WHOA lansi

It always takes me at least a month to get used to writing a new year & even then, I still do a bit of a double take when I see it. I’ve said January 2014 countless times this month & considering how quickly it went by, I’m not sure that’s going to change anytime soon. I do the same thing with my age right after my birthday. I’m sure my friends won’t let me forget how old I am turning this year though. Yikes! As usual this month was filled with friends & food. Surprise, surprise! Welcome to our lives. Here’s what we got up to:

1. We rung in the New Year with our closest friends & a lovely bottle of Prosecco.
2. Taking advantage of one of my best friends being in town. Her visits are always too quick, but we saw a lot of eachother & I’m so grateful for that.
3. My MOH celebrated her birthday on the first Friday of January. We took the day off to celebrate, grabbing brunch at a favourite spot in the morning, getting manicure, & chatting on my couch over wine & cheese. Happy Birthday, D!
4. Fratello opened a new restaurant where the iconic Melrose Bar used to be so we met up for brunch to check it out. Corbeaux is quickly becoming a favourite. We highly recommend…everything.
5. Putting a Wedding Shower gift to good use with a trip to Peasant cheese shop for some abondance, roquefort carles, & duck mousse with pink peppercorn. New favourite spot for cheese or
pâté – they’ll even let you sample before you buy!

So here’s a new tradition for you: posting my Instagram recaps late. Does twice in a row make it a tradition? It’s probably happened more than that in reality.

It’s tough to ignore winter now. Daylight Savings was last week & I always forget how much this little change affects everything. I think most of us are playing catch-up still (keep the coffee flowing) & my walks home are getting increasingly dark. I think that’s the worst part of winter: walking to & from work in the dark. It feels lonely. Luckily, it doesn’t last long & there is something so wonderful about realizing the days are getting longer. I guess it would be tough to appreciate one without the other. (That’s the theory I’m going with this year, anyway. Roll with it.)

Let’s talk about October. It was a good one. Here’s what we got up to:

1. For YYC Pizza Week, we decided to check out Posto Pizzeria. This little restaurant, sister to Bonterra, Cibo, & now Scopa, is fast becoming a favourite. Our visit coincided with Porchetta Thursday, which I can’t recommend enough if you love pork even a little bit.
2. I changed my name on my licence. I’m slowly changing it on other things too, but for now I’m in this strange in between phase. Sometimes I use my maiden name & sometimes I use my married name. I just like to keep people guessing.
3. We picked up another eight of a cow this year, so we’ve been working through last year’s order. Now that we have a meat thermometer, we’re all about the roast. This one was particular delicious.
4. My lovely friends got married at the River Cafe & we were so excited to celebrate with them. They had perfect fall weather, beautiful full, & one of the best dance parties. Congratulations, J & J!
5. We spent Thanksgiving out at the lake with my parents & brother. It was gorgeous & we ate some incredible food. I blogged about it here.
6. Our travels to France & Italy this year have carried over a little bit into our lives here in the form of charcuterie, wine, & cheese. One of my favourite ways to spend an evening is with a beautiful bottle of wine, some nice cheeses, & salami. Europe knows what’s up.
7. My sommelier friend introduced me to Metrovino this month & it was such an incredible wine shop. I’m already predicting I’ll be upping my wine game very soon.
8. A girlfriend & I met up on the new St Patrick’s bridge for Feast in the East. We shared Taiko Taco & Waffles & Chix.
9. Halloween. My coworkers are a lot of fun & we had some great costumes. I went the easy route & dressed up as a scarecrow. L was an adorable Olive Oyl.

On to November. Please don’t talk to me about Christmas yet, guys. We have a full, blissful month of non-Christmas activities & I fully intend to be a grinch until at least December 1.

Whoa, three months of Instagram in one little recap? Yup, that’s right – I’m putting the whole of summer into this post. I majorly slacked off with this series over the summer & it’s time to get back on track, even if that means some of these are close to 100 days old. Let’s not dwell on that fact though. Here’s what we got up to in July, August, & September.

Remember when I did a journal response about how life was hectic. Well we’re seven days into July & I’m only just posting this recap, so I think that’s still quite accurate! I feel like I just did the May recap. Where did this month go? Judging by my instagram, all we did was eat. Seriously, we ate a lot of delicious food this month. Or at least that’s what I mostly posted about. Nothing wrong with that right? We’re just a couple of foodies over here…

1. The first of three Anju meals. This one was a 13 course collaboration for the Chinatown Flood Rehabilitation Fund. Anju was one of three chefs who put on this delicious meal.
2. H & I went to a few early-morning spin classes. We grabbed coffee together at Analog afterwards. Definitely a wonderful way to start the day!
3. N & I celebrated five years together & what is probably the last time we’ll celebrate this date since we’ll have a new anniversary after this year. We went for a lovely dinner at Black Pig Bistro (the new kid in Bridgeland).
4. Anju dinner number two. I actually have some real photos of this & plan on blogging about it soon. We headed down to Test Kitchen for this wonderful meal with some lovely ladies. (That bone marrow risotto. Daaaaamn.)
5. Village Ice Cream recently celebrated two years! I couldn’t resist bringing home a half scoop of Root Beer with a half scoop of Salted Caramel. (My favourite combo!)
6. I won a Bridal basket from the Bay, which included this very sparkly (messy) bottle of Champagne.
7. The last Anju dinner. I know, we’re ridiculous, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to get our Gochujang fix.
8. The weather didn’t really cooperate for the “long weekend” , but we launched the sea doo anyway. A little cloud cover can’t stop us!
9. Of course, the day we were leaving, it was gorgeous. Isn’t that how it always works?

