His Old Man and the Sea

As promise, y'all. Moozh's tat in progress, two sessions in. Some of the blackwork remains to be done and then from there the rest is water-colour with filigree and some negative space. Look at the tension in the fisherman! And the marlin! And the bubbles!

I can't wait for it to be finished! I loved Moozh's initial thought for the tattoo and then with Zara's artistic touch, it exploded.
Again, check out Zara's site to see more and if you like what you see, 'like' Fly the Cage Tattoos on Facebook.

It's 2011 -wait 2012…..yeah 2012.

Hey Y'all.

I think I did maybe head to Cowtown for the holidays (which flashed by like a peep show) with the intention of blogging sometime along the way. And then I snapped out of the daydream where I am that person who takes time out of a busy day to blog. I do not have the mental organization to have those skills. I get too caught up in the moment. *I shouldn't phrase that like it's a bad thing. But immortalization of said moments is rarely initiated by me.

The holidays got dressed and left rather indecently. Moozh and I landed the day before New Year's Eve and that evening I sat in my chair and sighed, "I can't wait for Christmaaaaa…..how did this happen." The whole season was a blur. It feels like Starbucks came out with their red mugs what seemed like way too early and the next thing I knew, I turned around and I was hung over on New Year's Day. Our midsections, bank account and general belongings inventory are all showing the signs of a holiday season. But instead of pupils right now, I have the blasted Apple rainbow wheel. "Thinking, thinking, thinking…oh yeah you did do all that. You drank too much. But you really enjoyed your time. Save changes?"

It really was fun though. Cowtown was shockingly milder than Bankybear the whole time we were there. Which made me stoooooooked that I packed my huge wool jacket when I ended up wearing my leather jacket everywhere. It was a good cure for homesickness though. Making the trip home, I was able to make it to my younger sister's musical theatre performance and take my other sister out for dinner. I was able to just chill on the couch with my bro and listen to him tell me about what he's interested in. Eat gruyere and drink beautiful red wine with my dad. Gab with my mom over pedicures and makeup. Went out for ChaiNogs with my sister-in-law and laughed and cried in the middle of a Starbucks until nearly four hours disappeared. Bake with my Mama. Moozh and I cooked for everyone. He made stew and I made bread and we were able to kind of express what we're wanting to do with our lives that way.

On either end of our trip to Cowtown, we spent time in Victoria, getting our tattoos started and, in my case, nearly finished. My aunt truly is one of the most talented people I've ever met and I am truly blessed have her ink permanently on me. When Rik and Zara (my aunt and uncle) moved to Victoria last summer after their year of travelling and a year living up island, Zara opened up her own tattoo shop. She has a loyal following of clients from the shop that she worked at in Winnipeg for years and then built a further international client base the year they were travelling. If you have any desire to have some ink, especially if you want something original, check out Zara's site, Fly the Cage Tattoo. My tattoo really just has some minor outlining and then some water-colour bubbles in the background and then I'm set for life. Moozh's sleeve is still in progress but it gets exponentially more amazing with each session.

ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!!!!???

The craziness didn't stop once we got home from Christmas. After New Year's Eve, where I thoroughly embarrassed myself (story for another time), we had New Year's Day to recover and then we both started our programs January 2nd! We're a week and a half into
Moozh has been learned the obsessive and compulsive tenets to Fine French cuisine (The entire first week is just knife skills) and I have learned over a dozen different bread recipes and the science behind flour, gluten formation and composing an original recipe. I come home from school with on average about four loaves of bread. We start croissants on Friday!

My latest

To track our progress in school, I've started up another blog called The Oven Wall. The name derives from the origins of bread, where the Egyptians would bake their flatbread on the hearth of the oven but also on the walls of the oven, like naan is traditionally made today. We have pictures of our spoils and some run down of each of our days. We'll be taking pictures as we experiment at home as well. We've recruited everyone we know as a recipient of our learning curve, regardless of their knowledge or not. My Chef is amazing. Aside from being flamboyantly Italian and hilariously crass, even at 630 in the morning, he teaches the food science and biology behind food. And this coming Tuesday, he leaves for Italy to represent Canada in an International Gelato and Ice Cream competition. I am truly blessed, and entertained, by his tutelage. Moozh's chef is just a bad ass French dude. He doesn't say much and he pretty much represents the last of the French Old Guard, as far as cooking goes. Our school is very fun. It's very small and so you get to know everyone pretty quickly. Our instructor from our wine class that we took in October still remembers us!

