab. Every time I opened the door to receive a sample, I'd get a whiff of fresh air, the warm sun and a glimpse of what I was missing out on. It was hard to sit still! But then Saturday morning rolls around and what should greet me as I head into my dad's car? Flurries! It was freakin' snowing. It was cold, really cold. I hadn't anticipated how cold it would be and didn't think I'd need mittens while walking through the woods at Kortright Conversation Area, but boy was I wrong! I could have used my winter coat as well but of course, that was an afterthought.