Turkey Day!!

It's been too long yet again. Let's post some pics up in here.

Moozh outdid himself once again and with the creative genius of our foodie friend Alan, T-Day became a thing of beauty. We will  be eating it for easily another three weeks and it will eventually feel like less of a thing of beauty but for today's purposes, we are going to look at the beauty.

Glassware is key. We used our tasting glasses from wine and beer class. 

There was a truly absurd amount of cheese in use. I thought it worth documenting. 

Our appies. Notice the cheese. 

This is my 'boule', sliced like a pumpkin, before baking. Cranberry Rosemary Artisan bread. 

And this is it after. 

Roasted Brussies. That is bacon. 

Dressing (by yours truly). Lots of dried fruit to combat the cheese. 

Beer and Pie. A winning combination. 

This is the only picture we have of the pig, which is amazing to me. It truly was impressive.

Duh boys, kickin' it in the kooknaya (kitchen). Red T-shirt was the uniform of choice.

The evening ended happily and after an excessively loud round of Cranium at 1130pm. 

It seriously was a day of so much fun and such great people. My only disappointment is that we didn't get any swinging pictures of our great guests. So much laughter and great stories. Our party was probably 50/50 Yanks to Canucks. They shared with us the Black Friday- Green Bean and Dirt Pudding American version of Thanksgiving. It made us so excited we're going to do it all again at the end of November. But then we'll let some others do the cooking too. You can't have a monopoly on good taste.

Hope you all had a beautiful and tasty Thanksgiving dinner. I realized in the midst of it all I don't really know what Canadian Thanksgiving is all about. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with wanting to do it because the Americans do it but needing to do it a month earlier. I did hear a story somewhere that it had something to do with the King being sick and when he recovered they decided to celebrate the harvest. In Canada it's always about a monarch. Half of us don't even vote properly.
But a day where you are supposed to (even if it is only subconsciously) made to think about what you are thankful for. It made me thankful for my husband, who loves me when I suck'; who 'holds me close at night and thanks God for me'; who goofs around on Saturday and dreams about our future with me. I am thankful for my parents, who are broken and real. I am thankful for my sisters, who are the most beautiful and creative women I have ever know. I am thankful for the awesome guys who love them and hold them close and thank God for them. I'm thankful for my bestie in Cowtown who leads such a beautiful life and always inspires me. I'm thankful for all of the incredible people and friends that God introduced us to in Bankybear. I am thankful for my in-laws because they make me laugh and love me even though I am flaky. And I am thankful for those who love them. I am thankful for carbs and for jersey knit sheets. I am thankful a body that constantly impresses me and feet that run like the wind. I am thankful for the freedom of speech and the chance to have all my needs met in one day. I am thankful that I know God and that my life is His. I am thankful that he has planned for me beyond what I can hope or imagine (Eph 3:20 NIV). There are many things unmentioned here which I am thankful for as well, and so much for because they are still there even when I forget them. Like running water. And Skype.

Three cheers (and leg kicks) for chunky scarves and soup weather! In Bankybear the weather has been so Fall it had made me smile. What are you thankful for? 

"I worshipped at the altar of romantic completion." Donald Miller

The magical clafaoutis fairy struck again the other night. We missed some friend's birthdays during the course of the summer so going to their house for dinner last night, I whipped up an impromptu birthday cake-clafoutis. No cherries this time but I had some beautifully firm nectarines that were begging to be thinly sliced and arranged in a way that was impressive in a baking dish. I added some rum to the batter as the JoC suggested as well as WAY too much vanilla extract. No bigs though because it was delicious. The clafoutis puffs up in the oven and the angular nectarines looked like mountains, with purply-red freckled peels poking up from the bronzed custard. It was a win. If you ever think to yourself, "I want to make an impressive dessert but I only know how to make a smoothie," clafoutis is for you. As for crepe batter, whizzing the batter in a blender produces a frothy, aerated batter that is beautiful and fluffy.

Went for a kick ass bike ride around the Sea Wall with mah fave Beej. "September is the New July" is a common sentiment in Bankybear right now because July was seriously bummed out and I've gotten a tan to rival the tan I received in the tropics. An "Indian Summer" we called it in the Beef Province. Warm long days that slither to a perfect evening, lounging in fuchsia and yellow along the horizon line. Thus, the beaches are BUMPIN' and all the kids that are back in school are feeling gipped. All of these things considered, the bike ride today was that which you write home about, which is what I'm trying to do here I guess. My legs kicked ass over every bridge and hefty hill that came my way and there was this majestic breeze that was just present enough to cool my sweaty bod while still maintaining the glory of a hot summer day. My bicey, who is presently unnamed, gave it a really good go but bummed out right after we trouped over the bridge headed home. It did so, about six blocks away from home so not bad and I had my pocket bike genius (Beej) with me so all was well. The Sea Wall is mega fun though. It's breathtakingly scenic and if you make time to do 'victory pictures' where you lift your bike over your head as Beej and I did, it definitely makes the 'Awesome Category'. Don't worry, I wore a helmet and I was really only going as fast as one of those Fisher Price motorized cars. I used all the road signals I learned in Girl Guides and, in lieu of no bike bell, I screamed "on your left!" at regular intervals.

