from montreal

A few pictures of some of my favourite parts of our Montreal visit: amazing coffee, great friends, good shoes, and Wu Tang Bixis bringing da ruckus! Oh, we did eat a million delicious things. Thanks to Marigold, Jesse and Camilla for showing us around the city! Pictures of our Vermont trip and a little DIY tutorial to come!

taking five

Jeff, Lola, and I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Powell River at the cabin. The cabin is actually our friend Grady's house, which he shares with his awesome daughter Clancy and their cat, Mittens. We spent the weekend in a town of 20,000 without a whole lot to do. So we drank a lot of coffee, we made some delicious food (including a Tofurkey and cranberry sauce, which I love), and hung out with a lot of horses, dogs, and even a cat or two. It was pretty much heaven. Above you can see a picture of me with my giant dog friends, Honey and Bear (a.k.a. Chunkstar and Leo). You can also see our black and white dog, Lola, taking five. We took a lot of fives, too. Have you seen Fubar? You really should. Most of it was filmed in the city Jeff and I used to live in. It's kind of a must-see movie, whether you're Canadian or not. This trailer is definitely not suitable for work:

I'm going to Montreal this weekend to visit with friends and to spend some time in a fun city that I haven't been to in over nine years. It's a long overdue visit and I can't wait to hang out with Jeff, Jesse, Marigold, and Camilla all week long. I'll be back when I can with pictures and stories!

happy thanksgiving: a recipe and giveaway from cubit's organics

As I mentioned yesterday, today is the first feature post from the new series that I'm starting here on the Sadie blog. Rad Summer gets wrapped up in style next week and these feature posts will be taking over. Get ready to meet some amazing creators and bloggers!

Laura from Cubit's Organics has kindly offered up this incredible guest post just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. And to top it all off, she's also offering a giveaway and a coupon code for Sadie readers. Find out all of the details at the end of the post.

A Thanksgiving Recipe from Cubit’s Organics: Roasted Carrots and Beets with Mint and Feta

The combination of sandy soil and full sun means that we are able to grow really nice root vegetables in our front yard here in Toronto. When we’re not growing for seed, we just grow all the different types and colours mixed up so what you pick is a surprise; A striped beet or a purple carrot? Who knows.

Our two year old daughter has taken to announcing that she needs a carrot and then heads to the front door to go get one from the garden. I can’t help but oblige and let her pick a few whether I was planning on having them for dinner or not.

This is really so easy that it hardly qualifies as a recipe but it’s simply too delicious to keep to myself. We bring carrots to my mother’s every year for Thanksgiving dinner and will continue the tradition this Sunday.

1. Send the two year old out into the yard to pick some different coloured carrots and beets. Going to the farmers market to get some heirloom root veggies will also suffice.

2. Preheat your oven to 425.
Wash your carrots and beets. I cut the greens off but leave a little at the top just because I think it looks good. I cut the really long tails off the beets because they will burn otherwise and then cut them all in half length wise.

3. Coat everything in olive oil, add a little salt. Then roast them in the oven at 425 for 40 minutes.

4. Let everything cool down for a few minutes, then crumble feta on to your veggies and add a hardy handful of mint leaves. Toss and serve out of your favorite vintage bowl. I think they look nice in this plaid one.

These are tasty when hot but are also great as a room temperature salad so no hurry to get everything done at the right time.

5. Give thanks for the vegetable gardens and the small children that tend to them.

In case you fell in love with the vegetables in this post (like I did), Laura is offering a coupon code for Sadie readers. THANKS20 gets you 20% off in the Cubit's Organics Etsy shop. I've got my eye on some nice kale and easter egg radishes! 

The Giveaway Details!

Leave a comment here letting us know what you're bringing to Thanksgiving dinner and you could win a package of colourful carrot seeds and mixed beet seeds for next year's (or this winter's?) garden. I will choose the winner at random Monday evening!


Please be sure to visit Cubit's Organic Etsy shop and beautiful blog, too, to say thanks for this great recipe! Thank you, Laura and Cubit's Organic Living!

weekend worship

fresh cranberries from the fraser valley

Jeff and I are preparing for our annual Thanksgiving Potluck, so this will be a very short post, but I just wanted to take a minute to talk about this dinner that's emerging as quite a tradition for us. It began when we lived in Vancouver in 2002. My friend (and co-worker) Rosie and I, along with Jeff and a few other key people, managed to pull of a dinner for 27 (!) in a kitchen with about a metre of counter space. (Do you remember this, Rosie?) My most vivid memory is of her and I instinctually moving around each other in the tiny kitchen, yelling "look out, hot behind you!", keeping food on top of the fridge and in the bathtub (gross, but we were young), and somehow squeezing everyone into our living room (where did we find plates and cutlery for such a feast?). This amazing dinner was marred only by a chair collapsing beneath one of our guests (thus we discovered why it was in an alley in the first place) and we have gone on to repeat such astonishing acts of cookery many times since then.

Subsequent Thanksgiving dinners have brought us together with friends old and new, both here in Vancouver and in Calgary. We have had some seriously good times at these get togethers and have consumed wine by the gallon. Last Thanksgiving we had about 15 people in our now slightly larger apartment and highlights included guests allowing my dog to eat from the table (but drawing the line at their plates) and our friend Mark cooking a turkey for everyone. We are looking forward to another wonderful dinner and want to express how thankful we are for all of our friends: those that will be here tonight, those who were here in years past, and those that we don't see often enough! And happy birthday to my friend Marigold!

no time for homemade pies this year!

take that, turkey! mark's masterpiece (after) 2009