Seafood in the Sky II

Last Friday Richard and I went to a food event with our friends Kat and Justin. The Second Annual Seafood in the Sky was the second meal event put on by The Culinary Adventure Company as a pop up dinner where you can enjoy 7 courses of seafood by Chef Scott Savoie, atop a sky scraper in beautiful downtown Toronto. This event was meant to be last month but due to one of the terrible storms that flooded most of downtown Toronto in July it was postponed until August. Unfortunately the original locations roof had a lot of damage done to it so we were relocated to one close to Dundas Square. Due to some traffic and construction in the GTA Richard and I were extremely late for the 7:00pm dinner and only managed to arrive at 8:00pm. Thankfully The Culinary Adventure Company postponed the start of dinner until we arrived and all we missed was the appetizer.

The substitute location which was chosen for this event was in  my opinion nice but not as intimate as I had imagined. From the description given to us by our friends who attended last year's event the tables were two to four seaters, where as this year it was one long table that everyone sat at. Not a horrible thing by any means but when you have people who are shy like Richard and I we didn't tend to talk to anyone due to the fact that we could hear everyone's conversations and people could hear ours. Also Richard and I sat across from each other as opposed to next to one another (due to the fact we were so late) so there was no hand holding or talking at all between us except in between courses when we got up from the table and walked away. But when you have views like this I can tell you we didn't mind getting away from the crowd.

 Here are a couple shots of us during the night.

Chef Scott Savoie working his magic.

Course One

Salad with Salmon

 Peruvian Ceviche

made with Halibut

 Course Two

Chef Scott's Renowned Clam Chowder

 Course Three

Mussels

Steamed mussels with coconut&lemon grass

**I am allergic to coconut so I was able to substitute for a piece of grilled salmon.** 

 Course Four

Scallops

Seared Sea Scallops with Tuscan Bean Ragout

During the meal after the sun had set they lite the candles on the table. Not really good lighting wise as it was difficult to see the food since most roofs aren't designed with lighting for events such as these, but the candles really set a mood for the evening, and gave good ambiance.

Course Five

Lobster Boil

Served with French Baguette, Caprese salad and grilled corn on the cob

  Course Six

Dessert

Caramel Budino with Salted Caramel Sauce 

Despite our traffic issues at the beginning of the night the rest of the evening and food made up for it. I am sad to say that I was a little disappointed that Chef Scott didn't cook all of the course at this event (Richard neither noticed nor cared) as that is what we paid for, but the chef who did do it was phenomenal. We will be booking our tickets for next year as well and have decided to take the day off as to avoid traffic issues.

You can contact or keep informed with The Culinary Adventure Company through these address:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/culinaryadventureco
Twitter: @culinaryvco

Self Portrait Challenge

One of the things I was busy with during my time away for the blog world was participating in a 30 Day Self Portrait Challenge put on by the wonderful sister duo over on A Beautiful Mess. Their blog is one I have been following for just over a year now. I love all the different things they come up with like home decor ideas, as well as their sister style features they post. They recently came out with an iPhone app and just last week a new book. Leading up to the launch of the book they put up the challenge for their readers to try their hand at an experiment with taking pictures with themselves as the subject. Sounds easy right? Not for me.

To begin I don't mind having photos taken of me. Part of me even enjoys having my photo taken. No, I'm not going to love every single one and some I won't tag myself in or post on Facebook or Instagram, but I'm definitely not one of those people who see a camera and run in the other direction. I love having my favourite memories captured through photos and I'm really trying now to always have a camera on me. Instagram has become a real obsession for me when it comes to photos. I've become one of those people that are talked about in this hilarious video below.

One of the hardest things for me during this challenge was figuring out interesting poses for myself and then setting it up and taking the photo. For the first thirteen photos or so I wasn't doing anything spectacular and therefore wasn't really challenging myself. Around day fourteen I tried different poses and lighting. Also around this time I finally bought Photoshop Elements which helped me edit the photos. By the end of the challenge there were a bunch of photos I was really proud of.

For those who don't follow me on Instagram here are my photos from this challenge from Day 1 to Day 30.

