This weekend was great! The weather was sooooo freakin' good and I always feel amazing when we get that first breath of Spring. Winter is dying and I can't wait until it is buried. I have my balcony door open right now and I can smell Spring in the air. It's fantastic.

In addition to the weather, we also did a lot of fun stuff. On Saturday we went to the St. Lawrence Market for the first time in a while and picked up ingredients for chili (among other things). In the afternoon we made the chili and then Chris, John and Matt came over to help eat the chili. Matt even brought an ice cream cake for dessert which seems like an excellent celebration of the the death of Winter.

Today, Kim and I went to the Bay and used some of the gift cards we received at our wedding to purchase a new set of (desperately needed) dishes. It's nice to have enough matching plates and bowls to be able to feed a group of people larger than four all at the same time.

We also made a pot roast braised in delicious St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. Before starting the roast cooking, we seared it in the grease of freshly cooked bacon and then caramelized onions in the same grease. All of this then went into the dutch oven with the roast and the beer and some beef broth and it turned out fantastic. We added potatoes to cook in the liquid near the end and they were great because the onions and bacon chunks ended up sticking to them to make yummy oniony-bacony potatoes.

I'm pretty sure the correct beer pairing for the meal would have been the same Oatmeal Stout used to cook the meat, but unfortunately I had decided earlier to go climbing in the evening and so I could not partake in the alcoholic beverages. This made me sad, but I had such a great night climbing that I'm over it now. I'm really enjoying the new Toronto Climbing Academy, although I wish it was a bit closer to downtown. I also can't wait for the Tour de Bloc competition at the end of March that marks the opening of John's new gym, True North Climbing. The construction progress photos look amazing. It's a great time to be a climber in Toronto.