Hello and welcome to Weekend Coffee Share #31! I’m glad you’re here. Please come on in, help yourself to a cup of coffee, or tea, hot chocolate or a cold drink at my coffee station and let’s chat.
It was a week of sunny days with fluffy clouds and fun activities. In this post, I’d like to share a new-to-me recipe and my walk in St. James Park.
Asparagus and Sausage Penne
This tray bake by chef Adam Liaw is a winner. I substituted asparagus for broccolini and penne for spaghetti. I skipped the optional anchovies and the red chili. It was an easy-to-make, quick and tasty meal. Sharing for #WhatsOnYourPlate challenge, hosted by Donna at Retirement Reflections and Deb at The Widow Badass.
A Walk in St. James Park
St. James Park is located at the intersection of King and Jarvis Streets in downtown Toronto. From spring 2018 to spring 2021, the park has undergone improvements and is a beautiful space to stroll and relax. The park layout has four entry plazas, one central plaza, plenty of benches and a formal garden. On the west side of the park is St. James Cathedral.
St. James Cathedral: The Cathedral Church of St. James is an Anglican cathedral. It is the location of the oldest congregation in Toronto, with the parish being established in 1797. The cathedral, with construction beginning in 1850 and opening for services in 1853, was one of the largest buildings in the city at that time. It was designed by Frederick William Cumberland and is a prime example of Gothic Revival architecture.
Click on any image in the gallery to see it in full view. Sharing for #ThursdayDoors.
Arbour: The clematis covered wrought-iron arbour at the northeast entry plaza was added to St. James Park in the early 1980’s.
Lighting feature: The new lighting feature at the northeast entry plaza is a sculptural abstract interpretation of the St. James Cathedral in silhouette. It looks better at night when the lights are on.
Sculpture: The Robert Gourlay bust welcomes visitors coming into the park from the northwest entry plaza. Robert Fleming Gourlay (1778 – 1863) was a Scottish-Canadian writer, political reform activist, and agriculturalist. The bronze bust was created by Toronto sculptor, Adrienne Alison.
Playground: Families with young children enjoy the new market-themed playground that features elements such as the asparagus climber, giant-sized produce, a tower made of stacked farmer’s baskets, a merry go-round, a flexible seating platform under a tree perfect for story time and a small water-play area.
Pavilion: A new open-air park pavilion located on the east side of the enlarged central plaza. The pavilion, made of heavy timber columns and a trellis canopy with recessed lighting, is in part, inspired by the Gothic arches of the cathedral’s architecture. It’s suitable for a variety of community events.
The pavilion was officially named Michael Comstock Pavilion this summer. After a long lockdown, live music at an outdoor concert in St. James Park brought me tremendous joy. Below is the north view of the pavilion and the garden.
Garden: Walking trails traverse the grass and tree dotted area. The St. James garden in Victorian garden style was renovated in 2003 by landscape designer Wendy Shearer. It has several rose beds, shrubs, ornamental stone statues, and a fountain.
Seat Wall: The seat wall in the southwest plaza near the cathedral features a bronze silhouette of the architectural skyline of the area through several historic periods by Canadian artist Scott Eunson.
Linked with #LifeThisWeek, #PPAC8.
Have a seat and tell me something good about your week.
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Natalie the Explorer 
It looks like a lovely park Natalie – and the flowers in your photos are beautiful. So lovely that you can be out and about in the sunshine enjoying the Summery weather.
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Hi Leanne, It’s been a good summer for getting outside and enjoying the city. The green trees and colourful flowers are everywhere. I read Leslie’s guest post and will reach out to her by email. Thank you for linking up with #weekendcoffeeshare. Have a great week!
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Church of St. James is cool. I love to see Gothic Revival architecture. I’m instantly transported back to a different era. Your tray back dinner looks delicious. I like your substitutions idea.
