April 28, 2007
Chester Basin, NS
If you thought your neck of the woods was busy Saturday morning, you should've seen the parking lot of the Chester Basin Legion Hall! We were en route to a veterinarian appointment in the same town, so we thought we'd also stop by the Newfie Breakfast at the local legion hall. Sorry there aren't any pictures, I forgot my camera at home. :-(
To be honest, we were lucky to even find a spot to park, the lot was packed! A benefit ATV (4-wheeler) rally was being held the same morning for a local child who's undergoing some expensive medical treatments in Montreal. But really, I'm sure this happy group of 'off roaders' needs little excuse to gather and tear around the county on those noisy beasts of theirs.
The atmosphere inside the hall was chaotic to say the least. There was a small line forming, and we queued up dilligently. Some impatient fellow kept whining behind us, "this line's too long, why's it taking so long?" It wasn't that bad, I don't know what this guy's problem was...probably because he had a major 'hard-on' for going 'muddin'.
Once we got up to pay for the meal, we were presented with a rapid fire series of menu choices and options: "toast or biscuit? ham or fried bologna (thought they only gave that to prisoners...)? scrambled eggs? baked beans? pancakes? hash browns? fish cakes?" Phew, I felt full after just putting in my order! Volunteers scurried around the hall shrieking out numbers, "NUMBER 25?!! NUMBER 25??!!!" Fellow diners helped out occaisionally, pointing the desperate servers in the right direction.
As full as the hall was, there were plenty of seats available, tables were decked out with stiff, blue vinyl table cloths. Our food arrived suprisingly fast, and it was hot and hit the spot! The biscuits were tiny and yummy, the fish cakes and baked beans were my highlights of the meal. The baked beans were dark from the molasses and tender from hours of cooking. A couple of kids were scooted away from the stage where a nearby crock pot of beans was quietly simmering. Who knows how long they'd been cooking? Long enough to be delicious, that's for sure!
The tea was also great and actually distinguishable from the coffee, which isn't always the case at these functions. ^_^ We savoured our meal, the hall rapidly cleared out of ATV rally participants and all that remained were the locals and folks like us who stopped in for breakfast. If you happen to be in the area, they hold this breakfast on the 4th Saturday of every month and it is well worth the trip to Chester Basin, Nova Scotia!
Monday 30 April 2007
Monday 23 April 2007
Blockhouse Fire Dept. Spring Tea--April 22, 2007
Spring Tea
Blockhouse Volunteer Fire Department Hall
Blockhouse, Nova Scotia
April 22, 2007
It was the perfect finale to a glorious weekend. We deserved it after all the late April snowstorms, near hurricane winds and everything else that was making seemingly everyone sick of any reminder of this past winter.
We arrived to a sparsely filled parking lot, which was fine by me. I hoped this meant that we would have more choices of sandwiches and sweets. We entered the wrong door to the fire hall, and walked past a half dozen volunteer fire fighters, dressed in their dress uniforms. Crisp white shirts adorned with epaulets and various patches, black ties and dress pants. It seemed to be a very formal affair!
The hall was dimly lit, drapes were drawn over the windows and a dozen or so individual tables were set up with full place settings. After a brief wait, our first 'server' arrived, his plate festooned with all manner of delicious little sandwiches. We quickly chose and then devoured them, but not before I took a snapshot:
The tea was black and delicious, and the sandwiches left little to be desired. The crusts weren't removed, but with soft white bread, how can you really tell where the bread ends and the crust begins?
Deviled ham, tuna and egg salad, cream cheese and cherry and ham and cheese sandwiches were on offer, and all slaked our hunger for 'little sammiches'. I couldn't help putting those bread and butter pickles in my ham and cheese sandwich, for that crunchy counterpoint to the soft goodness of the sandwich.
The hall slowly filled up. As usual, we were the only folks there under 50. It looked like most people attended the tea after church and were decked out in their Sunday best. Eventually we finished with the sandwiches after several visits from our server. I had the feeling we could have sat there all day and just kept eating sandwich after sandwich. They were definately not shy about offering second and third helpings!
Lastly, the sweets....All manner of chocolate goodness: chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, chocolate brownies, chocolate toffee squares, blueberry cake, lemon loaf, marshmallow peanut butter squares, and many more I neglected to try. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the plate to help me remember what was on offer. We savoured the home made goodness, had another cup of tea and then left to enjoy the rest of the sunny day.
A perfect end to a grand weekend, we look forward to the upcoming chili luncheon at the same hall in about a month.
Blockhouse Volunteer Fire Department Hall
Blockhouse, Nova Scotia
April 22, 2007
It was the perfect finale to a glorious weekend. We deserved it after all the late April snowstorms, near hurricane winds and everything else that was making seemingly everyone sick of any reminder of this past winter.
We arrived to a sparsely filled parking lot, which was fine by me. I hoped this meant that we would have more choices of sandwiches and sweets. We entered the wrong door to the fire hall, and walked past a half dozen volunteer fire fighters, dressed in their dress uniforms. Crisp white shirts adorned with epaulets and various patches, black ties and dress pants. It seemed to be a very formal affair!
The hall was dimly lit, drapes were drawn over the windows and a dozen or so individual tables were set up with full place settings. After a brief wait, our first 'server' arrived, his plate festooned with all manner of delicious little sandwiches. We quickly chose and then devoured them, but not before I took a snapshot:
The tea was black and delicious, and the sandwiches left little to be desired. The crusts weren't removed, but with soft white bread, how can you really tell where the bread ends and the crust begins?Deviled ham, tuna and egg salad, cream cheese and cherry and ham and cheese sandwiches were on offer, and all slaked our hunger for 'little sammiches'. I couldn't help putting those bread and butter pickles in my ham and cheese sandwich, for that crunchy counterpoint to the soft goodness of the sandwich.
The hall slowly filled up. As usual, we were the only folks there under 50. It looked like most people attended the tea after church and were decked out in their Sunday best. Eventually we finished with the sandwiches after several visits from our server. I had the feeling we could have sat there all day and just kept eating sandwich after sandwich. They were definately not shy about offering second and third helpings!
Lastly, the sweets....All manner of chocolate goodness: chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, chocolate brownies, chocolate toffee squares, blueberry cake, lemon loaf, marshmallow peanut butter squares, and many more I neglected to try. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the plate to help me remember what was on offer. We savoured the home made goodness, had another cup of tea and then left to enjoy the rest of the sunny day.
A perfect end to a grand weekend, we look forward to the upcoming chili luncheon at the same hall in about a month.
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