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| one of my favourites: rainy beaded city by tender loving empire |
30.9.10
tender loving empire, portland, oregon
28.9.10
guilty pleasure: gymkata
I've definitely never heard of this movie before! Gymkata! Jamie saw this growing up and certain scenes have stuck with him all these years. After watching this movie myself, I can see why one would NEVER forget the gymkata expert Jonathan Cabot (aka gymnastics world champ Kurt Thomas) "walking" up a flight of stairs on his hands. The cinematographer (if there was such a person on staff at all) made sure the angles were just right to make that particular scene completely unforgettable. Yup, so he walks up stairs on his hands, pommel horse fights a gang of villagers in the City of the Crazies or something like that (also available on YouTube), and gets the girl, who "has a very interesting background" (actually, she doesn't). My favourite part had to be when a character shouts "Double blackmail!" when he clearly meant to say "Double-crossed!" Oh, and I also liked how this movie had reverse-Rollerball syndrome, meaning it moved so fast that we didn't know what was happening. Watch the trailer, decide for yourself, and if you can't find this one on VHS (like Jamie did at Limelight) then watch the whole thing on YouTube. It's a good way to spend 90 minutes, we laughed a lot, and Jamie truly fulfilled the mission of the Guilty Pleasure Movie Club. Awesome times!
And check this out, too, because it's pretty awesome:
27.9.10
26.9.10
weekend worship
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| bloedel floral conservatory |
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| vintage beaded clutch, manicure, and markhed oxidized silver ring |
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| not a bad fall day for a wedding at queen elizabeth park! |
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| reunion |
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| jeff looking handsome |
25.9.10
have a great saturday!
I am so excited to head to Ryan and Amanda's wedding this afternoon. I spent yesterday shopping with Jill and hanging out with old friends (pictures to come). So glad that it isn't raining today and that the weekend isn't even half over! Oh yeah, and you can now Follow my blog with bloglovin!
24.9.10
neil & jens & last pair sale at sadie
Have you seen this? There was a great Neil Young interview on Q today on CBC 1, as well. It's worth a listen on a rainy fall Friday in Vancouver, or anywhere for that matter.
And then, of course, this fall song comes to mind. I was lucky enough to see Jens Lekman live last year. If you ever get a chance to go to one of his live shows you really should. It's a magical experience.
And finally, I want to let you all know that I'm having a last pair sale in my Etsy shop. Check out the great designs that are only available for one more week before they're gone forever. Ampersands, little leaves, check it out! $20 a pair for sterling silver or 14k gold filled. Making way for the new...
23.9.10
cooked: thursday
Ahh! The glories of leftovers! After Jeff had a particularly long day at school and I had a very long site visit/meeting in Richmond today neither of us really felt like cooking or waiting for something we did manage to pull together to be ready, so contrary to our original plans we broke out the leftover curry bowl from last night and whipped up some quick chapatis and, there you go, almost-instant dinner! Nothing like curry when the rain is just starting outside and you've had a very long day. Of course, yesterday's recipe makes enough curry that we'll get to have this experience lots of times in the near future! Thanks yesterday us for making such a wonderful dinner!
Here's a .pdf of the minestrone recipe that we had intended to make. It is also from Whitewater Cooks and I'm sure that it'll be on the top of our list next week. I hope you've enjoyed these recipes and photos and maybe some day we'll post another week's worth of food. I guess documenting this has made me realize that our choices have to be flexible. They need to be able to turn into leftovers, put off for a day or two or modified if we run out of something. Certainly the cookbooks that I've mentioned over the course of these posts allow such easy modifications and the recipes aren't too time consuming. Check them out at your local library or try some of the recipes I've posted. I'm sure you'll enjoy them!
22.9.10
cooked: wednesday
As summer turns into autumn and the rain starts to fall in Vancouver there's a need for delicious, hearty dinners every now and then. Whitewater Cooks: Pure, Simple and Real Creations From the Fresh Tracks Cafe by Shelley Adams has lots of recipes that fit the bill. I was introduced to this cookbook by my very good friend Jill (have I really not mentioned her yet? that has to change!). She made Whitewater cinnamon buns one very chilly Calgary morning and I distinctly remember her windows being steamy on the inside from the baking and coffee making going on and frosty on the outside from the likely -30ºC dry, cold morning. Perhaps I'm making this all up, but regardless it really captures the feeling of some of my favourite times with Jill. Of course, we had previously tried to make the cinnamon buns at my house, only to be thwarted by my dog who ate the entire stick of butter we had left out to soften (the dog regretted it later, I think).