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St James Cathedral is one of the older surviving structures in Toronto. The Gothic Revival architecture is distinct, isn’t it? On impulse, I tried the tray bake recipe. My local grocery store didn’t have broccolini but asparagus is in season. I replaced spaghetti with penne as penne is bite-sized, like my cut asparagus.
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I love your joy about being out and about and seeing others use the spaces too. I think everyone who did those very hard lockdown yards deserve this. We are ‘in a more serious situation’ here in 3 major states on Australia with lockdowns of varying degrees and with some vaccination-hesitation thrown in. We will be a long time from relative freedom unless more changes. The best thing about my week was our daughter turning 50 today and we ‘celebrated’ via zoom. She had lots of well wishes, gifts from us all, flowers from her kids and where she teaches (they are currently all teaching classes remotely) and I will do a photo tribute to her for my Monday link up optional prompt : Remembering.
Have a good weekend Natalie.
Denyse
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Denyse, Happy birthday to your daughter! Every birthday is special and 50 is a wonderful milestone. I read about the lockdowns in Australia from the Sydney Morning Herald online newspaper. Is it your national newspaper? What newspaper would you recommend for Australia news?
Strong uptake of vaccinations helped us get out of the long lockdown in Ontario. We’re still cautious in Toronto with the mask mandate in indoor public places until at least September. Thank you for linking up. Have a great week!
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The paper you mention is what I subscribe too. It’s a Sydney (NSW) based paper and has a sister paper called The Age in Melbourne (Victoria). There is a national paper but I don’t read it because it is owned by a media force I would rather not mention. So, yes The Sydney Morning Herald is my choice and it covers national and OS news. I have been reading it since I could read. We always had it home delivered too…back in the day!! Thanks for linking up for Life This Week. Next week’s optional prompt is Shopping and it will be interesting for me to decide what to write! So much has changed in #lockdown this time round. Hope to see you link up too. Cheers, Denyse.
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Thank you Denyse for replying to my question about the SMH. I’ll have a look at its sister, the Age in Melbourne paper. I look forward to seeing you at the link-up. Have a great week!
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The Asparagus and Sausage Penne looks delicious. The cathedral is beautiful. I love that entrance.
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Thank you, Dan, for your comment. St James Cathedral has a nice main entrance and doors. The total length of the cathedral is 60m (198 feet) with a maximum width of 30m (98 feet), and the tower and spire height is 92.9 metres (305 ft), so it’s a challenge to photograph.
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I had a difficult time scrolling past the asparagus and sausage penne dish. It looks so yummy! The cathedral is magnificent. It reminded me of The Sound of Music…one of my favorite movies. A good thing about my week is I’m off from the day job today. I plan to spend it with my mother. Thanks for sharing your fantastic photographs, Natalie. They are stunning!
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Jill, Your first sentence made me smile 🙂 St James cathedral is one of the oldest and surviving structures in Toronto. I can see how its design reminded you of the Sound of Music. I’m glad to hear you have time off work to be with your Mom. Have a great week!
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I enjoy the many variations of a tray bake and your version (Adam Liaw’s) looks great. Your photos of St. James Cathedral are wonderful and interesting. I have driven by this Cathedral although I have never stopped to take a closer look. Interesting about the added arbour. It is a treat to see the exquisite and delicate flowers. Thank you for sharing and have a great week, Natalie!😀
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Erica/ Erika, St James cathedral is worth a closer look if you have time and interested in architecture. I’ve been inside the cathedral for art exhibits before the pandemic. The arbour is pretty once the clematis flowers are in full bloom. St James garden is beautiful and popular for wedding photography. Have a wonderful week!
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St. James cathedral looks like classic European cathedrals and easily compares with their beauty. St. James park also looks like a place that one could spend a whole relaxing day just wandering and enjoying being outdoors again and among people. Well done Toronto!
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Thank you, Gary, for your comment. St James Park is a nice green space to stroll and relax. The cathedral is a welcoming place, too.
