eastcoastbychoice.ca

Photo credit: ~Ilse from Flickr

I realize I talk and write and live and breath Twitter. For anyone who’s reading this but not (yet) using the social media platform, I’ve written another guest post at Geek Girl Camp.

It’s pretty much a starter’s guide to owning and operating a Twitter account. So if you’re interested in getting started or if you’ve started but still need the 411, check out my post: Twitter 101.

Hope you find it helpful.

I’m not the kind of person who usually “wins” anything, particularly out of the blue. I don’t buy lottery tickets or go in on the 50/50 draws at work. So, I don’t really expect random earnings either.

Well, about a month ago I received an e-mail saying I’d been selected to receive a free TASSIMO coffee machine.

Being a sceptic, the first thing I did was search Google for TASSIMO scams.

Hey, for all I knew, it could have been a cleverly disguised Nigerian 419 scam in which I shipped my personal supply of coffee and tea with the guarantee that I’d be swimming in a lifetime supply of caffeine at a later date.

Photo credit: DeaPeaJay from Flickr

In any case, after I was sufficiently satisfied that it wasn’t a scam I gave out my mailing address. About a week later, a huge package arrived at the door. Inside, was not only the coffee machine but a wide range of products from decaf coffee to chai latte to espresso and Starbucks brand coffee.

To be honest, my first impression was that it was a gimmick. The coffee, tea and milk (for lattes and cappuccinos) come in containers called T DISCs. Each T DISC has a bar code that’s read by the machine to pour the “perfect cup.” You simply fill the water filtration container, insert the disc and press a button. Within seconds, there’s a cup of hot beverage waiting to be enjoyed.

It’s almost right out of Star Trek.

Say, “Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.”

And it magically appears.

Almost.

The quality of the beverages ranges in quality, possibly due to personal tastes. For instance, I find the latte milk far too sweet for my liking but the option to add hot water simply made the beverage taste, well, watered down. On the other hand, Starbucks coffee is exactly what I’d get if I ordered a black coffee from Starbucks. The cappuccinos are probably the most impressive of the bunch, particularly if you reverse the order of coffee and milk to create a macchiato (in a clear glass is best so you can see the layers).

The appeal of TASSIMO is in the ease of use. There’s really no mess of grinds involved and cleanup is pretty much as easy as disposing of the T DISC. Our kitchen already includes a coffee & espresso machine, an electric percolator and a French press. Clearly, the company knew what they were doing when they sent this package. Originally, I thought we’d try it out for a little bit and then I’d bring it to work. One month later and it’s still fairly well-used in our house, particularly by Cokebaby who has to work a lot of bizarre shifts.

My one complaint is the packaging. There’s a lot of it and not only does that create waste but it also weighs on my eco-conscience. The T DISCs are plastic and I believe non-recyclable. These, in turn, come packaged in boxes that are encased in more plastic. Does the convenience outweigh the garbage created? I don’t know. Probably not. It’s definitely the one thing I’d ask them to change about the otherwise great system.

I still drink my fair trade coffee and tea from Just Us! but the simplicity of brewing one cup versus one pot certainly has its appeal. For people who are constantly on the go or working in an office without the benefit of a large kitchen and appliances, I can see the real benefit in time and clean-up. It’s certainly not the haute coffee that can be compared to the likes of Kopi Luwak. But I’ve always questioned the validity of drinking something that’s come out of a civet’s rear end.

P.S. For the record: I’m sorry purveyors of Kopi Luwak coffee but, if you’re reading this and thinking of getting in touch to maybe sway my thoughts on the matter by sending freebies, I’m seriously not interested in trying it. Seriously.

So…did anybody notice I was MIA last week?

Sorry, peeps. I’m trying to manage my time while juggling a few other projects. This may take some adjusting to work out the logistics.

Women of the Otherworld

One of the other projects I’m currently working on is something called (un) Death-Match. If you like books about the supernatural, may I turn your attention to this fun site and my first blog entry there? I’m supporting the werewolf campaign for the next couple months. More specifically, I’m defending one of my fave books of the genre: Kelley Armstrong’s werewolf novel Bitten.

