Coconut Water on a HOT Saturday

Trying to sleep in on a lazy Saturday but when I opened my eyes, the clock only read 7:15 AM. So much for sleeping in today. As you all know by my last post, my little-tall brother Sebastian came to Toronto last weekend for his Volleyball Nationals Tournament which made me excited to see him play in over a year. It has been a year since I moved to the Greater Toronto Area, away from my family and close friends in Ottawa, but predominantly, I am no longer able to see Sebastian play on a regular basis which saddens me. Thus when he told me his nationals were taking place in Toronto this year, I was super excited to see him.

After getting dressed for this 25 degrees Celsius weather, Jordan and I went to William's Cafe for breakfast: I had eggs Benedict with a green tea latte (my usual) and Jordan had chicken panini pesto. We were so hungry that we finished eating in about half the time it usually takes us. This was a good thing since we were on a mission today to complete a few errands. Our first stop: Phillips Jewellers to replace Sebastian's gold chain necklace I bought him with a shorter-lengthen one. Sebastian: I will not post a picture here since you read my blogs, therefore you will just have to wait to see it in person, the chain is absolutely beautiful.

After the jewellers, I decided to take Jordan to the South African store a colleague had taken me during yesterday's lunchtime. If any of you like beef jerky then you will like South Africa's famous Biltong. The Biltong Bar located inside the South African store literally looks like pieces of meat hanging from a steel bar that can be cut up into bite sized pieces and enjoyed right off the rack.

Can you spot the non-fatty ones?

Our third errand was to Whole Foods to buy a case of coconut water. For those that are still hearing the buzz around this healthy drink and are hesitating, read this article. Jordan bought us a case full that we can have for the week, I personally think it will be gone within days since he loves drinking it. See picture below which shows how much is gone after buying the case this morning.

There were 12 in this case when we bought it

We then came home to refresh up with the coconut water and as you can see by the picture above, four bottles are already gone. I must admit, the brands in Canada are a bit sweetened for my liking since I have tried real coconuts in El Salvador and nothing compares to the real fruit. After reading the article I linked in the last paragraph, I am on a hunt for the brand called ZICO containing 16% of your daily potassium intake with zero percent fat. My kind of drink especially during my hot-summer soccer seasons.


Freshen up with some coconut water and let me know what brands you like!

Happy Saturday,
Jessica xox.

Seb's Volleyball Nationals Tournament

little bro comes to town:

The nice thing about living in the GTA is that Toronto hosts plenty of events, conferences, national games and to my benefit, my little brother's volleyball tournament. Since this year's Nationals are being held in downtown Toronto, I am able to watch Sebastian play all weekend long.

Yesterday, I took him sightseeing of Dundas Square, the Eaton Centre, and explore the outdoor shops beside the Lawrence Market. Since it was around lunchtime after visiting the market, we headed on over to the The Old Spaghetti Factory located at 54 The Esplanade which to our hungry bellies, they had just opened for the day and we were sat down right away. On the menu you could partake in all sort of pastas but my brother Sebastian opted for the traditional spaghetti with spicy sauce. I, on the other hand, decided to take a more Italian approach in ordering the pesto tortellini. I thoroughly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Toronto as it is a must see from the inside! Beautifully decorated in a child-old english-esque feeling once you walk through the doors.

with my little-TALL brother at Dundas Square

Then came 2:00PM while shopping at Eaton Centre and it was time to drive Sebastian to his first Nationals game. Taking the subway back to where we had parked the car, we checked the GPS to realize it was a short distance to the Direct Energy Centre. This made us very happy as there was a Blue Jays game occurring around this time and we did not want to be stuck in traffic. 

Jordan and I sat down on the Mavericks side (Sebastian's volleyball club team from Ottawa) to help cheer on the team. The game started shortly after and boy was I surprised with my brother's talent! Sebastian has an ability to spike the ball with 'power' across court while also digging balls shot over from the opponent's side. The boys played a really good first game winning both first sets. The second game which commenced at 630PM looked like it was going to be another easy take. The first set was a scrambling game making the boys on Sebastian's team to be a little uncoordinated when relays were taking place or when two boys would go for the same ball without calling it. The Mavericks lost that first set. 

