Sunday, November 28, 2010

currently listening. kanye west ft. pusha T.


[video source: youtube, KanyeWestVEVO]
my weekend track (and video) on repeat for inspiration. i love the style of this video, the colours (the pink skin of the dancers and feathered dress on selita ebanks, the cream tux on kanye and piano, the black tutus, the washed/dirty/worn mint paneling) and the harder beat vs. the softness of the dancers.

Friday, November 19, 2010

friday faves.


the barefoot contessa.

[photo credits: quentin bacon for the barefootcontessa.com and the foodnetwork.com]
as mentioned in a previous post, i don't try to experiment too much with my cooking, my favourite recipes come from my collection of barefoot contessa cookbooks! i really like her recipes, as most of the ingredients she uses are accessible, and if a few items on her shopping list are too expensive/elusive, i've always found that anything i choose and use as a comparable substitute/swap, never changes the tasty end-product! (i think ina garten's favourite ingredients are gruyère, salt and butter - not that i'm complaining :) here are a few of my favourites (in no particular order)!

1. winter squash soup (barefoot in paris): this is a great, colourful autumn soup. warm, sweet & salty with the gruyère cheese as a garnish. i've made this 3 times w/out the help of a food mill or hand blender (a lot more work w/out). my sister-in-law michelle and i made it with limited kitchen tools up in our bunkhouse in bella bella, and the soup was still delicious and comforting!

2. carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing (barefoot contessa parties!): i made these cupcakes for coffee time in the biology dept. and for my friend amy's birthday. the recipe is super simple, but a great carrot cake recipe! the cream cheese icing is AMAZing, i may or may not have saved all the extra icing and slathered it over every pastry or semi-appropriate breakfast/dessert item i had for the next week or so :) again, very easy recipe, and again made by me in my tiny kitchen with no hand blender and it still turns out to be faaaantastic!

3. lime curd (barefoot contessa parties!): i made this lime curd for ryan and i's first year anniversary and drizzled it over a vanilla pound cake (store bought), iced with above cream cheese and covered in fresh strawberries! it was soooooooo tasty!!! great lime curd recipe and again, if i can do it, it must be super easy!

4. creamy cucumber salad (barefoot contessa back to basics): i made this recipe for karyn's potluck last year. i really should have read the instructions before making this... i read the ingredient list, but not the part where i was supposed to drain the cucumbers overnight. whoops. made perfect sense as i was making it - cucumbers contain a LOT of liquid... and the recipe involves adding MORE liquid. so the end product was a little slimy, but the flavours were good! it was tasty and fresh, a great side for bbq chicken in the summer! (oh and people generally like their cucumber salads chilled... another point i should have realized as i was about to make it 3 hours before the party - oops - for a scientist i wasn't very prepared!)

5. summer borscht (barefoot contessa at home): this chilled, beautiful magenta soup is a contender for one of my favourite recipes to make! again, extremely simple, extremely comforting and extremely delicious!

recipes i'd like to try next: fresh raspberry gratins, avocado & grapefruit salad, warm mushroom salad with prosciutto and her pear clafouti - my mother-in-law jeri makes a killer clafouti, i should get her recipe!)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

currently listening. dave matthews & tim reynolds.



[video source: youtube, bowlinballhead; photo sources: 1. live at radio city dvd cover, 2,3,4,5. various dave matthews band concert posters]

Friday, November 12, 2010

baby rohe.

[photo by me.]
thanks for reminding me about this picture ry. our little rohebo at 4 months old, on our way to mom and dad's house for christmas. i wish he could still fit inside our coats...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

i love food.


