So here we are, mid-June, with summer well under way, and I am still pregnant. 38 weeks and counting, and I am so ready to pop. I have had a few false alarms so far, my doctor is throwing around many encouraging phrases like “dilated”, “effaced”, and “the baby is engaged”, so it really could be any time, but I feel as though I have been saying that for weeks. I know he or she will come when they are good and ready, but this waiting game is seriously enough to drive you nuts!

I feel as though we are as ready as we are ever going to be. Whether the baby arrives tonight or two weeks from now won’t really change how well Jeremy or I, or especially Jasper, will be prepared. The room is set to go, (Jas is happily enjoying his new digs), the infant car-seat has been installed (wow does that backseat ever shrink with TWO car-seats back there!), and the hospital bag is set by the door, so now we just wait… and wait… and wait! This entire pregnancy has flown by in the blink of an eye and now all of a sudden it feels as though time has stood still and I will be pregnant until the end of time. I long for a nice glass of chilled white wine, some delicious sushi and especially a good-night’s sleep without a bowling ball attached to my stomach… Soon enough, I know. All my friends with two kids laugh when I say these things, especially about the good night’s sleep, but if you ask me, interrupted sleep is still better than uncomfortable sleep.

So in the meantime, while we sit in wait for this baby’s arrival, life has been carrying on pretty much the same. Jasper is enjoying summer with great gusto, spending his days playing with his friends in the park and the splash pools. My friends and I realized the other day that all of our kids were decked out in Hatley wear so we did an impromptu photo session in the park, which was very cute. Sadly, it is next to impossible to get little toddlers and babies to all look at the camera at the same time, but still cute nonetheless. With this weekend’s Spring Warehouse Sale at Hatley about to happen, I am sure there will be many more cute photo ops for our kids! Montreals, don’t miss this great chance to stock up on onesies, footed sleepers, 2-piece PJ’s, rain gear and lots more… the deals are going to be unbelievable!

So, sadly, I think that this will be my last post for awhile… at least until we can catch our breath a little after the newest Oldland makes his or her appearance. The blog will continue with some guest writers in the meantime, and I will hopefully be back at it in the next few months. Thanks for tuning in and for all the great feedback, it has been a blast!

I couldn’t believe it as I turned the calendar to June yesterday morning. Not only are we in the very same month as my due date (yikes!!), but we are also fully in to the beginning of summer. Our American neighbours say that Memorial Day weekend, which just passed, is the kick off – even though summer does not officially start until the 21st of June, I think we can all agree that we are well under way.

The weather here in Montreal has been spectacular. After a week of staggering, 30+ degree heat (which was lots of fun for me and my big, huge belly!), it seems to have leveled off now to a solid 24-25 degrees, which is absolutely lovely. Perfect weather for splashing around the fountains at the park in the sunny afternoons, and so much more comfortable to sleep in at night. Let’s hope it continues throughout the next few months… Last summer’s June & July were so rainy it felt like we had gotten London’s weather!

With the heat kicking in to full gear, it is so important to keep the sunblock flowing and the drinks on hand at all times. I now never leave the house without a water bottle for me and Jasper in my stroller, and the Hatley ones do the trick for both of us. With adorable designs, like Moose on Red and Creepy Bugs, Jas and I are both set. Because they are made with stainless steel instead of aluminum, your drink stays icy cold, and is so much safer to drink. Aluminum water bottles have to be lined, often with the very controversial BPA (bisphenol-A). BPA is a chemical often used in the production of baby bottles, which Canada has declared hazardous  to human health and is considering to ban in baby products all together. Hatley’s water bottles also come with phthalate-free caps, which is very important since phthalates (a chemical used in plastics to make it softer, very often used in baby chew toys and bottle caps) have been linked to numerous health risks, including cancer. Stainless steel water bottles are considered to be the safest and purest, which is certainly what you want for your kids (and yourself)!

And on another note, I like the Hatley ones because they don’t leak! I can’t tell you how often I am cleaning up messes of spilled juice and wet pants on Jasper from poorly screwed on sippy-cup lids. He is in a very long lasting phase of pouring water cups out onto the floor and dissolving in laughter, so I certainly appreciate the no-spill factor.