Life is fun right now, if life is only relaxed and in a fair routine. Moozh and I saw a sign that said, "Wine is proof that God wants us to be very happy" attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Apparently, this is erroneous but I don't care because it kicks ass. I also like the one from Virginia Woolf: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well." I am doing all the above with high achievement lately :)

My bronze-bodied culinarian is making me risotto right now and it smells so profound I am overwhelmed in this moment by the beauty of marriage. Hope y'all are eating and loving well. Mwah!

"The fabric of your flesh, as pure as a wedding dress…"

I've been listening to "Howl" by Florence and the Machine for probably a half an hour. It's like when I listen to "One" by U2 and Mary J. Blige. I'm pulling a Mary J, ya know breakin' it down. Moozh always get a hefty laugh out of that because he doesn't understand the fierce bitch inside me, all locked up inside an awkward white girl. All good. At least Florence is white too. She's a ginger even! But the beats in her music matched with her howling (Ha! No pun…well yeah pun intended), practically rearranges my heartbeat. And makes me want to take my shoes off and dance on the lawn. And we have to share our lawn. Awkward.

Moozh and I took in the sunset last night playing chess and having wine and bread for dinner. Because we can. And because I grew up on the prairies and I always feel a little bit guilty when I don't take advantage of the waterfront, especially when the sun is OUT. It has been remarkably sunny lately, I will concede.

And because it sounds like a cool thing to do. There I said it. Sigh.

Made soup and popovers for dinner from the Moosewood cookbook lent to me by a lovely new friend. We swapped cookbooks after we had had too much wine. It's the female version of "I love you man."
"Make this cake. Oh my gawd, it's so good. But it's so easy. Seriously, I'm not kidding."
And so I did. No cake yet, but "Gypsy Soup". It just kinda sounds like I'd want to eat it. And popovers are always yummy. LIke puffy muffins. Puffy muffin biscuits. Puffinscuits…..new word.

I found this blog called "The Daybook" through Pinterest. She taught some of my first Photoshop photo processing. But she has this fun portion called "Awesome and Awkward" where you categorize what happened in your day. My days would be a tad one-sided methinks. IN THE AWESOME CATEGORY. Obviously.

Here goes:
Awesome -

• Handing out resumes like I was on a paper route. Let's get us a fine job!
• I didn't get beaten at chess every round last night. I never won but I managed enough stalemates to stay above water. 
• We saw someone walking their dog on the beach and the dog was a dead ringer for Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. It made me seriously want one. I think it's a French Bulldog. "I got a dog! It's a collie…that was hit by a truck." Cutester. 

Awkward -

• When it gets hot my hair gets all droopy and my bangs look like Nick Carter from The Backstreet Boys. You know, when the 90's where the 90's (said with a serious sad face). 
• Standing in my pyjamas in the sunlight pouring through our front windows, drinking my coffee and being thankful when a painter who's here because our building is being painted walks past my window and stares at me in my pjs. Awkward. 
• Giving people the 'death stare' when they stand in my way as I wait for the crosswalk. There is no way I could be in that much of a hurry. 

Happy September! Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day long weekend. I realized today…that it was yesterday. This is what happens when you're unemployed. You have absolutely no need to keep track of time. Unless you have to volunteer at a farm.

Question for today: What would your ideal meal be? Ritzy? Chill? Alone? With company?
I know mine would be a loaf of crusty bread, a chunk of cheese, a bottle of wine and my Moozh. I could eat this meal on the side of a highway and would still be beyond content. Mmm-mmm.

"…Muckers might make angels in its drafts as children do in snow, lovers in sheets, lie down and leave imprinted where they lay a feathered creature holier than they." Photos of a Salt Mine by P.K Page

Dear Y'all,


This week has drawn my summer to a close but I in fact feel less and less sure about what this Fall and, consequently this year, holds for me. I'm processing a lot of questions about school, about my writing degree and about my vision for my future. In the wake of these questions, I just decided to fill my timetable with achievable crafts and carbs to ensure a blithe contentment with what I'm working into. Discouragement can be a hard thing to work through because it unavoidably required taking a hard look at your expectations and whether they are…appropriate. It also takes examining a certain degree of romanticism in life. I would be the first proponent of maintaining the romance in life. But romanticism can also become idealistic and that is the perfect breeding ground for disappointment and discouragement. Blabbity-blab and so goes the mouth. I'll probably be digesting all this stuff here as well. And posting fun things that feed the romance of life. 


Psychosomatic Side Note: I always think of the curry Barracks Farmer's Market in Cowtown when I talk about 'romanticism'. The Farmer's Market was right across the street from where I studied Romantic literature. 