So try out this amazingly fragrant dish, the Ymir Curry Bowl, and perhaps eat it while enjoying a new episode of America's Next Top Model or a guilty pleasure movie some evening. Don't let the number of ingredients concern you, there are hardly any pots and pans used, just lots of chopping and that's easy enough to do. Incidentally, what do you use to chop garlic? I use this little gadget that my mom got me, it's called the Garlic Twist and is made in the U.S.A. Here is a .pdf of this evening's recipe. I hope you give it a shot, and if you get the cookbook try those cinnamon buns, too!
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| the garlic twist |
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| what my dog ate for dinner. excuse the motion blur. |
21.9.10
cooked: tuesday
I'll admit, last night required an extra trip to the grocery store due to some impromptu baking needs. I needed soy milk to make the Amish friendship bread that Caroline passed to me a week and a half ago. Now that starter batch lives on with other friends who will spend their days squishing a bag of doughy mush until they too will need lots of milk to make the final product come to fruition.
Tonight Jeff made dinner, a hardly rare occurrence at our house. Again the recipes are from Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health, though I assure you this is not the only cookbook we use regularly. A favourite that we aren't using this week, but do crack open most weeks, is another Moosewood book called Simple Suppers. It's about as good as a cookbook gets. Each recipe takes about half an hour and uses just a few ingredients, though there is likely a twist in each recipe that you might not have thought of yourself. If you want to cook more at home I believe Simple Suppers is a kitchen necessity, right up their with a good Canadian-made chef knife and Hungarian smoked paprika.
Dinner this evening had a nice Japanese flair: soba noodles with tomatoes and green beans with garlic and ginger. Delicious and perfect for this early fall weather. The green beans are from the UBC Farm, too. Here's a .pdf that I have uploaded for you if you want to make this, too! Enjoy!
20.9.10
cooked: monday
Now that Jeff and I are both students we have been trying to find ways to save money on a day-to-day basis. One of the ways that we've been savings lots is by planning our meals in advance and trying to only hit the grocery store once or twice a week. We're definitely not the first to do this, I think my friend Marigold has been up to it for years, as I can remember seeing meal plans and grocery lists on her kitchen blackboard when we were still in undergrad together...back when we went to the grocery store once a day (more when we forgot things due to a lack of a list). I can't tell you what a big difference this relatively simple change has made for us. Way less food spoils in our fridge, we are saving lots of money, we are eating healthier foods and only occasionally go out for dinner. Skipping restaurant meals has not been a big deal as a) the food we make is awesome, b) we are both committed to cooking at home, and c) we need tasty leftovers for the next day's lunch.
I thought that this week I would take you along on a day-by-day representation of what we're cooking, Monday-Thursday. Sundays are a guilty pleasure movie club potluck and Friday and Saturday can be a real jumble of activities and fun times. When we eat at home on weekends it's usually to finish off some leftovers.
I thought that this week I would take you along on a day-by-day representation of what we're cooking, Monday-Thursday. Sundays are a guilty pleasure movie club potluck and Friday and Saturday can be a real jumble of activities and fun times. When we eat at home on weekends it's usually to finish off some leftovers.
This week's grocery shop was pretty minor. We've gone from $40/trip and about 4-5 trips a week in grocery spending (so, $160-200/week) to way under $100/week. Of course, the first couple of times were more expensive, as we had to stock up on some staples that we'd run out of, but now those staples fit right in with the rest of our groceries and we're down to about $60/week. That's huge! You'll notice that we're also vegetarian, which I really think saves us money and well, it's just who we are at this point. It's been 17 years for me and maybe a couple of more for Jeff. We don't even think about it anymore.
Here's a little tableau of the groceries that I bought for this week. The total was just short of $58 CDN. It was really inspired by the photos for What People Eat Around the World, if you haven't already seen these images, you must look at them right now! Which one do you think looks most delicious?
