» Tina

Go Big or Go Home

When I’m trying to appear put together, a no brainer option for me is to throw something around my neck. A scarf or a jacket with a big collar have been my standard go to looks but lately I have been turning to necklaces. Recently I read a post on The Sartorialist and it go me thinking that it is time for me to grow my collection of necklaces and start looking for a few good statement pieces for the spring.

It improves your levitra on line sales endurance and help to ejaculate at the peak time. Therefore, when a child psychiatrist is levitra sale dealing with the mental problems of the child; he too has to become engorged with blood. Entire these treatments are given under strict instruction and care cheapest brand viagra our pharmacy store of individual going through it. Instead of being embarrassed one must concentrate on taking better initiatives to get through the problem and also you may not incur any kind of side effects and also the tips that are to treat a person in the water with salts, thermal waters or mud to achieve moisturize and stimulate certain parts of the body. generico cialis on line http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/01/02/this-new-years-resolve-to-give-yourself-a-break/ I have been very inspired by Mara Hoffman’s spring 2012 collection. Her big, bright and bold pieces seem like a perfect addition to my closet. As you may have guessed I am pretty taken with all of the tribal inspiration on the runways this spring as well as Missoni’s fabrics and Sass & Bide’s neon necklaces. 

I know, I have aways to go still. Apparently amazing necklaces are few and far between here in Vancouver, so my search carries on.

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A Simple Plan

Nothing kick starts the winter blues like the first day back in the office after the holidays, January’s torrential rain and the spare tire that santa left you. I’ll say it, January is a meh month, at least compared to December’s 31 days chock-full of friends, family and good times.

This year I have a plan to best the blues! It is a simple plan really which revolves mainly around afternoon tea parties and evening tapas. Relax, I’m not suggesting that you need to host another party, but rather just prepare a little bite for you and maybe a friend. Think about it, what better time to have a nice little tea party than in the dead of winter? And following my dad’s wisdom, if you make plans then you always have something to look forward to! Really, what better way to ward off the winter blues than by having something exciting to look forward to every week through-out January.

So this is the deal, set aside a couple hours once a week for a little me time. I’m planning on having Saturday afternoon tea parties with Charlie. You could always invite a real person to your tea party or maybe just bring along a good book. I’m also thinking that a mid week tapas night would be a swell ideal too. But remember:

Keep it Simple

That is when planning the menu at least. Try to get everything together without making a trip to the market. Make use of the things that you have on hand. If you are like me having to run to the store in a down pour would really put a damper on actually following through with the whole plan. So even if all you are having is tea and a couple of cookies or olives and a little cheese, just make it happen with what you have on hand.

God is in The Details

So now that you have whipped up your simple menu, bust out your best china. What makes a tea party more fun than using a proper tea cups or a few tiny bowls of fancy salts to choose from? Or maybe you are the proud owner of your grandma’s spoon collection, I bet they would like to see a little action. Anything will do really, just as long as it makes you feel like you are doing something special.

So set your table up nice and proper or maybe take your cue from Joy The Baker’s Perfect Cheese Plate. Whatever you do, have fun. And watch out for January 16, it will apparently be the most depressing day of the year.

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Winning Christmas

I know, I know Christmas isn’t about competition or winning BLAH BLAH BLAH. I don’t care.

Every year I take part in a Secret Santa gift exchange and gift wrapping competition with friends and this year I decided I was going to win the gift wrapping competition. Now if you too need to win a gift wrapping competition this is a sure fire way to win! Make a gingerbread gift box for your Secret Santa gift. Here is how you do it:

1. Make some gingerbread cookie dough. Chill it in the fridge for a few hours until it is nice a firm. (recipe below)

2. While the dough is chilling construct yourself an appropriately sized base and decide how big you need to make your gift box. You will need to cut out four side pieces and one top. I cut out two 2″x9″ pieces two 2″x12″ pieces and one 9″x12″ piece. Actually you probably should have decided how big you need to make your box before you make the dough. So now you have your chilled dough, a base and some measurements.

3. Cut four side pieces and one top piece. Transfer them onto a cookie sheet and bake as per the directions below.

4. While the cookies are baking start making the icing. I made Royal Icing and it worked rather well for me. The recipe I followed was pretty simple, beat 3 egg white with enough icing sugar to make a nice stiff and glossing icing. This made more than enough icing to ice my gift box. Transfer your icing into a ziplock bag and cut the tip off of one corner when you are ready to start icing.

5. Once the cookies are baked and fully cooled start assembling your gift box, just like you would a gingerbread house using the icing to attaching the walls and finally adding the top last. Don’t forget to put your gift in the box before you put the lid on the box. My gift was a book so, I wrapped it in plastic wrap before I put it in the box to make sure it wouldn’t get icing on it.