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Hi, Natalie – I greatly enjoyed this stroll with you. The silhouette interpretation of the St. James Cathedral is stunning. I would love to see it at night when the lights are on. Thank you for linking up to What’s On Your Plate. Your tray bake is mouthwatering! We hope to see you at What’s On Your Bookshelf on August 20! 😀
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Hi Donna, I think the team who worked on St James Park project did a fantastic job in improving the green space and featuring Canadian artists and landscape designer. Thank you for hosting WOYP. I hope to join WOYBS on August 20. Have a wonderful weekend!
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Old churches are so awesome. Thanks for the awesome photos.
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Thank you, Quentin, for your comment. St James cathedral is one of the oldest and surviving structures in Toronto. I’m glad you liked my photos.
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Such a wonderful post for this week’s PPAC challenge. I so enjoyed looking through your photos 😀
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Thank you, Cee, for hosting PPAC. I’m glad you liked my photos.
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As always, a lovely tour through Toronto. Great pictures. I love pastas that dish sounds good to me.
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This pasta dish is quick and easy, great for busy days. I’m glad you liked my photos.
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The pavilion is a cool design replicating the arches of the cathedral. The food looks good. I would keep the anchovies because I love anchovies. Pretty flowers.
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It was a beautiful moment for me to see the orchestra at the new pavilion and listen to live music after the long lockdown. I didn’t have anchovies on hand and they’re optional in the recipe so I skipped them. Maybe next time.
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Sounds lovely. Thanks for stopping by, Natalie.
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That dinner looks yummy. That cathedral…..gorgeous!!!
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Thank you, Kirstin, for your comment. This pasta dish is quick and tasty, great to make on busy days.
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I’m wondering why I know the name Michael Comstock – off to google. (Also wondering why my memory doesn’t seem to work at all at the moment!)
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I had a link in my post to Michael Comstock’s contributions to the community. The pandemic and its ensued lockdowns do affect our brain and memory.
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As always, beautiful pictures! Now that we’re in August, I’m appreciating our fleeting summer beauty even more!
Have a great week💜
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Thank you, Dinah, for your comment. I’m glad you liked my photos. Summer has been beautiful and wonderful here. Have a great weekend!
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Hi Natalie another lovely walk with you.The Cathedral is magnificent, I love the architecture. The penne looks delicious and I do like asparagus. I also see you stopped and smelled the roses. Thanks for #weekendcoffeeshare and have a great week. xx
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Hi Sue, St James cathedral and park are nice places to visit. The garden is beautiful year round. It’s often used for wedding photography. Asparagus is in season and the local grocery store didn’t have broccolini so I substituted and the recipe still turned out really good. Have a wonderful week!
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Another delightful post! I love visiting your blog.
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Thank you, Susan, for your encouraging comment. I greatly appreciate it. I’m glad that you love visiting my blog.
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You keep finding new and inspiring places in your own city, Natalie. Of course, I realize you’ve been to St. James Park before, but these changes and improvements make it ever look different.
St. James Cathedral looks humongous, as well as the bust. Something for everyone in this park and I’m glad the live music brought you joy. To be outdoors, experiencing and enjoying the use of so many sense on a summer day sounds glorious to me! Have a fabulous week ahead as well!
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Hi Liesbet, I like the improvements at St James Park and was glad to see them with the live concert on a nice summer day. The park is often used for wedding photography. That’s how nice it is. St. James cathedral is huge. The total length of the cathedral is 60m (198 feet) with a maximum width of 30m (98 feet), and the tower and spire height is 92.9 metres (305 ft).
What’s the local park system like in your area? Do you have bike paths close by? I know you shared photos of your bikes before. It would be nice if you have biking trails to ride on.