They changed sides of the court to begin the second set. Some would call it fate, others would call it "this side of the court is magical", Jordan simply said it was an intense-sitting-at-the-edge-of-my-seat game where the Mavericks began to play as the team I saw the game previous. They worked together as a team helped each other out when the ball was fumbled and most importantly their faces showed they were enjoying playing the game. Second set came to a finish with the Mavericks winning making the game tied 1-1. They must now play a third set up to 15 points and changing sides when either team reaches 8. This set was the deciding factor of which team was to receive the winning point for standing purposes. This was not an easy set to watch either. We were all at the edges of our seats because there were times when I could not look when the Mavericks served because some points were lost with missed serves. Jordan was even cheering for the Mavericks with cheering words I have never heard him say before and this was his first time watching volleyball. Later that day, Jordan told me he fun watching my brother play which makes me happy but I am more glad those two get along.

I am now preparing to watch Sebastian play his round two of volleyball games so I am leaving you all with pictures from his first game. Enjoy!

Happy sunny Victoria Monday,
Jessica xo

SERVE

More than half a thousand dollars

Have you ever felt your mouth to think a huge baseball must be inside my jaw to explain the pain. However looking in the mirror, you see a perfectly figured face staring back at you? This is as a result of an hour-long dentist visit.

I was not aware I would be receiving three fillings today because based on my last trip to the dentist two were left to complete, but of course after receiving my bill for nearly six hundred dollars that my insurance paid for, I was definitely taken aback. The pain which I am enduring while I type this post is the most unbearable pain I have ever felt -actually there was this other time in Ottawa where I had to get an endodontic assessment which was extremely excruciating- not even the extraction of my wisdom teeth hurt as much as my right side currently does. Placing the palm of my right hand on my bottom jaw and gently moving my hand towards my ear, I can still feel the tingly feeling from the frozen anesthesia that is slowly wearing off. As I glide my forefingers inside my ear, the feeling is as swollen as a cantaloupe, maybe because I am craving this fruit and cannot eat for another hour or until the swelling comes down. To my dismay it might have to be until the latter one occurs as I am terrified to bit the inside of my jaw and cause bleeding.

Dr. Lee is lucky I like her because regardless of my post-appointment feeling, she is the most soft spoken and gentle dentist I have ever had. I cannot be upset with her, even if she banged the appliances against the adjacent teeth at times, and for almost taking my forehead off with another one. She will forever be the kindest dentist in my books for having removed my wisdom teeth two months ago leaving me with a perfectly healed jaw and no sign of bruises as I had previously read in online reviews.

Lesson: don't always believe what you read, experience it first hand and judge upon that. Endure pain because the end result will be exactly what you are looking for.

I will now go and watch re-runs of Khloe and Lamar, will they finally admit she is not a biological Kardashian? Maybe this is all for publicity and in fact she is a Kardashian... let's not get too caught up in the Kardashian clan. I like their sense of [fashion] style but their life is very chaotic for my liking.


Side-swept mouth-ling,
Jessica

Dia de las Madres/ Mother's Day

Today is the day in which Canada celebrates the most important person in Canadians' lives for the reason that she is special, admirable, the bearer of your life, and simply because she is your MOM. Mothers around North America -excluding Mexico in some parts- celebrated this day with gifts, flowers, food and family moments in honour of ol' dear mum. 

my mom

I had put together an intimate gift for my mom which included makeup products, bath products and accessories to store the makeup in. She has always admired my love for makeup and my growing collection that I decided to buy her a couple of my favourite products just for her. Since for Salvadoreans Mother's Day is always celebrated on May 10th, I decided to mail my gift on Monday May 7th hoping that it were to arrive on the day of or before May 10th. To my utmost luck, my gift arrived on the morning of May 10th and the phone calls from my mother began ringing that afternoon. She was very surprised when I finally answered my phone after my work day as she thanked me for the intimate touch on the products.

