Cosmic ChrisC

Lots of musicians on here. Submit your anthem before August 31st: http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/

It was Ollie's birthday on the 14th. Let's help cheer him up before he goes back to work on Tuesday after a fun vacation! It was recovery day today and will be again tomorrow! It's 11:30pm and Ollie's sleeping on the couch! Happy birthday to Ollie and all the cool Leos on this board!! Davey Boy is 40?!

Oh, I found a web site for the restaurant I mentioned in my post, L'échaudé

Read this article about Quebec City in the travel section of Saturday's Ottawa Citizen.

Ollie and I might go there the first week of August, if we can find an affordable place within walking distance of the old city. I've been there so many times and I love it everytime. Go for a drink at the lounge bar of the Chateau Frontenac...where many of our prime ministers did the same. Just walk around and take it all in...one of my favorite walks was late at night when it was really quiet, and I saw a cat and we followed him up some old steps where we found yet more lanes to discover. Best dinner I had there was at L'Échaudé (can't find a web site for it). I've never really tried that many fancy places there because we're always with a group of people when we go. But that place was really nice. Place to stay: When I was young and I'd go with my family, I'd stay at my aunt's convent...not recommended! The past few times, we stayed at Hotel Bonsejours and Hotel Belley and also Loews Concorde which your dad and wife would probably enjoy the most, typical big hotel, but probably pricey right now. You have to go to l'île d'Orléans, a 20 minute drive, and on the way, you'll see the Montmorency Falls. L'île d'Orléans is pretty much farmland and inns and restaurants. Takes 1 hour to drive around and it's wonderful! We had a great meal there at le Moulin du St-Laurent. Ollie just reminded me that we also had a great breakfest at Café du monde, near the St-Lawrence waterfront. Man, yeah, it was good. The reason I want to go this year is to see the Robert Lepage film projected on grain elevators, showing the history of Québec. It's on until August 24th. Image Mill Anyway, if I think of anything else, I'll let you know! My boss' boyfriend lives there right now, so I'll ask her.

What? I totally remember a security guy escorting you...was it a voluntary escort? And I remember fighting words. Ok, I probably made it sounds worse that it was, but it still was kinda bad there.

Ah...I'm always out of town for this festival, and will be again this year! It's such a nice venue. But, Ollie gets in fights there...major lawnchairs at that place. Security kicked him out the last time we went. But it was pretty easy to come back in after though.

Four free concerts, under the stars Steven Mazey The Ottawa Citizen Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Always wanted to try opera or classical music but weren't sure if you wanted to shell out for tickets? Here's your chance to do some sampling, at a price that's hard to resist: free. T-shirts and shorts, picnic baskets and lawn chairs are welcome. Stake out your spot, relax, and hear Verdi, Puccini and Brahms under the stars. It's all part of "Orchestras in the Park," which returns to LeBreton Flats tomorrow for a second year. Presented by the National Capital Commission and the National Arts Centre, the four performances run through Sunday, with a different concert each night. The opening concert, which will focus on opera, includes two of Canada's most acclaimed stars -- tenor Richard Margison and soprano Measha Brueggergosman. The two singers perform with the world's leading orchestras and opera houses, where customers have to pay big bucks. You don't often get a chance to hear singers of this calibre for free. If you're still not sure about the classical stuff, you might want to check out Saturday's concert, when singer-songwriter Ian Tyson is the headliner, presented by the NAC to mark Tyson's 75th birthday. Last year's concert series included two nights of free opera conducted by Canadian Opera Company director Richard Bradshaw, with Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and baritone Russell Braun. Even in cool and grey weather, the NCC said the two concerts attracted a combined audience of about 20,000. In his review, Citizen critic Richard Todd said the crowd included "people of all ages and walks of life. There were even a few youngish fellows you might not want to meet in a dark alley -- but they just sat on the grass, rapt like everyone else." So much for the tired accusation that opera only appeals to the Rockcliffe set. The NAC is dedicating tomorrow's concert to Bradshaw, who died of a heart attack last August, just several weeks after conducting the Ottawa concerts. His widow, Diana, and son James are expected to attend the performance. Here's a rundown of the concerts, which all start at 7:30 p.m.: Tomorrow: Opera under the Stars. Guest conductor Alain Trudel, highly regarded director of the soon-to-be defunct CBC Radio Orchestra, will direct the NACO, with Margison, Brueggergosman and the Opera Lyra Ottawa chorus. In his first Ottawa performances since he brought listeners to their feet at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival in 2006 with his roof-raising rendition of Nessun dorma, Margison will perform arias from Puccini's Tosca, Cilea's L'arlesiana and Massenet's Le Cid. Brueggergosman, who was last in town for Beethoven's Ninth with the NACO last September, will perform Lia's Aria from Debussy's L'enfant prodigue and Dich, teure Halle from Wagner's Tannhäuser. She and Margison will join their thrilling voices in duets from Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera and Otello. The Opera Lyra Chorus will perform pieces from Nabucco and Tannhäuser and the orchestra will perform pieces by Verdi, Berlioz and Wagner. Friday: Jean-Philippe Tremblay conducts L'Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne. The soloist will be young Quebec soprano Marianne Fiset, who at the 2007 Montreal International Musical Competition made headlines when she won not just the $25,000 first prize but four of the six additional special awards. During the competition, Montreal Gazette critic Arthur Kaptainis praised Fiset for "a lyrical style and 14-carat sound." Fiset will perform songs by Richard Strauss, and the orchestra will perform Brahms's Symphony No. 2 and a new piece by Canadian composer Julien Bilodeau. Saturday: Singer and guitarist Ian Tyson and some of his band members join the NACO for a concert that will include Tyson tunes, including Four Strong Winds, and arrangements of songs by others, including Over the Rainbow. Sunday: Alain Trudel conducts the NACO in a concert that will include Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker and NACO violinist Jessica Linnebach as soloists. In a change from the concert listing in the NAC's summer brochure, Parker will be soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Linnebach will be soloist in Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. The orchestra will also perform Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor and pieces by Bizet and Wagner. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Sharon, I just saw an article about that in the Ottawa Citizen!!! Man! He won 10 million bucks plus all that other stuff! Is he quitting his job?

