I was prepared to get on the scale today and see an increase. After being gone for four days, eating nothing but restaurant food and train food, my biggest hope was that I didn’t gain more than a pound. What I didn’t expect, was to actually lose one!

We didn’t hit the gym for those four days, but we did walk. A lot. Our original plan in going to Niagara Falls was to take the train to Buffalo and rent a car to drive around the falls. What we ended up doing was taking the train right to Niagara Falls, NY and taking a taxi over the bridge to Niagara Falls, Canada. Once in Canada, we just walked wherever we wanted to go – between 4 and 5 miles per day – roughly 6 km to 8 km a day, for the rest of the world.

Our hotel was centrally located in the Fallsview area – directly across from the Canadian Falls – and thanks to our new, improved, physical condition, we could walk for literally miles without breaking a sweat or getting the least bit out of breath. What a difference 21 weeks has made! The Festival of Lights was really pretty. The entire parkway is ablaze in lights, buildings, lampposts, lighted sculptures, trees…

We did buy an all-day WeGo bus pass and finally used it on Wednesday. I had been to Niagara Falls several times while living in Buffalo and vaguely remembered a street with lots of bars and restaurants – and a pretty good Irish Pub. Looking at the map, I thought it was Lundy’s Lane, since there’s a pretty big Irish Pub, there. Either my memory is totally shot or the street has changed considerably – or both – but it wasn’t what I was expecting. The fun thing, though, was our bus driver was a female Henny Youngman. The woman talked non-stop and had us in stitches. The bus runs in about a 45 minute loop, so for a couple of bucks, we had entertainment and a tour of the town.

It was fun.

But everything else was on foot. We went out to dinner Tuesday night and asked the waitress what Canadian Whisky’s they had and she named off the typical – Canadian Club, Crown Royal, but said she had one made in Ontario that she really liked – named Forty Creek. Throwing caution to the wind, we ordered doubles, neat. Outrageously good. So outrageously good, we ended up ordering another round. Doubles. Neat. Definitely one of the smoothest most mellow whisky’s I’ve ever had. We walked the 1.2km from the hotel to the LCBO – Canadian Liquor Store – and bought 2 bottles to bring back with us.

While sipping it, we created a biscotti recipe using it, maple syrup, and maple sugar. We’re calling it The Justin. We have created a lot of different biscotti recipes based on liquors and liqueurs over the years and I think this one is definitely going to be in contention for the best, yet!

Just to make sure the flavors go together well – as if we didn’t know they would – Victor made a glaze for both the ham and the sweet potatoes with a bit of the whisky and a bit of maple syrup.

It works.

He brushed a bit on the ham steak and then fried it up. The potatoes were cut and then baked with a bit of olive oil, garlic powder, salt & pepper, and then glazed with the maple whisky. Really, really good.

Since we’re concentrating on Biscotti this year for our Christmas Cookies, we worked out a Chocolate, Espresso, and Sambuca biscotti over sinner.

Can’t wait to start baking!