Something else that this challenge made me realize is just how much I enjoy taking photos, and miss taking them all the time. So starting in two weeks my friend Hillary and I are going to start going on photography adventures every Saturday or for Saturdays we are both available. There are so many places to explore in Ontario and I'm looking forward to finding them.

If you don't follow me on Instagram and want to you can do so here.

Honest to Blog

Well the last month has been a hectic one. I was promoted at my work from Receptionist to Call Coordinator on one of our teams. This meant that I had to get everything together to pass over to the new Receptionist as well as train her on how to do the job. I never realized how much there was to talk about and teach her until I started doing it. Once her training was done I moved upstairs to train for my new position, which I've been doing for the last week and a bit. I'm enjoying the new job as well as the fact that because there is so much to learn and do my work days are going by fairly quickly. On top of this lots of other stuff has happened just in my day to day life, from chores to making time to spend with Richard.

As with everyone's lives they get busy and therefore some things get pushed aside. This being said I am working on quite a few posts for here. I enjoy blogging and I have truly missed it in the last month. I have posts about photos, dinners out, new traditions, and finally some DIY's.

For those of you who do read this very little corner of the blog universe that I am a part of, thanks for sticking around and hopefully I can keep you all entertained with my shenanigans.

Haunted Journeys

Richard has decided to write another post on this blog talking about something we are both very passionate about: Halloween! Since he has been doing a bunch of guest posts on the blog we decided to give him a different signature at the bottom of his posts so you can tell who's writing them. Enjoy!

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Fall is swiftly approaching and with it comes Halloween, pumpkin flavored coffees and beers and, of course, a plethora of haunted attractions; all of my favorite things in life. However none of this is happening right now so I'm left with nothing to do but watch scary movies and start planning ahead.

As mentioned in earlier posts my wife and I have, over the past few years, traveled all over Ontario to visit numerous haunted attractions in the month of October. Personally I love the more detailed attractions. I love my haunts with a theme and thick atmosphere. Its fun being scared sure but I really love that immersive feeling of temporarily walking into another world. That being said I'll still have loads of fun in any generic black walled haunt where psycho clowns, zombies and Hollywood movie serial killers all live and laugh together in harmony.

It's usually around the close of summer that my wife and I start looking ahead and sorting out which events we intend on visiting this year. In our search for new thrills and chills we usually find our way to this webpage: http://www.ontariohaunts.com/. Now while this site is an excellent guide to haunted attractions in the Ontario region I find its rating system to be a tad misleading.

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This site utilizes a "skull meter" rating intended to help you sort out which haunts are family friendly and which are more suited for older children and adults. Trouble is the number of skulls the haunt gets depends on "gore and horror". Well, horror is subjective and I have no idea what they mean by it here so I'm guessing this meter is slanted more towards gore than anything else.

So, looking at the list one would see that "Fort Fright" in Kingston has been given two and half skulls while "Nightmares Fear Factory" in Niagara Falls has received only one. Anyone looking at this would assume that "Fort Fright" is scarier than "Nightmares" and, having visited both, I can assure you this couldn't be further from the truth. Now, if we're going by gore alone, "Fort Fright" did have decorations depicting corpses and skulls and the like while "Nightmares" is pitch black attraction so if this meter measures gore alone it is technically correct. However, as I've mentioned in a previous post, I did not find "Fort Fright" to be a scary experience at all; I'd think even some younger children might find it a bit boring at times. "Nightmares" on the other hand is probably the scariest, most harrowing haunted attraction in Ontario. I would not recommend this attraction for children at all. They boast hundreds of chicken-outs yearly and these are not idle boasts. I was in line once to witness one, it really ramps up the tension.

Over the next few weeks it is my intention to write a series of reviews about the haunted attractions my wife and I have visited. Now I'm not going to give detailed walk-throughs or anything of the sort as I don't want to spoil any of the surprises awaiting the unwitting victims... er, patrons. What I do hope to create is a somewhat more in depth and comprehensive guide to local scary attractions than what is currently available. So, keep your eyes peeled for "Haunted Journeys 1: Year Round Attractions", my first... well, technically second... installment in my haunt review series.

Richard Vaughan