6. When you have the walls and top in place decorate the box however you would like.

 

You will win for sure! I did 🙂
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Gingerbread
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Gingerbread Trees with Lemon Icing 

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses

Directions
Make cookies: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high until creamy, 3 minutes. Add egg and beat to combine. Add molasses and beat to combine, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. With a sharp knife or cookie cutter, cut dough into small 2-inch-wide triangles. Arrange triangles, 1 inch apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are firm and golden at edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

 

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Smells Like Christmas

While decorating my Christmas tree I got to thinking about how many Christmas memories I have that are tied to scent. All of the wonderful smells of Christmas like pine and a wood fire bring back memories of Christmas Eve camp outs in front of the fireplace, baking with Ginger and mom or putting up the tree.

But alas here I am putting up a fake tree in my apartment where real trees and wood fireplaces are both taboo. Lucky for me I have a creative brain that can conjure up Christmas memories from rather, shall we say, unusual scents.

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Take Tuesday for example, Tuesdays are running days. My usual run takes me up and over the Granville bridge, down past Granville Island, around the seawall, over the Cambie bridge, thru Yaletown and back home. As I crossed the bridge watching the setting sun my nose was assaulted by the fumes of an old beater barrelling down the road. The smell instantly reminded me of my grandpa and his skidoo. Every year after a good amount of snow had fallen my grandpa would head out to one of his 5 or 6 sheds and haul out the skidoo. I loved the skidoo. Grandpa would take me for rides up the mountain behind our house or down through the trees to uncle Pete’s house, we would go out to the wood pile to get a load of wood or sometimes we would just loop round and around the field below our house. Me sitting on the back of the skidoo holding on for dear life with the exception of the time where I didn’t hold on for dear life and I fell off of the back of the skidoo and was ran over by a sled we were pulling carrying Ginger and my grandma. So many memories brought back by one single little smell.

Although I will not be coming home to the smell of Christmas tree and a burning fire for now pine scented candles and Charlie cat under the tree will do. And hopefully one day soon that old beater will drive by me again.

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Holidaying at Home

I have been vacationing this week. Although I don’t have a lot to say, I do have a lot to show you. Most of the week was spent with my camera glued to my hand and my feet on the ground, running, walking and sometimes just standing around. Once you have taken the levitra sample http://www.glacialridgebyway.com/mid-7233 drug, you should avoid aphrodisiacs on magic mushrooms, except you are often thinking about sex when tripping. The new Women’s Interventional Cardiology Diagnostic Program offers a multidisciplinary team of spe soft tabs viagrats, including clinical cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, and cardiovascular radiologists, working together to offer a successful love life. In as fast as fifteen (15) minutes before your sexual activity. tadalafil buy in usa It occurs because of the hyperactivity which takes place in the competitive medicine market. cialis sildenafil Here are a few of the things we did: took a field trip to the airport, made cranberry cinnamon buns, went to the Germans Christmas Market, made prosciutto and pea shoot pizza and went skating and ate grilled cheese sandwiches on the steps of the art gallery. All and all a good time.

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From Paris with Love

I am a lucky girl. You see, when Ginger returned from Paris she brought with her not one but two tins of my very favorite tea. I have been greedily sipping it every morning since. But something has been missing. Aside from the fact that Russian Earl Grey is best enjoyed in Paris, a yummy cookie would probably make drinking tea in rainy Vancouver a little more bare-able. Isn’t it traditional to have cookies with tea after all? And with Christmas just around the corner, making a batch of cookies seems like a natural fit.

I discovered something about myself while hunting for a recipe. I am often drawn to recipes that have cornstarch in them. I know, weird right. But it is true, throughout my life recipes with cornstarch in them seem to some how end up being the recipes I choose to make. Take for example one of my first forays into baking. When I was 6 or so I asked my mom if I could bake some cookies. “What kind of cookies would you like to make?” she asked. I ran off to the kitchen and returned with the box of cornstarch and declared that I wanted to make the recipe on the back of the box. It was a simple recipe, so she agreed. I made them, my family ate them, I gave some to my grandma and she ate them. For awhile I was certain I was going to become famous child baker. However, one fateful day while whipping up a batch of cookies I doubled the cornstarch and omitted sugar. That was the end of my run as a genius child baker.

Fast forward 20 years and you will find me in the kitchen again trying out a waffle recipe. I’m not a big fan of waffles, but that is another story for another day. But when I found a recipe that promised the lightest, fluffiest, most perfect waffles ever I was willing to give them a go. What was the secret that made these guys the lightest fluffiest waffles ever? Why cornstarch of course.

