Tonight I made a couple Indian dishes which Kim and I shared with Chris and John. It was fun because I made as many of the ingredients from scratch as possible. First I made ghee (clarified butter) and then I ground my own garam masala (a blend of spices used in many Indian dishes). Finally I made paneer, a type of soft cheese. Then, using these ingredients I made Mutter Paneer (peas and cheese) and Tandoori Chicken. From the Tandoori Chicken I made Butter Chicken. This all turned out pretty well and was a lot of fun. However it was a ton of work so I don't think I'll be doing it too often.

Hand-ground Garam Masala

Paneer before being pressed and chilled

Paneer after being pressed, chilled and sliced

Ghee

Tandoori Chicken

Mutter Panner with Butter Chicken, delicious

Tonight we made mango chicken coleslaw and it was delicious!

Mango Chicken Coleslaw

I've finished writing up my notes and editing my photos and now my China trip journal is ready. Check it out! I'll also post the photos on Facebook at some point.

So I'm sitting at my desk at work right now and just 10 minutes ago there was an earthquake! What's up with that??? This is Toronto, the ground doesn't move here. I guess it was relatively minor as there doesn't seem to be any damage, but it sounds like was quite widespread, being felt in Montreal, Ottawa and upper New York State.

Update: The U.S. Geological Survey has a detailed report available now.

The G20 Summit is coming and as a resident of the "outer security zone" I have to say, I'm getting the heck out of Toronto for that weekend. It is interesting to see all the fencing going up though and it's amusing the number of police and security personnel patrolling the streets. We went for a walk tonight and I took some photos of it all.

The fences at Front and Blue Jays Way (where I live)

CN Tower with fences

More fences

Kim with fence and Police truck

Fences on Simcoe

Fences

CN Tower with fences

All garbage cans (and other street furniture) have been removed, plastic bags tied to poles are the replacement

I'm home from China now. Time to start the jet lag recovery.

Despite the 32C heat and the relatively difficult terrain, I survived the 10km Great Wall hike and it was amazing. The mountains all around the wall are super cool and the wall itself is most impressive. Back to Canada the day after tomorrow, then I'll write up a real trip journal in the usual place.

I finished up my work stuff in Shanghai on Friday and now I'm in Beijing checking out the city and relaxing before my flight back to Toronto on Wednesday. Tomorrow I do a 10km hike along a really cool section of the Great Wall. Should be fun!

I'm going to China tomorrow! I'm both excited and scared. I'm sure it will be great though. I'll definitely have lots of cool photos to post here in a couple of weeks!

Last weekend Kim and I joined Rob, Janet, and Matt at Chris and John's place for another awesome BBQ! This time we had yummy sausages with sauerkraut, cucumber salad, and an amazing Mexican Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing brought by Janet. For dessert, Kim and I brought chocolate ice cream, made in our ice cream maker, which was served on top of brownies also brought by Janet. It was so good and rich! I think the key was using good cocoa powder (Valrhona) and good dark chocolate.

Delicious food

Delicious chocolate ice cream