This post is going up much later than usual as a nod to the fact that there’s a full moon out tonight. Go to the site and post a comment there on why werewolves rule or tweet about it either @undeathmatch or using the hashtag #undeathmatch and you can be entered to win 1 of 10 copies of Bitten. If you miss out tonight, another “full moon frenzy” contest will happen again. Guess when?

Most importantly: vote werewolf and vote often.

If not for me, then do it for Tofu dog.

Photo credit: Magnus. from Flickr

What do Richard Simmons, the Guinness World Records, and Young MC have to do with each other?

Bust A Move!

On Monday night, Halifax Chicks were invited to a special tweetup at ONYX Dining Room & Cocktail Bar. It was a slight departure from our regular monthly events. Ben Boudreau from the local branding agency Revolve was brave enough to break our cardinal rule for Halifax Dudes by showing up without high heels. We forgave him this transgression because of the wonderful woman he had brought with him as a guest speaker (plus it didn’t hurt that he bought us all a round of fancy drinks and snacks).

Enter Bust A Move. A unique fundraising event that will donate 100% of the proceeds to charity. All the while they’ll be attempting to break two Guinness world records while having a heck of a lot of fun with none other than Richard Simmons leading one of the sessions!

Ambitious? Maybe. But you know what the best part is? It’s changing the current model of fundraising where sometimes as little as 50% of the proceeds go to the charity. And it’s a home grown idea. That’s right: born right here in Nova Scotia.

Why is it so important?

Every year in Nova Scotia, 700 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Every second day, one of these women dies.

All proceeds raised by Bust A Move teams will go toward the purchase of a much needed digital machine for mammograms, thus increasing output by up to 75%. This one piece of equipment will allow the QEII and IWK Foundations to raise the standards across all levels of breast health.

That’s huge.

The event takes place on January 30, 2010. Up to 1,000 participants will converge on the Metro Centre in teams to literally bust a move for six hours. Check out the Bust A Move blog, follow them on Twitter, join the Facebook group, put this badge on your blog:

BAM Badge

If you can afford to donate, please consider supporting the Halifax Chicks team. Or, even better, register your own team. Whether you can physically participate in the event or not, let’s band together as a community to help get the word out, meet the goals and turn heads in the rest of Canada.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this Bust A Move flash mob that appeared at the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week:

Every year Cokebaby and I try to get out to see at least one play at the Neptune Theatre. We’re not really ones for musicals so we tend to skip the performances of shows like High School Musical. For the most part we’ve been catching shows at the smaller Studio Theatre.

Fountain Hall | September 22 – October 18, 2009

Due to the e-newsletter that they send out, I caught a great two for the price of one special for the final performance of their first play of the season: The Game of Love and Chance.

Going into the theatre, I had only the brief description of the play to go by but it seemed like it would be quite fun.

Dreading the prospects of an arranged marriage, and desperate to know more about her anonymous groom to-be, a wealthy Parisian mademoiselle trades identities with her maid prior to the introductory rendezvous. When the monsieur in question also has the same brilliant idea, romance, comedy and mayhem unfold.

Contemporary language and magnificent period décor will blend as Marivaux’s 18th century masterpiece comes to life – let the games begin!

I have to say this opening play really bodes well for what looks like an amazing season. The acting was brilliant, costumes and set design stunning. Even the choreography of movements across the stage between scenes was wonderful.

Here’s a list of What’s on Stage this season:

Fountain Hall
No Great Mischief: October 27 to November 15, 2009
Sexy Laundry: January 19 to February 14, 2010
Rabbit Hole: March 2 to 28, 2010
Peter Pan: April 13 to May 30, 2010

Holiday Show
A Christmas Carol, the Musical: November 28, 2009 to January 3, 2010

Studio Theatre
A Beautiful View: October 13 to 31, 2009
Mesa: February 16 to March 6, 2010
Bigger than Jesus: April 6 to 24, 2010

If you’ve never been or rarely go to see a play check out my tips on theatre etiquette to which I’d like to add one more point: would it kill people to not wear a sweatshirt? I’m not saying theatre going needs to be some elitist kind of thing. Far from it. I just think that sweatshirts are made for a single purpose: sweating in. Not exactly theatre attire. You know?

