Between cub scouts and class trips, I've been to a sugar shack three times. It was fun every time. There is no smell quite like large vats of boiling sap. It's also very cool when they pour strips of boiling sap onto the snow, and then you roll it up around a popsicle stick to make a fresh maple popsicle.

Was anyone else fairly surprised to learn that maple sugar is a source of calcium, magnesium, and potassium? It's funny because sometimes I get a craving for maple syrup and just start pouring spoonfuls, and like a lot of my favourite snacks I find out it's high in potassium. Weird. Did you guys know that any orange powder cheese coated product is usually a good source of potassium? Cheetos are friggin high in potassium!

It's easier if you use maple syrup.

Vegan like how many hundreds more??? C'mon man, veagns are at the bottom of the western food chain with regard to genetic predisposition to DYING!!?? Most you meet, already have compromised immune systems, and mental problems......


-Gimme grits, bacon, sausage, eggs over easy, waffles with fresh blueberries and maple syrup, whipped cream, more sausages and bacon, vanilla milkshake, some well-done crispy hash browns, a side of Hollandaise for dipping, some fried smoke-cured ham, and keep the coffee comin', bowl of fruit,
maybe a cheese tray somewhere in there delivered
in a timely fashion, and MINKS' got the check.

Oh and some butter pads and more sausages, to throw at the vegans on the table over....

This is pretty hilarious to me.
I'm from the States originally, but moved to Calgary AB about a year ago. My girlfriend's family all hates Toronto, and when asked why, they surely give me a ton of reasons. Some made sense, and some were presented as jokes.

It seems, from what I understand, that everyone hates Toronto because it presents itself as the center of the Universe?

Also, my girlfriend's dad hates the place because whenever there's a Calgary Flames game going on at the same time as a Toronto Maple Leafs, every canadian hockey station will never fail to pick up the Leafs game, leaving the Flames completely unaired on any station.

In any case, regardless of the reasons, I never knew of this until I actually moved up here. How an entire country can have so many issues, but consistently unite together in the hatred of one of it's cities. That's pure gold, right there.

It's Peart not Purt. I saw Rush play Maple Leaf Gardens in around 89.

Yea! Other Toledoans! I'm in LA now, but I have my "MASH style" Mud Hens jersey to remind me of home (Sylvania).

Toledo is a bit of an odd city. It used to be the booming "Glass Capitol of the World" until the natural gas ran out in the 70's (before my time) and everything went to pot. As has been said, it still has a very decent art museum and the Toledo Zoo is pretty nice too. They're trying to revitalize downtown with the new Mud Hens stadium, I hear it's doing a bit better out there. Toledo has been struggling a bit because most of the industry in is too closely tied into the American auto industry, which hasn't done well, of course.

I do miss Packo's dogs every once in a while, but I kind of always thought they were a little over rated. At least in the restaurants. I prefer picking up the natural casing Packo's dogs and a can of Packo's chili at the store and hitting the grill where you can control what's going on. I also miss Bob Evans sausage. You never know how much you can miss good fresh sausage until you have to suffer through the over-seasoned, over-fatty Farmer John schlock that they try to pass off as food out here. And I've had to spread the gospel of real maple syrup to these plastic goop swilling hippies, but I'm on a tangent.

Another bright spot was Rusty's Jazz cafe, but unfortunately I hear that it died with Rusty. She was special.

Also find Garlic Expressions salad dressing in the stores. It's from Perrysburg and is probably the best I've ever had, but I'm a garlic freak. Jesus, is that all we had in Toledo was a few food oddities? I guess that's why I had to leave.

I saw NIN live in 98 or 99 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. the place was on fire during this tune.

Wow, they certainly are labor intensive. I thought the coolest part was the multi-layered hard rock maple being formed into the piano shape.

interesting... not something I would expect from the CBC, yet it also seemed to be 'washed' of most Canadian imagery (it wasn't obviously Canadian - no clear maple leaf shoulder patches, etc). Anyways, the moral of the story is don't fuck with Canada.

Now do the Queen, or a pair of Maple ... leaves!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Well lets try this first. I have nightmares about waking up one day and seeing the queue completely empty. Gotta have coal in the furnance. Or gotta have unsifted flour - choose your metaphor.

A little anecdote- I sort of wanted our site to be called "videoFilter" a bit of a rip-off of MetaFilter, a site which has a really nice community - but I was making pancakes using my favourite recipe with a sifter and the flour was coming out all nice and light leaving husks and weevil wings in the sifter, and it hit me.

Here is a great recipe for pancakes, you can't go wrong if you follow this, I found it on the Internet somewhere, but don't know the original source - sorry for the lack of credit.

VideoSift Pancakes

Sift before measuring*:

1-1/2 c. all-purpose flour

Resift with:

1 t. salt
3 T. sugar (optional, but tastes really good, can use maple syrup)
1-3/4 t. baking powder

Combine:

1 or 2 slightly beaten whole eggs
3 T. melted butter or vegetable oil
1 to 1-1/4 cups milk

Mix liquid ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients. Ignore the small lumps. Let the batter sit for about 20 minutes while you warm up the griddle. Put a little butter or oil in the pan.

I've had this one saved for a while, fedquip reminded me how funny Jim Carrey can be... so I found it in my faves and, yes indeedy, he does a very good send-up of Vanilla Ice. I think his best work may have been in the earlier days on "In Living Color".

I do believe his talent extends beyond his reputation as the "rubber-faced fartmeister".

(Does anyone else remember seeing him in a 1992 tv movie called "Doing Time on Maple Drive"? He blew me away, in part b/c I'd only ever seen his comedy -- he played an alcoholic kid who dropped out of college, to return to his dysfunctional family. His brother was struggling with coming out, and he was the only family support, yada yada yada.)