It’s chilly during the days. Even frostier in the evening, our heaters are on and we just celebrated Thanksgiving. This means, sadly, that summer is over. the sun is setting earlier and earlier and the leaves are slowly changing colour, curling off their branches, and falling to the ground. Autumn would be so much better if we could just have another summer after it, not the long, cold winter.

So now that summer’s gone, I figured it’s time to sum up the last few months and just be happy with how the time was spent.

With the exception of the time in Portugal at the end of May and the camping trip at the beginning of June, summer was spent in Montreal. Fortunately, Montreal is a great city to live in in the summer, as there are festivals happening pretty much every day. We took the opportunities we had to enjoy as much as we could, exploring the city and even making some new discoveries!

For the most part, I used my phone’s camera to get photos of everything, but there were a few days where I wandered around with the Nikon in tow. One of these days was a walk down to the Old Port (top row) and Old Montreal. It’s a top tourist destination, but I never, ever go there – there’s just not all that much to do. I got caught in a massive downpour (pretty much the only one we had all summer!) while on a tiny, cobbled side street and had to huddle in a tiny doorway with a ton of spiders for about 30 minutes to wait it out. I also checked out the Just for Laughs festival on a few occasions, The photos on the bottom row show them just starting to set up the festival at the Quartier des Spectacles.

Other random things in Montreal that were explored.

Top row
(1) On top of the hotel that overlooks the Quartier des Spectacles. We went up there to find the hotel bar, which was great, with an awesome swimming pool. This little spot was along the side, and so pretty and private.
(2) A rainbow spotted one Sunday evening on my parent’s balcony in the south shore.
(3) Sitting after a walk through parc Lafontaine, where I spent a few afternoons and evenings watching the water and reading books

Middle row
(1) Cloudy sunset from my front porch steps
(2) Blue moon from my front porch steps
(3) The sunset on my bike ride home from work one evening

Bottom row
(1) Graffiti behind Foufounes
(2) and (3) Visiting LaRonde on the hottest day of the year and feeling much, much too old.

Oh, and the food! Along with the meals at the Main and Diablos, we feasted every chance we could!

Top row
(1) Beef in red coconut curry from Kam Do in Ville St-Laurent
(2) My favourite poutine in the city – Montreal Pool Room on St-Laurent
(3) A great and cheap burger from Burger de Ville, a fallback when we discovered our favourite Vietnamese place closes early in the evening

Second row
(1) Sushi with uni(!) at Mikado
(2) Shish taouk while waiting in line for a Fantasia film
(3) Mont-Royal Hot Dog Special poutine, ordered in one evening

Third row
(1) 72% chocolate/raspberry soft serve from Kem Co Ba
(2) A sloppy double bacon cheeseburger from La Paryse, picked up after an exhausting day at F1 races
(3) Yet another poutine, from Decarie Hot Dog, in Ville St-Laurent

Bottom row
(1) Weekend breakfast at Place Milton
(2) Pizza from Pendeli’s in CDN
(3) Dumplings from Sushi 999

And dim sum visits! Nothing better than eating all the dim sum early Sunday mornings in the summer!

Not too mention that we also visited the food trucks who lined St-Catherine street during the Just for Laughs festival, sampling the tuna tartare and the pulled pork sandwiches:

The octopus balls and the BBQ rib sandwiches:

And mont-blancs and duck confit poutines:

We cooked at home a lot too, enjoying several BBQs in the backyard.

Top row
(1) Grilled fish
(2) Lamb, veal and beef burgers with brie
(3) Camping BBQ

Bottom row
(1) Burgers and thick cuts of bacon
(2) Corn, garlic, veggies
(3) Lobster!!

And the other food prepared at home over the summer:

Top row:
(1) Fresh salsa made in the late summer, with corn, tomatoes and jalapenos from the market
(2) Super chocolate chunk cookies – amazing!
(3) Ribs from Coco Rico, but Soli-fied, with a maple syrup sauce

Bottom row:
(1) Fresh pesto with the basil that grew in our garden all summer long
(2) Chocolate-cherry scones, with fresh cherries
(3) Zucchini and tomato bake

What else? We grew our own tomatoes, made jalapeno mint jelly with mint from our garden, and baked some cakes.

I think this hot summer of perfectly sunny days was well-spent, and am already looking forward to the next one!

I don’t know how anyone can hate camping. One of my favourite things is to escape into the woods, put up a tent, start a fire, swim in a lake, drink wine, enjoy just being away and eat lots and lots of camping-appropriate food. Fortunately, Mont Tremblant and its 1500km of lakes, woods and rivers is only about one hour away from Montreal, so it provides perfect and ample opportunities for camping.

A photo recap of our camping trip and meals on Lac Provost in Mont-Tremblant:

Arriving – setting up the tent and starting the fire.

A quick hike down to the lake to check in out in the sunset.

Then dinner time…an appetizer of grilled corn, followed by grilled chicken sandwiches, ending with a roaring campfire.

The next morning, up early with an omelet made with onions, basil brought from our home garden, cherry tomatoes from our home tomato plants, grilled corn and local cheese curds. Paired with some fantastic white wine, it’s the ideal way to wake up on a hot summer morning in the forest.

A leisurely walk along the shores of the lake, including picnic table stops with Frisbee, swimming and vodka.

Lunch/dinner was beef and veal burgers, topped with more cheese curds, onions and tomatoes, and a sauce that was made by reducing the marinade that the chicken had been sitting in.

The rest of the evening was filled with more swimming, playing the ukulele, checking out other parts of the lake, more frisbee and roasting a whole lot of marshmallows.

The next day, exploring/climbing waterfalls on a rainy afternoon and sleepily making our way back home.

Yup, it’s been pretty quiet around here. As usual, we’ve been cooking lots and not finding any inclination or desire to write about any of it. I am happy that Android FINALLY got Instagram…maybe that will encourage me to post a little more?

We have been enjoying the new house, and love seeing how the spring is changing the place. Our backyard is getting tidier, we’ve gotten two new BBQs that we have enjoyed thoroughly, and we found out our front yard will be growing a surplus of oregano, mint, thyme and various other herbs we can pick whenever we like. In addition, two massive lilac trees adorn either side of our front door. Needless to say, we are happy to see spring come this way.

A little on some of our recent BBQ escapades…

For our very first BBQ in the backyard, we used the BBQ that Soli’s dad had given him, combined with grills from our hibachi. We picked up some tomatoes, endives, asparagus, onions and mushrooms to grill, coating them all in olive oil, lemon, oregano, salt.

To go with that, we bought some bison and some rabbit sausages from a butcher down the street, as well as some deer steaks. All were very wonderful, especially the lean deer. The bison sausages may have been just a little too rich and the rabbit sausage a little too lean, as it dried out quite quickly on the BBQ. We also grilled some thickly cut slabs of bacon.

Then, Soli’s Weber got delivered, and our first meal on that was a full snapper, stuffed with green onions and rubbed with lemon, salt and garlic. Again, some grilled bacon and some potatoes to go on the side. A perfect meal, the fish was amaaaazing!

As seen in the first photo, we also attempted BBQing some pork ribs, but that didn’t go quite as smoothly. The coals ended up going out, and while the texture of the ribs was perfect, and the sauce Soli made the best BBQ sauce ever, the ribs themselves were definitely a little too….gamey….

The other day, Easter Monday, we picked up some pizza and grilled that, along with mushrooms, onions and zucchini, but that’s a story for a different day.