5 Guys Burgers - the savior of the sleep deprived...

This is my life right now.

It has been 12 days now – or should I say nights – since Poppy last slept. So I’m a bit knackered. 

Dinner has become a blur of microwaved delights, all created while being bashed with an Elmo doll, stepping over the minefield full blown tantrums and trying not to become the mother that locks herself in the hall closet just to eat a biscuit and pretend my life isn’t falling down around my ears.

My daughter doesn’t sleep. She’s never been a good sleeper. Even during that mystical newborn phase where apparently all they do is sleep 23 hours a day. Nope. Not even then.

Now though, she is almost 2.

That is almost 2 years without sleep.

I’ve given up trying to find excuses, reasons and magical cures. 

I think I just need to accept it. During the day I am quite philosophical about it… during the night however it takes all my willpower not to sit in the corner and repeatedly bash my head into the wall wondering what the hell I did in my last life to deserve this. 

All I can say is – lucky she’s cute. 

The cheeky smiles don’t make up for exhaustion, but they do give you just that tiny bit more energy to hope that tonight… tonight she might sleep.

Whatever. I'm clearly delusional.

So while she was at Daycare, hubby took me for an old fashioned Burger date. And we’ve discovered that apparently the local’s favorite burger place here is Five Guys Burgers.

 I have to say I really liked it. They shop itself is very industrial – white walls, high ceilings and exposed pipes – but the service was genuinely friendly and I loved the way they yelled the orders from the front counter to the grill. Although hardly theatrical, it did add a nice element of fun to the occasion.

I got my hamburger with the lot – pickles, grilled onions, all the sauces. The Lot. I like a burger that squishes and all those burger-y juices that run happily down your arm. This definitely ticked the box. My burger was tasty, juicy and nicely put together. Win.

Hubby got the Double Cheeseburger with grilled mushrooms and onions. And loved it. We decided on the 5 Guys fries and the serving was MASSIVE. I found them a little plain – but next time we’ll try the Cajun version.

These are not Gourmet burgers on any special, fancy breads or foodie style condiments – but they are a good, honest, quality burger. It didn’t cure me of my sleep deprivation, but it did give me a bit of pep to get through the rest of the day. 

And there were no dishes. Perfect! 

Now to sneak home for a nap...

5 Guys Burgers and Fries
130 Sierra Springs Drive 
Airdrie, AB

Saltlik Steakhouse Banff and the Lobster Disaster.

Everyone tells you how expensive it is to have a baby. And they're right - it can be expensive... Cots, bottles, toys... clothes they seem to grow out of mid-nappy change...

But I thought I had everything under control until Poppy developed a love of lobster. Yes that's right - the world’s most expensive shellfish.

Sigh. Why couldn't she be a chicken nugget baby?

For Christmas we ticked a major goal off our bucket list and had "Christmas at the Castle".

It was an unplanned (although heavily lusted after) experience and our spontaneity robbed us of any chance at a traditional Christmas dinner - but lucky for us Saltlik in Banff decided at the last minute to open for Christmas dinner. And so began the lobster disaster.

MacKays Ice Cream Cochrane

I have always loved to read, and tend to devour books so quickly, that I struggle to justify the cost of buying them. When I was a little girl, I remember reading books that were based in Northern USA / Canada… lots of talk of snow and toboggans, snowmen and hearty winter food… places I could only ever dream of visiting.

Two particular books really stirred my imagination. One in particular where the lead character bought a hot chocolate that was “so thick and rich, that the spoon stood up all by itself”. I was mesmerized!

 I had no idea what hot chocolate was. I imagined someone melting huge vats of chocolate bars and selling them as a drink… so thick that you needed a spoon to eat it!

Taj Indian Airdrie - Comfort Food at its Finest.

In the middle of the night – your imagination can be a powerful thing.

We are currently trapped in a living hell, known only as non-insulated Apartment Living.

I’ve lived in Apartments before and it’s run the gauntlet between “fine” and “am I willing to lose my bond and abscond in the middle of the night”.

In my minds eye, I imagine my upstairs neighbour to be a 300kg Driller who wears his work boots inside and is as nimble as a 3 legged elephant. The fact that he also likes to throw heavy, squeaky toys to his infrequently manicured, and easily excitable, manic dog – does not endear him to me either.

That he is a night owl, who likes to pace his bedroom (also above my bedroom) has been enough for me to take him off the Christmas Card list.