Since today is based on the Canadian tradition, Jordan, his sister Mandy and I invited their mom Judy and Mandy's mother-in-law for brunch at Coppola's http://www.coppolas.ca/ which is an Italian restaurant in the city St. Catherine's, Ontario that had the entire restaurant set-up into a buffet style for the special day. I do not think the pictures do the place justice but Coppola's has become a favourite restaurant of Jordan's and mine since the service and food are always excellent. 

pictures from Coppola's brunch

Jordan also enjoys taking pictures of me whenever we are together as you can see with the few I posted below from this morning's brunch.

such a beautiful day to keep smiling

a painting from within Coppola's

Remembering that today is about family: I am also very proud to be related to these lovely ladies who are also moms.

My cousin Roxy with daughter Chloe and mi Tia Gloria

My cousin Karen after giving birth to baby Leah and my aunt happy with her new grandchild pictured below.

SpringFest at Hatch

Uno, Dos, Tres!

I wish you were all able to join me today performing my salsa number with a group of colleagues. Nonetheless, I will tell you all about it and show you pictures so that you feel as if you were front row watching us dance. 

Leading up until today, the past three weeks were about missing a couple hours of work, rearranging schedules and mostly having to work from another office which is not my home office. As we only had three weeks to prepare, the participants who decided to dance, were very determined to learn the basic steps and the choreography which Juan had put together for us. I am very proud of our group as some have never danced to Latin music let alone dance a single step to music -anything can happen when you stick your mind to it! Our very own "Carlitos" who is not of Spanish decent, decided to not only join our group but also join the line dancers which made him the most loved dancer for stepping completely out of his shell. All the performers were amazing and I am extremely proud being a part of a company which celebrates various culture experiences!

 

Cinco de Mayo

After a week long of preparations...

Today we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo at the Myronuk household. Throughout the week, I had pulled a few recipes off the Food Network website grabbing a set of Mexican-known appetizers, entrées, and dessert ideas so that I would have been prepared for tonight's planned Mexican fiesta. However, I have a very hectic day ahead of me as I had a hair appointment to go to this morning that I decided to pre-cook all the heavy cutting and frying last night; leaving dessert preparations for this morning. 

Fortunately, I have a really good boyfriend that helped me cut up the onions and garlic  as I am not a fan of how the onions make my eyes tear up so I allow him to take charge when this task needs to be completed. We made Mexican salad, chimichangas, south-western chicken egg rolls, quesadillas, beef fajitas with guacamole, pico de gallo, refried beans, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. This seems a lot to make on a Friday night beginning at 7:00 PM but we pulled it off finishing clean-up a little past midnight. 

Saturday [this] morning I woke up at 8:40 AM, as I am never able to sleep in, to begin baking the desserts: Mexican-style ice cream and Tres Leches cake. The Tres Leches is a well-known pastry in my family's spanish household especially since it was the epidemic at my Quinceañera party where it was the first time I had tried a pastry with rum in it. I was able to complete both desserts prior to the time I had to drive to my appointment, leaving Jordan with the task of warming up our entrees no later than 5:30 PM. 


Our guests arrived at 6:00 PM, minutes before I did since my hair appointment ran a a few minutes late, but good enough for drinks to be served cold. Below is the picture of the beer fridge proving that this could not be a more proper Cinco de Mayo fiesta without Mexico's famous beer: the Corona.

We received lots of compliments on the food and the abundance there was as people were filling their stomachs full. As my mother has always said, there is never be too much food therefore cook, cook, and cook believing there is always room for more on the menu. Below is the picture I took nearing the end of people's full bellies. Can you tell I am from spanish decent?


Happy Cinco de Mayo,
Jessica

The feast being picked at and enjoyed