The last 36 hours of my life has been a blur.  I spent a whopping 17 of 33 hours in planes or airports.  Rapid travel (like going to Texas and back in less than 1.5 days) creates all sorts of opportunity for first-world drama and worry about things that seem so looking at the time but fade fast.  The highlight of such stress was an early morning filled search for my passport.  I had placed the thing in the breast pocket of my suit jacket the night before and when I put on said layer, I couldn’t find my travel documents.  It took 20 minutes of searching to realize that said jacket had inside jackets on both sides – and that my ‘lost’ passport was close to my heart (which was beating wildly) the whole time.

Business travel really can be that glamorous.

On the other hand, I did have a wonderful meal in downtown San Antonio and a quick peak at it’s riverwalk district and know that I really want to get back there some day.  Knowing how close Austin was (that hordes many places we want to see in addition to being the home of friends and acquaintances) was a little painful but we’ll return another day.

Returning from such a trip gives you a different perspective on your home and the places around it.  Considering the amount of times in airports, taxis, airplanes, restaurants and meeting rooms, it’s darn-right scary to think about how much I’ve been sitting in the last 2 days.  I’m going to guess that I was on my feet less than 2 or 3 hours total – a stark transition from daily life around here where I barely sit till 10 or 11 at night.  Combine that with staring at the back of a seat for 12+ hours and the sights you normally take for granted appear under a different light.

I found myself running a few errands this afternoon as the sudden appearance of the Holiday season becomes apparent.  As I traveled through our neighborhood, I found familiar sights suddenly looking like some sort of film set.  It was just surreal to be home.

Traveling through the East end of Toronto at 4:30 so near to the Holidays revealed a spectacular pattern.  I peeked into the local restaurants and bars and saw them all in a flurry of activity.  Glasses were staked, tables were set, the teams were huddling and getting ready for what will be one of the busiest nights of the year.  Early patrons were sipping the first glasses of wine and opening cocktails as kitchens were very apparently getting ready for the rush.

There’s many things that are fantastic about living in an urban community (even though I catch myself daydreaming about living in rural isolation quite often) and seeing the buzz of dimly lit restaurants in the dark of the early afternoon is something that just comforts me.  There will be hundreds, if not more, of people out in our little corner of the world tonight.  They’ll be enjoying themselves, food and drink and the ambience of a place I call home – a place that seemed so far away only 18 hours ago.

Happy Holidays to you and yours – tonight we’re going out in our neighborhood to enjoy the comforts of the seasons with some wonderful friends.  I hope you are just as lucky wherever you may be.

When we entered the Ocean Wise SeaFoodie event we were told that this would be a competition to use social networking.  Knowing that we were going to need the support of many friends, family and “strangers” and knowing that we had something to gain made us a little squeamish – so we announced a contest which we would give prizes away (win or lose) and I’m thrilled to announce our winners.

Before announcing the winners – here’s how we chose:

1. Our ‘rules’ stated we would track all tweets, votes and Facebook shares.  We placed these in a giant excel sheet (there were more than 300 entries) and entered each person by their name at the source they entered (i.e. in Facebook you were entered by your real name, on twitter you were entered by your ‘handle.’)
2. We sorted these alphabetically
3. We used Random.org to generate a random number list – the first number won the first prize, the second won the second prize and so forth.

Here’s a screenshot of the random numbers:

Here’s our list of winners (although I think you’re all winners!):

1. Bottomfeeder book by Tara Grescoe courtesy of Hooked.
   Winner: Jennifer (@fashionfood on Twitter)
2. One of Shucker Paddy’s Pistol Grip Oyster Shuckers.
   Winner: Carrie (Hppycat on Twitter)
3. Awesome seeds from Cubits (find them on Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and their own blog).
   Winner: Joel (Foodie411 on Twitter)
4. WellPreserved gift pack #1.  Consists of a TShirt, buttons and fridge magnets.
   Winner: Marisa (of Food In Jars, Marusula on Twitter)
5. WellPreserved Gift Pack #2.  A signed, numbered Printers Proof of the Periodic Table of Waterbath Preserving.
   Winner: Shauna (City Girl Cakes on Facebook)

Congratulations to all – and a giant thank you for helping us share the word about sustainable seafood (a message we will continue to share here).