I tried out artisan bread, which has long plagued me with it's irresistible crust and upwards of 18 hour prep time. Letting it sit overnight didn't really gel with my unfettered obsession with carbs and my need for instant gratification with baking. I followed the process listed on the blog Ivory Hut, in which she uses a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I now have on my bookshelf. This bread is the bomb-diggity. What made me nervous about the bread was the involved nature of it and most of the recipes I had seen required it to be baked in a Dutch Oven. This recipe, while it did require about eight hours of 'prep' time, most of it was just waited for the dough and letting t just hang out in a bowl. You don't need to knead it and you really only handle the dough for about five minutes in total (thus the name). Moist, great crust, mild flavour and endlessly adaptable. I want to make an olive-rosemary loaf next and I've seen a recipe for spinach-feta that would be fantastic.  If you have a spare Saturday where you want to make some bread that's going to make you feel like a superhero, try this bread. Plus, I split the dough into three and froze the other two. They still bake up perfect and it makes the time commitment a little bit more rewarding. I have baked two out of my three loaves and I don't have any pictures because we eat it too fast. Perfect with soup, for bruschetta, or….


Grapefruit curd! I mentioned it with baited breath earlier in the week. And on Friday I actually got around to making it work. I have been a part of making lemon curd so many times during a holiday season. It's one of my dad's favourite treats to make around Christmas. It's always made with the intention of spooning it into tarts for Christmas Day but it inevitably is eaten by the spoonful at regular intervals that come Christmas Day there is not a sniff of curd to be found. My dad makes his in the microwave but I found a recipe for a grapefruit curd made on the stovetop and given my recent track record, I found myself dreading whatever would manage to go wrong with a lemon curd, namely 'curdling the eggs'. Nothing is more disgusting to me than curdled eggs. I'm on the fence about eggs anyway (it's my veggie head brainwashing) but eggs going awry in a sweet spread: gross. But after my achievement with the bread, I felt emboldened and dare I say, a tad punch drunk that I put my hesitations aside.

Taste-wise, it was a thing of beauty. Sweet but with a refreshing citrusy tartness, it is flecked with grapefruit and lemon zest and mixed with chunks of fresh ruby red grapefruit. But as you can see, it is a bit…loose. The recipe said that cooking it for less time would result in a soft curd (read: runny). I cooked it, inspecting each flick of the whisk for any trace of opaque egg white, for almost an hour waiting for it to thicken into a spread, more like this:

from Saint Marty via google images

But it did not materialize. There is no such "dollop capacity" with my curd. Look at the definable 'hole' left by the spoon! But as I said, it tastes wonderful. I gifted some of it to some of our favourite people who just tap danced back into Bankybear and they told me they tried it by the spoonful. Which means it was a success.

Happy Monday! Eat something with zucchini in it. I know I will be. 

P.S ~ Moozh and I want to do a home brew this year. Got any tips? 

"hotter to me are / delights of the Lord than this dead life / loaned on the land." The Seafarer

So the first few days of my new plan: working well enough that I find it hard to get back here. Ironic? Yes. 


I think at this point of two weeks collaboratively I have spent twelve hours picking beans. That is the need at the farm right now and I'm just fillin' it. But the "Green Bean blind" starts to set in at around the hour mark so it's good that the shifts are short. Pumpkin picking is coming up if only to feed the gluttonous  and compulsive need I have to put pumpkin in everything come September 1. I hope to volunteer as long as they'll take me which sounds like late-October. Volunteering there has been awesome because it has actually shown me that I do in fact like farming as much as my obsessive self would think :) Imma get a hobby farm. With goats!


In the kitchen, this week has been an excellent exercise in managing disappointment. A good exercise because baking is kinda like that for me. I remember sharing my disappointment with the JoC because of two recipes in particular. It got better but this week in baking has been less than stellar. That zucchini I was telling you about, I decided that I would turn to the recipes that I received from people when there in a 'state' about the amount of zucchini they either had in their garden or had the misfortune of being gifted by a friend with a proliferation of zucchini invaded their yard. Don't get me wrong, I love me some zukes. I only wish I had a garden full of it, especially given the outcome of the recipes I did try, which is to say they didn't work. I made zucchini bread which I have made before, but this outing felt a bit labor intensive. I don't know if I just didn't love enough water out of that zucchini because I had to bake the sweet bread (think Banana Bread) for two hours! You bake pot roasts for two hours. You bake…pottery for two hours. Once I was reasonably satisfied with the level of 'doneness' I let it cool, wrapped it, and chucked it (and I mean chucked) into our freezer. After that, I thought I'd had enough of sweet things not turning out. Even after a dense sweet bread I still had a zucchini that was a foot long. Exaggeration is so not my thing. So with the next chunk of zucchini I grated it for zucchini fritters. I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen and I have a great deal of respect for her and her recipes. And now having made them I have less respect for my ability to follow a recipe. The pan was obviously too hot and didn't cool down as fast as I thought. The batter tasted just great but they came out of said pan burnt on the outside and still raw in the middle. (I'm beginning to see a pattern here) This excursion reminded me of some of my first opportunities cooking for Moozh when I essentially cooked to crud all the meat articles for him. I think part of my issue here is I learned to cook on a gas stove where the heat is much more responsive than electric elements that have to cool down and SOMETIMES THEY JUST DON'T DO IT FAST ENOUGH. We're fine. 