Enjoy this beautiful weather everyone, and I hope that you have a wonderful start to the summer!

I am now 35 weeks pregnant, and getting very close to the stage where, as my doctor put it, “things could happen at any time, so be prepared”. Yikes. I am not sure exactly what “being prepared” means, but if it entails having a bag packed and a full tank of gas on hand to whip up to hospital at a moment’s notice, then OK, we’ve got that covered. But if it actually means, have your life in order before the ticking time bomb goes off, then no, we are miles away from that.

This pregnancy has gone so fast, I really can not believe I am almost at the end. All along, I have felt like I have eons of time to get organized for the new arrival, to get Jasper adjusted to his new room, and to cross everything off of my to-do list. But here we are, one month to go, and my list is longer than ever. Jasper is STILL not out of the room that the new baby is supposed to go in to, due to various excuses on my part of the new room just “not being cute enough for him yet”. I am so late on this, I can’t believe it. My pediatrician told me that any big moves or adjustments in the older child’s life should happen a good 3 months before the arrival of the new baby… Hmmm… procrastinating, anyone??

Aside from the physical changes he is about to endure, I worry also about how Jasper will cope with all the emotional changes that are about to happen. Will he still feel loved once the new baby comes home? Will he feel displaced? Will he start acting out as he heads in to the infamous “terrible two’s”? These are the questions that whirl through my head in the wee hours of the night… Yes, it is no old wives tale, fellow pregnant ladies out there…. Your sleep is shot long before the arrival of the new babe. Between the FREQUENT bathroom visits,  a complete inability to get comfortable with the huge watermelon attached to my stomach, and excessive anxiety (some rational, some very irrational), un-interupted sleep for me is a thing of the past. Good practice for things to come, everyone says, which is very little consolation, if you ask me.

Instead of spending this past long weekend moving furniture, shopping for a double-stroller, or getting organized like a responsible person, I decided that a little pampering was in order. So with Jeremy’s blessing, I kissed both he and Jasper adieu for one night, and drove down to the lovely town of Stowe, Vermont, to meet up with one of my best friend’s in the world, who also just happens to be pregnant (and feeling similar woes to myself), for a lovely night at a spa. Stowe is the quintessential New England town, full of warm people and charm, and an easy getaway from Montreal. Jill and I had a very relaxing day and night, with great pre-natal massages, pool lounging and a yummy dinner, and even a good, if leisurely, hike the next morning. I returned to my boys feeling rejuvenated and refreshed, and amazingly, my sleeping has been better ever since. I guess sometimes you just need to take a break and get out of your head a little bit.

My little overnight getaway was also a great chance to stop in Burlington for a visit with the staff at the Hatley Factory Outlet Store. Smack in the middle of bustling Church Street, the store looks fantastic, and business has been booming in the past few months so that was great to see. Burlington is another amazing Vermont city – definitely worth a stop if you are ever in the area!

So as the final countdown officially kicks off this week, T-minus one month, I feel ready to take on my last bits of planning. Jasper will be enjoying his new room tonight (!), the stroller has been purchased, and the to-do is slowly but surely starting to whittle down.  Hopefully this baby decides to stay put a little longer but if not, we’ll be ready. I will keep you posted

Sleeping is one of those things that you don’t realize how precious it is until it is threatened. I certainly used to take a good night’s sleep for granted, thinking that a solid 7 or 8 hour snooze was a given, and waking up feeling fresh as a daisy. That is, until I had a kid. Those first few months of babydom are such a blur of exhaustion and near insanity for me… I remember so distinctly that feeling during one of many nighttime feedings that I was the only person awake on the entire planet. I am sure mothers all over the world can relate to that – if only we could all start texting each other in the wee hours so we wouldn’t feel so alone.

Jeremy and I have been extremely lucky with Jasper’s sleeping habits – we started some rigorous sleep training soon after he turned six months, and it has paid off in spades. It took about 3 brutal nights of listening to him cry, (the second night strangely being worse than the first), but after that, he finally was able to start doing 6 hour stretches with no feeds, and then a few months later, 11 to 12 hours. I was ecstatic with even just the 6 hour stretch – that was enough solid sleep for me to feel human again – but 12 is absolute heaven. Now he goes down around 7:30 and sleeps through till around 6 or 6:30am. If I had it my way, I wouldn’t hear from him till after 7 in the morning, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. The random times he does wake in the night these days, which usually only happens if he is sick or unsettled for some reason, feel that much worse now because it is so foreign. And here I am now, a month away from having baby #2, and heading straight back in to the sleeplessness… At least now I know though, that there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel!