For more information about shows, tickets and and subscriptions check out the Neptune Theatre website, Twitter, Facebook, or sign up for their online newsletter.

Photo credit: kaytethinks from Flickr

I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur of beers, but when I do have a pint I prefer something fuller than a Bud Lime. Cokebaby dabbles in home brewing and wine making so he has a better appreciation for the art behind micro brews. When we recently checked out one of Halifax’s newest dining spots, Rock Bottom Brewery, it was mostly for the beer.

First off, I love the decor. Although owned by the same folks who run Your Father’s Moustache (located upstairs in the same building) the two restaurants are worlds apart. Where upstairs you have a wide-open North American style pub & eatery, downstairs is a cozy, warm and intimate bar. As the name suggests, there are plenty of rock walls. The low-lighting, earthy tones and wood beams give the feeling of being tucked away in a grotto of sorts.

So cozy.

The food is 100% un-pretentious. Simple comfort food is the impression I took away from the meal. I had the turkey & avocado burger with baked sweet potato fries ($10.50). The cheese, bacon, sautéed onions and chipotle mayo as toppings were all kinds of awesome. Even though the additional combination of avocado and tomato made for a messy burger, the combination of flavours was precisely what I love about burgers. For drinks, I went with wheat ale followed by a stout. Both were totally enjoyable. When it comes to beer, I may not know much about the process of making it, but I know what I like and Rock Bottom Brewery makes beer that I like.

Cokebaby went with one of the specials as he’s apt to do: a meat lasagna with Caesar salad ($7.95). Although he wasn’t disappointed in the meal, he said it was just average. The most interesting thing about the entrée was that the pasta was whole wheat. He loved the beers that he had with the meal though: nut brown followed by red. We finished the meal with warm gingerbread: made in-house & drizzled with a lemon vanilla sauce ($6).

Service was attentive, efficient, and very friendly. Other things that impressed me about the restaurant were the variety of healthier options available, like baked sweet potato fries or mashed sweet potato. They also provide gluten free options. The beers are also reasonably priced: 12 oz ($4.20), 18 oz ($5.75).

There’s no mistaking the pride taken in making the beer either. Each has a great little write-up on the menu and the metal casks are on full display behind glass for diners to see. Live entertainment takes place in various forms throughout the week, too. Overall, our experience at Rock Bottom Brewery was lovely and we’ll certainly be going back.

Happy turkey day!

I don’t know about you but my tummy is still recovering from a Jiggs dinner with the in-laws yesterday. It was, as they say, a wicked scoff. I’d just like to take a moment of pause here to mention one of the things I’m thankful for this year and that is all the new friends made through the magic of social media. It’s been a wonderful year of meeting people that I may not have crossed paths with had it not been for Twitter.

Now, without further ado, the winner of the first ever East Coast By Choice contest is:

Michelle Yogis

She’s won two bottles of wine from Blomidon Estate Winery, a $25 gift certificate from Bishop’s Cellar, a free bottle of wine with the purchase of a meal at DesBarres Manor Inn, and t-shirts from Hart & Thistle.

Thanks to everyone who posted their comments in support of the guest bloggers and to the guest bloggers themselves who provided such great posts. Here are some of the entries from Twitter about the many offerings that the East Coast has in terms of wine and beer. It just goes to show there’s plenty to do, see, and taste right here in our own backyard.

#ECBC

[Wrapping up a great week of East Coast good spirits is brewmaster at the Hart and Thistle Gastro-brewpub in downtown Halifax. And, if you need an excuse to grab a pint, it's actually his birthday tomorrow so head over for a special dinner and release of 'Double Simcoe SMaSH'. It's also your last chance to enter the contest this weekend to win some great items donated by the guests. Leave a comment here or tweet about your fave East Coast beverage using the hashtag #ECBC. Check out the full contest rules and prizes.]

