Celebrate the small stuff. It’s Friday. You bought tickets to Portugal. You’ve been happily married for 2 years, three months. Whatever the reason, don’t keep the bubbly, the good dishes or the recipe you want to try for a special occasion.
In honour of Friday afternoon and all the reasons above, I’m popping some Sue-Ann Staff Fancy Farmgirl sparkling rose.
Cheers!
It’s always a good time with Lindsay; now a globe-trotting sommelier, she and I have been friends since high school. We had a summer ritual of weekly visits to Body Blitz https://bodyblitzspa.com/ where, for $300, you could have an unlimited pass for the summer months to visit as often as you want. For us, this meant Wednesday spa visits to soak in the epsom salt and Dead Sea salt pools, cold plunge, eucalyptus steam room and sauna. We always followed this up with wine tasting, her day job/my pass time.
Body Blitz West Location
Yesterday we cashed in on a blog interview that I did for Body Blitz. (see article here: http://blog.bodyblitzspa.com/2014/09/in-waters-with-alison-carson.html)
As a thank you for the interview I got to try an incredibly luxurious sweet ginger + milk body glow. The treatment included a citrus-mint body wash, ginger body scrub, warm milk with sweet orange oil and almond treatment, and massage to finish, working in a warm grape seed body oil. It was an hour of heaven.
Ginger and Milk Body Scrub
After you get past the part where you realize you haven’t been ‘washed’ like this since you were a baby, and the fact that the plastic apron worn by the spa attendant is vaguely reminiscent of Dexter in body-disposal-mode, it is so amazing to be under a heat lamp having a sweet, soft-spoken angel pamper you for sixty minutes.
Dexter
Spartacus: Pampered and Luxurious, without the problematic power dynamics and violence
At one point I found myself imagining that this must be what ancient rich housewives must have felt like (without the slavery, obviously), but that if every person on Earth received this treatment we could probably solve every global conflict known to man. It was that good. I was blissed-out and elated for the rest of the day.
I joked with my wife about how delicious I smelled; “smell me!”
She told me I smelled like a white person, then smiled and said, “Vanilla.”
Day turns into night as we move on to a late dinner. We started with some bubbly, then shared an Amarone.
Huge thanks to the wonderful staff for a beautiful night of delicious flavours! L’Unita’s website: http://lunita.ca/
L’Unita at night.
We carried on our food theme as we headed to L’Unita, a decadent Italian restaurant at Avenue and Davenport (Toronto, Ontario) with beautiful ambiance and some of the best service in the city.
Grilled Octopus on a bed of greens, with fingerling potatoes and sausage.
Warm olives with herbs and lemon zest
Mozarella Burrata with beets
Classic Caesar Salad
Margherita Pizza
Evidence of a decadent meal
On to desserts, made in-house by their pastry chef.
Caramel sugared donuts
Bufala Panna Cotta with blood orange and mint
Chocolate olive oil cake with gelato
Very happy ladies. I sincerely hope you have a chance to visit L’Unita: Buon appetito!
Allia enjoying Peller 2012 Sur Lie Chardonnay
I have Irish ancestry. I love beer and I love any reason to celebrate; this year, however, family and friends took St.Patrick’s Day in a new direction. We decided to cross the ocean, but instead of Ireland, we ended up in Paris. At Paris Crepes, specifically: a delicious, French themed restaurant-café in Niagara Falls.
Mussels Mariniere with Frites and fresh baguette
Cheers to a meal of French onion soup, mussels 4 ways (for March Mussel Madness) curried, provencale, mariniere or blue cheese, free corkage when you bring your own wine and crepes, both savoury and sweet. Although we saw people running by the glass front window of the café, shamrocked and in onesies, I think this is a tradition that deserves some consideration. Cheers to friends, family and a twist on green beer that will leave your taste buds green with envy!
Images from Paris, including Le Chat Noir and Moulin Rouge
Paris Crepes Café
Homemade Sweet Crepes
With our server, Star, we celebrated St. Pat’s with a twist
StyleSaVie 