[photo credits 1,3,4: jamie delaine, 2: me]

another thing that ryan and i enjoy to do together (and separately) is eat! the deciding factor in choosing the Bonniebrook Lodge for our wedding reception was the first whiff of our appetizers when we sampled the food there in august 2009. (well really we were 95% certain after reading about all the goodies on the amazing menu). the above pictures by our wedding photographer jamie delaine show some of the tasty dishes we were lucky to have at our reception! :)

our favourite restaurants at the moment (in no particular order):
1. kintaro ramen noodle (denman st., vancouver)
2. tawara sushi (highway 10, surrey)
3. guu (thurlow st., vancouver)
4. pho'vy (fort st., victoria)
5. original tandoori kitchen (120st., surrey)
6. pizzeria prima strada (cook st., victoria)
7. fritz's fries (davie st., vancouver)
8. memphis blues (broadway st., vancouver)
we're always looking for neat new places to eat!

ryan is an amazing cook! he has been posting and photographing a lot of his meals/restaurant experiences since he has been in glasgow over on his blog: the hungry architect. i'm not too shabby when i make the effort, though i seem to have a better grasp on baking vs. cooking. maybe it is the scientist in me, as i really like working from a recipe, whereas ryan really enjoys improvising and figuring out the flavours of the dish as he goes. (as a scientist, i should be good at experiments, but my meals "sans recipe" never seem to produce a great end product!) my favourite series of cookbooks i like to work from are those written by ina garten, the barefoot contessa. i'll post about her in a subsequent post!

Monday, November 8, 2010

style inspiration: hot pink & leopard.

[photo source: stockholm street style on carolinesmode.com]
i have never been a fan of animal prints, but this one image (and subsequently discovering this image by the sartorialist a few months later - note to self, must combine polka dots and leopard), has changed my whole feeling about using leopard in a look. this exquisite jimmy choo martha clutch (unfortunately no longer available, and let's be honest, because of the price, never actually available to me hehe ;) is the most amazingly perfect accessory with this hot pink shirt/coat. i love the tiny dot of turquoise from her bracelet too. perfection! this has instantly and unwaveringly inspired me to keep my eyes (and mind) open for leopard accessories...

Saturday, November 6, 2010

currently listening. coeur de pirate.


[video source: vimeo, dare to care records]
trying to add some whimsy and charm to my dreary saturday working at home while it rains outside...

Thursday, November 4, 2010

okanagan wedding, new direction.





















[photo by me.]
some bits and pieces i've been collecting for my friend's vintage "tea party" wedding in kelowna next fall.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

my favourite things, from lush.

my top fav products from LUSH:
1. sympathy for the skin body cream. lightly-scented banana vanilla cream custardygoodness that cures my dryest of skin with no oily residue! hooray!

2. running to the embassy (in tin) foot soap. minty, gritty, creamy foot scrubber that leaves my feet smooth and fresh and smelling great!

3. pied de pepper foot lotion (not pictured, hint hint mom/ryan/jeri - christmas? ;). spicy, cinnamon foot cream for after the running to the embassy foot scrub, makes my feet smooth and soft and smelling like gingerbread!

4. candy fluff dusting powder. cotton candy, bubblegum talc for my smelly shoes and for a light scent! slight sparkle included!

5. snow fairy shower gel. a companion to the candy floss dusting powder, a bubblegum/cotton candy shower gel that is actually a fav of ryan's (sorry dear). smells sweet and makes my whole apartment smell like a candy shop!

6. hair doctor pre-wash scalp and hair conditioner. doesn't appear on the website anymore, but this minty, tingly scalp treatment was like a breath of fresh hair had swept through my roots! not sure that it was able to help my dry scalp significantly, as 1 pot only dealt me 2 treatments, perhaps after prolonged use it would affect my dry scalp. it did feel fantastic for my itchy, dry scalp the 2 times i was able to use it! i would use it again in a heartbeat!

7. ultrabland face cleanser. an ultra creamy, smooth, moisturizing face paste that left my face feeling super-hydrated and fresh! have actually stopped using cleansers all together as an experiment to see if my eczema improves, but if i was to ever start using a cleanser again, it would be ultrabland!