Monday's dinner was bok choy and country-style soft tofu with brown rice from one of my favourite cookbooks, Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health. Here's a .pdf of the recipe which I scanned for you, should you wish to give it a whirl. It's easy and I enjoyed cooking tofu in a whole new way.
monday afternoon
Good afternoon, everyone! If, like me, you find yourself sitting in front of a computer right now trying to stay focused, why not (like me) take a break. I have the perfect site for you to check out! Marigold Santos, my good friend and an amazingly talented and hard-working artist, has just launched her website and I think you'll love it. I've taken a look and have had a very hard time choosing which images to show here, so in the end just picked a few of my favourites in hopes that they'll send you off to her site to see the rest. Marigold and I went to school together in undergrad and I love what she's doing these days. Blacklit paintings!?! Her work is so exciting; I urge you all to check it out. So spend some time on her site and if you're in the Kingston, Ontario area head to her show at Modern Fuel; it's on now and runs until October 23rd. Congrats on the new site and exhibition, Marigold!
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| dusk, ardor, marigold santos (2009-2010) |
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19.9.10
guilty pleasure: rollerball
Ryan came through for the guilty pleasure movie club in a big way this week: Rollerball (1975)! Ever heard of it? Me either. Apparently Ryan watched this when he was five years old and a sucker punch a character named Moonface or something takes has stayed with him all these years. All in attendance agreed that a) this movie really captured the spirit of the guilty pleasure movie club and b) Ryan was a deep and patient kid to sit through this at age five. That being said, this is not a movie you can turn off part way because, well, there's always a chance that at the end you might understand what the heck is going on. There are so many memorable scenes to write about, and certainly most of them are at least briefly represented in the trailer posted below. Note the futuristic typography. You know, if you're inclined to avoid brutal, futuristic, and highly entertaining films than the trailer does pretty much sum this up, but you will miss seeing a Weird Al lookalike and won't truly understand the, um, immense length of this particular film. I also challenge you to watch the 2002 version, which features LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn. Ryan, you did a great job picking this one and a wonderful Mexican feast was had by all beforehand, too. Jamie picks next week and we eat French food for Jacqui (and all of us, really). Also, Ryan and Amanda are getting married! Good luck, you two, we can't wait to attend!
One last thing: "It's a memory pool...you see?"
weekend worship
It has been a busy weekend! Friday was our annual corn roast at school, which included a pie eating contest this year (see the picture of what remained after that above...). We also caught up with some friends over drinks and nachos before catching the last bus home. Jeff and I are celebrating our nine year anniversary this weekend but haven't had time to go to dinner or anything together. Instead we went downtown yesterday, grabbed some lunch at Nuba (which Jeff had never been to before) and decided to buy anniversary watches (!). I personally really love both of our choices and am excited to own my first watch since my last one busted about ten years ago.
This morning we went out for a late breakfast and walked around Kits before heading home to prepare for the guilty pleasure movie club. Preparation includes getting our homework done, having a nap, and walking the dog, as well as going to the store to pick up what we need for tonight's feast. Not many pictures to share this weekend, but keep checking back this week as the schedule for my blog posts is going to change a little. I'm going to do a new one-off series from Monday to Thursday called "Cooked". Check it out. Also, this time I mean it, there will be some Sadie announcements here in the next couple of weeks so keep coming back!
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| oh yeah, and we saw this cute guy, too! |
17.9.10
are you experienced?
There's lots of evidence that experiences, not stuff, are what makes people happy. Where do you stand on this? Would you rather spend your money on travel or new furniture? Would you rather work and buy less or do you work hard and reward yourself with new purchases? I know we all fall somewhere in between, but I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this issue. I'm in the more travel and less stuff camp. Well, recovering stuff-addict, maybe. Lately selling excess books, DVDs, furniture, etc. has felt really rewarding. Take a look at this article from the New York Times, listen to some Jimi Hendrix (who died forty years ago tomorrow) and let me know what you think. Experience or acquisitions? What will you be experiencing this weekend?
Here's a blog post that I think captures the spirit of consuming less. I just discovered Cucumbersome and I like it! Hope you will, too.
Here's a blog post that I think captures the spirit of consuming less. I just discovered Cucumbersome and I like it! Hope you will, too.
