My days and nights have been filled with vegan delights, so many of which I haven't been able to share because the music scene is so good that my fingers have been typing away about the hijinx of Gentleman Reg and other ungodly Torontoians.

But, enough, I will leave music blogging to the likes of other co-super-nerds who were surprisingly chipper and talkative this morning as we rode the leaf-frying rails of the Brussels Public Transit. Oh TTC, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you. The urine here is nothing like the urine in Toronto.

I want to share a couple of Brussels treasures - a load of which featured in our just passed by weekend of sunshine and blue sky.

After dropping Sam's mom off home I finally had the chance to venture into the Health Food shop close to Merode station. This little shop is well stocked with the average Brussels assortment of tofu, seitan, and bio-yogurt. La Saga supplies its cutest dark haired customers with Carte de fidelite which guarantees the avid vegan shopper with an 11th shopping experience that is discounted by 10% of accumulated purchases. The shop is open Monday - Friday from 10 - 8 and Saturday from 10 - 6. An adjoining and yet to be discovered 100% veggie/bio restaurant sports some rather annoying hours of Monday to Friday 12 - 3pm (COME ON!!!).

It only made sense that once we were officially test driving our new wheels that we should head straight for a wine bar. Of course. What else? We were safe and avoided guzzling a bottle (only purchasing one and draining a couple of glasses). In the middle of Place Brugmann there is a great little spot called, simply:"Winery". This super posh-ish wine bar offers wine/cuisine classes, a spectacular array of wines, some excellent foods and a really nice atmosphere. I think Angelique would have been totally at home here - and could have even made a couple of suggestions about the ridiculous height of the bar stools. Despite the for-giants-only stools the decor was appealing, and quite calming after a busy day of "please show me how you convert 5 kms into centimetres".

I had a nice Rosë, which was amazing with the Olive Tapenade that Kevin, in his developing 'drinking with Lyndsay before and after a meal' knowledge, ordered to keep at bay any potential silliness. Winery was soaked with English nouns and verbs, but, hey...what are you going to do?

After making a pit stop at home, we headed for INDOCHINE, which, can be found on the way down to Place Flagey on Rue Lesbroussart. My suggestion would be to call and book ahead, because only my starving tummy, which caused us to be eating mondo-early for Brussels styles, allowed us to catch the last available table - all the others were marked with Reserved signs and many a family was turned away with little tears in their eyes. I had a fantastic tofu and mushroom dish that was slathered in something yummy and brown. It was well worth the 9 euro 50. The service was amazing and they even had cold soya milk to chase down the Rose I started the evening with.

Saturday, under the beautiful blue sky, we made the obvious choice and headed for a mall. Excellent. I bought a excellent piece of crockery - sexy red and oven friendly. I made this kitchen purchase to satisfy more than my inner shopping demons, I had a mission: roasted veggies for a group of hungry Canadian teachers ready and willing to give thanks.

We spent our Saturday afternoon on the back patio of Momma Christine (a totally fantastic Greek/Montreal woman who is just an amazing human being). People were super thoughtful and went to the trouble of making vegan-friendly stuffing and mashed potatoes. Michael brought some really great wine and Andrea offered up some excellent pineapple and melon. It was great to sit around and chat about The Hammer, Stelco and trips home. Great company and excellent food.

Find below the root veg roast that accompanied my woked-green-bean-delight -

Go and Buy:

(I bought all bio, but whatever)

8 carrots (washed and cut into thick bits)

1 squash (washed and diced)

2 sweet potatoes (washed and diced)

1 shallot

1 clove of garlic

loads of olive oil

Fresh Rosemary and Herbs d'Provence

Pepper

Salt

A shit load of matches to start and then restart your gas oven

Now....do this:

1. Coat the bottom of your sexy roasting pan with olive oil, and add all of your vegetables, including the garlic and shallots.

2. Cover the top with the fresh herbs, a wee bit more olive oil, and give it all a good mix.

3. Let it bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. Crank it up to 450 for another 20 minutes and enjoy!

Good Times