English pie recipe

Hi,
While starting watching The great british bake of I've been tempted to make some english pie myself, but then totally vegan :)
Here you have my recipe :) For 2 ;)

For the pie :
- Flour 200gr
- Butter (vegan) 100gr
- Ice cold water
- Pinch of salt

For the stuffing :
- Mushrooms
- Spinach

- Soy milk
- Salt
- Pepper
- Butter
- Flour

I started to make the stuffing first cause everything needs to be cold before putting the pie together to have a good bake.
First wash and cook your spinach, then do the same with your mushrooms.
I make my saus to bind everything like this: put some butter in a pan then ad a spoon of flour to it and some salt and pepper. Now put the stove on under your pot and whisk all this together, when it all start to stick together you put some soy milk to the mix but keep whisking. Put soy milk and whisk till it look like a good texture. Now put your vegetables in the saus, make sure to get most of the water out of your spinach. Mix this all together and if necessary put some more salt and pepper.
Now you can put this aside to cool down.

For the pie put the flour in a bowl and ad the butter to it. Wash your hands cause you're going in :)
Rub the butter into the flour gently if it's all mixing together you can start by adding 4 spoons of the ice-cold water in. Keep doing that till you have a good texture. Roll the dough in a ball and put it in the bowl with a plastic foil over it and put it for 30 min or longer in the fridge to cool.

Now get some flour on your counter top and roll out the dough till it's half a cm.
Make sure to butter up your cooking form you're going to put this in and put some flour in it to, so it doesn't stick after.
Now put in your stuffing.
Then roll out the rest of your dough to use as the top.
Put it over to close your pie but cut a whole in the middle of it to let the air out.
Now brush on some water over the top to make a nice crust.

Put it in the oven for 40min on 180°C. Till it's golden brown.

Watch out it will be hot when you get it out so let it cool for a few minutes before eating it :)
Enjoy your pie :)
( Of course you can fill your pie with everything you want, if your not vegan you can of course put some cheese in it, and if you eat meat go ahead and enjoy )

Love,
Sarah

Getting used to Montreal

Hi,

I know it's been a while.
I've settled in into my room and shared housing and my roommates are great :)
Been looking for a job since I've arrived here but still no luck, had some interviews but nothing more.
Is it because they know that I'm here with a working holiday so not planning to stay long? Not that I tell them that :)
So now I've decided that instead of stressing around about not finding a job I just need to enjoy my time here and work out my next steps on this journey.
Planning now to go do some national parks with my roommate probably, so that should be fun :)
Also looking to maybe go a few days to Ottawa to visit and of course i have to go visit Toronto and the Niagara falls  while I'm still on this side of Canada.
So with all this on the planning for next month I should have enough to post also :)
What I love about the place where I stay now is that even if it still is in the city it's not downtown so really chill. I even made a friend who comes almost each day :) haha it's a squirrel and he's just so cute (if you know me you know I love animals)
My room has a view on the little garden so I have a good look at it :)
I've been to the Firework festival here in Montreal last saturday because it was a Game of Thrones theme, but did not see any dragons :) but it was nice fireworks.
Also this saturday I go to the just for laughs festival, which is all about comedy. So on demand of my sister I'm going to see the Tiffany Hadish gala :) my sister is such a big fan and I thing she was so funny in Girls trip, so looking forward to that :)
For the rest I try to enjoy myself the best I can, sometimes it's weird to do things by myself, but I'm getting there :)

Love,
Sarah

My work away with the huskies

Hi,
I know I'm a bit late with my post, but my charger for my laptop died so needed to buy a new one.
Already back in Montreal looking for a job for the summer, just got in my room for the next 2 months.

