Thankful for poutine, pie, and most of all young people who are making the world a better place.

How was your weekend? Mine was filled with lots of food. Sunday was a full turkey dinner with many sides. And then on (Canadian) Thanksgiving Monday, a twist on the Canadian part. Jamie made a pumpkin pie and I had poutine.... That's right... Pie + Poutine = Canadian Thanksgiving, at least for Jamie, Simon and I. Ok, we had zucchini-blue cheese quiche too... Yeah can you say clogged arteries for Thanksgiving? Lol 0;D

For those of you who don't know what poutine is... It's my favourite 100% French Canadian delicacy... French fries topped with brown gravy and fresh cheese curds. It originated from Quebec, and I was very happy to discover that my local grocery store sells cheese curds!

I don't have any pics, as we rather gluttonous and so we didn't take any, but there's a shot of our more traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I love that I am fortunate enough to celebrate two Thanksgivings again this year... Canadian and American :) I'll be in Connecticut again this year with my family!

So I have no way of seamlessly segueing in to this, so I will just dive right into it... My brother G told me about this awesome story on BBC yesterday, that I can't not share... "The 'youngest'headmaster in the world..."

"Around the world millions of children are not getting a proper education because their families are too poor to afford to send them to school. In India, one schoolboy is trying to change that. In the first report in the BBC's Hunger to Learn series, Damian Grammaticas meets Babar Ali, whose remarkable education project is transforming the lives of hundreds of poor children.

At 16 years old, Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world. He's a teenager who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village. "

There are a couple videos, and the full article here. The story is just so inspiring! It reminds us where there is a will, there is a way.

And it makes me so excited about the ways in which together with ecojot, we are working towards encouraging education and helping others all the time... And as I said in a project we're doing in 2010! So be sure to stay tuned ;)

Meanwhile, check out some photos I received from Lisa, the Development and Program Director of Teens Turning Green, one of the many awesome causes ecojot supports...

"Students are working diligently on projects greening their schools and planning some terrific events and more students are joining us weekly." - Lisa

I am thankful there are young people out there close to home and abroad, who have a desire to make a difference! Kudos.

xo,

ej

Pie for Life... Mmm, that's a LOT OF PIE!

So I love pie, and if you will recall, I loved the movie Waitress starring Keri Russell and a many many many pies!

So imagine my excitement when I heard via UrbanDaddy about a café in Texas called Royers Roundtop that offers a "Pie for Life" membership! I am just filled with random ecoCOOL and delicious info aren't I? Sadly I don't have the ~$10,000 entry fee for having a pie shipped to me once a month... However, I just couldn't help giggle with delight at the thought of being mailed a pie every month of my existence!

Apparently Royers has several different pie-a-month plans from 3, 6, 12 and of course your life. My friend Dave calls it a "Pie Annuity"... Except pie in lieu of cash! Browse their site like I did, but be forewarned, the images are mouth-watering!

I wonder if I could bake a pie month myself... Hmm, the thing is I'm more of a cook than a baker... That's why I left the baking of the three-colour-layered cupcakes to my sister ;)

However, it has gotten cooler here in Toronto, and I have definitely found myself very much in the mood to cook more. In fact, I brought some Hot Italian Sausage (and Veggies of course!) Spaghetti for my colleagues for lunch today =) I think next week, I will prepare a tuna casserole for them.

I love cooking for people... I just can't cook for myself, just not as satisfying! I think it's because I grew up in such a big family (5 kids!) and so there was no such thing as eating alone. In fact, my older brother, hates eating by himself. I don't mind, but I always cook big portions, and invite people over when I can, and freeze what I can save for another day ;)

Maybe I'll go to a farmers market this weekend and find some ingredients for a pie!

It's the last long weekend of the summer. I don't have any big plans. Do you have any?

Finally, you know how I love to host giveaways, and tell you about others... Especially Ecojot ones... Well Ecojot is sponsoring one on PegCityMomma.com, click here for full details! Really simple to enter ;) Thanks to Shannon for hosting! Contest ends September 14, 2009, 8pm CST.

xo,

ej

PS -- Appreciated all the comments here and on Facebook, re: my last post on Sigg water bottles. It was definitely much swig for thought!