But it’s his love of bad death metal rock, and his tone deaf attempts to replicate it on his electric guitar – complete with amps! – that really has me grinding my teeth.

I am a patient person (sometimes), I could even be described as peace loving. But if you want to see my shackles go up, and my inner warrior emerge – wake up my non-sleeping baby and see how well you fare.

Costa Vida Fresh Mexican

Before we left home – I had my weird list of food I needed to try while we are living in Canada.

Twinkies. Urgh. So nasty. Sweaty yellow cakes with fake cream… enough said.

Poutine. We’ve had seriously good, and seriously gross.

American Hot Dog. The BEST I’ve ever had!

Taco Bell. Well – even though this was on my list – Marlee our Au Pair squealed with disgust every time I mentioned this. 

Which I will admit – her stories of past visits have put me off slightly – but mark my words, give me a few drinks and I WILL give it a go!

So when I saw that Airdrie has new Mexican Restaurants popping up I got seriously excited! So excited in fact – that without realising it – I basically gate crashed their opening day while they were still mopping the floors… talk about keen.

Brewsters, we have a local!

 

Wings

Of all the things I have struggled with since we moved here – the complete lack of familiarity has been the hardest.

From not knowing where to shop, to what brand of pasta sauce to buy, and who the hell goes first at a “4 Point Stop” Intersection. Nothing shakes your confidence more than having to second guess yourself at every turn.

What I have really missed though – is having a “local”. That failsafe location where you can go for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or just a drink. That place the car knows how to get to automatically and where the staff recognise you as a regular.

Thanks to an amazing Burger that we first discovered on Man vs Food, we now have a Local!

The Avenue Cupcakery...

Along with our new start in Canada are a lot of new experiences. 

We’ve downgraded from a 4 bedroom house with a yard, to a 2 bedroom apartment with an icicle ridden balcony. We’re getting by on one car instead of two. And we’re learning how to navigate a completely different climate.

A few pointers for those of you “Tropical” people thinking of relocating to the colder side of life.

1.  A Chinook is not just a helicopter. It is also a weather pattern that makes the Albertan temperatures fluctuate wildly from -35C to 5C overnight. And vice versa.

2.  A $20 Kmart Pram was never designed to tackle 6 inches of snow and sludge so you should be prepared to abandon it by the side of the road when the wheels eventually fall off.

3.  No matter how bad your cabin fever. It is rarely a good idea to bundle your toddler up for a “road trip” in said pram, frigid Chinook wind and icy roads.

Wild Flour Bakery Banff

There are few things that excite me more than visiting cute little towns and eating at the local's favourite haunts. So when you see somewhere advertised as “Banff’s Best Breakfast!” and “Banff’s Local Artistan Bakery” – you can pretty much see me running to join the line-up.

So we got up early – not our choice – the ratbag is an early riser who can’t be trusted to play alone, and trudged through the snow to what was promised to be an amazing breakfast.

I have to say I was put off from the minute we walked through the front door.

The scowling waitress was obviously not happy to be at work and glared at us while we struggled to decide what to order. 

The reason for our struggles? What we had thought would be an artisan bakery heaving under drool-worthy baked goods and big, gourmet, “fill up the Snowboarder” style breakfasts was more of a Yuppie, Vegetarian café… and the pastry cabinet had yet to be filled...

The Rocky Mountain Resort Banff and my lack of coordination...

For people who know me – I am about as uncoordinated as they come. In fact, if I haven't spoken to my Dad for a while, one of the first questions he will ask me is "Had any good stacks lately?"

If there is a single pothole, wayward stick or slightly non-flat surface  – I will find it – and I will take a monumental, highly embarrassing and usually painful fall.

The funniest part about this is that I actually used to be an athlete of sorts. I rowed competitively as a teenager and even made it to Nationals – however, the irony is not lost on me, that this was a sport conducted almost entirely while sitting…

Anyway – while we were in Banff – or what we fondly now call “Australia Town”, we decided to turn our day trip into an overnighter.

While checking out Mooseprint – easily one of the coolest Bookstores I’ve ever been to – we met Andrew (yup, an Aussie) and he recommended The Rocky Mountain Resort.

True to form – after making a new friend, chatting between customers and herding Poppy around his shop like a greased up cat – I made my mark by tripping over the welcome mat, crashing into the door and skinning both my knees. I’m pretty sure he’ll remember me for a while to come... I hope not too many of his customers leave their DNA all over his front doorstep.