I arrived at Plessisville on the 16th of june in the evening, I got a ride till the place I would stay, called Randonee Mickla. In the winter they have a dog sledding company and I was there now to help take care of the 100 huskies :) By arrival I already got to see them all and meet some from up close.
There were 4 other people staying there to help out, a couple from Mexico who were very nice and 2 french guys who were not social at all. But I was tired so got to bed to be fresh in the morning.
The job was to go feed the chickens and bunnies and check for eggs with the chickens.
For the dogs we had to give them water twice a day, once in the morning and once around 5PM.
The guy who was in charge came every morning with the meat for the dogs, which were frozen chickens cut in half. So we put the meat in the back of the quad and went to feed the dogs.
All the dogs were very nice, but one dog always barked at me even if I came close to let him smell me he didn't liked me... I can't please everyone :)
The big group of dogs stayed at 2min walk from our place, each dog was chained to a pole and had their own little house. They didn't got a lot of place to move but I guess it was enough... We could walk the dogs but you had to be sure you could handle them and we had to ask a guy which we could walk, but the guy wasn't there a lot.
There were also a few dogs staying closer to us, that were the younger once (who still have to learn how it all works) and the once people left there behind.
While I was there a guy came to leave behind his 4 year old siberian husky and it was so sad. But then a few days later he comes back to see him and asks the guy in charge if gets walks, cause he's used to walk 5km a day. The guy says no because even the other dogs don't get that kind of walk.
And a few days later he came back to walk his dog and then leaves again. How confusing for this dog!! Didn't liked that :(
My best friend on this stay was Charlie, the little puppy. He was so cute and we got really attached to each other. The day i left he was following me so I had to go and put him inside so he wouldn't get on the busy road. His mom Louve was also so loving, it was sad to leave them :(
There was also one dog who wasn't a husky and the only one who could be inside and also slept inside, Boulette is 13 years old and was so nice :) our little guard dog.
I had a great time here with all those dogs!!

Love,
Sarah

My first work away experience

Hi,
So the past 2 weeks I've spent on the beautiful Ile d'Orleans.
Here I stayed in motel île d'Orleans and worked as a volunteer.
The concept work away is so you can travel cheap and on the place you stay you work max 5 hours a day and in return you get your stay and food. I've learned of this from a girl in my hostel in Montreal.

Here at the motel I was helping out with cleaning the rooms and preparing them for the new guest.
It was nice that you always got a thank you for your work after each day, even if it's part of the deal.
The two hosts Stephanie and Francois are very nice people and take really good care of you.
Just across the bridge you have the beautiful Montmorency falls and on my first day Francois took me there, because he was going for a run there with Elise the other girl who was there to volunteer.
Me and Elise stayed at the motel in a room with a kitchen and bathroom, just the perfect size for 2.
We got along great and on our days off or after work we explored the island together.
The first week Stephanie invited us to go to the movies with her and we had a great girls time :)
Also my first movie experience in Canada :)
Once a week we went to the supermarket with Stephanie and we could choose our groceries for a week, which was nice.
We could also borrow a bike if we wanted to explore the island, but I'm more of a walker than a biker.
One day of I did a 16km walk and saw some beautiful nature and the richer side of the island, you won't believe the houses I saw and the view they have. If only I had the money ;)
On the island you have all these little businesses who make their own products, like I went to the chocolatier and the nougatier. But my favorite was Monna & filles where they made everything with cassis. Everything was so good there :)

Also in 15min you're in Quebec city, so one day after work me and Elise went to visit. Or should I say she was my tour guide, cause she already knew the city. Of course the day we went the G7 was going on. We saw a manifestation, but it was pretty calm.
The city is small and cute, especially the old town. Loved visiting it :)

I just had a great time here and now it's time to move on to my new adventure.
Thank you Stephanie and Francois for the great experience :)

Love,
Sarah

Ile d'Orleans

Hi,
This week I went on a adventure on the beautiful Ile d'Orleans near Quebec City.
Why I'm here you will learn in another blog :)
So Ive been up to some amazing things on this little island.