15.9.10
guilty pleasure: fast times at ridgemont high
Fast Times at Ridgemont High! Woah! Who remembers that this movie is Dirty with a capital "D"? Cuz it is. Caroline sold us all on this one by bringing it on VHS and mentioning that this movie was very, um, educational for her, if you know what I mean. Things to watch out for: a very young Nicholas "Coppola" (soon to be "Cage") cheering from the bleachers, some of the best dance moves of the early '80s, and, of course, a very young and way too cool Sean Penn. I've seen this movie a few times, but I definitely needed to refresh my appreciation of it. It's hard to believe this movie is 28 years old, but then again, it's hard to believe that Jacqui just had a big birthday, too. We celebrated at Guilty Pleasure Movie Club with a lovely dinner and a zucchini cake with lemon glaze from David Lebovitz's blog. The photo of the birthday girl with her cake might just be the most adorable photo I've ever seen. It's hard to tell whether it's a 2010 birthday party or a 1976 Thanksgiving dinner that's been captured. Next week's choice falls to Ryan, a new Guilty Pleasure Movie Club member! Can't wait!
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| getting started |
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| spicy bffs |
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| fresh lemon juice for the glaze |
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| perfect zucchini cake |
13.9.10
12.9.10
weekend worship
Might I suggest opening up this link in a new window while you read this autumn-inspired blog post? Daniel, Fred and Julie offer up perfect Canadian mono folk for this time of year.
This week I began my final year of school. I'm in my third year of a master of landscape architecture program, so we're now working on our grad projects, with much of our prescribed course work behind us. This is year eight of university for me, grade 21 if you want to count up all of my years of school, and probably the last year that I'll be in school. I can't wait to be finished, but I know there's a pretty long road ahead. I miss non-school related reading, I have a stack of novels that I would L-O-V-E to read right now, but I find myself spending time with journal articles instead most evenings. Well, and a little bit of time with the Situationists, too, which is pertinent to my research and pretty awesome.
We didn't get up to a whole lot this weekend, yesterday was spent reconnecting with good friends and visiting the Richmond Rock and Gem Show. I left with a beautiful light blue geode that I thought I might regret leaving behind and a piece of tumbled petrified wood for my friend Carrah.
Fall is definitely here. It's been raining and raining, and I saw these bins of pumpkins and corn in Richmond yesterday.
Okay, there was still a bin of watermelons, too, but these seemed much more seasonally appropriate.
Okay, there was still a bin of watermelons, too, but these seemed much more seasonally appropriate.
There are a few new things in the Sadie shop, including this Holy Mountain-inspired necklace. Check them out and keep checking back for new stuff. There will be lots in the coming weeks!
7.9.10
let's make it official
Summer is over, school is overcoming us...
Sweet summer memories. Coconut Records: Any Fun.
End of summer & I used to be young angst. Nirvana: School.
Sweet summer memories. Coconut Records: Any Fun.
End of summer & I used to be young angst. Nirvana: School.
What are your favourite summer songs?
6.9.10
5.9.10
guilty pleasure: raising arizona
Our guilty pleasure movie club met a little early this weekend, due to other extravagant long weekend plans. This time Blair chose Raising Arizona, which I realize I haven't seen in a long time. It was way funnier and less dark than I remember it being, maybe because I'm a little older since I last saw it and can appreciate some of the clever turns of phrase that are thrown in at a near-whisper throughout. John Goodman holding up a bank insists that everyone lie on the ground while he collects the loot, and as he leaves he yells that anyone who's bipedal in five minutes will be risking their health. "Bipedal"? It takes real genius to use such lofty dialogue and still have the characters come across as imbeciles. All agreed that this was a most excellent choice, an early Coen Bros. movie from before Nicholas Cage got annoying and went broke. Paired with a late summer barbeque feast, this movie is perfect long weekend faire. Caroline picks next, and she promises a VHS choice!
On another note, I bought one of these today and can't wait for it to arrive!
3.9.10
weekend worship
My mom was in town for the last few days and we did so much. Truthfully, we spent most of our time in Seattle, which was pretty great. Mom had never been there before so it was fun to show her around and discover some new places with her, too. Highlights for sure are all of the amazing shops in Ballard and Fremont. We also ate burgers that kept us full for two days (I swear!) and had dinner at my favourite restaurant, Cafe Flora. My mom and I found lots of treasures, among my favourites though has got to be the bar of Tallba Swedish Pine soap that I bought on the second day of our adventure.
This weekend schoolwork calls, but a revival of the guilty pleasure movie club and some jewelry making are musts as well. Below are some photos of the fun things that my mom and I did while she was in town. Click on any of them to find out more. If you're in Vancouver I highly recommend going to the Capilano River Hatchery, the salmon are arriving there by the thousands right now, and it's free! Happy long weekend, may it be as relaxing and productive as you want it to be!
And finally, the perfect late summer in Vancouver song. Enjoy.
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