Canada

We're down to countries I either put off because I was hoping we could do some big ticket item for the day (which never happened), or because I just never found anything all that appealing in terms of recipes. 

Canada falls under the 'big ticket item that just never happened', and so we kind of unceremoniously dumped it on the day Porkchop (that's my doggie for anyone who doesn't know) had his surgery because it seemed like an easy one to check off the list. 

But, I mean, it's Canada. ,More than 36 million people live in Canada, and of that 36 million, something like 90 percent lives within 100 miles of the USA border. It's basically like the northern United States with better taste in fries, and leaders.   (Yes, I linked to Justin Trudeau's twitter page, so what?) 

So, I mean, is it any wonder they're one of the happiest populations in the world? 

Also, you can drink in Canada when you're 19. I would know this because I went to college 45 minutes from Windsor, Canada. Why drink at college illegally, when you are just under an hour from being able to be served? I mean, not that I personally would know (hi mom!) And, those were the days when you didn't need a passport to go. Life was simpler back then. 

Also, my college roommate was basically from Canada. Or, at least she pretended to be. She liked hockey enough to be a Canadian. (Hi Emily!) 

I even went to Canada on my band trip when I was a senior in high school. We went to see Phantom of the Opera and to our landmark: The CN Tower. The communications and observation tower in Toronto was completed in 1976, and was once the tallest tower in the entire world at 1,815 feet. It held the record for 34 years (until 2010-- so it was the tallest when I visited!). It is now the 3rd tallest tower  (there's a taller tower in China and Japan). At least it can still claim the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere. 

By the way, that's totally a picture of me on my band trip with a bunch of other lovely band ladies (I'm in the middle in the black shirt). 

With 3.86 million square miles of land Canada is the second biggest country in the world by landmass.(And it is home to around 2 million lakes!)

 All together Canada is roughly the same size as Europe, though most people (80% at least) live in urban areas. But there are still indigenous Inuit tribes living in the Arctic territory of northern Canada. Some even still have igloos. And I'm sure they spot polar bears!

Canada's Manitoba region is probably the best known place in the world for seeing polar bears. During the winter, when the bay freezes over, the bears live some 40 to 150 miles out on the ice, hunting seal. Add taking a tundra vehicle to see Churchill's Polar Bears to Corinne's bucket list (you know with the pigs in the Bahamas, and the rescued bears in Kosovo! 

Oh, and while I'm at it, I wouldn't mind checking out the annual bathtub races that take place in Nanaimo, British Columbia. (Stay tuned for Nanaimo Bars named for the same town--- oh my gosh!) 

In other Canada trademarks we of course have maple syrup, mysterious beasts like the sasquatch and the ogopogo, and of course going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Oh, and MOOSE! (man, I'm linking back to like fourth blog EVER there) SO many Moose! Some estimates say maybe a million. 

The boys made their Canada postcards. 

Calib's featured going over the falls in a barrel! 

Peyton did a tight-rope walker over the falls, with the CN tower in front and Mount Thor, Canada's pure granite mountain peek- that has the world's greatest vertical drop of 4,100 feet. 

Hayden was the only one to include a moose, so I voted for his. (Plus his polar bear is totes adorbs). 

Like I mentioned, over the course of this project we've had lots of options/opportunities to get to Canada day. 

We could go to the Disney pavilion for Canada; Le Cellier is awesome, but very expensive. The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs has AWESOME Poutine, but Peyton isn't a fan  (I know, how does MY kid not like Poutine?) When we were in Ohio one of the few times I floated the idea of hitting Tim Hortons and calling it Canada Day, but nobody liked that idea much. I hoped maybe we could hit the Cirque du Soleil show at Disney before it was discontinued on December 31st, but that never happened.

So, here we are wrapping things up on this crazy country project, and I figured we'd just gloss over Canada and move on. But then, while on Twitter one night I saw some glorious news: Taco Bell was getting fries come January 25th. 

Ok, let me explain WHY that was exciting. Asa and I ate at Le Cellier two and a half years ago, for our fifth anniversary. We had an awesome waitress who was from Canada (Disney likes to make sure it's pavillions are pretty authentic), and while discussing our love for poutine, and asking for her recommendation on which to order,she explained how poutine is EVERYWHERE in Canada. 

She said everyone has their own version, and then she told us how Taco Bell even had 'Fry Supreme' and when she first moved here, she went to Taco Bell and tried to order it, and they were like 'what? whats that?' She was very upset she had moved to a country without Fry Supreme. 

And then two and a half years later, I heard Taco Bell were getting fries. We could finally get the Fry Supreme! (To be clear, I'm not a big Taco Bell Fan.. but at this point, I had to try it!) 

And let me tell you, as far as Taco Bell food goes, this was pretty good. Fry Supreme is a winner. And for that waitress, if she's still in the US, I hope she had a very good day on January 25th, since she could finally get her fry supreme. 

Canada day was also the day Porkchop had surgery, so I thought we could do a Canada inspired dinner as well. We were going easy, and did the vegetable part of dinner before we even left to pick him up, so it could roast in the oven while we were gone (the boys were here). We made Roasted Root Vegetables, and I even got the beets. (They were on sale $1.50 for a whole bunch so I thought I'd give it a whirl). 

We also had blueberries, the national fruit, and a famous dessert the Nanaimo Bars. 

All of that with Mac and Cheese, or should I say 'Kraft Dinner' or 'KD'. Kraft Dinner has been called the de facto national dish of Canada.Packaged in Quebec, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold globally each week and eat an average of 3.2 boxes of Kraft Dinner each year, 55% more than Americans. The meal is the most popular grocery item in the country,where "Kraft Dinner" has iconic status and has become a generic trademark of sorts for macaroni and cheese.

I can't exactly give this meal five spoons up, although we all wanted to. 

It's mostly because we did not care for those root vegetables. It all just tasted like beets. And it was gross. I usually love carrots and parsnips, but I couldn't get it down. 

The rest of it was good, but since KD is just Mac and Cheese from a box, and blueberries are blueberries we were like... can we really give this five spoons up? 

Those Nanaimo Bars were pretty awesome though, even if they didn't come out of the pan as cleanly as the picture showed. Those earned spoons up all around, for sure. 

We debated what color we had enough of, to color in the second biggest country in the world. We picked wrong. We're going to have to go get another bottle of the color 'Dream On' to finish it off. 

183 countries down, THIRTEEN!!!!!! to go! 

Next Up: I actually don't know. 

We kind of stalled out with all the dog issues over the weekend. We'll pick up as soon as we can all actually sit down for a meal together, instead of being on dog duty at varying times of the day.