Snow day

It started snowing heavily on Sunday afternoon, and we wasted no time in getting suited up and getting out into it. Duncan was committed to snow angels, and didn't even wait to find grass, opting for a parking lot instead; he has a talent for getting really grimy but we'll forgive his exuberance in this case.


Of course the requisite snowball fights happened...

... and we built a snowman on the train station lawn (actually, a "snow-woman", and a Queen's alumna too, judging by the tam). We spent quite a nice hour thereafter playing in the snow at the park down the hill, and then returned to the apartment for a warm cup of tea. It being Sunday, we decided to continue with the tidying up - interrupted by the snowfall - including a stint of shoe-polishing.


Dinner was a beef stew with cherry preserves (fantastically good on a cold day) and some of the new beaujolais wine, which was just released this week; very cheap (between EUR 1,90 and 2,80) light and refreshing stuff.

Malcolm had very little homework to do this weekend as he had a triple success at school and had little to catch up on. He received 10/10 on his weekly multiplication test, 10/10 on addition/subtraction of four-digit numbers, and his most recent mini-report card on comportement for the last couple of weeks, which shows essentially all tres biens and one bravo. I guess he's on a roll...


It's cold here today but very clear, which is nice. Duncan was a bit sick early this morning, I hope he makes it through the day without feeling ill. He seems to get sick so often; Malcolm was the same when younger, but now he seems to never catch anything.

I'm doing well, singing today, getting ready for some more auditions, sending out email requests to the opera companies and following up by telephone. There are also lots of different concerts and operas that I want to see, not only because I love the music but to case out the competition. I'm looking around for places to do some concert work locally, and I want to see exactly what I'm up against.

The weekend; A quiet remembrance day at home

First here's a quick note about the hallowe'en party; it was very nice. Malcolm was the only smurf, and Duncan was the classiest vampire, in silver lamé. There were a great many witches and monsters; the costumes for the children tended to run very strongly to spooky and scary instead of the humourous or creative. We didn't stay for the meal but did get some "spooky" goodies including two glasses of Hoegaarden for the grownups, some chips for the boys, plastic spiders and skulls and two little bags of candies. I'm sure the boys won't agree, but that was plenty: here in the land of chocolate we aren't hurting for bon-bons, and back in Toronto we usually had so much candy that we usually ended up throwing out the rapidly aging surplus sometime close to Valentine's day, to clear the decks for that mid-February haul of goodies.

Saturday we had dinner with Denis and Florence and their kids Marjoline and Raphael (Emma was away on a Guides camping trip). Malcolm was extremely outgoing and polite, and had to ask Marjo (who has hitherto been pretty shy) several times to play a game with him. Happily, she relented ("finalement!" said Denis with a smile) and they played UNO for quite some time before the movies came out.

Then it was "High School Musical", which all the kids loved. The boys begged me to borrow it and the sequel, which Denis and Florence were nice enough to lend. No doubt they'll be dancing around for the next several weeks, repeating the lyrics until Maggie and I are half crazy... kudos to Disney for creating another live-action musical film with interracial dating that seems to have cross-generational, cross-gender appeal. Actually, I can't believe I just wrote that last sentence; I thought Disney stopped making good musicals after "Mary Poppins"...

* * *

We were all, with the exception of Duncan, struck down with a terrible stomach illness this weekend... we were all out of sorts on Sunday afternoon, and then Maggie and Malcolm were both up all Sunday night being quite violently ill. I escaped that symptom at least, but have been dizzy and very achy and sore since then. All three of us have been sleeping for most of the last few days.

Needless to say we have been cocooning a bit, and have decided to take advantage of the national holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Armistice to have a quiet day at home and get well. (Why isn't Remembrance Day a National Holiday in Canada? It's not even a statutory holiday in five provinces). I was disappointed to not be able to go up to Vimy today as we had planned, but we heard back from the International Operations branch of Veterans Affairs Canada, and the monument is open for visits year-round and there are guided tours in French and English. We might head up there this weekend.

