Montreal!

Last weekend I went to Montreal. It was a lot of fun (and a lot of good food). On Friday night we ate at Thursday's, which was very, very yummy. No pictures, unfortunately. I had steak Parisian style, which came with fries and green beans, all very good. The bread was also delicious. For dessert, I had "Les bananes flambées, rhum appleton et sa glace à l'anis" (Banana flambéed with rum served with anise ice cream). It was also yummy. It was hard to choose a dessert, because everything sounded so delicious.

On Saturday morning (er...afternoon, by the time we were finally up) we went to Chez Cora for breakfast. This place was wonderful. I ordered (I don't remember the menu name) a crêpe with custard and fresh fruit (bananas, grapes, kiwi, peaches, pineapple, and bananas). It was the biggest crêpe I have ever seen in my life. This thing was HUGE! It was also delicious. I didn't manage to finish the whole thing, but I think I would have been a little appalled if I had. It was definitely enough for two people.

C ordered the "Récolte 90," which was french toast made with brioche, an egg over easy, bacon, and lots and lots of fresh fruit (this place was really big on fruit). He also got a yummy smoothie.
Here are more pictures from Chez Cora on a random website I found (it's in French).

Non-Food Related Things
After brunch, C and I went to the Biodome to see animals. I couldn't use flash, so my pictures came out mostly blurry (I do not have a study hand, hence one of the reaons I will never be a surgeon). Here are two that came out okay.
Scarlet Macaws

Spoonbill

I liked this guy. He sat on that branch for a long time while I watched him. Cute. Many, many more pictures on their website. Ahhh, I love animals.

Artichokes!

Artichokes!
Artichokes are my favorite food, and have been for as long as I can remember. I've been waiting for about a month now for some nice ones to show up at the grocery store. Finally, two did.

Beautiful, beautiful steamed artichokes and sauce
I steamed them, which took about 30 minutes. Does everyone know how to prepare an artichoke? They look sort of scary and spiny when you first pick them up. You run them under cold water, then chop off the stem and the pointed lower part. I also trim the points off of the leaves, although I've been told that's not necessary. Then steam them. In my experience, they usually take 45 minutes - 1 hour to cook, but these were fast. Fine by me; I was really hungry. They're done when a leaf can be pulled off easily.

When they were almost done, I started making the sauce:

Closeup of the sauce

The recipe for the sauce comes from my boyfriend's mother. Heat butter in a saucepan over low (I think I used about half a stick for the two of us, which is way more unhealthiness than either of us needs, but it's just so tasty). When almost all of the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat and add an equal amount of mayonnaise. Whip the sauce with a fork. When it is well combined, pour in Heinz 57 Steak Sauce to taste. Yum.

My artichoke! Yum!
I would have taken more pictures as we ate them, but by this point we were very hungry. And they were delicious. Mmmm...

Dec-A-Cookie!

We didn't make the cookies, but we made them pretty.

Look at all those toppings!

All the cookies that didn't get eaten the night before

I made a butterfly! It's a little lopsided

Apparently Nerds only come in a few colors.