Getting ready to make the final selection for the Victoria Film Festival so I've been watching too many videos in a very short time. Chris Smith's doc Collapse is on view tonight. Chris made American Movie one of the key films that lead the way for docs getting theatre screen time. But enough movie talk.

Christmas is seeping from retail stores everywhere and it makes a girl long for tourtière. Not for Christmas but tourtière! So out came the flour and rolling pin and away I went measuring, mixing, rolling. Out came the pork and the beef, the cloves, the cinnamon, bread crumbs. Oven on, crust crimped and fanciful slits cut into the pastry. Oh the scents that hit my nose. I rummage in the fridge for chow chow, a traditional relish but alas - none. I knew I should have bought the one from Camilles Restaurant that I found at the Out of Hand craft show on the weekend. I'm saved by a jar of peach chutney that a kind friend bestowed, though it leaves me sheepish for forgetting whose generosity I'm relying on.

Flour dusted off it seems a hard working girl needs a little fortifying beverage, hmmm tea? No? Hmmm perhaps somethng a bit more spirited? A small Latin Trifecta, a Jamie Boudreau invention of tequila, cynar, dry sherry and orange bitters. This will indeed see me through till the pie is ready.

Good night sweet sips.