I am certainly no expert on sleep training kids, but all I can say is that the thing that really worked for us, was consistency. Every night we have the same routine with Jasper, same timing, and I really believe that has helped him to become a good sleeper. We do dinner, quiet playtime, bath, bottle & teeth brush, story and bed, and even if we are in a different house or place, the routine never changes. Because it is always the same song and dance, he doesn’t fight it, knows exactly what is going to happen, and as a result, is a really consistent sleeper. I know we are lucky… I have many friends who are still fighting the sleep battle with their kids over 2. I hope our next little babe will be as easy going, I guess you never know till you are there.

As I said, part of our bedtime routine has always been reading Jas a story or 2 (or 3 if he has his way!) It is so funny when toddlers start to show an interest in books – it happens all of a sudden, and it is so great. He loves his tractor and car stories, and never met a dog book he didn’t like, but the big hits of the moment are actually two books written by his Uncle Nick, Hatley’s Big Bear Hug and it’s soon to be released sequel, Making the Moose out of Life. Big Bear Hug tells a great story about a bear so full of love that he needs to hug everything he sees, especially tress, only to come across a hunter who has other ideas in mind. It’s a great story with a solid environmental message, which may be a bit too advanced for my little Jas, but he sure does love all the great animal artwork. I can’t say too much about Making the Moose out of Life since it hasn’t been released yet (look for it in August), but it is another great story full of memorable characters, and it is quickly becoming another one of Jasper’s favourite bedtime reads.

Here’s hoping the sleepless nights to come for us will be short lived… If anyone is up at 2 and 4am after June 25th,  you know you’re not alone

Check out this shot of Nick at a Big Bear Hug book signing in Toronto!

I can’t believe it. Another Mother’s Day is around the corner, and it seems like yesterday that I was getting to celebrate it for the first time as a new Mum. Now, here we are again and I am on the verge of becoming a mother of 2!! So crazy how much can change in a year!

Jasper is now 18 months old and changing so much every day I can’t even keep up. The words were slow in coming at first, and for the longest time I thought the only thing my kid would say was “no” (which was always accompanied by an adamant head shake). But now, literally every day I am barraged with 2 or 3 new words from his ever-expanding vocabulary, that it really leaves Jeremy and I both amazed. “Tractor” is by far the most popular, with “hi” pulling in a close second. Strangers on the street don’t even know what hits them when we come strolling by, as he peppers everyone he sees, people and dogs alike, with such voracious “hi’s”, that he is incapable of being ignored. Even the most unkid-friendly of folk can not dismiss a hi from Jasper. My favourite thing is going in to his room in the morning, where I am greeted with an enormous grin and a “Hi, Mumma!” My heart pretty much melts every time.

I certainly don’t think that Jas grasps the concept of Mother’s Day, but regardless, I am greatly looking forward to my day of appreciation and perhaps a little pampering   With Hatley’s annual Spring warehouse sale still a few weeks off, I am left a little empty handed for presents for my own Mum and friends, so I may be raiding the warehouse for seconds this weekend to load up! The matching Rosy Afternoon rain boots and umbrella make an awesome present, in my own experience, and the 15% off online on women’s apparel is hard to beat!

Pampering of any kind is certainly welcome on Mother’s Day from kids and spouses alike, so if your husband is looking to wow you with a home-cooked dinner that is actually quite simple, here is a great recipe that should do the trick – it even involves the BBQ so it should be right up his alley!

I love cooking on cedar planks, they add such great flavour to fish and even chicken, and are pretty easy to find in grocery stores these days. If yours doesn’t carry them, try the BBQ section at your hardware store, and I even saw them being sold at Cosco. For this recipe I use organic or wild salmon, as I find the flavour so much better than the farm-raised salmon you see so much of these days. I also like to serve this with rosemary oven-roasted potatoes and blanched green beans. So yummy and really simple to throw together.

