If you’ve still got pumpkin kicking around, (and I’m betting you do - it’s a proving to be a pretty ubiquitous/trendy ingredient this fall) this is a great recipe to try out - especially if you’re not in the mood for something sweet. The pumpkin makes the soup super velvety, and combined with avocados it just drove me crazy with it’s deliciousness.
Umm, so Jamie Oliver put out a video game for the Nintendo DS. Weird, right? As much as cooking and video games are two of my greatest loves, I’m not sure they mix all that well, even if Jamie does put his rather awesome stamp on it. As a very good friend once put it (although I think he was talking about Nu Metal at the time) it’s like mixing soup with ice cream. I love both, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat them together.
Now this is an odd combination I can totally get behind: an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind themed pie, inspired by the movie Waitress. Yes, it’s tangerine flavoured. What’s not to love about that?
Just a new little blog that I stumbled on that combines adorable illustrations with a strong design sense and vegan comfort foods. Sounds pretty nice and cosy right? BTW The girl who writes it is from Portland. You know how I feel about Portland.
I love the home-spun graphic design of Cooks Country Magazine, and of course recipes don’t get any better than those of the editors, (also of America’s Test Kitchen, and Cook’s Illustrated). Even more than all that though, I looooooooove regional and traditional American food. It’s one of my little obsessions. So, fingers crossed that Santa sends me this one for Christmas.
For some reason, the change in seasons always spurs a lot of inspiration and activity in me. By the time that season starts to die, so does my enthusiasm. This is especially bad in these gray months of November and later on, February. Does anybody actually like this time of year?
But I’ve got a lot of things to look forward to. For once I actually have a plethora of projects (both personal and professional) to chose from. Now I just have to actually DO them.
My all time favourite picture of Obama, is the one of him hanging from a bar in a gymnasium, doing a pull-up (I think it’s pretty symbolic of not just strength, and resolve, but also a good sense of humour) but really there’s a lot of photogenic to go around with this guy.
A thorough examination of Obama’s breakthrough 2004 DNC speech. A must-read for anyone interested in not only, how this whole thing got started in the first place, but how Obama’s rhetorical skills were honed (am I the only speech-geek in the room? Yes? Oh. Well, I blame Aaron Sorkin).
His speech on race gave me chills and tears in equal measure, but I do love a good oratory. If you haven’t watched/read it yet, now’s probably the time to do so.
It’s been printed and pressed, and the band - a little outfit cleverly named Provincial Parks - is having a party to celebrate - so you should be there. I will be there, anyways. I would like a copy of my work - and the music inside it’s pretty awesome too (sort of a sparkly-shiny indie rock with some poppy undertones) so I’m excited about getting a copy of that as well.
I tend to swoon over adorable, high-end childrens magazines. This one is free and on the internet, so I don’t have to feel weird about paying money for a magazine about something I don’t have (yet).
And really, I would wear every last outfit in there if they made it adult sizes. There is some gorgeous, swoon-worthy stuff. Check it out.
It’s a pumpkiny season, and there is a bumper crop of squashes out there to be scooped up at discounted prices, so a New York Times collection of pumpkin based recipes is pretty timely. Plus, pumpkins are delicous.
Ombre is pretty. Crafts are fun. These pretty and fun ombre crafts live in that unique Martha Stewart universe where crafty projects end up looking high end, and elegant. You know, as opposed our own dimension where the words “Crafty” and “Elegant” are often mutually exclusive.
Karen over at Say It With Pie has long sung the praises of these hand made, artisinal undies. They went on sale, so I finally broke down and bought a set - a days of the weeks set, to be specific - because who doesn’t love an adorable days of the weeks set of underwear? And they’re typographic underwear, no less! Monday is Cooper Black!
Karen says, on top of being really cute, they last forever, and are super comfy. So far I’ve already found the latter to be inordinately true. These things are heaven. Plus, I am strongly behind any operation that simply does not believe in thongs. Sing it, sister.
I’m finding myself completely obsessed with blogs from Portland, and as such, going hiking. The state seems absolutely awash in gorgeous natural wonders, and delightful parks around every corner.
So this weekend, I decided, enough wishing and dreaming I lived halfway across the world, we were going to find the nearest, most picturesque place to go hiking, and then do so. There had to be someplace to go hiking that wasn’t a hundred miles away, right?