One thought specific to Remembrance Day: last night it rained so hard on the skylights I thought they'd break; it woke both of us up several times. I can only try to imagine what such an early November rainstorm would have been like in a Belgian field, mired in a muddy trench, surrounded by artillery fire, disease, and the continuous fear of death. Had I been born 75 years earlier, I likely would have found out first-hand what it was like, and like so many young Canadian men of that age, maybe wouldn't have come home. Let's hope none of our children forget the lessons of history, and let's also hope that they need never experience such a time.

Hallowe'en... a week late?

Tonight is the school's Hallowe'en party. Yes, I know it's November 7th!

The problem is that the vacances d'automne is always timed to end just before Toussaint, or All Saints' Day, so Hallowe'en - which falls on the preceeding day - is always in the middle of a week of the fall vacation; most people are away, so the school always has its party for the kids the first friday following. Hallowe'en is a pretty recent thing in Belgium, never celebrated until a few years ago, and it's still not anything close to what we have back in Canada.

The kids aren't pleased with this "lame" version of Hallowe'en, but I guess they make up for a smaller Hallowe'en by having a visit from Saint Nicholas on December 5th, and they receive some loot then in addition to any presents that may come at Christmas.


In any case, last night each boy designed and carved a pumpkin (ewww, those gooshy bits in the centre are GROSS) and we'll light them as lamps for dinner tonight.


The boys also tried on their costumes; Duncan wore his to school this morning, but the older grades don't go to school in costume during the day, so Malcolm will have to wait until this evening to Smurf out, when we go to the school for the fête at 6pm.


We're not staying for the dinner so it will be a fairly short visit, but that doesn't really matter, it's the fact that the boys get to dress up, do some activities and have some fun running around with their friends that's the exciting part.

"What?!?!?" you're saying, "you fool, it's the FREE CANDY that's exciting!" Who knows, I may even have some of that lying around for our two little trick or treaters, although with a single stop for them, the haul will be nothing like what we... uh, I mean they used to get on Endean Avenue.

Next week there's another holiday because of Tuesday's Remembrance Day, and we're trying to figure out how to get to the Vimy war memorial; it's about an hour and a half away by car. I'm not sure whether the boys are off on Monday too. Apparently it's still fairly popular to have "le pont" or "the bridge" (when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, many workplaces remain closed for the Monday or Friday too) but I'm sure I'll find out this evening.

Bon weekend!

The foodie post

Okay, there's been a lot of dining recently, so I thought I'd send along a few photos of food... several of you have accused me of false advertising, that this is just pretending to be an opera blog, and is a "foodie" one after all. Hey, opera singers have to eat, too!

Speaking of opera, I am feeling better, after the worst of that dreadful throat cold has passed, and have started calling and emailing houses to request auditions again. Tuesday was my first day to actually feel good enough to sing in a couple of weeks, and my rehearsing was encouraging; now I feel (and sound) well enough to present myself, with vocal confidence, on the phone. I have two auditions to reschedule, and others to follow up on... I'm also thinking hard about doing a recital/concert somewhere locally, perhaps in a salon type setting, perhaps in a local concert hall or church. So far I need some sort of musical project to keep me stimulated, and my part in the Mendelssohn St. Paul in May in Antwerp is fairly minor, and still a long ways off.


But back to the food. For a moment I'll concentrate on desserts: first there's the pumpkin pie that I made earlier, for Sunday's dinner, which was roast chicken, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts... it proved to be a big hit all around, as you can see...


Then on Monday it was my birthday, and we followed dinner with a chocolate "bomb" cake, a mousse really.


It was a fairly quiet evening, as we were resting up for the next night, spent at "La Doux Wazoo", the neighborhood resto recommended by Jonathan and Kristin. We walked up the street and met them at the restaurant, which we had visited before, on Hugh and Sheila's anniversary/Maggie's birthday. They allow you (on Tuesdays only) to bring your own wine, and so we shared a bottle of the 2000 Bauchet frères champagne from our recent trip, and it went very well with my fresh oysters.

Next it was a bottle of South African chardonnay, which Maggie reserved some for her salmon in flaky pastry (see below), and Jonathan enjoyed it with his shrimp croquettes.