By Greg Nash

When I was asked about writing a guest post here my first thought as a professional brewer was to write about brewing and how it has redirected my life and influenced those close to me.

In my previous life living outside Amherst, Nova Scotia I was a meat cutter, a Christmas tree farmer and an automotive paint technician but then something happened—I started home brewing and by the early ‘90’s I was hooked. The never ending quest for more information on the art and science of brewing became more and more intensive and the supply of books available was suddenly insufficient. I started working in the craft brewing industry in 1994 and soon after enrolled with a reputable brewing school. In 1996 I graduated from the American Brewers Guild in Davis, California and have brewed professionally in several states and provinces since. Some notable local breweries I have brewed for are Garrison Brewing Company and more recently the Pump House Brewery in Moncton, NB. before returning to Halifax where I currently brew for the Hart and thistle Gastropub and Brewery while I continue work on other projects.

I was a bit of a foodie before I started brewing but then something happened – brewing brought it all together, beer and food have become a wonderful marriage, in my own mind at least. When I brew I am cooking, nothing more nothing less. Not only do I have a serious relationship with beer and food but I love to mix it up by putting the two together, I cook most food with beer and strive for that perfect pairing at the dinner table. As I became more involved with beer I became more of a foodie, learning to brew has made me a better cook and learning to cook has made me a better brewer, however there seems to be several annoying drawbacks to all this seemingly glorious food stuffs.

Dining out….

I seek fresh local foods with flavour. I love food as can be witnessed by my ever increasing girlish figure. I smoke cheeses at home, I cure and smoke bacon (mmm bacon) and other meats at home, I make my own sauces and breads, I even went so far as to invest an almost foolish fortune on a ceramic cooker and grill to help emphasize these gastronomic delights, a Primo. A lot of this may have stemmed from the sensory analysis training at brewing school, or maybe I just drank too much beer and had the munchies all the time. That’s not it! Dining out has become a bit of a crap shoot as I am sure a lot of you know already. Some of the things I love so dearly can be dreadfully disappointing if I happen in the door of the wrong establishment bent on trying out the new place I’ve never heard of. Can I really blame this all on beer, I say yes.

Drinking out….

This may come as no surprise but the drink list at any given establishment strictly dictates both where I dine and drink. I want fresh local beer with flavour and won’t settle for tasteless rice or corn beers, I scoff at microbreweries that purposely dumb down their products lightening the flavours in hopes not to offend the palate. The selections are becoming better and better as time progresses but the choices of places that carry good fresh local craft beer are still quite limited. Sure I’ll opt for wine on occasion but beer is the drink of choice for me. After all beer is the new wine isn’t it? I’d love to see more establishments around Nova Scotia with good local beer on the taps, with beer/food pairings or featuring foods infused with beer, just one more drawback the great world of beer as I know it has bestowed upon me – it is a challenge to find good beer and food under one roof.

My philosophy on brewing is to think outside the box, not being restricted to styles but rather to what tastes good. To think of it as food, wait… beer is food. I am an advocate of both great food and beer and always try to cook, eat, brew and drink locally as much as possible. I unwittingly promote the world of craft beer to everyone that comes within arms reach. While they are there I could be caught inviting them over for a ribeye or forcing a brick of freshly smoked cheese or some home-smoked bacon porn on them. Heck any beer advocate would do the same wouldn’t they? I’m still blaming it all on the beer though. I think the same would happen to any of us whom discover the joy found inside a good, fresh, local pint.

Since I can’t let up on the bacon (life is always better with bacon), here’s something anyone can do at home if you have some sort of little smoker:

Sliced single smoked

Pork Belly beer Bacon (Beer Cured)

1 pork belly 8 – 12 lbs

1.5 L malty beer (brown ale, red ale)

600 ml water

3 bay leaves

3 gloves garlic minced

1 c kosher salt

2 tbsp crushed dried chillies

1 tbsp cracked black pepper

3 sprigs fresh thyme – stems discarded

1 c brown sugar

Bring all ingredients to a boil until sugar and salt is dissolved.

