Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A Midsummer Night's Dream in Stratford

Stratford, as promised.




Last weekend I accompanied my boyfriend, his brother and his girlfriend, and his brother's friend and girlfriend (still with me?) to Stratford Ontario for the festival. Since my fella's older sister is working at the festival she was able to get us free tickets to the opening night of Midsummer as well as provide us with a place to sleep.

We headed out on Friday afternoon and, after a long drive due to traffic, we arrived with just time to grab dinner. At the suggestion of one of the girls we hit a delicious Italian restaurant called Pazzo Pizzeria* and speedily ate before hoping in cabs to take us to the theatre.
*www.pazzo.ca



The play was well done and humourous. Our group agreed it ran a little long towards the end but other than that we were all entertained. The actor playing Puck was fantastic and I am in awe of Ms. Yanna McIntosh who played the fairy queen and also Lady Macbeth! I thought memorizing lines, cues, etc for one play would be more than enough to occupy all available space in my memory.

The next day the roomate and I did a hurried bit of sight seeing around town and bought some gifts at the fudge store and the candy store (Rheo Thompson). We stopped off in Shakespeare, ON on the way home to browse the antique stores. I got a cookie tin for my mom, a jewelery box for rings, and a cake pan.



That beauty above only cost me $4! What a steal. I almost bought a wedgewood teapot ($190 - gasp!) and then talked myself down to the plate ($65) and managed to walk out with nothing. I wish I'd gotten the plate in green as it was only $25. Next time.
FYI - the teapot I saw is that one in the middle. Also available for purchase was the sugar bowl (I'm assuming that's what the item on the far left is) and the creamer. So beautiful. If ever I find myself in Shakespeare Ontario again I'm bringing big bucks.

The fish are alive and swimming around in their new home. Kingsley seems to prefer floating in the current from the filter. J, my boyfriend/roomate suggested this could be because he's trying to get more oxygen out of the water. Smart guy. I thought Kingsley was just a surfer slash too lazy to swim on his own.
I was cleaning through some stuff last night and pulled out my knitting project that I abandoned several months ago. I didn't like the first white trim I put on it so I sewed up the ends and cut off the bad part. Looks better now. I'm making a blanket but I won't say for what/who. As far as I know she doesn't even have a name yet ;) I'll explain in December.
***Important Note: I'm not pregnant.***

I may do some baking tonight but I forgot to pick up milk on the way home so it'll have to be something dairy-free.
I've also been brainstorming ideas for this cottage cook-off and I have soooo many. Right now here's the menu I have in mind:
  • Starter: round loaf of pumpernickle bread hollowed out with dip - something spinach-y probably.
  • Main: chicken, with a buttermilk-cornmeal breading, maybe some jalapeno havarti melted inside, maybe not, maybe with some kind of buttermilk/cream sauce.
  • Side 1: Potato salad with bacon, chives, and blue cheese (A Martha recipe)
  • Side 2: Zucchini and summer squash tart (A Martha recipe)
  • Side 3: Bacon-wrapped corn on the cob, done on the BBQ.
  • Desert.....TBA!
  • I was also toying with the idea of doing roasted red peppers stuffed with rizotto but I think this might be too much....

Let me know what you think of these options and I'll tinker with them in the next few days to make a final game plan for next weekend!

I'm off to have a bath, finish a few more rows of knitting and curl up on the couch with tea and maybe indulge in some True Blood!

Enjoy your evening :)

J, Martha-In-Training



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