This weekend kicked off our crazy summer schedule with the first weekend of Stampede. From here on out, it’s go go go until we’re gone to Europe!

1. We’re all giants. A bunch of us bought tickets to Beer Fest. Always a fun night!
2. Envelope addressing party! Things are getting real – invites went out & RSVP is live on our website. Every time I see an email notification that someone has RSVPed I get very excited.
3. We had my parents over for dinner on Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day, maman!
4. N celebrated his 27th birthday in Kelowna. I had a hair & makeup trial & then we headed out to dinner at the Hotel El Dorado. Beautiful!
5. Cheers! We did a few wine tastings at our venue. The Cipes Brut is one of my new favourite sparkling wines.
6. The weekend in Kelowna was incredible. I already blogged about it, but this was a big highlight this month.
7. We picked up muscles from Billingsgate Seafood Market & have decided we may now have to make Seafood Sundays a thing. Quick, easy, delicious.
8. Another half marathon in the books! I ran it in 2:00.49 this time. I guess I’m just really consistent around that 2 hour mark. Pretty happy given the limited training I did, but next time I’ll be faster!
9. N’s birthday coincides well with lobster season. We celebrated it a bit later than usual. As always we had enough lobster to feed an army though! Best tradition!

I think spring it actually officially here. It’s refreshing to finally be able to get outside & enjoy the parks & festivals that come with this time of year!

1. We registered! Woohoo! It was actually a pretty funny process to me. We don’t need a lot of stuff so it only took us about 10 minutes to get it done. (Thankfully. N hates shopping!)
2. All the ramen! Two new ramen places opened up recently in Calgary & I had to have them both. They are both amazing, welcome additions to the restaurant scene.
3. I’ve spent more money this year on my hair than ever before & I haven’t even coloured it. Just trying to keep the ends looking good for this summer.
4. Keeping up with long runs & trying out new routes. I definitely miss my training partner (who’s still out with his injury) so new routes make things a little more interesting.
5. H & I went on the Poutine Crawl this year & it was amazing! I also have a blog post coming about that at some point. Oh man, I’m so behind!
6. Checking out the Black Pig Bistro (replacing DeVille’s Bridgeland location). Should be delicious!
7. Tuesday Yoga at lunch at work is a thing & I’m really excited about it.
8. N’s brother is back, which is awesome for many reasons – one being that I’ll get my chocolate lab fix. Kora’s so gorgeous!
9. One of my bests was home for Easter. As always, it was far too short of a visit, but we did have some fun at National.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, friends! Have a margarita for me – I’m at work tonight!

This month’s Instagram Recap was this close to being only food pictures. It was a good month for eating, guys. A very good month. Between Big Taste, birthdays, ski trips, & dinner dates, we got fat & happy in March. I decided to throw in a few non-food photos though since not everyone is as into shoving food in their face as I am (Blasphemy! FYI – we could never be friends).

Now that April is here though (& everyone keeps reminding me I’m getting married in less than 5 months), I should probably think about eating better. Maybe. I probably won’t, but it’s a nice thought.

Anyway, here’s what we got up to in March according to my Instagram.

1. We weren’t able to ski for N’s work trip (boo broken ankle!), but we did enjoy some time in Banff. Love this little town.
2. If you’ve never experienced Big Taste YYC, you really need to check it out. Restaurants all around town put on set menus for $15 – $25. Duck Fat fried Brussels Sprouts were just one tasty piece of our week. Check it out next March!
3. I’ve registered for the 50th Annual Calgary (Half) Marathon! Got some new shoes & started my training runs. Let’s do this!
4. N’s brother came to town so we had brunch at noTABle again. It was incredible again. That steak. Those hash browns. I’ll go there anytime!
5. Drinks with the future SIL for St Paddy’s Day. N’s brother was in town, working at the Earl’s Tin Palace for the re-opening, so we hung out there for a bit.
6. We headed out to BC to ski Panorama for the weekend. This mountain has one of my favourite views from the summit.
7. This was taken last week. Yes, you read that right. As in the end of March. Thanks, yyc.
8. We tried a new pizza place with a couple friends. Our first time trying Chicago Deep Dish & that is too much pizza for this girl. My california style was delicious though, as were the meatballs. They’ve got some kinks to work out with the service, but the food is delicious!
9. I haven’t been practicing my handstands as much this month, but I think I’ve gained some strength doing the open. It doesn’t look like much, but that there is handstand push-up progress, people!