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Our bikes are not getting much use these days, Natalie. Just for a quick ride to the grocery store once in a while, when we don’t need much. Or, I take Maya running alongside on a cooler day at a time that isn’t too busy with pedestrians. This, I do on one of the rail trails/bike paths nearby. We have two of those that hopefully will get connected (for safety) in the future. But, they are not long enough to bike, really. We usually take Maya on walks along these paths. When we make the big loop, connecting both by walking along a busy road for a bit, it’s about four miles.
There are a few small parks where we take Maya. Two of them are off leash parks, so that is nice. Maya needs this exercise and freedom. We usually do a couple of loops there each time we visit.
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Bikes (and other recreational gears) are like gold in the pandemic. It’s good that there are off leash parks and paths for Maya to get her exercise and freedom. There is a decent sized off leash dog park on my bike trail. I see happy dogs running in there.
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I am a huge fan of Adam Liaw – and your bake looks delicious! I like your substitution of penne for spaghetti – I generally prefer short pastas, particularly in tray bakes.
The lighted sculpture looks so interesting – and you say it’s an abstraction of the cathedral? Fascinating!
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That was my first time trying one of chef Liaw’s recipes. I’ll be checking his web site for more ideas. I’ve seen photos of the lighting feature at night and it looks very nice. The different heights of the light structures seem to replicate the pointed arches and pinnacles of the cathedral.
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Very representational – what fun! I love things lighted up at night; I reckon they are more exciting that way … but harder to photograph.
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That Cathedral in St. James Park is amazing! The architecture is like something out of this world. Thank you so much for taking us there, and thank you for the coffee!
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St James Cathedral architecture is worth studying. I put a link to the cathedral’s web site where there is a video virtual tour of the cathedral for anyone interested in more details.
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Thank you!
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Lovely place and photos.
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Thank you, Sofia, for your visit and comment. I hope you like my blog enough to return. I host the weekly Weekend Coffee Share link up, Friday to Sunday. You’re welcome to join in any and every week.
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I shall have a look, thank you 🙂
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That is an awesome place. Great find Natalie!
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Thank you, Teresa. I returned to St. James Park after the improvements were completed and I liked what I saw.
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👍🏼
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Today I am more interested in what’s on your plate. This looks absolutely yummy, Natalie:)
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Hehe, did you notice I put the walk in the park after the pasta meal? This recipe is quick and tasty.
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Asparagus and Sausage Penne looks delicious! I love the picture of St. James Cathedral; the doors are amazing. Thanks for the virtual coffee.
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Thank you, Shari, for stopping by. The recipe is easy, quick and tasty. I hope you try it and let me know what you think. I’m glad you like St James Cathedral. Its architecture is amazing. Have a great weekend!
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I will have to walk over there and check it out, it has been a while since I went that way.
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I like the improvements and new features at St James Park.
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Hi Natalie, Your post is beautiful. It’s amazing how the architecture so long ago was so grand and gorgeous. Your meal sounds delicious. I love asparagus and pasta. Yum. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you, Marsha, for your kind comment. St James Cathedral architecture is worth a close look. It’s a big cathedral to capture with my phone camera. The pasta recipe is easy and tasty, my kind of cooking 🙂
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Mine, too – easy and tasty! It is amazing that you COULD capture it with your phone.
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I use my phone camera for all my photos. The image quality is good enough for me, except for zoom but I trade off with having just one small device to carry.
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That’s true, Natalie. My phone goes with me everywhere. My camera doesn’t. But I love my new camera, too.
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That’s a great tray bake. I made it during the week for Sarah – but did use broccolini & spaghetti. It’s a fabulous recipe. The TV show is on each night & there have been some fabulous recipes I’ve tried from it. Adam Liaw was one of our first Masterchefs (2nd season, I think…). You’ve brought us another lovely park and that church looks very visitable.
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That tray bake recipe is versatile with different vegetables and pasta. The local grocery store didn’t have broccolini the day I wanted to try the recipe so I bought in-season asparagus. Then I used penne to match the length of the bite-sized asparagus. I plan to check Liaw’s web site for more recipe ideas. St. James Park is very nice. It’s often used for wedding photography. The Cathedral architecture is worth a close look.