But then, but then! We were having friends over for dinner and I was on dessert (as I had been with the pie -gulp). I turned to the JoC. Why you ask? I really don't know. But it worked for me, for once. We had some cherries in the crisper that needed to be used and I had seen many recipes for clafoutis which is a French dessert made with cherries and almond liquor. Also known as a flognarde, which just is fun to say. It's essentially a crepe batter poured over fruit into a deep cake dish and then baked. I don't know why I do this to myself, try something new when we have company over. Not smart, but this time it didn't sting me. It was delicious. I have no pictures because 1) there were people watching me and geeking out didn't seem kosher but 2) I really didn't expect it to turn out so I didn't even get amped for it. Goo'job JoC. I will consult you again. I have picked a grapefruit curd from a jamming book I have out and it needs to turn out or else I will lose all faith in myself. But I think I have shown remarkable resilience…so far. We're gonna keep going. 


Once I have given it to her, I will likely post pictures of the scrapbook I've made for my bestie. It's been fun in a way that could become very distracting. 


Then the weekend rolled around and Sunday was a fun day. We wandered around Gastown and then chilled on the beach. But we had the camera. There was this little girl that was adorable in her little polka dot bathing suit but something in me can't post a picture of someone else's child without their permission. Here's some of what we got. 

This dude is Courtney. He's a ballet teacher. He plied for us. 

We HAD to take a picture of the steamclock. Everyone else does.

Happy Tuesday! If you have blackberry bushes near you, stalk them because their berries are getting delicious. Unless, they're near a bus stop because then they taste like exhaust more than berries. 


P.S ~ Got Ellie Goulding's album, Lights, and her voice literally stays in my mind even when I'm sleeping. I wake up tapping my feet. Moozh is not as amused as I am. 


P.P.S ~ Does anyone else find OS Lion is autocorrecting their slang and upon re-reading something you sound like a stoner? No, just me? 

It's time to get crafty

I suddenly feel so multicultural.
When we were in Maui, a guy stopped me on the beach and asked me if I was from Minnesota. I said "Pretty much" and returned to my pre-bottled Mai Tai mix. Then as I was leaving for school this morning, I was stopped by a different gentleman who asked me if I was from London, England. I must have one messed up accent. I probably sound like the Swedish Chef. Which is awesome, I just wish I had known.

It remains as "gross with a chance of really disappointing" in Bankybear right now. The "Natives" continue with their persuasion. "It's been a crappy May but it'll be a beautiful June." "It's been a crappy July but I'm convinced we'll have a beautiful August." "We didn't have a summer this year. It's been raining for twelve straight months but I'm convinced that we'll still be around next year."
Although!
Although….I am willing to admit my exaggeration (which is so unlike me). It was gross this morning but it looks sunny out right now. As I'm walking into school. Really classy, Bankybear. It's still probably only 20 out. According to the Weather app, it's warming in Cowtown. Ugh.

Today I am walking into the French Revolution in my Jewish History class. Jewish History with the Guillotine! But the French Revolution does indicate a positive mark in Jewish History because they finally got to be citizens. They were recognized by a nation and were given rights that corresponded with that recognition. And the French got Napoleon who didn't have a sense of pacing himself so they brought the new right for Jews to the REST OF EUROPE.
Anyone who knows me will have observed some interesting behaviour. My facebook news feed reads: "…liked the group 'Jewish Food'", "…pinned the blog "FuckYeahJewish", "…liked the group "Matisyahu", "…liked the group 'Yarmulkes for the Resistance'." I have tunnel vision.
As of tomorrow, I am halfway through my class. Which is terrifying because I have a week and a half to write a ten page research paper I haven't started. Maybe that doesn't scare some people. But those people have never lived with me when I've procrastinated effectively. Badstuff.

The first recreational thing I plan to do when I am done school is work on my scrapbook for Lacey. We just finished our first year of our 12 Project! Serious commitments I tell ya. It's like we're friends or something. There is a separate page for each month and each month has a theme. Anybody got any slick ideas?

Happy Tuesday y'all. Here is to more regular posting.

P.S: Eat your breakfast out of a pineapple bowl. It'll make you feel like you're on vacation.
P.P.S: Eat your breakfast in your bathing suit. See above.

Linkies:
~ Pinterest is the bomb-diggity. For all of the people that love blogging because they get to post pictures but they maybe don't like writing so much, Pinterest is their silver bullet.
~ This shop is beauuuuuuutiful! I bought some of her earrings while we were in Maui. I have her Peacock Amber Squids. I'm saving up for maybe some "Solar Passion" ones or "Chocolate Teal". Moozh posed a good question when we were all in Maui: If you could be a collector of one thing (a luxury or special item) what would it be? Moozh's would be watches. Mine would be earrings. Wood, bone, blown glass, feathers. All of them. I want all of them.
~ I don't know if I've ever talked about Bittersweet Enmi but her artwork in amazeballs. I found her on DeviantArt, I think. I want to look like her drawings.
~ I'm listening to Moozh watch "Hell's Kitchen" in the background and there a bleep so regular it sounds like an alarm. We've also been catching his newer show, "Master Chef" which is better. We're in a food phase. And a cursing one, I guess.

"We're running out of money, but we've still got the month of May."

Yay for May Long!  It's the holiday that feels like it comes when you desperately need it. I remember painting houses on the May Long Weekend before I got married. It was a gorgeous day and I was jamming to CBC radio while I tried to forget that I was in a bad job. Matt and I were at a wedding rehearsal for his birthday. Last year's May long we were getting ready to move from Vic.

