#95 Pierre & Janet Berton's Canadian Food Guide

#95 Pierre & Janet Berton's Canadian Food Guide

It was 11 years ago today that we became Canadian citizens. We are now dual citizens since we were able to keep our American status too. It was not easy to convince my daughter who hates snow, cold, long winters, dark days and ice skating that this was a good idea. I think it was finally the idea of being able to have two passports that convinced her. A Canadian passport is a very valuable thing in many parts of the world. We can even travel to Cuba, we haven't, but we could.

Anyway, to become a citizen we had to take a test. I studied and studied, since I didn't want my husband and daughter to pass and then have them make fun of me. Did you know the beaver is our national animal? I shouldn't have stressed out about the test, half the people there taking it couldn't speak English and I'm not real sure most of them even knew they were in Canada.

So we all passed the test and did all the paper work and waited for our swearing in ceremony. This is when you gather with your fellow immigrants to swear your allegiance to "the Queen and all her Heirs". I had visions of my rebellious daughter raising a fist and shouting "Charles is a stupid mama's boy and I refuse to swear anything to him!" We solved this problem by telling her she could softly say, I swear allegiance to the Queen and all her HAIRS. Her hair does always look great!

The day finally came and we headed to Canada Place all dressed up in bright red. Our dear Canadian friends Wendy and Bill went along with us. There were about 60 of us becoming citizens that day and they had brought in a new citizenship judge from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to officiate. Of course this was a big honor for him so he had flown in his family to see this historic event. One of his sisters must have just gotten off the plane because she was not dressed for Canadian weather, in fact her huge Tobagos were on full display. She took her place right in front of my family and the ceremony began. Just picture all of us trying to keep up with the oath, when over half the group still couldn't speak English. Then picture the same group having to do it again in French, we are a dual language country after all. It was very sad and then we were asked to sing the beautiful Canadian National anthem. We rocked the first English version and then came the dreaded French. Well I don't know if my husband was inspired by the occasion or by Miss Tobago but he nailed it. As all the other voices in the room faded away in confusion, he continued bravely on solo. When it ended, Miss Tobago spun around and in a sexy island voice told him, "she loved his wonderful French accent!"

So in honor of the day, the cookbook is #95 Pierre & Janet Berton's Canadian Food Guide. Okay, who can name two Canadian foods and who knows who Pierre Berton is and why he's famous up here. It's not for the Donald Trump comb over either.