Absinthe Valentine’s Day Menu

There are some years when staying home and having a cozy dinner and a movie is the perfect answer to wooing your loved one.  Then there are years when you want to get out and enjoy the creative talents of some of the city’s leading chefs and restaurants.  This year, we are going out!!!!  On February 14 we will be dining at Absinthe, a wonderful restaurant only a block from the Royal LePage office.  We love this place for its amazing service and the creative menus.  Here is a photo from the Absinthe website and the proposed Valentine’s Day menu……

Valentines Menu – Menu de Saint-Valentin    
Reservations For Valentines Day are for Two Hour Seatings. There is a set menu on Valentines Day, and the regular menu will not be available.
First Course ~ Premier Service
Lobster ~ Homard  
Lobster Ravioli, Butter Poached Claw, American Sauce ~ Ravioli de Homard, Pince Pochée au Beurre, Sauce Américaine
Foie & Quail ~ Foie et Caille  
Seared Quail Breast, Foie Gras Terrine ~ Poitrine de Caille Saisie, Terrine de Foie Gras
Second Course ~ Deuxième Service
Duck ~ Canard  
Seared Breast, Duck Confit ~ Magret de Canard, Confit de Canard
Seafood ~ Fruits de Mer  
Trout, Scallop, Yuzu ~ Truite, Pétoncles, Yuzu
Third Course ~ Troisième Service
Arugula ~ Roquette  
Maple Candied Walnuts, Cheese ~ Noix Caramélisées, Fromage
Fourth Course ~ Quatrième Service
Stawberries, Roses & Chocolate ~ Fraises, Roses et Chocolat  
This Menu is a work in progress, and may (and probably will) change.

Having a menu in French and English does allow you to practice your French and be just a little bit bilingual. 

Valerie Zinger  email: vzinger@royallepage.com  (613-723-5300)

Royal LePage Gale Real Estate,  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  

Moving a Family Member to A Seniors’ Home

My friend Judy Klem works with seniors in Connecticut.  She wrote this post for her site on ActiveRain.  It is so relevant that I have re-blogged it here so that we can all benefit from her advice.

  

From my Email In-Box: Replace Mom’s Moving Panic with Familiar Comforts

Moving is always stressful, no matter your age or health. But when the person moving is elderly, becoming frail, and perhaps exhibiting the early signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s, the stress can easily escalate to full-blown panic. Downsizing from a home where they’ve lived for decades, followed by facing the confusion of waking in an unfamiliar home can cause a real downward spiral.

Fortunately, the techniques developed by Senior Move Managers can really ease the situation and help replace potential moving panic with the familiar comforts that mean home.

 Email Letter - moving Mom

First, although it’s easy to think you’d be better off taking on all the work and letting Mom – or Dad – just sit and relax, this is not a good course of action. To the extent that your parent can make decisions, involve them wherever you can.

Sorting through the accumulated belongings of a lifetime is a large topic, so I’ll address the details of doing that in a separate post. For now, let’s look at what you do once you’ve got the essentials for your parent – and what those essentials need to include for Mom or Dad to feel comfortable in their new home. 

Kitchen Cabinet Snapshot

 To create a sense of familiarity, observe the day-to-day activities that are most important to your parent, as well as their favorite objects. Take photos of these objects as well as things like the insides of cabinets holding essential objects, and make lists, room by room, of the belongings they’ll need.

You’ll use both the photos and the lists to develop a plan to create a comfortable home environment in the new home. For example, the plan would include these:

  • Try to have the bed positioned so that access to the bathroom is in a similar orientation to that at the home she’s leaving.
  • Make sure the bed table is on the side she is used to, and includes the things she normally keeps there. Her bedside lamp, perhaps a spare pair of glasses, the book she’s been reading before going to sleep, and so on.
  • Get the bed ready first in case the move is really exhausting, and your Mom would like to have a nap.
  • Be sure to include artwork and photos that were in her bedroom before.
  • Set up the medicine cabinet in the same way it was in Mom’s previous home, so she can find everything easily. If prescription meds will be handled by staff, be sure to get all the correct information and medications to them.
  • Hang towels and bathrobe, and any other things your parent is used to seeing in her bathroom.
  • Include artwork from the previous bathroom.
  • Be sure to include the pillows and throw blankets, as well as the things needed for your parent to continue the activities they normally enjoy.
  • Books, music, crossword puzzles, knitting, crocheting, magazines. Anything your parent uses regularly and
  • gets pleasure from should be included and set out in a similar way so it’s all easy to see, and feels familiar.
  • Be sure to include photos of family and friends. Mom or Dad will enjoy looking at these, and this activity can help when there are some memory problems.