This weekend was my beloved Moozh's thirtieth birthday. I can't believe I didn't even get on here to make a celebratory post about the fact that it was my babe's birthday! Friday was resplendent outside! It was sunny and warm. I actually got tan lines. We went out to one of our favourite sushi joint and then went for a walk along the seawall, just the two of us. I actually got tan lines! So did Moozh! And then we grabbed burgers at this wicked burger joint by our place with some great friends of ours. From there, we headed to the rooftop pub in time for the Canuck's game.

So many people came out and it was so fun. And Marcus and Meghan were their on their last day in Bankybear! At the end of the night, some of their friends (who are also from the 'Peg) were talking about the time of year their, and what Marcus and Megs can look forward to: worm season. It was hilarious some of the stories they were telling. Matt got a pack of cigarettes (a running joke) and a can of peaches among his presents. We haven't cracked the peaches open yet but apparently they were canned at the peak of season last year. Oh man, local peaches are spectacular here. I am so very excited for the summer season. And now Bankybear is taunting us with gorgeous days every now and then. At least, we're getting some.

With some of that seasonal fruit, I want to make some jam. I love Lemon Bird Jams. The flavours they combine are fascinating. I want to try and recreate their Peach and Lavender jam or Strawberry and Cinnamon. Pink Grapefruit with Basil! That sounds d-to-the-licious. I finally finished off the jugful of marmalade that I made, I think back in February. So now I'm off to the newest thing. And I have pectin that works. And beautiful local produce. And I've made enough mistakes with jam that I think I can troubleshoot and make it work.

from ohreallybecky on Flickr

I hope it is sunny where you are! My sissy in law had her bridal shower this past weekend. My sister has her lingerie shower and stagette this Saturday coming up. I finish up my class this Friday. I fly back to Calgary in less than three weeks! Woot!

"I want to be the only one for miles, many miles. Except for maybe you."

We got a new stove! I've pretty much been telling everyone I see (bank tellers, the person next to me on the bus, small children) that I am in fact getting a new oven. And I don't even have to pay for it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a terrifying old person.
But back to the stove because this is a moment where multiple things going wrong wasn't my doing. I burned I don't know how many things, including my hands, "dabbling" in the kitchen and feeling like a freakin' failure when it came out looking like tar that's been ripped out of the road. (I have been up close and personal with fresh tar in fact. Story for another time.) So our landlord provided us with a thermostat to measure what our stove actually reads at. At everything from 200-400 degrees it was reading 600 degrees Fahrenheit! You could fire pottery in that! So I felt better about my culinary abilities. A little bit. I'm still trying to find an excuse for all of the stovetop mistakes.

So in lieu of oven-related crafts, I've been making a lot of salads. I made this salad, which was so tasty.

from What's Cooking with Mary?

Make it. Not my picture. I have finished taking pictures of my food. I feel silly doing it and the pictures always look a little off to me. I finished it off with a little balsamic vinegar which blew the strawberries out of the water. And yes the other salad I posted was an edamame salad as well. They pretty much make up at least 25% of my diet.

Edamame Salad with Strawberries and Basil

1 ½ cups shelled edemame, cooked

1 cup strawberries, diced

½ red pepper, diced

¼ cup red onion, diced

¼ cup fresh basil, minced

½ jalapeno, minced

1 tsp honey

Juice of ½ a lime

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

Combine in a bowl and let sit to marinate.

Moozh and I go to a Russian restaurant this Saturday for a dinner hosted by the Russian department at UBC. I think it'll be a little awkward, totally hilarious and I will definitely be full by the time I leave. On the invitation it mentioned dancing which I'm assuming means Russian dancing.

To which, Moozh will just say no and I will end up dancing with a girl and laughing so hard I slobber. That with lots of perogies and sour cream, sounds like a good time right? Right.

Moozh is finished his exams tomorrow. Woooot! My man is officially one year deeper in a Master's Program. He was saying the other day one of his classes was teaching him to be a 'Jack of all trades, master of none' and that in his Master's he would like to master something. I laughed SO HARD.
Now if it would just stop RAINING I could get to my tannin' and time wastin'. Smarten up Bankybear.

How cute are these? Now if I could only get something to grow in them….

Revision at Etsy

P.S ~ I have restricted my 'recreational computer time' aka food blog surfing. And believe me it needs to be regulated. Ooops.

"Until you kissed my lips and you saved me…"

Okay so major meltdown averted. There is something not just a little irrational about my mental process in the morning. Proviso: I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON. I know this. I have known this for a long time. But there is something unsustainable about getting to school and already being, as my grandmother would describe it, a state. Today was my registration day for summer school and I was READY. I had flow charts, and registered worklists and price per credit hour and all that crap. Moozh would be proud of me. So would my mom. I was ready to kick ass and take names AND register for classes. And then 8am arrived and she was like, "I don't think so" with the ghetto-style shaky fingers and pursed lips, "I'm gon' make you crazy." And she did and Moozh said "Whoa" and I went to school and now I am here, writing about it, feeling rather foolish about it all.

So in summary, I am registered for classes and I get to go to weddings, and suntan on Kits beach and generally party like it's 1999.