Allow to rest for 20 minutes then refrigerate.

When completely cool submerge the pork belly in the brine for 3 to 4 days for the cure. Personally I prefer 3 days, the longer the soak the saltier it becomes. (Update: The pork belly should be brine refrigerated at 35 – 36 F; the brine should be chilled to this temperature before submerging the pork belly into it as well.)

Remove from brine, rinse and pat dry. Allow to dry further in the fridge on a rack for 2 more hrs.

Smoke with applewood for 2 hrs at ~ 190 F, then 2 more hrs @ ~ 235 F or to an internal temperature of 150 F.

Slice, fry, eat. Good for 3 weeks or freeze.

Greg Nash is the brewmaster for the Hart & Thistle Gastropub and Brewery. You can read more about his handcrafted cutting edge beers on the Hart and Thistle Brewers Blog.

[The wonderful folks at Authentic Seacoast really stand up to their name. If you follow them on Twitter you'll often get lots of great links to East Coast gems. So, I was very happy to include this next guest who 's the wine director at DesBarres Manor Inn. Don't forget to enter the contest this week to win some great items donated by the guests. Leave a comment here or tweet about your fave East Coast beverage using the hashtag #ECBC. Check out the full contest rules and prizes. Love wine? Check out this great new wiki Halifax Wine Impressions by Michelle Yogis.]

By Audrey Firth

Fireside Dining

I love wine. I love white wine, red wine and rose. My friends rely on me to choose wine for our get togethers. And guests at DesBarres Manor Inn count on me to choose the perfect bottle or glass for a memorable dinner. I am quick to point out that I am not a sommelier. I just like to drink wine and have had the good fortune to work with some of the best names in food & wine in Atlantic Canada. My Cape Bretoner’s appreciation for alcohol and parties also comes in handy!

I find great bottles that just make me feel that I can never top it (Belle Glos Pinot Noir 2004) and then I am off on my next adventure and I find Pierre Sparr Pinot Gris or his yummy Gewurztraminer. I became a big fan of Gewurztraminer back in my days at Inn at Bay Fortune (PEI) with Chef Gordon Bailey. We were hosting a wine dinner with Malivoire wines from Beamsville, Ontario and Chef Gordon did a great double smoked bacon tart that was paired with the Malivoire Gewurtz …the best taste!

Lobster Dinner

For many of us it is difficult to try those new wines. We are either intimidated or we stay with our favorites because we do not want to waste money on something we may not like. This past winter to beat the winter doldrums I hosted my friends every Friday evening for “Happy Hour” (sometimes it was Happy Hours). We often tasted Nova Scotia wines with wines from around the world. One Friday we tasted whites – Cookathama Chardonnay from Australia, Man Vintners Chenin Blanc from South Africa and Nova Scotia’s Jost Vineyards L’Acadie Chardonnay and the Jost won hands down. Did I mention we also did food to go with our wines? We paired these great wines with a Seafood Bubbly Bake …great Maritime comfort food.

At DesBarres Manor Inn I enjoy doing the same for our guests. Our very own Chef Shaun often prepares wonderful tasting menus and I like to try a couple of wines with each dish. It kind of broadens your wine horizons. Sometimes we pair a white and a red with the same dish. While we offer fine dining, we like to lose the pretense so people can relax and simply enjoy the flavours and friendship of sharing a wonderful meal and good wines together.

So have fun with your friends and family this fall and winter with your own tasting parties. Seek out Nova Scotia restaurants that pair dishes with wine to gain new insights on how you can bring local flavours together with wine. And follow writers who share seasonal wine picks and pairings like we do at DesBarres Manor Inn.

Well happy tasting to all of you! Don’t hesitate to drop me a line with your own pairings or wine questions. And most of all have fun with your own wine discoveries. Cheers from me to you as I go off in search of the next (in my humble opinion) great wine!

Audrey Firth is the wine director at DesBarres Manor Inn and the general manager for the Authentic Seacoast Resorts. She contributes to food and wine tweets at @AuthenticCoast and shares recipes and wine picks at DesBarres Manor.

