Hey! I remember blogging!

When I opted out of electrical engineering to take culinary management, my prime motivator was that I didn't want to work in a hot, noisy environment once I was out of school and into industry. Har har har. Seriously though, culinary school doesn't even feel like school. It's too fun. It's like there's no such thing as "work" if you absolutely love what your doing, and I certainly do.

About the no blogging: I kept telling myself that I didn't want Canadian Mark to turn into a "food blog", but that's pretty much all Canadian Mark does anymore, so what the heck....

And so, hence forth, or for the next little while at least, enjoy my rants, raves, and reviews about food.... cooking, preparing, burning, first aid.... Good fun. I guarantee it.

Coming up next: Laughter will surely ensue as Canadian Mark prepares Lasagna, salad, and meringue nested caffè del cioccolato bavarian cream for a friendly Saturday night supper.

I love the smell of gluten in the morning....

And so it happened, just like that. Yesterday I got paid for 2 dozen cinnamon buns, making me a "professional baker". I was so excited I quit my job selling diamonds. True, the worth of a cinnamon bun isn't nearly that of a diamond....

Or is it!?

No. It isn't. I do love what I'm doing though, and that's worth more than money. Then again, with enough money I could get a larger off-site bake kitchen with industrial size equipment to handle industrial size orders - which will make more money.

I'm going to have to sell an awful lot of cinnamon buns.

Slumbering Behemoth

This week's Thematic Photographic at Written Inc is "Urban".



I immediately thought of this photo taken during the summer of 2006. Carmi described the urban world as one that is "paved and repaved". It really got me to thinking about how the concrete jungles we create for ourselves have their own intrinsic balances much the same as ecosystems of a rain forest have theirs.

For example, the pile of ruble above was the remains of the Memorial Gardens; An historic arena torn down for a more modern centre with a higher seating capacity. I'm reminded that there's a delicate balance between holding on to the past for it's sentimental value and historical significance and tearing that same past down to make way for tomorrow's progress.

The bigger reminder, of course, is that we should neither focus the most of our attentions on the past or the future, but on the present where it matters most.

Blogger A La Carte

I'm away more than I'm home now, doing the whole school thing. I'm really loving the culinary program and it always makes me chuckle a little inwardly to think that when my daughter sees me go off in the morning wearing my white jacket and hounds tooth pants she likely thinks I'm going to be playing with rats all day.

If you happen to have a twenty month old addicted to Pixar's 'Ratatouille' I'm sure you'll understand.

As you were.

Four Years and Four Days Ago....

....I was taking pictures of a black squirrel playing with 3 phase power. I find it amazing how abundant these squirrels are now, when not more than 15 years ago they were really quite scarce.



In fact they're so popular now that I don't even bother to dig my camera out of my pocket to photograph them. Tomorrow I'll make a point of taking a picture of every one I see on my 5 km walk to and from school, just so I can prove to Ratty how big of a problem it is over here.

(That said, I'll probably not see a single one)