P.S ~ I'm still doing Lent. I know.

Linkies:

I loooove her eye for detail. I will learn how to do this.

Marita Bliss

I am going to make this salad. Duh-lish.

It's that site I never stop talking about!
Salad Pride!

I think I just might make this too. Because I'm not off sugar.

Mmmm Smitten Kitchen you speak my language. 

I wish I could dress like this and not feel like people think I'm a douchebag.

Steampunk Couture

Happy Belated-International Women's Day!

"Sit back and watch the bed burn…"

Best Birthday Bazaar! (I will really do anything for a satisfying alliteration.)

This weekend really was hysterically fun. Friday I drank hot chocolate and ate bread in my pajamas all day while I conjugated perfective genitive sentences in Russian. And then I jazzed myself up for dinner. Moozh made me this delicious dinner and I sat and ate and ate and ate in my tiny dress and then….PEOPLE SHOWED UP. Which was a hilarious and wonderful surprise but I was in a tiny dress. So I put on something more…appropriate. And then proceeded to have So. Much. Fun. This is awfully biased of me but our friends are the best in the world. They are sweet and generous and they know how to have a good time.

And then we met with our lovely friends Marcus and Meghan of Blue Bird Creative on Granville Island for pictures. Marcus and Meghan are based out of Winnipeg but are currently in Vancouver for Regent. If you are in either place or are desirous of a photographer or web designer, just go look at their site. Just go look. You will lose all restraint, I promise.

And then Saturday evening, Moozh took me to see Blue Valentine which I have been wanting to see FOREVER. It was a heavy, heavy movie but the way it was handled, it felt so authentic. One of those movies where you're sitting there next to each other thinking, "That totally happens to us." **Proviso: The relationship in the movie is not my marriage. But it feels real and it feels true.
After that we went to a tapa bar I've seen downtown called Red X Red Tapa bar. With all of the Russian insignia and imagery, I expected it to be…Russian. But I think they saw the hammer and sickle and used it as more of a jumping off point. It had three different kinds of perogies on the menu and over 100 different varieties of vodka to choose from, but beyond that there was nothing distinctly Russian about it. I was getting very excited (and somewhat anxious) about what would happen if I could speak in Russian at the restaurant. But that was not necessary. I had a very tasty dirty vodka martini and Moozh and I enjoyed sweet potato perogies and a charcuterie platter.

Finally, yesterday was the Superbowl. Sadly, the Steelers couldn't quite pull it off but it was a great game. So close, both played hard and I got to eat corn chips and guacamole ALL DAY LONG. We got to meet a whole bunch of new people and had our ol' reliables. Overall, such a great day. And I'm beginning to understand the rules a bit more so I'm not THAT GIRL: "What? What happened? Why did that man do that? Did they win -I mean score? It's a home run, babe! They got a home run!"

One more week of school until Reading Break. And four days until I fly, fly away. Five days until Cinderella, and alligators, and warm weather.

Happy Monday!

P.S ~ To all the lovely people who leave comments on my blog that I do not find until later: You. Make. Me. Smile.

P.P.S ~ I have a problem with the use of commas. I feel like I use commas when I don't have another key to press.

"Don'cha put it in yer mouth..."

This is a rather jumbled post really only because I don't have anything rather interesting to say. But I miss it here.

I, for the first time, in my second-language education I learned how to say something that I actually do on a daily basis. Ya plavaiyoo v bassenyeh pyat raza v nedeloo, which means "I swim at the pool five times a week." So basically I'm fluent. I'm pretty sure that at this point if I ever died in Russia I would only be able to say Hello", ask someone what kind of music they listen to.

Tomorra is the foo'ball champyanships. I got all excited to cheer for a team that was the first to lose in the playoffs and while I'm not complaining, by virtue of my complete ignorance, I'm kind of bummed. But this means I get to cheer for the winner so I'm alright with that. I'm pulling a wife tomorrow and I'm mostly excited about the food that we'll be having. We're making chili (with a suitable vegetarian substitute) and CORN BREAD. I could eat everything from caviar to breakfast cereal on corn bread. I LOVE it. Maybe I should just embrace my inherent Mennonite-ness and make it a three meals a day thing.

Last night with some of our favorite people, we watched Max and Mary, which to all appearances looked like a super adorable claymation movie about two misfits that make friends. In truth it was (*Spoiler alert*) the story of two misfits that make friends with all of the most oppressive things in life attached. Max essentially eats himself to death and dies alone because he has Asbergers and can't handle being in contact with people. Mary is a genius with no friends that publishes her thesis on Asbergers only to be dumped by Max, the 50+ year old dude she has written to since she was in elementary school and has never met. There is a moment in the film where she downs a handful of valium with cooking sherry and then the camera pan to a transparent but rather spirited zygote wriggling in her uterus. Totally adorable and simultaneously so bizarre. At one point, Max writes to Mary and tells her about his favourite words.

My favourite words are:
1) inkpot
2) tickling
3) syllogism
4) ointment
5) Kookla (which is Russian for doll)
That is one thing that I prize poetry for is that it is so auditory, it is meant to be heard.

