Manitoba - Picture Road Trip

Manitoba is the final stop on our summer road trip of the provinces. Today we will share with you some popular sights and stops to see if you take a visit there so sit back and enjoy the tour of Manitoba.

Photos in order from top to bottom: Assiniboine Park Zoo, Gimili Viking Statue, Stella's Cafe and Bakery, The Forks, Riding Mountain National Park, Thermea by Nordik Spa-Nature, The Forks, New Iceland Heritage Museum, Minnedosa, Red River, Mere Hotel, The Park Theatre, Exchange District, Churchill, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Gorge Creek Trail

Quebec - Poutine

This is going to be a yummy post. We’re gonna make poutine for our Friday night game night snack.

Poutine originated in Quebec in the 1950’s. A traditional poutine consists of medium thick French fries, fresh bite sized room temperature, curds, and brown thin gravy (usually a combination of chicken and beef).

There are so many poutine variations nowadays . Some people will add chives and bacon bits, pulled pork, sausage, chicken, and in some places, even caviar and truffles are put on top. 

We are going to make the classic poutine for you tonight and one with a little twist.

We’re keeping things simple and we have some straight cut frozen French fries that we are going to crisp up in the oven so that the outsides are nice and crunchy, but the inside will still be soft inside.

Next, we have some beef gravy that we are warming up and getting all of the lumps out of. For a quick poutine just defrost some leftover gravy like we are doing. You can also make your gravy from scratch; take a look at the links at the bottom of the page that we found with some poutine how tos.

Make sure to take your curds out of the fridge so that they can get to room temperature. Apparently room temperature is the ideal temperature to be adding your curds to your poutine. The warmth of the gravy and fries will soften them without melting them completely or leaving them too hard.

Layer your fries first on the plate/bowl, then add the curds, and then pour on the gravy. That’s a classic poutine.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/03/ultimate-perfect-poutine-fries-cheese-curds-gravy-recipe.html

https://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/authentic-canadian-poutine-recipe/

Nova Scotia Lighthouse Card

I can’t believe that we only have a few more weeks of summer and province posts left. Summer flew by. We are focusing on Nova Scotia today and one of its most famous landmarks, Peggy’s Point Lighthouse in Peggy’s Cove. Nova Scotia is also known for its large arts scene so we are going to make a card in honour of that for this week’s post which features lighthouses!

Peggy’s Point Lighthouse:

Even though there are over 160 lighthouses in Nova Scotia, Peggy’s Point Lighthouse is one of the most recognized and photographed lighthouses of them all and in the world. It is your classic red and white lighthouse in a hexagonal shape. It is still an operational lighthouse, operated by the Coast Guard. It marks the entrance point of St. Margaret’s Bay on the eastern side. It even had a post office in it until 2009! How cool is that? You could’ve bought a postcard and wrote it in the lighthouse and sent it right away. 

The original lighthouse was built in 1868 and was made of wood and had a beacon on the roof. The current one was built in 1914 and is made of concrete and became automated in 1958. It’s had several different light colours. It started off red, then went white, then green, and now it’s red again. It’s said that the name comes from St. Margaret’s Bay because Peggy is the nickname for Margaret, but there are a couple of other stories from how the name came about. 

Card Tutorial:

We’ve made this lighthouse card as a Birthday card in past, but you can make it an any occasion card. In the past we added a cute little heart on the lighthouse, but you can keep it plain depending on who you are giving it to. 

We like to keep with the sea theme and make the card blue. We’ve chosen a primary blue card, sized at 6 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches. 

Then we cut light blue and white layers.

We cut a red and white lighthouse from Nicole’s Silhouette, but you can find a template online or use a stencil. 

I stamped and embossed the words in blue ink with clear embossing powder and heated that.

Then we glue on the larger blue layer and then the white layer on top of that and then place the lighthouse on top of that layer. After, we glued on the stamped layer.

Finally to finish off the card, we glued a thicker red strip of red ribbon near the layers and a thinner red strip of ribbon next to that near the edge of the card. 

 And now you have a lighthouse card!

New Brunswick, Bay of Fundy

We’re in New Brunswick this week exploring the Bay of Fundy so here are some interesting facts...

The Bay of Fundy has some of the world’s highest tides. 

Two times a day, about 160 billion tons of water flow in and out of the Bay of Fundy.

When the tide is low, you can explore the ocean floor that was just recently covered in water! You might be able to find fossils, stones, and sea glass.

It takes six hours and 13 minutes from the Bay to go from high tide to low tide, or from low tide to high tide.

It is considered as one of the Seven Wonders of North America.

The shape of  the bay allows for the tides to reach as high as a five storey building. 

You’ll see breath taking cliffs, sea caves, as well as rock formations and fossils!

Whales and seabirds can be seen if you’re exploring the Bay on boat or from land. Take a Zodiac tour and you might spot Minke, Humpback, Finback, and North Atlantic Right Whales. You may also see dolphins, sharks, seals, puffins, and eagles. 

Lighthouses are always fun to explore and see. The first one ever lit on the Bay of Fundy was on Partridge Island in 1791.

A lot of people’s first thoughts when they think about the Bay of Fundy is surfing. Two times during the day hide tide happens and when high tide happens, a large wave called a tidal bore occurs. It’s a tidal wave that happens on the open ocean and it’s perfect for seasoned surfers to ride. It can come in the form of a single wave with a roller or a smooth wavefront with a bunch of waves afterwards. 

There are many parks that can be explored that surround the Bay as well. Check out Fundy National Park and Cape Chignecto Provincial  Park. 

For some more interesting facts and things to do at the Bay of Fundy take a look at the link below.

https://www.bayoffundy.com/52-reasons-to-visit/