[This next guest post comes from one of the many vineyards that Nova Scotia has to offer. If you haven't had an opportunity to try local wines, a drive out to the Valley or other areas in this province makes for a great road trip where you can sample lovely wines and local produce. Remember to enter the contest this week to win some great items donated by the guests. Leave a comment here or tweet about your fave East Coast beverage using the hashtag #ECBC. Check out the full contest rules and prizes.]

There’s something very satisfying about planting a grape vine. You dig a hole, place the vine, and fill it back up again. It’s that simple. But over the course of its lifetime, that vine will grow to produce hundreds of bottles of wine. That’s a good feeling.

When Kimberly (@AliasGrace) asked me if I was interested in writing a guest blog, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to convey my philosophy about wine in more than 140 characters or on the meagre space of a back label. I spent weeks in the vineyard mulling over all the interesting and witty things I could write and, in the end, my philosophy would have fit in a single “tweet” – with 112 characters to spare, in fact.

Philosophy in action

My philosophy is pretty simple, really: wine growing should be dirty.

It doesn’t sound like much of a philosophy, and maybe it’s not, but it’s definitely true. From start to finish, it is a dirty process. Imagine how dirty you would get if you had 10,000 plants to tend to in your backyard garden. My clothes look like Jackson Pollock had at them with wine…Baco, Foch, Chard…If I get home from work and don’t need a shower, it probably hasn’t been a very productive day.

All that to say, it is easily forgotten that the wine you enjoyed with your dinner this evening is an agricultural product, born in a vineyard. There are companies that do a very good job of obscuring that fact, making wine look fabulous and luxurious with beautiful super models in evening gowns sipping Champagne out of Riedel stemware. Not a hint of dirt. But that’s marketing, not wine  growing.

I have been lucky enough to work in and visit a number of the world’s best wine regions and, without fail, the best wines are those that are crafted. I don’t mean “crafted” in the worn-out, full-page-Wine-Spectator-ad version of the term, but in the truer, dirt-under-your-fingernails, sense.

You hear the phrase “great wines are made in the vineyard” tossed around quite a lot and, honestly, nothing could be more true. Making a great wine requires patience, understanding, and attention to detail. Great wines should embody their terroir, what we in North America have started to call somewhereness. Great wines not only tell the story of where they come from, but of the winegrower who crafted them. You cannot “cookie-cutter” a great wine, it’s not paint by number, and no two vintages are alike.

You have to treat every vine like an individual, nurture it, and respond to its particular needs. And this takes a lot of work – pruning, trimming, plucking and thinning.

The whole process, the effort, is wonderfully rewarding.

Yes, vineyards can be horribly muddy. There are many, many bugs that inhabit them. Spiders cleverly spin their webs across the rows and I always seem to dismantle them unintentionally with my face. Birds sometimes poop on me. Lately, I’ve even been spending my mornings escorting unenthusiastic raccoons to their new home in the lovely Lumsden Dam Provincial Park.

When the harvest starts, wasps flock to the crush pad in swarms – I get stung a few times each season. Grape juice is sticky. During vinification – with all that pressing, pumping, punching and racking – I get covered in wine. My hands get so purple and black that I’ve actually had people ask me if I was a mechanic. Does petrol come off with lemon juice, I wonder?

Wine growing is filthy, but – to the perpetual bewilderment of my girlfriend – that’s why it’s so much fun!

Here in Nova Scotia, we have great wines. I’ve only been home a few months now, and I’m still out there discovering them. Our winegrowers work hard to grow the best grapes they can and are actively shaping the industry by experimenting with sites, varietals, and clones. They are excited and passionate about what they do and you can taste that somewhereness in their wines.

And, you know what else? They all end up getting dirty.

Simon Rafuse (@simonrafuse) is associate winemaker at Blomidon Estate Winery and manages a vineyard in the Gaspereau Valley. He lives in Gaspereau with his partner Emilie and Ruffles the cat.