Dear Moozh,
Ever since you reorganized our closet, it looks so much bigger. It makes me want to stand in it.
Dear Dr. Dempsey
Thank you for getting me out of my head sometimes (like getting me to go to bed without brushing my teeth).  I love you more than food blogs and moccasins.

Wows, this trailers looks pretty. I don't know if the movie is gonna be all that great but the visuals alone will get me to see it.

I think that DeviantArt is rivalling Flickr for one of my favourite picture repository. I this this picture is magical.

There's this epic commercial on Food Network for a show called Restaurant Makeover and it has a quote in that I think is my favourite. "I come in and f***ing stomp on people!'

Here's to blog pandemonium. Happy Saturday!

She's touring the facility and picking up slack.

I've concocted a little project for myself. It will be stressful but at the same time, it SHOULD be tasty.

What I intend to do is cook through, alternately, the Rebar Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking. Matt bought them for me in an effort that my obsession with food blogs would bear something productive. One day I will cook from the Rebar cookbook and then the next day (or the next exercise in frustration) will a similar dish or entree from the Joy of Cooking.  There will be times of strife, ("Yeah but does it TASTE burnt?" or "I don't know what that means. I'll just improvise.") and moments where we have peanut butter toast for dinner, but I believe there will be moments of tastiness.

Rebar's whole THING is fresh ingredients and good whole foods. I've never eaten anything there that seemed really all that complicated but, as my criminal history indicates, it never in following the instructions that things go horrifically wrong. It's in the measuring ("Oh that says TEASPOON.") or the prepping ("Chiffonade? Okaaay....."), even in the clean up, like when I made jam and sliced my finger open washing the tongs. Or when I was making angel food cake FROM THE BOX and I got my fingers stuck in the beaters. Or when I was making a fritatta and I burned all the way up the inside of my arm.  Whhyyyyyy? Because that's my angle.

Happy Monday!

Things that made me happy today:
~Happythankyoumoreplease. This movie looks sweet.
~This totally is awesome. Especially when they write verb conjugation in Russian for you.
~ I never get tired of this song.
~ Mmmmm soup.

Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful. Link

Orphans, Kingdoms

Oh S'bucks you never cease to surprise me. I, having encouraged a dependency on having new things to obsess over, always grab the free download card at Starbucks. Sometimes I go for that and I don't even buy anything. I know, rebel without a cause. So one of their free downloads recently was "Orphans, Kingdoms" by Brooke Fraser. Never heard of her before but I do not discriminate. Until I heard her voice and had one of those moments where your face implodes into your brain as you think, "Ah, that is so familiar why can't I remember!?" It happened on the bus, SO embarrassing. So I clickity-clacked my way to her wiki page and found her to be the same Brooke Fraser that wrote one of my favourite worship songs, Desert Song. Who knew? I did not. Chances are neither did S'bucks. One of the most pleasant surprises I've had recently. She's a cool chick.

One of the things that I like is when people think really authentically about things in their life, especially things that they are giving their life to. This is not something I can say I do very well all of the time. I find it very easy to compartmentalize my liberal, secular self from by committed Christian life where I am called to believe and abide by things that liberal culture rebels against. For a long time I made that out to be in my mind that I was just "off the beaten track". Now I see it as inauthentic. And one person that blesses me everyday and who does this better than anyone I know is moozh cimpatichni. I bring this up because Brooke Fraser is a part of the Hillsong community but she is very vocal about how she wants to "disassociate herself from people that try to make a profit off of the sacred nature of Christian music." I don't exactly know how she reconciles those two things and I don't believe that just because she chose to give her career to worship music that the Lord would never allow her to be blessed financially but I think it's a really complex debate and one that not many people think about critically or honestly.

This is a recipe I can't get enough of right now. I received it from my lovely Mama, who got it from the Calgary Herald. Now there are, strangely, people out in the world who do not like cilantro. I know, crazy right? I, being the International Ambassador of Cilantro, upped the dosage in here. I also swapped the sesame oil and rice vinegar for olive oil and white vinegar simply because I didn't have the former but if you do have those things, USE THEM. It would make this immaculate. Next time, I think I will try out bean sprouts in place of water chestnuts but that will mean you have to eat the entire salad and clean out the bowl in 3.5 seconds or else it will stink and be sad.


EDAMAME SALAD


3 c. frozen edamame beans
1 c. canned corn kernels, drained
1/2 c. diced water chestnuts
1/2 c. diced red bell pepper
1/4 c. chopped green onion
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
2 T. soy sauce
1 1/2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. sesame oil
2 t. honey
1 t. crushed garlic
1/2 t. minced ginger
1 t. toasted sesame seeds
 Boil edamame beans just until bright green, about 3 mins. Drain and rinse with cold water.  Place in serving bowl.  Sauté corn until browned, about 5 minutes.  Add to edamame, along with water chestnuts, peper, onions and cilantro.  Mix all other ingredients and pour over salad.  Garnish with sesame seeds.  Serves 4.  This can be made a day in advance, but then it's best to add the cilantro just before serving.  Yum!!

"I want you to notice...when I'm not around"

I have my 12 Project picture, I do! September has, needlessly to say, so crazy. Matt and I found ourselves at the bottom of the pool so to speak about part way through September as we tried to balance full-time studies on two accounts, committing to small group, trying to make good on some promises we made regarding our families in the summer, and trying to see each other enough to enjoy it in the process.