I remembered, growing up in Rexdale (yes really) that we often made field trips to the Humber Arboretum, and that it was gorgeous. Plus, who doesn’t love an Arboretum? It’s a museum of trees. An awesome word really, old-timey in the best possible way.
So we packed up a little picnic containing some seasonal treats (the last of my heirloom tomatoes chopped up in a cous-cous salad, some pesto-mayo made from my basil plant before the frost hit it in a yummy sandwich, and of course some of my pumpkin pie squares) and drove up. The arboretum isn’t exactly in our neighborhood, but it’s easy to get to, right off the highway.
It’s a pretty awesome place, especially considering it’s absolutely surrounded by urban sprawl - you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. We even got a little lost at one point - and Liam sort of lost his footing in a swampy area (thankfully we were a few hours in at that point, so we were about ready to go home anyways).
It was a wonderful choice, and totally fulfilled my need to partake in the autumnal splendor. I’m kinda considering investing in hiking boots. I might want to keep doing this.
We’ve been celebrating fall pretty hard-core around here. We even tried to go apple picking this weekend, but it turned out the harvest is over, so we went hiking instead. We also attended a squash sampling party (I liked the turban squash, and the butternut pie the best - yum!). For the party, we brought a little squash-based creation of my own - pumpkin pie squares.
The recipe came about from trying to perfect a recipe for pumpkin bread. The first recipe I tried was dry and flavourless. So I played around until I came up with this recipe - more of a dense, moist square then a bread really.
I also felt the dark chocolate most pumpkin based recipes (which seem to be very trendy these days) call for would be so overwhelming and heavy for the delicate, spicy pumpkin flavour. So I switched dark chocolate chips for white chocolate ones - which was really a genius move, if I do say so myself. The little gooey bits of creamy white chocolate tasted just like tiny bites of whipped cream, mixed into pumpkin pie.
It’s all the flavours of pumpkin pie, in a much more portable square form!
So portable, you could take these squares on a picnic (like we did on our hike), or pack them with your lunch. Just try doing that with a slice of pie!
Which is a method of getting really neat, old-fashioned, artfully flawed images using a digital camera - along with a old twin lens reflex cameras’ viewfinder. I’ve always loved the way these shots looked, I had no idea producing them was so easy. If this works with my little Canon point and shoot (which it should - it has a pretty awesome macro setting), I’m totally gonna start searching for an old twin lens camera when I thrift.
Just a new blog find filled with pretty-pretty things of all varieties. The kind of pretty that inspires rampant and uncontrollable urges to be materialist. But so do many of the pretty-pretty blogs I read. Sigh. It might be time take a break from reading those for a little while. Just until I stop hemorrhaging money.
A retro-revival nineteen-thirties-style carnival - complete with concessions, candy apples, carousel, ferris wheel, and circus show. I was very sad when I found out I missed this entirely this summer. There’s always next summer though.
We had some on the weekend. They were delicious - totally the best hot-dogs I’ve ever had (although, it should be said that they don’t really resemble traditional hot dogs all that closely, so consider yourself forewarned). They are little artisinal sausages (that taste a bit like teensy fresh salamis) accompanied by one of four (locally sourced) cheeses and a one of a dozen sauces (cooked up individually by the best chefs in the city using fresh, local ingredients). A lot of internet types seem to be upset that portions are small, and the concept pretentious. I would tell them that if they want street meat, it’s readily available. This is not street meat, it’s a culinary novelty (and a cheap one at that - certainly the cheapest way to have lunch made by Jamie Kennedy - via his 25 cent sauce offering). If you’re a foodie, you’ll love it. If you’re more of a steak and potatoes kinda person, feel free to steer clear. I, for one, found it delicious and delightful.
A great sounding mineral makeup company. Vegan, enviromentally friendly, super inexpensive, safe for sensitive skin, tons of colours, cute packaging… Need I say more? Oh, ok then, there are free samples to be had (free! I know!). Go. Run. Get some.
An amazing sounding diner cooking hardcore American comfort foods - but always with a twist. There are over 900 menu items! This place sounds like priority number one for when we finally make it to NYC. The cookbook sounds amazing too.
I’ve been looking for a cute bag for a long time, and I’ve finally narrowed it down to a Moop duffel in black. The bag is sturdy, has lots of pockets and is water resistant, the companies run by an awesome lady, and everything is environmentally friendly, handmade and designed from scratch. What can’t you find on Etsy?
