a peek inside the fishbowl

We have a winner! Thanks for your entries everyone!

Regular readers already know how much my family enjoys Saunders Farm. Saunders has been a Fishbowl patron for a few years but our relationship actually goes farther back. We’ve been visiting Saunders since my youngest was a babe-in-arms. In recent years we started going in the summertime too (it’s got a whole different vibe during the summer months!) but for us, the biggest draw was always in the Fall.

There are lots of reasons why we made a trip out there every October and why we continue doing so. One of the things Saunders does really well is that they cater to kids of different stages and ages and there’s no shortage of things to see and do. Some of our personal favourites include the different hedge mazes, the haunted hay ride, the jumping pillows (they are SUPER FUN), gem mining, and the pedal cars. They are JUST starting to become brave enough to do the Barn of Terror too. (Who am I kidding, I’m barely brave enough!)

When the kids were younger there was a bigger focus on the stage shows, play structures and climbers, and the Discovery Barn. And then there’s the food. We normally pack picnics when we go for these kind of adventures but when we visit Saunders we make sure we time it for lunch. And now there’s even a BETTER reason to do so.

This year Saunders introduced something new that I’m pretty excited to try… a “walk up” restaurant called the Farmer’s Table that serves fresh local foods. The new menu starts on September 28, and it’s droolworthy. Here’s a ssampling of what you’ll be able to find there: local ploughman’s lunch with summer sausages, apple chutney and glengarry cheeses; Seed to Sausage BBQ applewood smoked sausages; O’Brien’s gourmet beef burger with Redhead pantry BBQ sauce; kale and quinoa salad; Hall’s fresh honeycrisp apples and aged cheddar; and of course, fresh cut fries.

I’m salivating just thinking about it.

Anyway, yes, I am very happy to have the opportunity to give away FOUR passes to Saunders to one lucky family. I’m excited because (a) I love to give things away and (b) I love Saunders Farm and (c) you are practically guaranteed a good time.

Interested?

• Leave a comment below and tell me what your favourite memory is from Saunders Farm. If you’ve never been, take a look at the Saunders Farm website and let me know what you’re looking forward to seeing.
• Do you follow the Fishbowl on Facebook too? You can also drop your comment on this post and double your chances of winning.
• This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
• If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder!

That’s it! Entries must be in by noon on September 29 2013, at which point I’ll do a random draw of all qualifying entries. The winner will be contacted by email, so make sure you leave a valid address.

Thank you Saunders Farm! And good luck to you all!

I am thrilled to introduce a new patron to the Fishbowl family this week. The Ottawa Gymnastics Centre (OGC) is the oldest operating not-for-profit gymnastics organization in Canada and has been part of the Ottawa community since 1960. It’s been part of my family’s life for many years. We love what they do there, and how passionate they are about the sport as well as the health and well-being of their young charges.

Both of our girls have a few years of recreational gymnastics under their belts. It really is a great program. As a parent I always felt that they got so much out of it: strength, confidence, stamina, poise. There are countless benefits. I always watched their classes with a bit of wonder. During their recreational classes they happily got to rotate through a bunch of the equipment (three cheers for variety!) and ended their time completely exhausted and looking like wrung-out sponges. (The biggest hallmark of success was the fact that they always slept like bricks.) I was especially impressed with the young school-aged boys I always saw there. Talk about having energy to burn. If I’d had boys I would have definitely enrolled them in gymnastics.

I feel like I should mention that it’s not just about competitive gymnastics at OGC.

Did you know that they also host birthday parties for kids age 3 and up? We’ve been to a few parties there and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s really the perfect place to host a gathering of rambunctious kids. Where else does one have an opportunity to jump, climb, leap, and roll like this?

What else is there at the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre? Well, quite a bit as it turns out. There are:

• Gym babies classes (6 to 10 months)
• Babynastics (10 to 15 months)
• … and adult drop-in recreational classes too. (Mondays and Wednesday 8:45 to 10:45 p.m.) (!!)

Winter registration starts on November 6, and you can register online too… which is a huge bonus. Check out the OGC website right here and follow them on Facebook to get the latest scoop!

You don’t often hear those two words together, do you?

Delicious.

Butter.

CHEESE can be delicious. And so can bread. Cupcakes can be delicious too (as I’ve written about recently). But butter? It does not have that kind of reputation, at least not here in Canadian grocery stores as far as I know.

Sidebar: I visited my grandmother in Prague a few times and could not get over how flavourful the butter was on that side of the ocean. I didn’t want to eat anything but bread and butter for every single meal… and she wanted to stuff me full of chicken paprika! And breaded pork! And roasted pork! And dumplings bathed in butter and pork drippings! But all I wanted was bread slathered in butter. I remember her concern, written all over her face, as she stood in her kitchen with her wooden spoon in hand: “YOU MUST EAT SOMETHING ELSE ANDREA!”

But there was no way I was going to give up on that butter.

I can’t really tell you what exactly made it stand out from the ordinary stuff, but I can say that it had a deeper, slightly sweeter, richer buttery flavour. And since that time I never encountered butter that tasted so good.

Well my friends. I have found that butter, it’s better than butter, and it’s in my grocery store now! (And maybe yours too.)

I picked up a package of unsalted PC Normandy-style butter on a whim the other day. I balked at the price (I think it was $3.99 for a 1/2 lb) for a moment before placing it in my cart. I am pretty sure my GRANDMOTHER’S SOUL WAS GUIDING ME TO BUY THIS BUTTER.

I kid. Sort of.

Here’s the butter in action:

Don’t be fooled. It may LOOK like ordinary butter, but this variety will knock your socks off. The problem is, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself eating more butter than ever before. And more crumpets. And toast. And baguettes. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing or not.

Consider yourself warned!