COWS Ice Cream and The Jaws of Death...

 

As a little girl growing up in the middle of the Outback where temperatures were regularly 40C+, my absolute favourite food was (and sadly for my thighs, still is!) ice cream.

Dad was always the pushover when it came to asking for treats. He would always happily allow it as long as he was allowed “a bite”.

As sugar deprived, over heated little brats – we would always thankfully give in to this one demand and innocently hand over our ice cream for the “payment” of our cool treat.

We would then watch in horror as the majority of that ice cream would disappear into the "Jaws of Death". (See re-enactment by Poppy below)

Dad would then grin at us through melting cream, hand back an almost empty wrapper and send us on our way.

Rundle Lounge at The Fairmont Hotel Banff

 Our first trip to Banff was on a whim.

We piled into the car for a lazy drive and lo and behold - The Poptart fell asleep! 

For anyone who knows our little girl and her bizarre hatred of sleep (and, more often than not – cars too)  – you would know that we drove, and drove, and drove – too scared to stop in case she woke up.

And that, is how we ended up in Banff.

Wendy's and the weird Poutine.

There’s only so much takeaway food the human body can handle – and I’m pretty sure we have eaten at every establishment in Canada that has a drive through in the weeks we have been here. 

The straw that broke the Camel's back however was Wendy's. 

At home, Wendy's does an average hotdog and decent ice cream. Here, it is a low grade version of McDonald's. We ordered a couple of burgers, chicken nuggets for Poppy and a serve of Poutine.

Probably a bad choice. 

Poppy took one sniff of the nuggets and dumped them on the floor of the car. She ended up eating most of a Continental Cucumber instead... in hindsight I should have joined her.

Hubby powered through his burger out of determined hunger. I got half way through mine and then - in the middle of a beef burger - hit a flavour and texture that was 100% smoked salmon. 
I don't eat fish. Therefor I did not finish my burger.

Our Christmas is on hold.

Meet “Bruce the Moose”.

He is the only tangible proof in our house that Christmas is upon us.

We are officially T-4 in the countdown to Christmas and I haven’t bought presents yet. 

Not a single one.

I haven’t bought a turkey. 

And I don’t intend to.

My to-do list is empty, and my days are stress free.

Hubby is away at work – and like Driller’s the world over, I am sure – there is no ETA on when he will be home. Poppy is 19m old and has no concept of Xmas, Santa or obligatory gift giving - so Christmas in our house is officially on hold.

I am far from being the Christmas Grinch but there is a very different feel about it this year with recent events dominating the media, my husband being far from home and us being otherwise family-less in a foreign country.

Luckily Poppy is so young that she won’t notice if we have Christmas late, or not at all. For her – every day her “Dad-dad” is home is Christmas replayed over and over again like Groundhog Day. She’s pretty easily pleased.

So this year will not be about presents. 

Instead – we will focus on Poppy and the things we want for her.

More than anything – we just want our little girl to grow up to be kind and thoughtful of others. Last year we started her first Christmas tradition where we take her to buy 2 presents – one for a boy, one for a girl – and donate them to a Children’s Charity. It’s only one act, but it’s a start.

We know how lucky we are. We are living our Canadian dream, we have a beautiful, happy and healthy daughter – and after almost 4 years of marriage – we are still crazy in love. When all is said and done, we don’t need presents under a tree – or a moose in our case – we just need our family and everything will be ok.

Merry Christmas everyone.

X

Masala Banff, Indian Food worth fighting over!

I’d obviously had a dyslexic moment when I wrote down the address – but didn't realise it at the time. 

When we got to 226 Bear Street, I felt uneasy that it was an odd looking, dirty, glass door with no Restaurant in sight. With Poppy on my hip, while Hubby found a park, I felt even more uneasy when I saw a crooked, (badly) handwritten sign saying “Come in – We open!” posted on the fire escape door… *cue creepy music*

I’m as much a sucker for hunting down a great local restaurant as anyone else, but I was seriously expecting to be mugged and carved up by organ harvesters if I went through that door… highly unlikely in one of the main streets of tourist friendly Banff I know – but I have an overactive imagination and I watch far too many crime shows.

Tubby Dog - SERIOUSLY, You Gotta Eat Here!

Cooking is my yoga, my meditation, my “me time”. And if ever I can’t cook and I need that stress relief – the second best option is a cooking show. 