A must see is actually just of the island, but worth the trip.
The Montmorency falls, who I"ve heard are 30m higher than the Niagara falls but of course not as wide. There is a bridge hanging over the falls and thats where I was. I'm really afraid of heights so this was a big deal for me, all by myself. But I did it and proud that i did :)
The view on the side of the falls was beautiful and breath taking. The view on the other side I didn't liked so much, but thats because you really felt/saw how high you were. It was nice but I was to scared to fully enjoy it. I went down on a lookout post to enjoy feeling and hearing to power of the waterfall. I just love nature so much and there you just felt the power of it.

The other day I decided to go to a tasting and because I love fruit I went to try out some cassis.
I went to Cassis Monna et filles and had an amazing time.
I did a little walk till there cause the weather was just so nice.
You had a little restaurant, an ice cream bar and the shop. Also you had a barn to learn more about what they do there and a little workshop area.
First I went to have the tasting, for only 2,50$ you could taste 3 wines and 1 liquor. They all tasted so good, I even liked it more than regular wine :)
You could also taste for free all of their other products, like ketchup, mustard (yes also made with cassis), but also confiture and compote. It was all just so good.
After all the tasting I went to the ice cream bar and had some cassis ice cream, who was so good and refreshing on a hot day like this. Just ate it on their beanie bag with an amazing view.

On my way to the tasting I've found a little hidden way, so I decided to go and explore it.
It was a way down, I think if I would've continue following it I would end by the water. But I just did a little walk into the little forest.

I had an amazing time on the island and would recommend it to people who are near to Quebec city. It's only a 20min drive and worth your time.

Love,
Sarah

Montreal

Hi,

The past days I've been looking for a job and place to stay for the summer time.
I found a place to stay (still waiting on last details), but still looking for a job.
Saturday I will leave for 2 weeks to Ile d'Orleans for a volunteering job in a motel.
I will keep you posted on how that goes :)
After those 2 weeks I'll go volunteering in a small town moving a back down a bit, to help with dogs and feeding cows. Looking forward to that.
And end of june I'll go back to Montreal to stay at the place I found and hopefully start working in a job I'm still looking for. If anyone has some tips about jobs, it's more than welcome.

But meanwhile I've still been up to visiting a bit more of this beautiful city.
The part I love the most is the old part of time, but for us europeans this is not that old :)
Saturday i finally got my canadian phone number and after that I walked till the Mont Royal.
On top I've meet up with a friend from the hostel. I didn't know you could go up by bus (like she did) so I walked till the top. It was more than 300m high and it was really steep. Some crazy people did it while running, but most people walked and were tired like me. I was so happy there was a drinking fountain on top cause my water ran out quickly. It was a very nice view of the city.
Went to visit the Biosphere but it was closed, but got a good close look of it. But I saw a bit of the wildlife around it.
But I'll be back in summer time to see more of it and the little islands around it.
And of course my sister comes after summer to join me further on my path in Canada.


My next post will probably be next week when I arrive on Ile d'Orleans.

Love,
Sarah

First days in Montreal

Hi,

So my long time dream came out and now I'm here alone in Canada :)
Not that my dream was to up here alone, but I'm pretty social and my sister comes in September :)
I've settled in the hostel and I have 2 nice roommates, so for that I'm happy.
It's my first time in a hostel so that will take some adjustments  for me, like living with so much people together. At home we're at 6 but up here it's a lot more, but I will get used to it, I hope ;)

On the plane from Iceland (my layover) I met a nice girl from Manchester who is here to stay a few months. So the first day she invited me to stay over at Verdun ( a part of Montreal). We had a walk in the streets up there, it's so nice and you have a lot of vintage stores. It was such nice weather so we got us some fresh fruit and went to sit in the park to enjoy the view and weather.
After that I went back to the old port area where I'm staying. I had my dinner by the water, with an amazing view. It's such a nice area to walk around, I've did almost the whole of the walk around it. I think there will be a lot to do there in the summer. There were already a few food trucks and music.

The second day I went and did all my paper work and got myself a canadian phone number :)
So now the job and apartment hunting can start :)

I will see if maybe I'll find something to do in the weekend, maybe going to a bar or party.
Keep posted for the rest of the adventure, I'll try to post as much as I can.


Love,
Sarah