Kristin had a delicious belgian specialty, eel filets (no really, they're quite good)...


...and then the main course for Jonathan and I arrived, which was several small steaks of marcassin or wild boar in a deep and savoury sauce, with port-poached pears and a celery root/chestnut puree. Of course you need a good red with that, so we had a 2005 Chateau Neuf de Pape. After a meal like that we didn't need dessert beyond a little coffee for the others, and a small armagnac for me. What a great night!


Last night the culinary orgy continued; I had done some advance work the day before on a Walloon recipe for rabbit, lapin aux poires du verger (or rabbit with fresh pears) from a cookbook that I got last Christmas from Manu, a member of the extended Cloes family in Glons. Cutting up the rabbit was a bit difficult, but I managed it, and then I marinated it for 24 hours in the fridge in a half-litre of Jupiler beer, a little wine vinegar, onions, carrots, thyme, garlic, bayleaf, cloves, and some sirop de Liège. You also gently poach the pears the day before, peeling them, cutting them in half and then and simmering in water with cinammon, vanilla and sugar until transparent but still firm.


The next day I made the dish. You brown the pieces of rabbit and the onions in some butter, then return the marinade to the pot and simmer about an hour and a half. 30 minutes before serving you add 20 or so plums pickled in red wine vinegar (yummy!). You sieve out the pieces and thicken the sauce with some cornstarck or flour, and serve it on the side. You can toast up some hazelnuts (I ran out of time) and serve those as a garnish, but you do serve the pears with a dab of wild cranberry jam in the centre of each half. I also served a rocket salad and some fresh bread, but boiled potatoes with parsley would have worked just as well.

Ok, then, time for lunch.

le weekend chez les boys

We took our car back yesterday morning, and on the way back took the Metro to the Beaulieu station and walked home. It was raining a bit but we still made it home fine, albeit with a wrong turn that added ten minutes to our walk. In one of the parks along the route we saw ducks and geese and gulls, and this family of parent swans, with four young swans with plumage just starting to change.

After dinner last night Malcolm went immediately up to his room to read; currently it's Fablehaven, a fantasy story about two children who go to visit their grandparents at their country home for a week, only to discover a secret about the farm and the true profession of their grandparents.

Duncan stayed at the table to draw, he's really excited about that these days. There are pictures of superheroes and dragons and knights stacked on every table. He sings a lot to himself while drawing, which bugs Malcolm (hence the bedroom as prime reading location) but to me it's really funny. You've got to watch what you load the ipod up with; I almost snorted Duvel out of my nose last night when, while drawing, Duncan sang in a passable warm baritone, "... but I shot a man in Reno... just to watch him die..." He sure loves his Johnny Cash.


Today was quiet and quite nice weather, so we went to the park, played baseball and threw the football around, then came back for lunch. It's clouded over a bit, so I'm still considering whether we crack out the barbecook tonight (I found some nice Irish steaks that would be perfect) or roast chicken. The place across the street roasts chickens on a spit every Sunday for 6 or 7 Euros each, but I have a fresh chicken in the fridge right now. Given the fact that Maggie doesn't get back from Amsterdam until after 6pm, it's probably going to be easier to keep chicken from overcooking. The oven is already warmed up from... Pumpkin pie!


Yes, I'm pleased so far with how it's turned out, although the proof of the pudding (or the pie in this case) is in the eating, as they say. Pumpkin pie isn't easy to conjure up around here, and you'll never find it in a patisserie. I bought an edible pumpkin from Eve, the florist across the street, baked and mashed it, then ground up the fresh spices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger) and used a little maple syrup along with the sugars for the sweetener, since molasses weren't available. I've got some whipped cream in the fridge, so we should be good to go.


As you can see it is a lazy Sunday, and Duncan has the right idea, and found a self-heating pillow to lie on while reading his Picsou Super Geant, which is a French publication of comics about Scrooge McDuck, Donald and the nephews (Disney stopped these in North America in the 1990s, but they are still going strong here). Kiki doesn't seem to mind the company, she was here alone all week and was quite glad to see us return.

Bon dimanche!