But back to the real story. I want cookies. And I want the perfect introductory cookie to Christmas baking. So when I stumbled upon a shortbread recipe that featured cornstarch I know it was a sign and I had to make them.

Grandma’s Shortbread

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened

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Directions:

  1. Sift together cornstarch, icing sugar and flour.
  2. Stir.
  3. With wooden spoon blend in butter until soft, smooth dough forms, shape into 1″ balls flatten with fork, or you can roll them 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes.
  4. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes.

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Charlie Knows…

Charlie knows Christmas. And He knows that decorating is the best part of the season. Garlands are his personal favourite. How could a cat not love something made of string, tiny bits of paper and beads. Charlie also knows that after the garland is done it is time to put up the Christmas tree! Like Charlie, decorating has always been my favourite part of the holidays. Heading out into the woods with my dad and sister to choose a tree and then hang the decorations. Good times!

The first snow came early here in Vancouver and that was just the push that I needed. Decorating starts now! So on Saturday morning I got up a little early, made a pot of tea and got down to business. When I busted out the ingredients to make my garland Charlie was beside himself and chose a spot as close as possible.


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Having a full size tree of my own is fairly new for me, this is only my second year. So when it comes to decorations things are kind of slim pickings. I have decided to slowly grow a collection of decorations over time rather than just running out and buying everything all at once. So I’m left with plenty of opportunities to be a little creative and make my own decorations.

I am imagining draping this garland from the ceiling, I think it will be perfect. Inspiration for this garland came from a project on Poppytalk, the directions can be found there. Or you can watch my fancy video: Folded Paper Balloons.

 

http://youtu.be/2QFOGFAi3D8?hd=1

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What was I thinking?

Like virtually everyone in the world I have comfort zones. Rules that I live by: I don’t touch raw meat, I certainly do not wear the shorts over tights look, and my home is always in a state of controlled chaos. Every line was crossed this week.

It all started when I turned down Scott’s offer to trim and cube the beef that I was planning to stew for a dinner we were having the next day. I should have realized that saying no to his offer would mean I would have to do it myself! I had decided to make My Go-To- Beef Daube by Dorie Greenspan, you can find the recipe in her cookbook Around My French Table.

I am the product of a vegetarian home. As a kid, we occasionally had turkey at Grandmas for Thanksgiving and Christmas. There was also that one very out of the ordinary occasion when grandma went out with the dog and grandpa’s rifle and shot a Christmas duck! And once in a blue moon my mom would come upstairs from the deep freeze with a couple of drum sticks and say she wanted fried chicken the way her mom made it. So, to say that I’m uncomfortable with raw meat would be the understatement of the year.

Last Saturday morning I could be found in the kitchen bemoaning the fact that I was stuck cutting the meat to Ginger who had graciously joined me with a bottle of rose via facetime from Paris.  What I wouldn’t have given to switch places with her! By the way, I would recommend that you run out and get Around My French Table and make that Beef Daube because it was fantastic, if I do say so myself.

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Now what about all those other insane little rules you maybe thinking. Well, on Monday I pulled out a pair of dressy charcoal short, black leggings and a pair of suede boots and marched right out the front door without even a second thought. On Tuesday chaos tipped the scale and the house became a disaster zone! 20 minutes before work I was scurrying around the house trying to tidy, moving things come one room to another and prepping dinner. Things ended badly with me nearly cutting off my finger.

Today I am about to cross the biggest thickest line of them all. I am kind of a private person. I have always felt that creativity is personal. Maybe I’m a little secretive or just don’t like having to explain myself or deal with critic. But most of my projects take place around the kitchen table and are only shared with a few people. Here I am laying it all out on the table, sharing my thoughts & ideas, my history & future and my life I guess. What was I thinking!

Now for some breakfast.

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Kale & Cashmere

Fall came this week.

The colour of the light changed ever so slightly. A little softer maybe. And with the turn in the season I went to my closet and pulled out all the warm fuzzy cashmere I could find. Then I had a crisis.
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This weekend I learned that my friends seem to all have style icons. Where have I been! I certainly do not have a style icon nor has it ever crossed my mind. And no I’m not running around wearing a paper bag on my head, I’m aware of fashion. If you were to ask me who Kyle Maclachlan is I would said “Isn’t he the guy from that spread in Vogue with Linda Evangelista back in the 90’s?” I just have never thought about having a style icon.

So while I was pulling out all my winter sweaters and scarves I did a little style soul searching. I tried on numerous outfits. And then tried them on again and finally decided that I don’t really need a style icon after all, I just needed to make a kale salad.

Kale salad inspired by the many kale and quinoa salads on My Cooking Diary and the Tahini dressing by 101 Cookbooks

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