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That pasta dish looks tasty; I should look it up and try something different with it because I don’t eat meat. Love the sightseeing as always. Cathedrals are always amazing!
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I think the recipe is versatile and it would still taste really good with substitution.
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I just love church architecture. .
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Church architecture is usually interesting.
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You hit a favorite comfort food of mine. Looks great. Thanks, as always for the tour and hosting WCS.
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This tray bake recipe is easy, quick and tasty, my kind of cooking 🙂
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I always love your photos, and the penne looks scrumptious!
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Thank you, Pamela, for your comment. I greatly appreciate it. The tray bake recipe is easy and tasty.
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That meal looks so yummy and what a great place to walk. So very beautiful. Thanks for hosting and I hope that you have a wonderful week.
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Thank you, Patrick, for your comment. I greatly appreciate it. Have a great week!
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The meal looked like something I would actually eat with the changes you made. I wouldn’t mind having it right now. You sure do have a colorful city. I know someone who lives in Toronto also. She lives in a high rise. So do I but hers is taller than mine LOL! I am on the 6th floor here.
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That recipe is easy and tasty. I didn’t have any leftover but if I did, I think it would taste good for lunch the next day, too. Is that someone who lives in Toronto a blogger? Let me know if s/he has a blog and the blog URL so I can visit. Have a great week!
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It looked easy and tasty and I am sure leftovers would be great as well. My friend is a writer. Although she has a blog it deals with writing of horror and her work in movies doing lighting. Here’s her link if you want to check it out. It is not wordpress though. https://www.lauranettles.com/
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Thank you for the link, Tessa.
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You’re welcome. She writes great horror if you are into that and she even has horror prompts on her site.
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This looks like such a fun park! Though we have a yard, honestly, nothing beats a park!
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Yard and park are both great for different purposes and reasons. The market-themed playground at St James Park has fun features for different ages. Lana would love it. I wanted to play there myself.
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At. James Park looks beautiful Natalie. You have so many gorgeous places to visit in your city Natalie. I love seeing your photos. I often make an Adam Liaw recipe . Not sure if you know he lives in Australia and win one of the Masterchef series. Your version of his recipe looks yum.
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I’m glad you love seeing my photos, Jennifer. Lots to see and photograph in Toronto. I don’t want watch TV and had no idea about chef Adam Liaw until I stumbled on his tray bake recipe. I’ll check his web site for more recipe ideas.
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Ha Natalie, I had some surgery a couple of weeks ago and had a week in hospital so last week was spent recovering. And I’m on a weird post-surgery diet (cos of internal stitches) so that first pic of the pasta made me hungry.
Stunning pictures as usual and the weather looks lovely.
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Deborah, I hope your recovery is going well and you have someone to check in or help you with food prep and such. Summer has been good to me. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week!
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Hi Natalie, thank you for the coffee this weekend and the beautiful visit with all your photos. I especially love all the flowers and that sounds like a tasty meal. I may have to try soon!! Have a wonderful week ahead!! ❤️
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Hi Diana, That recipe is easy and tasty, quick to make on busy days. I didn’t have any leftover but if I did, it would be great for lunch the next day. I’m glad you liked my photos and the flowers. Beautiful flowers in the city at this time of the year. Have a great week!
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The weather looks lovely Natalie, and good on you for making the most of it by getting out there in it. Your posts are always so interesting, and those flower photos are just lovely!
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Hi Debbie, I’m glad you find my posts interesting. Flowers are blooming in the city at this time of the year. It’s going to be hot and humid this week so I go outside earlier in the day when it’s cooler.
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That pasta bake looks delicious! I love how much sculpture there is in Toronto.
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That pasta recipe is easy and tasty, my kind of cooking 🙂
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