In contrast to my time at the Yoob, I have so much excess mental creativity at the end of the day, I find blogging so incredibly cathartic. At the Yoob, I was always mentally exhausted by the time I got home. Through this process, I will hack out some semblance of a balance for myself. My return to creative writing will probably be a slow one but I have prepared myself for that wait. In the meantime, there's some pretty tasty food to be had. We make stollen in week 3, which makes up for my intention to make it during the holidays. We make chocolate and cakes. I'm especially excited for ice cream, given who I am learning under. I'm off to study laminated dough because 'laminated dough is challenge.' Viamo!

Vic Ink

My left shoulder feels very crinkly right now. I am two hours out of the tatt chair, having received a tattoo that has been in the works for hat feels like forever. In a fortuitous layover between home and family for Christmas, Moozh and I both got inked by my fortuitously talented aunt in Victoria. . It has gone through many manifestations over the course of three and a half years. Colors, shape, placement, etc. but there is a rather...sensitive area right around my spine and the color is only half done but it is MAJESTIC.It's an octopus that cruises along just below the crest if my shoulder. Sculpted in tones of maroon, browns and creams with a future balance of aqua and turquoise bubbles and watercolor background. Once it doesn't look like a sunburn with tentacles ( tomorrow) I will post pics. Because it is beautiful (did I say that already?). Watching The Fades, The Trip and Life is Too Short, I mellowed out and cringed through outline and color, put to SHAME by my husband the prior day who had twelve hours of line- and black work done on his Old Man and the Sea tatt. Which I will also post.At the moment I am sitting in the Victoria Airport, contemplating what I am going to get Zara to do next. It's a pure shame it has taken me this long to get inked by her. But to be honest, she's in demand. So shame it may be, it's still reality. If you're looking, check it: Fly the Cage. Vancouver island is not the far away. Also, The Fades. Watch it. SO good. Six eps and you will watch the scene of the last and cry yourself to sleep that you have to wait for season two. Or pray or season two. Be it the adrenaline or sheer vanity, I'm feeling good right now. Sure changed my tune from yesterday hey?BTW: have not had a great experience in the Vic airport having our plane come in on time. More time to blog!

This the season to procrastinate

When I really wish NaBloPoMo would sweep in save the day, you know, revive my flagging creativity, grab my tongue with a fascinating prompt, I scroll through every prompt within the past twelve months and can't seem to user enough for a brief vapid post about the state of my world.I hate not being able to write. This is probably why so many writers start the day with gin for breakfast because it loosens them up enough to escape their own mind, and by mind I mean the thing that governs paying bills on time, contemplating meals, and cleaning the house. This being the part of the brain that the creative side, the "flamboyant", the "free spirit", the "lush" has such a hard time playing with. What's kind of funny is I have been this way my entire life. I have always been the kind to need to 'escape' the minutiae in which I live in order to really feel peaceful and, therefore, creative. I remember in elementary school, upon getting home I would rush to my bedroom, toting my attention-starved sister who wanted to play, only to slam the door in her face. Of course here i know i'm not really talking about anti-social behavior but rather introversion but they can feel like one and the same sometimes. When my brain feels full, I do not play well with others. And my head, and my heart feel very full and heavy lately. But guess what? I still have shallow, surface level enjoyment still left to share with you. The opening sequence to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo was just released with the kick ass cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" from the trailer. Trent Reznor is a genius. And Karen O has THE pipes.Same day I found out about this, H&M released their photos of their Girl with the Drain Tattoo winter collection. Makes me wish i was that badass.We head home in a couple of days, back to the home that holds so much nsecurity and yet so much homey feelings. I miss my sisters. I miss my parents. I miss my bro. I miss moozh's family. I miss having a place where I feel like i can just disappear for a few weeks, come home feeling refreshed. The next few weeks are going to be beautiful and stressful. I want to make myself write as much as I can because I always feel better after but sometimes it's really hard to get myself there. Mele keliki maka Bri

Holidaze

Oh Christmouse. This is what I'm excited for. At least, this is what Pinterest is telling me I'm excited for. 

Eggnog cupcakes off of Annie's Eats

Mulled Wine via Flickr

Eggnog via Cooking for Seven

Stollen via Home for the Holidays

Lemon Curd (we're doin' it again!) via
The Pastry Affair

Christmas Rice Pudding via Manifest Vegan

Snow and sun! via LesaPea Musings

Decorations via Restoration House
(BTW I think my mother-in-law would
LOVE this blog!)