100 Miles Good Lickin' Laura Robin The Ottawa Citizen Thursday, June 19, 2008 What's New? Pascale's All-Natural Ice Cream. Is this really new? I seem to remember seeing it on a menu somewhere ... You're right. [color:blue]Pascale Berthiaume, the pastry chef at Wellington Gastropub, has been making ice creams for the dessert menu for about a year and a half. But this weekend she's going to start offering them in half-litre containers that customers can buy to take home. And she hopes soon to start selling little cups of her homemade ice creams from a refrigerated cart on the patio in front of the restaurant, at 1325 Wellington St. West. Will They Sell? It seems so. During A Taste of Wellington West on June 7, she had a trial run and her ice creams -- all 20 litres of the raspberry passion fruit and banana caramel that she had prepared -- were licked up in less than two hours. Mind you, it was free ice cream on the hottest weekend of the year. So are Her Ice Creams Popular Otherwise? Incredibly. When Pascale first joined the Gastropub staff and started experimenting with making ice cream, it was simply written on the menu as "in-house ice cream." After a while, though, people started noticing how good it was, and asking who made it. The owners started calling the desserts "Pascale's homemade ice creams." "That's when it all exploded," says the 28-year-old. "I went from making about four litres a week to making 16 litres twice a week." What Flavour are Pascale's Ice Creams? What aren't they? Pascale always has three flavours on the menu and changes them weekly. Some of the most popular flavours have been raspberry-cassis ("It's really fresh and tarty," says Pascale), dolce de leche (for more than three hours, she reduces milk, sugar and baking soda into rich, brown caramel), peanut butter and salted caramel, banana chai and white chocolate espresso with pecans. What's Next? "Today I was thinking about making a roasted almond and amaretto semifreddo," Pascale said last week (semifreddo is a half-frozen kind of Italian ice cream that you don't churn.) "Chris (Gastropub chef Chris Deraiche) loves corn, so I want to try making a caramel corn ice cream." Anything Weirder? Challenged by Steve Beauchesne of Beau's All-Natural Brewing Company, Pascale made a milk-chocolate-bogwater-with-oatmeal-praline ice cream last winter, when Beau's Bogwater ale was on tap at the Gastropub. How Local? When you buy Pascale's ice cream, you're getting it mere feet from where it was made. (And down 16 steps, once she starts operating her cart on the patio.) The ingredients vary from very local to not-so local. "I try to be local as much as I can," she says. She usually starts with a custard base made from 35-per-cent cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla bean seeds. These all come from Ontario and Quebec companies such as Beatrice, which is part of Parmalat, based in Toronto, so some of the cream could have come from local dairies and some of the yolks from local farms. Ingredients such as sugar, vanilla pods and chocolate obviously come from farther away. Pascale also loves to use local fruits from the Parkdale Market, just down the street from the restaurant. "In winter, of course, I have to substitute. And I want to try to make kiwi ice cream." Did Pascale Always See Ice Cream in Her Future? Hardly. Her family has run a funeral home in Hawkesbury for the past 100 years and at one time she thought she'd join that business. She also considered being a paramedic or an RCMP officer, and did a degree in psychology and criminology at the University of Ottawa. She worked on Parliament Hill as an assistant to former MP Don Boudria before deciding to attend the Cordon Bleu culinary school in Ottawa. But even there, she did all three levels of cooking courses required to be a chef, but ran out of money before taking the pastry chef courses. So How Did She End Up Making Desserts? She landed her first cooking job at Beckta, where they taught her the pastry chef ropes. "I love the fact that you have to measure everything and that everything has to be so precise," she says. She then went on to work at Nicastro's before moving to the Gastropub. "I love working here. The owners (Deraiche and Shane Waldron) are really, really cool people." And Now? "It's kind of insane," she says with a look of wonder. "I've got 1,000 stickers ready for the cartons. I plan to sell seven to eight flavours of ice cream in half-litre cartons, for $8.50 each, and two to four on the patio. I'll keep some flavours exclusive to the restaurant. I need to buy a shed to operate from on the patio. I'm shooting for July 1, but it all depends on getting permits from the city. I hope to sell on the patio in the afternoons and maybe later on Saturday night. I have a lot of musician friends so maybe I'll get some of them to play. I can't believe all this is happening." 100 Miles features food and goods grown or made within 100 miles of Ottawa. Send ideas or questions to life@thecitizen.canwest.com © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Good luck Sharon! Ollie and I are in Montreal this weekend. This would have been cool. Outdoor movies are fun! I feel bad for missing not only one (Burma benefit) but now this benefit too! Busy weekends lately!