But now it is fall. And I am happy.

It smelled like fall the other day, crisp and soundless like I remember of Calgary. The leaves are falling in a magic array of burning. Then yesterday it was so foggy that you couldn't even see the North Shore across the water. This place trips me up. But it's October and I'm still going running in shorts and a t-shirt.

Life has been amazing in the face of the flurry though. We played host three days in a row which I know is laughable to some but today I want to stick my head in a box big time. And the last week has essentially been a bender. I have vowed myself to explicitly water for the next week so make up to my liver a bit. We have some really great friends through small group and church and Regent, all people that love God and want to glorify him in loving each other. Such a cool circle to be a part of.

Thanksgiving is next weekend!

Vegan Yum Yum (at right) speaks my language. She interprets needlessly but classically meat centred dishes to be meatless in a

way that makes me wishes I could actually cook as well as I think I can. (I'm also not totally sure whether it's that I can't cook or whether I am an apathetic eater at best.) Holidays with friends are wicked fun. Maybe Thanksgiving in particular. It is a time where you are thankful for all you have and we have so much to be thankful for. And you get to experience the dining habits and traditions of other people. We never had candied sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving because my dad is a purist among other things. I had had them at other get together and never really understood the huge deal. But then last year we did Orphan Thanksgiving with Ange and I had these candied yams that redefined what they could be. No marshmallow gunk on top, not too sweet. Just right. We're doing it with Scott and Jo this year. We both have...compact homes so it will be funny to see how we manage with large quantities of food and multiple guests.

~And how mega cute would stuff like this be to have as some of your serving dishes. One day. When we plan to STAY. Etsy man, it's the place.

~This lady does things with Jell-O that I never thought you could. Reminds me of Cami.

~ I saw this yesterday. Such a great movie! I want to BE Aaron Sorkin sometimes. He writes the best dialogue.

Food Anxiety

Second day, second try of juice fasting.

I hate being cold. I hate how when you deprive yourself of solid food you get cold. But fasting has taken on a new meaning in my life. I remember when I deprived myself of food for too long in an effort to please myself and the impossible standards I had absorbed into my mind. It is still a standard, as consistently as I reason myself out of it and as irrational as I know it is, I still butt up against it on nearly a daily basis. I remember the shaky hands, the chills that swallowed up my fingers and the tip of my nose, the feelings that I'm experiencing right now.

But in this space, I am turning my gaze upwards, and into myself. It's not just a gaze that grazes the top of me and criticizes. It is one that permeates my heart, a heart that I have long mistreated, finding the weaknesses and sins within it and looking to the only authority of eternal meaning in my life. It is a reflection, an apology for what I have failed to do and what I don't want to do though I know it is good for me. I get the whole you take out food as nourishment in your life and replace it with nourishment from spending time in prayer and in the word. But this is my 'a-ha' moment where I realize that in doing this I am not supposed to forget my hunger or look to prayer to fill that sensation but I am only experiencing now how a bond with prayer and the word can put you so at peace that the peace you are experiencing becomes your purpose, and your focus. What I have said is convoluted but it's amazing how many times I have taken part in this and that this never occurred to me, it never made sense to me. Anyways, I am full of yummy bolthouse juice and I am loving my husband, who is doing it too. We're reading through The Purpose Driven Life because, I mean, I think we're the only Christians on the planet who haven't. But yesterdays entry was 'It's not about you'. He's very adamant that you only read one chapter a day and really think about it. At first, I was thinking, 'I won't end up thinking about it if I have a whole day'. But I actually have. In all of the aspects of our lives that we make it about us. At work, when I'm frustrated and I make the point about me being frustrated. Simple, little silly stuff like that.

"And now we're all here in God's presence, ready to listen to whatever the Master put in your heart to tell us."

Acts 10: 33

Oh yeah and I basically can't enter a grocery store without having an embolism anymore. Matt and I watched The Cove, which is about Dolphin treatment within the whaling industry and the treatment and 'harvest' of Dolphins for shows like SeaWorld and aquariums. It's...so gross. We watched Food Inc a couple of weeks ago and ever since I can't eat anything with corn in it...without thinking Monsanto is coming to get me! Skippy peanut butter is forever ruined for me. We also have this other rental called, Flow: For the Love of Water, which is about the global water crisis. I'm afraid to watch it because...I need water to live. It's making think about my food and grocery choices far more carefully but it's also making me paranoid about food. I have 'tin foil hat' tendencies within me anyway so to compound that with factual information (though undoubtedly biased of course) send me into a tail spin. We all need to be educated about stuff like that: where our food comes from, how it was grown, etc. And what it'll do to our bodies. Did you know your body can't fully digest corn because the chemical makeup of the corn is too close to that of a human cell? It's because our generation has 1% more corn in our genetics that our parents. Because it's in peanut butter, batteries, juice. It is fed to what feeds us. Where cows ever meant to eat corn. No! Waaaaaah! Here I go, down the bunny hole....

On a decidedly different note, I had a dream the other night that Matt and I lived in a neighborhood called Show Business. How fun is that?