As a measure of accountability – I did state that there if we won, we would donate $250 to Ocean Wise.  We have done so as a way to try to thank each of you as a gesture for your time and effort – so thank you and well done!

Thank you for your votes, sharing the word and for your passion around food and sustainability.  I (and we) are very flattered at being named the Ocean Wise SeaFoodie.

If you missed our videos, here they are…

Our entry video to qualify for the contest:

Our final video (Dana did hte rockin`titles):

Hope you all had some fun – we had a blast!

I’m humbled to announce that I have been named ‘Ocean Wise SeaFoodie.’  I hope that the ultimate winner is Ocean Wise and their message of sustainability and our oceans.

Here was our final video:

There is a certain irony that I’ve spent the last two days lying on the couch and my stomach turns at the thought of food (something that I never remember encountering in my life before).

A giant thank-you goes out to so many people – more than 200 voted, more than 50 tweeted and about the same shared across their Facebook profiles.  A similar thanks goes out to the restaurant that hosted us (Starfish) along with our hosts (Chef Kyle Deming and Shucker Paddy).  I’ve known Kyle for some time and continue to be blown away by his approach to food and sustainability in all that he cooks.  We had met Shucker Paddy several times but this was our first chance to hear him sound off on his passion of Oysters and Sustainable Seafood.  We will definitely be going back to Starfish.

Our video featured the 3 key questions around sustainable fish:

• Know what type of fish you are eating
• Know where it was from (or farmed)
• Know how it was caught

There is a great guide that our main competition, Cherlyn (an amazing advocate of sustainable seafood) shared on the site.  It’s a useful tool and is also complimented by a free Smart Phone App to help make the most educated choices.

For those who have been following us for any time you’ll know that fish was largely out of our diet until a few months ago when Hooked opened in our neighborhood.  We’re fortunate to have the option to have all 3 questions answered any time we walk-in and my experience with Dan and Kristen definitely was part of the inspiration for entering this.

Another thanks goes out to Chateau Des Charmes – they sponsored this event and provided wine for the dinners.  They did this very quietly and continue to be ambassadors to the local and/or sustainable food scene.  They are one of the few ‘larger’ Ontario wineries who have never lost the family/ community touch and we were spoiled by enjoying their wine with our dinner at Starfish.

A thank you goes out to Laura at Cubits who offered some seed packs as prizes without asking and helped spread the word about our entry.  Laura and her seed-supplying genius will be a feature here in the coming days because we just adore what she does and her pure entrepreneurial spirit in deciding to walk away from the dependable world of 9-to-5 and decided to sell and spread the message of organic, rare and heirloom seeds.  We’ll be distributing prizes by the end of the weekend and will announce here as well.

I hope I’m not sounding pretentious thanking everyone – the truth is that I (and Dana who was a significant part of this team effort and spent hours working on the titles in our little ditty) are both thrilled – and humbled.  So a final thank you must go out to each of you who participated, voted and shared – friends, family, strangers and bloggers alike.

Thanks for your support – and for making us smile.  We’ll continue to share the message of conscious food choices and am thankful to be part of a community who is so passionate about doing the same!

Just a reminder that we`ve only got a few days left of voting for the Ocean Wise SeaFoodie contest.  So far, we`re losing!

And as a gentle reminder, we have many prizes including THE printer`s proof for our Periodic Table of Waterbath Preserving poster (signed and shipped to you anywhere in the world):

The main way to enter is simple – click this link and LIKE our video on facebook (you`ll have to like Ocean Wise at the same time – Ocean Wise is a project of the Vancouver Aquarium and they raise awareness to sustainable seafood options).