Grilled Cedar-Planked Salmon:

1 cedar plank, soaked for at least 30 minutes
2 lbs. salmon fillet, skin-on (organic or wild, if possible), cut in to 4 8-oz. portions
4 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

In a small bowl, mix together Dijon, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and fresh rosemary to make the marinade for the salmon. Slowly whisk in the olive oil and set aside.

Place salmon fillet on a cookie sheet, and make sure that all of the bones have been removed.  Score the flesh, and rub in the marinade so that it covers the top of the salmon and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes but no more than 1 hour. Pre-heat your grill on high for around 10 minutes.

Turn your grill down to medium. Remove the cedar plank from the water and pat dry with a paper towel. Transfer the salmon to the smooth side of the plank, and season the fish with kosher salt and pepper.

Place the cedar plank on the grill and close the lid. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Let the fish cook, lifting the lid every so often to make sure that it is not charring. Once the salmon is cooked through (crispy around the edges but still tender and pink in the middle), carefully move the plank onto the cookie sheet with a long spatula and let stand for 2 minutes. Plate the salmon with rosemary oven-roasted potatoes and blanched green beans and enjoy!

Serves 4

To all you mums out there, Happy Mumma’s Day, I hope you all get spoiled rotten!!

OK, the weather this week has been absolutely schizophrenic. Anyone living in the northeast knows what I am talking about… We went from the most glorious spring weekend, where Jasper, Jeremy and I spent the entire time outside on our bikes and getting our garden cleaned up and planted, to the most disgusting torrential SNOWSTORM on Tuesday. Adios herb garden I put my back out planting on Saturday, sayonara beautiful budding tulips, hello shovel and winter boots… (too bad we took the snow tires off so early this year. Oops!)  But now, it is beautiful out again. The snow is slowly melting, and it’s almost as if it never happened – and everyone in my garden has somehow managed to have survived the perfect storm, all but my poor basil

Aside from this bizarre weather, this week also marks the one year anniversary of Hatley’s big move to their new office/warehouse in Lasalle. After 8 years in the garment district in Montreal north, the Oldland boys said it was time for a change, and decided to pack up every last Moose one-piece and Alien footed coverall from the existing warehouse and head down to a beautiful spot in Lasalle, right by the water, between the Lachine Canal and the St. Lawrence River.

Little did they know before embarking on this major endeavor that the former metal stamping company would require severe renovations to bring it up to environmental standards. In order to reduce Hatley’s carbon footprint, the roof and the front of the building needed to be insulated, all the windows needed to be changed and installed, and a major environmental cleanup began in order for Hatley’s new building to qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification – an environmental program that encourages and promotes the building of sustainable developments, and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Quite an honourable certification indeed.

Hatley’s staff could not be happier with the move. It is close to the bike path, a short walk to the water for scenic views at lunch, and really close to public transport. Everyone should check out the new digs next fall at Hatley’s famous Warehouse Sale!

Here are some shots of the staff BBQ celebration last Friday. Happy Anniversary Hatley!

I love Mondays… Sounds crazy, considering it is typically the most dreaded day of the week, the day that kills your Sunday in nervous preparation for the busy week to come. I like Mondays because, unlike most of the population, it’s a day off for me. It’s the day that my incredible babysitter comes to spend the day with Jasper, to give me a break to actually address the thousand things on my to-do list, that seems physically impossible to get to in the midst of chasing my toddler around.

Mondays are also the day of my beloved pre-natal yoga class, the most blissful hour and a half of my whole week. I am certainly no yoga guru, nor do I make a regular practice of it while not pregnant (though I always say I am going to), but I find a level of relaxation in this class that I seem unable to duplicate at any other point during my week. I know this has much to do with my amazing, soothing teacher named Clearlight (yes, she claims that is her real name), who comes out with wonderful phrases like, “Let your deep breaths nourish and irrigate the stretch in your thighs”, and less to do with my spiritual connection to yoga, but I always leave the class feeling so refreshed and ready for the week ahead… probably has something to do with the fact that I usually sneak in a 10 minute cat nap during the relaxation period!

