a peek inside the fishbowl

There’s a little shop in Carlingwood I like to visit called Swiss Pastries. It’s an Ottawa-area chain (there are 5 retail locations) and as I recently found out, was founded in 1965 by Hans Ulrich Zuberbuehler.

This is precisely the kind of store which sends me careening back to my childhood.

My parents used to bring me to a similar kind of store called Brandt. (I can’t believe they have a website. With audio!) The one we went to was located in a shopping mall in Brampton.

It was kid heaven. There were shelves overflowing with German chocolate, jams, baked goods, and in the back there was a deli counter. I loved the smell of that place. I still do. It is sweet and salty and smells overwhelmingly of salami.

Swiss Pastries gives me that same feeling, and I love it. What’s more, it’s my new source for wieners.

I want to clarify that wieners are not hot dogs. Nor are they sausages. They are the precursor of hot dogs.

The first time I brought some home I found myself explaining the proper way to eat them, or should I say, the way I ate them growing up so EasternEuro.

Buns are verboten. This is finger food, maybe the kind that is served at a cheery biergarten and eaten to the tune of a brass band playing a nice polka. Maybe someone (hopefully not you) is wearing lederhosen. Everyone is drinking beer.

These wieners are long and slim and have a delicious snap to them. These are boiled in water … 

… and served with a dollop of mustard (grainy is best but Dijon is a good substitute) and a slice of good German rye.

The bread pictured below is “Canadian Rye” a.k.a. rounded white bread. TOTALLY the wrong kind of bread. Oh well.

I walk into the store with plans to buy our family some lunch but can’t seem to avoid the other merchandise. It is very easy to spend money at Swiss Pastries, especially this time of year. Easter is coming, and Easter is what they do best. I couldn’t get a good enough photo of the rows of smiling bunnies, all wrapped in bright foil. There are tables overflowing with chocolate ladybugs and chocolate sheep, and jellybeans and bunnies and candy eggs, of all shapes and sizes.

Me: I like good chocolate. I want my kids to have good chocolate too. So I will get them a bunny or two from here instead of buying an overpackaged High School Musical-themed-chocolate-whatever from Loblaws.

I walked away with this:

… which I thought had a chocolate base but is actually pure sugar.

I also bought these (because they’re a classic and I like them with tea):

and this:

… which I was happy to find because it means we can colour our easter eggs and not have to buy into an egg dying kit, which is always more than we need.

I’m pretty happy with my haul. Now, for some tea and cookies.

The girls and I were invited to attend the fourth annual “Great Bowls of Fire” event in the Glebe last night.

The premise is so simple and so creative. The Ottawa Guild of Potters donates 400 handmade wheel-thrown bowls. Local restaurants donate gourmet soups. Local bakeries donate bread. You pay $25, pick out a gorgeous bowl, and get two soup tickets (and all the bread you can eat).

It is a winning combination of good stuff:

• you get to enjoy delicious soups of your choice
• you get to choose (and keep!) your bowl
• money raised goes to the Ottawa Food Bank

How awesome is that? Seriously, this put the fun back into fundraising. Everybody comes out a winner, UNLESS, of course, you happen to be my children and cannot find a soup you like.

I wish I could remember all the restaurants and their soups. Participating restaurants included Domus, Allium, Stoneface Dolly’s, Absinthe, and others. 

And the soups? Delicious. There was Potato, Bacon, Ale soup from Wellington Gastropub. Vidalia Onion with croutons and cheeses was my fave (possibly from Eighteen ?), Red Thai Curry, Tomato Cumin, Carrot and Brie, Shrimp Corn Chowder, Tomato Ham-hock with Beans … so many! It was difficult (for me) to choose because they all sounded amazing. My children tried them too, alas, each was deemed too spicy or too chunky.  It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. So they ate bread and drank juice. *sigh*

On the bright side, we now have three beautiful handmade bowls for our not-spicy-not-chunky-organic-tomato-soup-out-of-a-box… (or yogurt, as you can see by Sarah’s bowl this morning):

… and the Ottawa Food Bank is $75.00 richer (which was our contribution). Would I go again? Certainly. Would I leave the kids at home next time? I’m still thinking about that one. :)

We had cupcakes for breakfast.

Then we walked to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner, including a giant pineapple which made a very uncomfortable dent in my backpack. On the way back we stopped at Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s to buy a birthday gift for a little friend.

I got out our old faux Playdoh recipe* (easiest and cheapest recipe in the world!) and made white playdoh so we could make snowmen (and snowdogs) to commemmorate the first day of Spring.

In the afternoon the girls played DDR on the Wii with a little friend. She stayed for DIY pizza and a movie and we ate more cupcakes. I served them a candle stuck in each of them (again) and everyone made a wish.

I hid away with a magazine for awhile and spent the rest evening with a good book. I actually feel rested, not run down this morning.

All in all a good end to a good week!

–

* White “faux” playdoh recipe 

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. salt
2 c. water
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil

Mix all ingredients together in a non-stick pot or deep non-stick pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Flip it over a few times. After a few minutes it will stop looking so wet and pasty and take on a proper playdoh-like texture.

Remove from heat and knead it for a minute or two (it will be hot!). You’ll have a sizable ball of dough when you’re done.

My kids love kneading it when it’s fresh and warm.

Store in a tightly covered container.