I know you foodies are gonna think this is gross but I like spaghetti with tomato juice and a side of baked beans and I mix it together sometimes. It's very white-trash, I know.

Hotel le Saint Andre' date=' which is mid-way between the bus station and the venue. Aloha, Brad[/quote'] Ollie and I stayed there a couple years ago...my car was broken into while parked in the hotel parking lot! A sketchy neighborhoor but I liked the hotel. They had a fridge in the room for our beer and that's all I cared about! I also remember really cool stairwells.

Yeah, Jiu-Jitsu was fun! But after about 1.5 years of training, they started pushing us to compete more and more and I don't like that kinda pressure...it was starting to conflict with my partying! haha! But it is a great workout and a cool martial art. Therien Jiu-Jitsu has a gym now on Wellington Street, close to Parkdale.

I wanna go see Return to Forever and might show up for others shows too...I'm also planning to spend most of the day there on Canada Day...if they serve beer on that day. Beau's beer is being served this year at the festival. Right on!: TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival welcomes local brewery The TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival is delighted to welcome local micro-brewery, Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company, of Vankleek Hill, in Eastern Ontario, as the official beer supplier of the 2008 Festival this summer taking place from June 20 – July 1. Everything from the brewing, organic malts, to the local springwater is all natural. This family-run business was founded by a father and son team, Tim and Steve Beauchesne in 2006 and has already made major strides in Ontario’s beer industry. “Launched on Canada Day 2006, Lug Tread has already earned a reputation for quality and clean taste with beer drinkers who want more than just a cheap buzz. It's actually got character and flavour.†– Ron Eade, Ottawa Citizen. This summer Beau’s All Natural will launch their newest product a dark beer, called Festivale (Festive-Ale; get it?), at the Festival. Festivale will complement Beau’s flagship product, the multi-award-winning Lug Tread Lagered Ale. http://www.beaus.ca

And a map here of restaurants participating. I won't be going to this (going to see rugby games today in Richmond): http://www.wellingtonwest.ca/newsandevents/areanews/#7