As I moseyed my way home yesterday, feeling so very spiritual and one with nature, I noticed all the signs about town for Earth Day 2010, which left me feeling perplexed. What is Earth Day, anyways? Is it a day where fellow yogis like myself go and commune with nature in the woods and give thanks for all the beauty around us? Is it a day we all turn the lights out, don’t drive our cars, and eat raw food? Better question, is this a national holiday that I am not aware of? Once I got home, I Googled it to find out for sure.

Turns out that Earth Day has been celebrated since the 70’s (who knew?), and April 22nd marks the birth of the environmental movement in the United States. It is celebrated all over the world, and more than 6 million Canadians join 1 billion people in over 170 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Basically meant as a day to inspire awareness as to how to live more responsibly, Earth Day in many cases has turned in to Earth Week or even Earth Month, because of all of the organized events and projects. Not only is it meant to inspire change globally, in regards to climate policy, energy efficiency and renewable energy, but also in your day to day life. Which made me start to think… Am I a “green citizen”? Am I part of the solution or the problem? I am an avid recycler and composter, I make a conscious effort to reduce my consumption of energy and water, I walk as much as humanly possible and I never buy bottled water anymore. But is that enough? It all seems like very minor contributions, but as a busy Mum to 1 and 3/4 children, am I meant to be out there chaining myself to trees and leading environmental rallies as well? And what about Hatley… are they an environmental friend or foe?

Once I started to do a little research, I realized that Hatley has always prided itself on keeping very high environmental standards. As I wrote about last week, all of the rain gear is PVC free. Hatley also doesn’t use azo dyes in any of their products, a toxic chemical used to dye textiles that is not biodegradable in water, and they only use only non-chlorinated bleach. They use closed loop dyers to ensure that waste water from the dyeing process does not go back in to the general water system of the communities that Hatley works with, and is then properly disposed of. The catalogues are printed on paper that comes from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) managed forests, and all of the magnetic lists are printed on recycled paper. Above all though,  Hatley specifically designs clothes that are made to last, made to be passed down from kid to kid, from the first to the fourth, and not end up in a dumpster.

The owners of Hatley, the Oldland boys, grew up in a small lakeside town in the Eastern Townships in Quebec named North Hatley. In recent years, the lake, local tourism and the residents have suffered tremendously from the discovery of cyanobacteria, or green algae, in the water.  In 2007, the boys got involved with the Massawippi Water Protection Association, a group that is dedicated to helping the local North Hatley community maintain clean and adequate water resources, and to protect the health of its local residents while maintaining local industry.  Every year, Hatley donates it’s time and resources to the Association, in an effort to make the water they grew up in clean and safe again. I’m happy to say that the lake has been green algae free for the past three years, and hopefully will stay that way.

It is not easy to be an effective green citizen, but maybe that is the point… that we all need to put some effort in to it, all day and every day. But I am realizing that is not enough. We also need to make sure that the stores and companies we choose to support and shop at also abide by a similar ideology. If we all thought that one person can’t make much of a difference, then we sure wouldn’t get too far. Luckily, Earth Day comes around year after year to remind us what we are doing it all for.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

OK, OK, I know this is my fault… In my last post, I insisted in commenting on how beautiful the weather had been. I take full responsibility for the curse I must have put on Mother Nature, judging from the onslaught of rain we are now experiencing. Sadly, this is the April I am more accustomed to. The 30 degree day we had last weekend was totally abnormal, but oh, what a nice surprise!

Jasper, it turns out, doesn’t mind the rain nearly as much as his mum. Not much will keep this kid out of the park these days, not even a monsoon. He is now completely obsessed with his Hatley Creepy Bugs raincoat and boots, and though they are both way too big for him, he is constantly finding his way in to the closet to pull them out, and roaming through the house with a proud grin on his face. Even though he’s only 17 months, he sure knows how great it feels to look like a big kid!

Luckily, the raincoat is lined with cozy terrycloth, so even in the blustery cold days of April, not much will deter Jas from his park visits. Not so lucky for me, as my raincoat is certainly not lined, nor does it come close to fitting over my bulging, 30-week pregnant belly -  I have stubbornly vowed not to spend another dime on overly expensive maternity clothes that will only get a few more weeks of use, so this weather better turn around FAST or I might be in trouble!