My not-so-secret celebrity crush is Adam from ‘Man vs Food’ and I dream of being able to tour America following his trail of soul food, ice cream sundaes and ridiculous stroke inducing challenges.

When we checked into our new Hotel, the first TV Show we saw was ‘You Gotta Eat Here’ – I was hooked! It was local – places I could actually go and try and not just dream about! The first place they showed in Calgary was a Hot Dog Joint called “Tubby Dogs” – famous for their enormous dogs, unique ingredients and imaginative combinations. 

Hubby saw the tail end of it and he was keen for adventure –and to get out of the Hotel room! So we bundled Poppy into her ski gear, and headed off into the car park for part one of our adventure – finding our car after a mini blizzard.

Earls' Girls steal the show...

"For the love of God, please eat the Beef!"

When we told our Brother in Law Mick that we were going to Banff for the day – his one recommendation was “Go to Earls”.

Later – after we’d already been – he admitted that Earls was really famous for “Earl’s Girls”, and he didn’t actually have an opinion, or a memory, of the food. Apparently the girls that work there are all stunning. And looking back – it’s a pretty accurate selling point.  

But before knowing all of the above – we went to Earls on a recommendation. One we thought was for food… apparently not – but it was still a good recommendation!

Ric's Grill - 3 strikes and you're out!

I don’t think you can be any fairer to restaurant than if you eat there 3 times. Surely that would have to give them the best possible chance of getting it right?

The first time we ate at Ric's was out of exhaustion – moving Hotels across the city, buying a car, returning a hire car and doing all of this in Calgary’s first decent snow fall of the season. And all of this done by 2 and a bit Aussie’s who don’t know their way around, bought a dud GPS and have never driven in snow before…

So dinner number one was default by exhaustion – and Room Service to boot. And it was horrible. Fettuccine Alfredo that tasted as if it had been made with a roux (butter and flour) that hadn’t been cooked out… so it tasted very raw and floury… it was garnished nicely with some grated zucchini – which was also raw, so all in all – a very odd and gluey dish.

The Pepperoni Pizza tasted store bought, a claggy base with a tinny tomato paste, ordinary toppings and barely melted cheese. To top it all off – the Waitress forgot our cutlery (and salt, pepper and napkins…) so we ate the pizza with our hands, and then ate the pasta cold, once our forks had arrived. It was the kind of meal that makes you feel sad and abandoned... just what you want when you've uprooted your life and emigrated to a foreign country...

We didn’t even have the energy to walk the half mile of corridor to get to the lift, to try and hunt down a chocolate bar. We just went to bed hungry, unfulfilled and sad.

OMG - Our car is an igloo...

Don't forget where you parked the car... in the morning they will all look the same!

To the untrained eye it can seem slightly stalker'ish - but sometimes peering out of your hotel blinds and spying on other guests is better than being the laughing stock of the carpark.

We waited for over an hour for people to start leaving our hotel - just so we could see how it was done. 

No - we weren't trying to do a runner without paying - we had just never driven in snow before - so freeing our car from it's own personal igloo was well out of our skill-set!

Luckily we saw a few good examples - and a few not so good...  unluckily, we quickly realised that our car didn't have one of those magic remote starters as cars seemed to come alive on their own in the carpark...

Anyway... even though the snow was making it as difficult as possible - I still wasn’t keen to leave the Sheraton Cavalier.

Bass Pro Calgary - MUST DO!

This is food related… kind of.

Ok – so that’s a stretch – because I have no idea what is involved in taxidermy… but I’m pretty sure the hunters don’t just scoop the animals out for meatloaf and get the leftovers mounted.

Starbucks and the Attack of the Bogan Australian Accent...

I will admit – despite their Apple’esque attempts to take over the world – I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Starbucks…

One of the biggest adjustments for me moving to Canada, has been my caffeine addiction. Coffee is different here. Canadians love their filtered coffee and creamers… I just can’t get the taste for it. But even Canadian cappuccinos taste different… I’m not sure if it is the beans, the milk or just the baristas… but it’s different.

Starbucks makes the closest thing to Australian Coffee that I’ve found so far.

So my love affair with them has grown exponentially. And since putting down roots in Airdrie – just north of Calgary where we have had major snowfalls and several -15C days… the fact that they also do drive through… uh huh, you heard me right – DRIVE THROUGH coffee…  I’m just about ready to name my second born child after them.

There have been so many things I’ve been looking forward to eating since we arrived. One of them was a bearclaw… and they sell them at Starbucks!