Article in Saturday's Citizen: Head west and dig in A Taste of Wellington won't let a little -- OK, a lot -- of roadwork cancel its ever-growing party Catherine Lawson The Ottawa Citizen Saturday, June 07, 2008 From left, Chris Green of Harvest Loaf Bakery, James Foley of Petit Bill's Bistro, Ma'ayan Steinberg of Herb and Spice, Terry Fitzpatrick of Petit Bill's, Farouza Shamim of Emerald Bakery and Marc Grondin of Amate are a few of the merchants taking part in A Taste of Wellington today along Wellington Street West. CREDIT: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen From left, Chris Green of Harvest Loaf Bakery, James Foley of Petit Bill's Bistro, Ma'ayan Steinberg of Herb and Spice, Terry Fitzpatrick of Petit Bill's, Farouza Shamim of Emerald Bakery and Marc Grondin of Amate are a few of the merchants taking part in A Taste of Wellington today along Wellington Street West. Last year's Taste of Wellington West was a big success, with hundreds of people enjoying free samples from the many restaurants, bakeries and food shops along the strip. It was so popular some businesses ran out of food and had to close early, says Chris Green, owner of Harvest Loaf Bakery and vice-chair of the newly formed Wellington West Business Improvement Area (BIA). "I saw a lot of new faces," Green recalls. Bringing in potential new customers was the whole point of the tidbit giveaway. And it's why Taste of Wellington West is returning today from noon to 4 p.m. There's just one problem: Wellington West is in the midst of major road reconstruction. The blocks between Holland and Parkdale avenues are closed to traffic. In other sections of the street, the sidewalks are being ripped up. It's part of a two-year, $20-million facelift to eventually make the area more pedestrian-friendly. Instead of cancelling their plans, the organizers have decided to embrace the chaos and turn it into a plus. "It's like a construction theme park," says Green. In fact, he has noticed the heavy machinery doing the ripping up and reconstruction seems to delight small children. That said, organizers have planned carefully for the big day. Work crews have agreed to park their construction vehicles on side streets and open some parking areas. They have also promised to give the area a good spraying with water to damp down the dust. Dubbed "epicurean row" by some, Wellington West is home to well-known nosheries like Ottawa Bagelshop, Thyme & Again Creative Catering and Absinthe Restaurant. Lebanese, Thai, Italian, Persian, French, Indian and Latin American are among the cuisines available at takeouts and restaurants. Thirty businesses will be offering free food samples. Wellington Gastropub plans to unveil a new ice cream. The Royal Oak pub will have samples of its butter chicken. Not all the participants are known for their food. Levonian, a shirtmaker, plans to hand out kimono-wrapped cookies. Law firm Beament Green is offering free legal advice. Taste of Wellington is a chance to check out the new businesses that are springing up along the street -- like Amate, which opened its kitchen just two months ago. The handicrafts and food store features the flavours of Latin America, including enchiladas, tamales and mole sauces. You can pick up a map at any participating business. At every stop there's an opportunity to fill out a free raffle ticket. Prizes will include gift certificates to area restaurants. The Wellington West BIA takes in the area from to Island Park Drive eastward to Breezehill Avenue North. Two kilometres long, it includes the neighbourhoods of West Wellington and Hintonburg. It is not to be confused with the Wellington Street that runs in front of the Parliament Buildings. The roadwork now under way, although disruptive, will give this diverse street a more cohesive look. Plans call for wider sidewalks, bike racks, art installations and new lighting. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Yeah, don't do it!! You don't need them! I've been offered free cell phones and still refused.

Wicked!!! I love being downtown on Canada Day. I'll just walk around to different venues and check out whatever's going on. Been wanting to see Garnet Rogers for a while now (simply because this guy I know in the States travels to Canada regularly just to go see this guy, so I'm curious). Looks like he's playing in the afternoon and at night. I also wanna see Alex Cuba. I love Canada Day!

Ah...vibes to Trevor!!! Got any more details on this?

This festival scares me.

What kind of trouble? Well, if the line-up would have been long, he would have started telling people how to do their jobs probably. Something like that.

I've never been to The Works; everytime I tried to go, it would be full and there was no way I was gonna wait 20 minutes for a table. I don't wanna go there now tonight. I don't like big burgers and big portions. And I like simple burgers...don't care about choosing from millions of fancy toppings either. The only reason we were gonna go there is just because we're going to an opening at Artguise gallery and the Works is right beside it. So...where else can we go around there then (590 Bank Street)? Something cheap, casual and quick. I realize that this should have been posted in the Food Forum.

I knew I shoulda posted this sooner, but I did post it as soon as I found out. Ollie and them were already gone to Ahora on Dalhousie...they might have liked the burger thing too although the line-ups were probably insanely long and Ollie would have caused trouble. I work on St-Laurent boulevard; I feel so far from you guys downtown who go for fun lunches and 3:30 beers!

I'm probably too late posting this, but here goes anyway: May 30th is Food Aid Day!!! May 20th, 2008 8:59am That’s right folks, May 30th is Food Aid Day and this year, we are having one big chillin BBQ at Festival Plaza, City Hall. Rain or Shine, we are on site and Grilling with Style between 11am-2pm, The WORKS BBQ will take care of you! $10 will get you a Spectacular Food Aid Gourmet Burger, chips, a drink and a $5 off coupon for “Capital Beef†the second annual cookbook in support of Food Aid. Food Aid day will have lots of entertainment with live music and even a two part celebrity milking competition, bet you thought you wouldn’t see that on your Friday lunch agenda! Remember, Food Aid is a program run by the Ottawa Food Bank to purchase and process beef from local farmers and help feed the needy in the community. So step out of the confines of the Office building and out into the Fresh Air with Live Music, Killer Burgs and a whole lot of Bovine! Be sure to arrive early and treat yourself to a Stellar Friday Lunch.