Though the cozy lining is a great feature about the Creepy Bugs raincoat, what I like best is that it is made with Polyurethane, and is PVC-free. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a toxic chemical most commonly used in waterproof things like raincoats, shower curtains, bibs and even some baby’s chew toys. PVC, which is used to make the product soft and flexible,  releases nasty toxins like mercury and dioxins throughout its life cycle and is known as one of the most toxic plastics made. When it’s made or burned, PVC releases dioxins that are some of the most dangerous synthetic chemicals out there, and can cause cancer and/or do serious damage to the immune and reproductive system. Not the least of which, PVC is also a huge enemy of the environment as it cannot be recycled. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice has labeled PVC as “one of the most hazardous consumer products ever created”. Not exactly what you want your kid to roam around in on a rainy day.

Surprisingly, finding PVC-free raincoats for kids is incredibly difficult. Hatley, as well as Land’s End and L.L. Bean,  are actually some of the few companies making them. They use Polyurethane instead of PVC to coat the fabric to make it waterproof, which does not contain the same toxic fire retardants, nor does it release the harmful gases that PVC does. It’s also not considered a cancer threat – certainly a much safer and healthier alternative for our kids (and us!).

Before becoming a parent, I naively did not worry too much about what was in the food I was eating or the clothes I put on. But now that I have Jasper (and the new baby soon to makes it’s arrival) to consider and worry about, it is impossible to ignore the blatant health risks posed by certain chemicals in clothing and antibiotics and pesticides in food. My eyes have certainly been opened to actually check the labels, read the ingredients list on packaging, and to search for greener and healthier alternatives. And luckily, those alternatives are out there, and are slowly becoming more mainstream.

Hopefully the weather this month is soon to turn around, but if not, at least Jas has his Creepy Bugs… Now if only they came in maternity sizes !

Happy April everyone!

Well, according to my calendar, it is officially Spring! The snow is melting, the little green buds are starting to pop through the sad, ravaged-by-winter gardens, and the sun is certainly starting to poke out from behind the gray clouds of winter. Albeit there is still a biting wind that doesn’t let you forget that we are hardly out of the winter woods yet, but I will take it! There is nothing like a little sunshine to give you a new lease on life. We can only hope that we’ve seen the end of the snow, once and for all! Forgive me all you spring skiers out there…

I’m sure that fellow parents can relate when I say that you really feel the pain of winter when you have a toddler at home with you. There is nothing more disheartening than a bitterly cold and awful day outside and a rambunctious little one inside crawling the walls. But with all the sun this past week, Jasper and I have spent every single afternoon at the park, and we are both loving every second of it! His obsession with the swings grows stronger by the day, as does his love affair with the slide – my ever growing belly and I are getting quite the work-out chasing him up and down the jungle gym, trying to make sure his newly walking legs don’t take him over the edge. We are both so exhausted by the end of it, after supper we absolutely collapse in our respective beds (& cribs). Aahhh Spring… so good to see you old friend!

And with the warmer weather comes my favourite cooking season of the whole year… BBQ! Actually, to be honest, our barbecuing doesn’t really go on hiatus during the winter – this year in particular, Jeremy was often sent out on blustery nights to shovel out the BBQ because of a sudden and dire pregnancy craving for grilled chicken or (weirdly) ribs. But there is something about the first few days of Spring, when daylight savings has kicked in and it is actually still light out at 6:30 PM, and you catch a whiff of all the barbecues in the neighbourhood firing up for a delectable dinner, that really makes it feel like summer isn’t so far off.

Certainly another big craving for me this time around has been burgers. Big, juicy cheeseburgers with lots of pickles and sweet potato fries on the side. Hmmm… getting hungry already just thinking about it. For some reason, burgers never used to do much for me, I always thought they were kind of bland – certainly an easy dinner, but never all that exciting unless you go over the top with the condiments. That was until I saw an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares where he berated some poor chef for his bland and dry burgers, and he divulged his secret to success to dress up the ultimate comfort food. The recipe that follows is my own variation on his, and it is always a winner. The key I find is using really good meat, and I often opt for organic lamb, but it also works well with veal or bison, if I can find it. And as always, the condiments play a big part as well… especially the cheese (if you choose to use it). I usually go for a sharp, aged cheddar, or sometimes smoked Gouda to really take it over the top. Caramelized onions, grilled portobello mushrooms, smokey bacon are other serious contenders, but to be honest, you really can’t go wrong with straight up lettuce and tomatoes… and a big stack of crunchy pickles, of course!

