The Baking Project: Tales From Our Kitchen
In 2010 I started “the project”. It was in the dark days when I was working on my thesis and was looking for something that would keep me happy. I admit that I was a bit inspired by the movie “Julie & Julia”, but my idea was a bit less ambitious. I wanted to try to bake at least one new recipe a week. We have many cookbooks at home so it wasn’t a problem to find new recipes. I kept a list and baked away. By the end of the year I reached 56 new recipes. On average it was more than one recipe per week (the goal was…
The Tower of Ritter
Early this summer we found ourselves with an astonishing collection of Ritter Sport bars. This wasn’t exactly planned – we had a few bars at home, and when friends visiting Germany offered to bring us some more, we of course took them up on the offer. It turns out Ritter Sport is about a third of the price in Germany, so they got us ten bars, an excellent foundation for our Tower of Ritter. As you might notice, we have a weakness for the marzipan flavour. If you aren’t familiar with Ritter Sport, I urge you to check them out, you won’t be disappointed. There are many flavours, but the…
More Explorations of Seattle and Nearby
In early December we headed to Seattle again. Not exactly a place of sunshine and warmth this time of year, but a city with many attractions and good food to offer. Tal, Gili’s brother, was assigned to work in Seattle for a few weeks. He visited us in Vancouver for a week and after his first week at work we went to visit him on his days off. We left Vancouver very late on Thursday, which was a good move border-wise: there were no line-ups whatsoever. Also the drive was smooth, although we both were struggling to stay awake by the end. We reached the deserted downtown, it didn’t seem…
The Lonely Planet on Beer Sheva
Friends were visiting recently and had an older Lonely Planet guidebook for Israel. While looking through it, I looked up a few favourite places. I found that Ramle was labelled, somewhat aptly, as “off the beaten track”. But I was surprised to find out that the authors make fun of Beer Sheva, the town Maya and I spent three years in before coming to Vancouver. “Unattractive and with little to see and little to do, Beersheva (sic) is unlikely to impress many visitors. It’s the kind of town that gives most satisfaction when seen from the rear window of your departing bus” Now, it’s true that Beer Sheva is not…
Best Travel Insurance for Canadians
You like to travel, right? But, what if you are involved in an accident or serious illness, who will pay the bills? It might be a good idea to get some travel insurance. Since we’ll be leaving on an extended trip soon, I’ve been busy doing some research on insurance companies, which I’m sharing so that it can hopefully save you some of the time I already wasted on it. My criteria for a good travel insurance policy, besides being cheap, is: 1. it covers outdoor recreation, specifically hiking, cycling, climbing, scuba diving, white water rafting, etc. 2. it has adequate medical coverage, and covers accidents, illness and evacuation. 3.…