The full prize packages can be found here.  The original post of the periodic table is here.

It’s a short post today – more food for thought than calorie-word ratio.

William S. Burroughs wrote a book called “Naked Lunch” in 1959.

Although there is some debate if the title came from Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg, I choose to believe it came from the first.  According to legend, Jack claimed it was “exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.”

Perhaps this is our shortest post ever, perhaps it is something to think about.

Your thoughts?

Merry Christmas!

I have written and re-written this post in my head at least 15 times today.  I have had time to write and had lots to write about.  But the vision for this post keeps on coming back – it beckons for shorter and sweeter.

We are humbled and blessed and fortunate and lucky and thankful for all that we have.  Far beyond the material, the food, the drink – we have each other.

Today has been an entire day of feasting, sharing, eating (and it continues).  We are so lucky – the luckiest part of all that we have are the people around us.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays – I hope you all are so fortunate.

The photos in this post were taken by madbadger2742 (Brock is on Twitter here) from Detroit-  and used with his gracious permission since we couldn`t get out for a pic of our current moon.  A giant thanks to him for his fantastic photos and another example of a virtual community helping each other out around food.

A giant moon has been hanging over Toronto (and most of North America) in the last few evenings.  It appears the harvest moon is back.

I had heard the term many times though wasn’t sure exactly what it meant (I had my guesses).  It is essentially a giant looking moon that hangs low on the horizon after the autumnal equinox.  It generally appears in late September or early October.

The name is based on the brightness of the moon – it’s bright light was supposedly enough to keep the harvest working through the night as the fields were lit like day time.

A harvest moon does not have to be different colors – and, unlike other things in the sky, colors can be enhanced in the presence of a city.

A neat thing to consider is something called the moon illusion.  The moon is a constant distance from us – therefore a harvest moon is no bigger in the sky than a “normal” moon.  I found this logical but surprising – I would have bet that I’ve seen moons that I would have bet are much bigger than others (and would have been wrong).  The moon illusion is caused be the relative appearance of the moon to the horizon.  A low hanging moon looks large compared to the horizon while a typical moon (in the middle of the sky) has nothing to compare to and looks smaller.

It takes a bee a lifetime to produce approximately 1 tablespoon of honey.  Since learning that I get a little cagey when the end of the jar is nearing – I try to use every last drop.

I have had the pleasure of seeing bees working our fields in a few provinces this summer and thought I would share these as a tribute to their hard work.

The photo of the wasp was just a test of your observation skills (the actual truth is that I just liked the pic).

I stumbled off a plane from San Diego in Chicago’s O’Hare airport at 4:00am this week (my trip was almost 12 hours delayed) and was desperate for something to drink.  There were very few open shops and no vending machines.  I stumbled into a frosty glass bottle of IBC Root Beer and took these photos.

I was surprised to find out that it was a Mott’s product (being Canadian I suppose I figured they only made our beloved Clamato Juice).

The product itself was cold and tasted like root beer would have originally (or at least the way I imagine it to) – almost a cross between root beer and ginger beer.  Crisp and sharp, it did the job (certainly better than the airport lights and drinking fountain for table!).  This is a product that steals the show with it’s packaging – it is a beautiful thing to look at and hold.

I am so intrigued by the world of food styling.  For those who are new to the term it simply refers to the art of making food look scrumptious for the camera.  Almost all food that is shot for advertising is actually completely inedible – undercooked at best and made of synthetics or non-edible.  Superglue, tweezers, blocks of wood, hairspray, glycerin and other props make food look delicious in a photo.  Motor oil is a great substitute for pancake syrup as an example.

For a lighter look at this art:

And:

Less you think I am mocking this art (which I have a great deal of respect for), here’s a few random skilled food stylists from Toronto to check out:

Debbi Moses – her starters are my favorite work.
Lucie Richard – I adore her savory shots.
Noah Witenoff – His work is great – be sure to check his bio page as well.