Hope you enjoy the recipe, please feel free to let me know what you think. I apologize for the long break between posts, March has been a bit of a whirlwind, but we will be back on track now! Happy Easter everyone!!

Foolproof  Lamb Burgers

For the burgers:

1 lb. ground lamb (or beef, veal or bison) – organic, if possible
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp. ketchup or barbecue sauce
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped
2 Tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh mint, chopped – omit if you are not using ground lamb
salt & pepper to taste

4 whole wheat pitas, just a little bigger than the burgers

4 slices of cheese of your choice (optional) – aged Cheddar, spicy Monterey Jack, smoked Gouda
Lettuce, tomato, pickles
Condiments of your choice (and I highly recommend good quality Tzatziki)

To make the burgers, combine the ground lamb, egg yolk, ketchup (or BBQ sauce), Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, chopped green onions, parsley, mint and salt & pepper in a bowl and mix very well with your hands, making sure to incorporate all the ingredients together. Form in to 4 equal sized patties and set aside on a plate.

Meanwhile, light your BBQ and let it get nice and hot. Grill the burgers to your preferred temperature, flipping once, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. As soon as the burgers are done, add cheese to make sure that it melts and turn off heat on the BBQ. Serve the burgers immediately, stuffed inside the pitas with your favourite condiments, baked sweet potato fries and a nice big salad.

Enjoy!!

Serves 4

I am currently sitting on Air Canada, en route from Vancouver back home to Montreal, reflecting upon the incredible five days we have just had. A complete whirlwind of activities, line-ups, security checks and national pride, Jeremy and my time at the 2010 Olympics was truly an experience of a lifetime. And this flight is pretty sweet too… Ah, the joys of traveling without my 16 month old, Jasper (he stayed home in Montreal with his grandparents)! Miss the kid like crazy but it sure is nice to actually watch the movie for a change!

Packing up to leave was quite a feat in itself. Between getting Jasper organized for five days at his grandparents house with clothing, essential toys, food, and playdates set up for every morning we were going to be away, and then me trying to abide by Jeremy’s strict “only carry-on luggage” rule (how oh how do I stuff my tall black boots into this tiny Samsonite I ask you??), the frenzy began the second we woke up that day and continued for the rest of the trip. From the time we arrived in Vancouver last Thursday afternoon (the 18th), our schedule was jammed pretty tight with activities. Jeremy got very lucky with the Olympic lottery system two years ago and he was able to score quite a few tickets – mostly to hockey, rightly so as he was the one selecting the events, but also men’s curling and ski jumping up at Whistler. We were so psyched, and our national pride was brimming from the second we landed.

Upon arriving at Canada Hockey Place for the Slovakia v. Russia match-up, we realized very quickly that we might as well have been naked unless we were dressed head to toe in Canadian garb. Although Canada wasn’t even playing that night, looking out in to the stands was a sea of red, white and maple leaves and we had nothing! First order of business we decided was to hit the Hudson’s Bay the next day and load up. “Good luck with that”, we were told by a nice old man sitting in front of us, “they are all sold out of everything. You’d have better luck buying stuff at home where you came from!” Nonsense, I thought, they must be selling this stuff everywhere, this is the Olympics for crying out loud! The game was intense, edge of your seat hockey, and despite the jet-lag, we sat riveted into overtime and then the stressful shoot-out. Slovakia scored, got the upset win… very cool to see!

Being on east coast time and all, the next morning we were up, literally, at the crack of dawn, so we thought it’d be fun to head in to downtown Vancouver to check out where all the events were going on before the rest of the city had the chance to wake up. And perhaps pop into the Bay (which was set to open at 9) to get some Canada gear. Robson Square was already brimming with bodies by the time we arrived, and already we could see lines forming throughout the area, people clearly who knew what they were doing. “What are you guys lining up for?”, we ignorantly asked a group of girls way at the end of a long snaking line, three rows deep. “Zip-line”, one of them responded happily, “should only be a 3 hour wait from here!”