These are just some of the ways you can help replace the panic that can ensue from moving house with a sense of familiarity and comfort. Your senior move manager can be a good resource for this type of information, and can also lend a hand if the work proves to be too much for family members to complete on their own.Remember, there are many sources for help and information available to you. You don’t have to go it alone!

From my Email In-Box: Replace Mom’s Moving Panic with Familiar Comforts

 Thanks so much for visiting!
Judy Klem

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The Longest Skateway in North America is Now Open

The Skateway is now open and ready for skate enthusiasts.  What a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.  The Skateway is 7.8 km long.  It begins near Canada’s Parliament Buildings and goes along commercial and residential areas to a large manmade lake – Dows Lake.  The water in the canal is lowered in the fall.  In the above photo, you can see the cement sides to the canal, the bridges that cross it and in the background the very beautiful Chateau Laurier, a top rated hotel in the country.

For the past couple of weeks, we have had low enough temperatures to have the ice thicken.  When it reaches a good depth, the canal is flooded (from water pumped up from below the ice), leveled as much as possible, scraped and snow removed after every snowfall.  Thousands of people from around the world come to enjoy the canal and, in February, the Winterlude Festival. 

If you don’t skate, then walk along the canal and ejoy the skaters, the children being pulled in sleighs, the kiosks for hot drinks and the souvenirs. tasty treats such as the now famous Beaver Tails and then there are the warm-up areas.  Everyone with a camera has fabulous photos of skaters on the canal. 

Come to Ottawa to enjoy our winter. 

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbie1/99922517/

Happy 2011!

 

May this new year bring us peace, health, love, friends, family, contentment, success, the sound of children laughing, tears of sorrow and of joy, challenges, hope, new interests, a sense of exploration,  a bright future, things to look forward to and things to remember fondly. 

Here is to a bright and prosperous 2011. 

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

 

 

This is a poem that Canadian children learn and recite to commemorate November 11, Remembrance Day.  For most of us, the poem and its meaning are never forgotten.

Photo credit:  J.J. Zinger

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

May your stuffing  be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.  
May your beans be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!  

 

Photo credit:  Thanksgiving Tureky @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuchodi/4003359098/

Look What I Found – The Experimental Farm, Ottawa

The Farm is situated smack in the middle of the city, inside the Green Belt.  It is one of the Federal Government Department of Agriculture’s functioning research stations.  It is also a wonderful place for runners, walkers, cyclists, flower aficionados, picnickers and children.  The employees and the Friends of the Farm work non-stop to make the Farm a welcoming place for all.  I love visiting the Ornamental Gardens on a regular basis.  The planting scheme has perennials blooming throughout the growing season.  Photographers visit the gardens getting perfect shots of the different plants and trees. 

There is something to see or do for everyone at The Farm.

Look what I found – the flour shoppe ~ cupcakes

Most cupcakes seem to be just right in size but can be too hard or dry to eat.  After three visits to the flour shoppe and a sampling of cupcakes, I would say that these are certainly worth getting for a treat.  Would I drive across town?  Probably not but then I am not overly fond of cake.   I like the varying flavours – not everything is available at every visit so there are often surprise flavours waiting to be tried.  This shop has been open for only a few weeks but has already managed to get some good press coverage.  For anyone living in The Glebe or driving down Bank, it would be fun to stop in and get a few cupcakes for dessert for the family or a party.   The cost is $2.50 a cupcake and $14.00 for 6.  I like the box as it ensures that the cakes don’t smash together. 

Located at 617 Bank Street (near the 417) and open only at 11:00 AM (even on a Saturday) to early evening.

Look what I found – Art-Is-In Bread, the best in Ottawa

Art-Is-In Bread.  Who has not tried the garlic bread and found almost whole cloves baked into the bread or had the baquette and not eaten the whole loaf in one sitting?  While the bakers and ovens are located behind the Bagel Shop, the bread is sold mostly to restaurants and then some loaves and buns are available at locations such as Lansdown on Sundays, the Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli, The Red Apron and Epicuria.  Of course, the Loeb in the Glebe has it as well.

Summertime Beach Humour

Q.  What did the pig say at the beach on a hot summer’s day?

A.   I’m bacon!

 

Q.  What washes up on very small beaches?

A.  Microwaves!

 

 Photo credit:  Pigging it. @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsie/3701921/

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