Thank you, thanks, thnx, thx

Found a very sweet blog today. Here's the background: "Leah Dieterich's mother always told her to write thank you notes. So she does. To everything. thxthxthx is her daily exercise in gratitude."

And here are a couple good Thank Yous. Check her site daily for a hit of unexpected gratitude. My hope is this make us all a little more grateful for small and large moments of goodness. 

Now quick quick go to thxthxthx to find more endearingly honest notes of gratitude. And here's a hint, browse by subjects listed in the right sidebar. I hope, like me, you'll be constantly surprised at the connections she makes, and the insight she has into the universal experience.

Storm the kitchen!

A challenge for anyone who still reads this blog! I figure there might be a small handful of you out there. Maybe. Are ya? Hmm. Well, this should let me know.

My lil' sis is having a hard time finding her mojo back in the kitchen, which I suspect might be a result of crazy amounts of cooking and baking she took on over the holiday season (this suspicion has not yet been confirmed). So she asked for a challenge that might help get her fired up again. Even better, thought I, let's all do this together!

Choose one of two options:
1) Go to Smitten Kitchen and click Surprise me! on the left sidebar three times. Of those three recipes, choose one to make as directed or to inspire your own version of SK's dish.
2) Look at your cookbook shelf. Choose the third book from the left. Go to page 58 (or whatever recipe is closest to page 58 if you hit a photo page or section break). Make that recipe as directed or use it as inspiration for your own dish.

Then get your butt back here and let me know how it went and what you made. If you used a SK recipe, post to the original and tell us what you did with it, and if you used a cookbook then let me know the title of the book and the original recipe, and what you did with it.

Fun! Bringing the mojo back to your kitchen, one challenge at a time.

On a related note, I recently found a new-to-me food blog that I'm falling in love with. Not Without Salt is written by a mom living in Seattle who put in serious time on the way to becoming a pastry chef in the best restaurants in the US, and now she moms-it-up, and blogs about both sweet and savoury delectables. Recently I made her lime and jalapeno marinated kale tostadas (except I used swiss chard in place of kale and had no avocado, and used chevre in place of the Mexican cheese). Mindblowingly good. To die for stuff. I already know I'll be craving them again within days so I'd better stock up on tortillas and tequila (for the accompanying margarita, of course). Go check her out!

UPDATE: Quick note, Katho is posting about this on her blog too, which I'm hoping means we'll have lots of participants and lots of reports on recipes tried. Hooray!

Salmonella's no joke.

After taking a little abuse about not posting enough, I triumphantly return with a little time waster. Check out Harto on Youtube. She's relatively hilarious. She likes to drink, and she's not picky about what she's drinking. She also likes to cook. She MOST likes to combine the two. The result is her minor intertubes sensation, My Drunk Kitchen.

You don't have to watch them in order, and in fact they get better as she gains experience. I haven't watched all of them yet but here are a few of my favourites from those I have watched.

Episode 10: Poutine, in which Harto visits New York of the North, licks gravy from her laptop and mocks our noble moose.

Episode 5: Smashed Brothers, in which Harto mocks Grandmas and participates in MOAR DRINKING.

Episode 4: Not Easy, Bake Oven, in which Harto intelligently recruits supervision while using the oven to make cookies. Or are they biscuits?

Mostly these vids make me think fondly of drunken times with the Duchess. I have twin scars on my wrists from baking tater tots and McCain ovenbaked fries while wasted. Those scars and hazy memories will stay with me for life. Also, Miranda is this your gal friend Jesse? Totally could be. That would be even MOAR hilarious.

The Lethbridge Veg

I'm so glad my little sister is blogging! She keeps feeding me new recipes to try, and passing on great blogs and other items she has found along her blogging travels.

Great news for Lethbridgians, Katho found a blog by a Lethbridge woman who is into growing her own food year round, preserving and canning, local producers, and vegetarian eating in Southern Alberta (not a simple thing to accomplish). The author's husband eats meat so some of her blog posts also include references to local meat producers who are doing things the ethical and organic way. Check it out over at The Lethbridge Veg. I was most impressed to see her listing interesting workshops happening in the Lethbridge area and pointing her readers to local independent businesses where you can buy food products you can feel good feeding to your friends and family.

Thanks for the tip, Katho!

Art in the streets

Also, this is amazing:

And this:

See more clever and cool public art here.

Seasonal fun

I've been able to squeeze in a little seasonal fun lately, in between committee meetings and chapter revisions. Por ejemplo: introducing a new person to what we call snowshoeing. 

Miranda and Jacobus on frozen trail

 

The snowshoe crew, some of whom look more suspicious than others

And the best part of the holiday season, which can also be accomplished any time of year and was also a part of snowshoeing, spending time with good friends.

You might think this was taken when it was getting on later in the evening. But no. Still fairly early in the grand scheme of things.

So strange that I didn't foresee that night at the Alibi Room to be a big night. But oh, it was. And such a fun time was had by all!

Namaste

*snort* too funny. I'm surprised this wasn't filmed in Vancouver, the yuppiest yuppery ville of socially competitive yoga.