Candles! via Mellow Stuff

Cute (and easy) wrapping via Anthology Mag

But I also LOVE this. Cute burlap/twine
ribbon via Anthropologie

Just like the Japanese...

Okay is this guy not a total magroot!?!?

One of our regulars at work has an adorbz li'l guy like this. Then tonight walking through Gastown with Mama and Dad D, we came across another. Her name was Honey and she had the most perfect, plushy coat. Her owner was telling us that 'Shibas can be quite standoffish, just like the Japanese'. We all laughed and then glanced over our shoulders. Honey was just tiny, maybe a foot and a half tall at four months. Others i've seen, i'm assuming full grown, have been about two and a half feet at the shoulder. I don't know how old this li'l guy is but I want one just like him. According to Wikipedia, Shibas do 'best in an environment without other small lets or children but appropriate socialization can make all the difference'. I hope so because the cuteness is killing me.

Those who hide too well away...

Ok so.

Recently, my beloved in-laws (and when I say 'beloved' I truly mean 'beyond myself with excitement upon their arrival'), we're out on the west coast for a few days prior to a trip they were taking. We headed out to whistler and basically had a totally bitchin' time. Came back into Van and got to take them around. The weather was flawless, we got to take them around our city and see the, after a long, hectic emotional Fall. We got great pictures which i wanted to post here. Of course by 'recently' I mean THREE WEEKS AGO! What is my problem!? I know I have been avoiding this lovely, comfortable beanbag chair of Internet known as blogdom because I am stressed and so once I have managed to escape the constancy of living in my brain under these circumstances, the last thing I want to do is spew, for your sake as much as mine. Life is in general upheaval lately. Everything from the practicality of working vs school (even when it is only for a time) to the emotional slog of sifting through inter-relational 'issues' has made my psyche (and the consequent outpouring of it) inhospitable and my generosity nearly non-existent. My desire is to pull a NaBloPoMo as I did last year to exercise my own internal accountability for my blog. Because I like it here. And I always feel better once I leave. (Except for the Pinterest post. I was just as pent up after I wrote it as I was before.) I am being emotionally lazy right now because I feel emotionally wasted. That's as self-pitying as I'm going to get on my blog :)

*On a side note I am blogging through a different interface right now which mainly means that I will no longer be able to blame my insufferable grammar and spelling on OS Lion. Using a new interface required I learn how to use it properly and I wasn't interested in that for a few weeks.

I want to summarize some baking successes I have had lately. This is a list for posterity when I'm feeling inept.

• I made a pumpkin loaf pimped out with hazelnuts and dried blueberries.


• Red velvet cupcakes with fudge frosting for Halloween that totally claimed me as red velvet fan. I am, however, not enough of a fan that I feel I need to convert every dessert known into red velvet. I may make red velvet crepes for Moozh on Valentine's.


• I made brown sugar pavlova for small group last weekend that was glorious and actually made me want to run for the camera when I glanced into the bowl after hearing my hand mixer shriek at hi speed for three and a half minutes. But I didn't let it deflate (even for the sake of posterity).

My project leading into December is to create a hydration starter. I am at the tail end of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain wherein one of his many anecdotes recounts a brilliant baker he worked with on many an occasion had a giant heaving tub of sourdough starter he affectionately called "the bitch". I intend to call her the same. The only thing that makes me hesitant to start a starter is that is IS quite time consuming and requires a fair share of attention, something I do not have plenty of right now. But, as the Wild Yeast blog has convinced me, a good 100% hydration starter is a magical thing to have. And it won't take long to get a hefty return on your investment.

Come Christmas-time, I want to make stollen, reconfigure a cool take on mincemeat, made Mama Dempsey's coffee cake Christmas bread, and make peppermint pots de creme. Here we go.

I'm doing the countdown dance. Five weeks and I'm sporting my whites. Five weeks! Work just hired a new baker who graduated from PICA's pastry program in June. He has been such a great wealth of information leading into school for me. And I am even more pumped for the faculty now that I have first hand accolades from someone who has come through their leadership.

Until then, i'm going to enjoy and be present through what will likely be our last Van christmas. Ooh I totally forgot about Glogg. Making it!!!!
Next entry will be stimulating, I promise :)