“Three hours??”, we cried incredulously.

“That’s nothing! Yesterday my brother waited for 7!”

As we walked away, dumbfounded that anyone could wait for ANYTHING for 7 hours in line that didn’t include a million dollar jack-pot or possibly a kiss from Brad Pitt, it dawned on us that our fellow Olympic revelers had a lot more stamina that we did, and a lot more patience.

“Maybe we should walk over to the Bay, just in case there is a wait to get in”, I said to Jeremy. It was 8:45. As we rounded the corner of Granville, our hearts sank. “Is that line-up to get in to the Bay?” I asked glumly, although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. Flashbacks of horrible boxing day shopping popped in to my head as we found ourselves at the end of the queue that must have snaked over three blocks. And after around 5 endless minutes, we threw in the towel. Novices, I could hear the people in front of us thinking with disdain.

“Pssst!”, whispered a pan-handler as we walked away, resigned to the fact that we would have to live without our Canada hoodies. “You should go out to Oakridge Mall, no line to get in and they have the same stuff.” I felt like we were being passed top secret government intel from Deep Throat. “Thanks”, I muttered, eventhough I was sure as hell not going to drive all over Vancouver just for a stupid sweatshirt. Jeremy, meanwhile, was buzzing back to the car, tapping away on my IPhone’s Google maps trying to find the exact location of this illustrious mall. I couldn’t believe it. I can barely get the man to buy himself a new pair of shoes when his are falling apart at the seams, and all of a sudden he wants to drive a half hour away to go the Bay?? What has happened to my husband?? Olympic fever, that’s what.

The frenzy at Oakridge Mall was bad but nothing like downtown Vancouver. I had to laugh as I saw Jeremy wrestling an old lady for the two remaining Hudson’s Bay tartan Canada scarves (he was victorious!), and groaned in unison with the rest of the crowd as it was announced that the hoodies were all gone. With our scarves and the much sought-after red mittens in hand though, we left happy.

Watching the men’s curling that afternoon was awesome. Though neither of us knew the first thing about the sport going in, it was very easy to catch on (think a cross between bowling and bacci on ice), and it was so neat to watch Canada dominate so significantly over Denmark. Who knew this sport could actually be fun to watch? And I gotta say that seeing the Norwegian teams’ pants was worth the price of admission alone.

Our next few days were a whirlwind of more hockey games (Switzerland v. Norway, Finland v. Sweden) but the biggest event was finding somewhere to watch the best match-up of the week, Canada v. USA. Bars and restaurants were packed throughout downtown, stuffed to the gills with crazed fans from both countries, and we got lucky with prime seating in front of a huge screen, so big we felt we were actually there. You could hear a pin drop in Vancouver during the 2 hours that they played, and sadly we all know the results… But that just makes the gold medal game all the more exciting!

Late that night, after the Finland/Sweden game, we hit the road to head up to Whistler for the next morning’s ski jumping. The weather had been on our side all week and that day in Whistler had to be the most spectacular. Sun blazing, not a cloud in the sky, we watched excitedly as Austria set a new Olympic record for distance and basked the beauty of our surroundings. Ski jumping, it turns out, is not exactly Canada’s strongest event (we placed 12th out of 12) but it didn’t matter – it was our favourite event of the week.

Spending the day in Whistler Village was great too. The vibe and energy there was so different and much less frantic than Vancouver. Bands played open-air concerts outside with no queues that snaked kilometers long and though the village was packed with bodies it was still very easy to get around. It was great to check in again at the Hatley store, where they have launched the new Spring line and it looks fantastic. In retrospect we wish we had spent more time up at Whistler, but it was time to go home and see our boy who we have been missing incessantly.

All in all, our Olympic 2010 experience was truly a once in a lifetime event. It was so great to be here in our own country, taking in all the energy and witnessing such national pride. Really special. Too bad Jasper was too little to come along, if he were a few years older I think he would have been in heaven. As the games now wrap up, and the final showdown between the Canada/USA hockey looms on the horizon (for men’s and women’s), it’s time we all get back to real life again. I’ll have to put my maple leaf mitts away till 2014…