Weekend Recap

Ahhh summer weekends. I think this weekend (in Toronto) was one of the best of the year, if not THE best so far (hopefully it's like this every weekend from here on in). It was beautiful, sunny, hot, clear skies...in other words: perfect. We hosted a BBQ for 12 on Saturday night - beautiful night, and great friends to catch up with. We served grilled chicken, Israeli cous cous greek salad, roasted eggplant dish (Imam Biyaldi), hummus and veggies, cupcakes and watermelon. Yumm. I don't know how some of you manage to capture the table all set, with the food laid out...I took some quick shots with my phone before anyone arrived, but after that it was all about eating and visiting.

 How was your summer weekend?

Bathroom progress {subfloor, drywall and tile oh my!}

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? Ours was good - dinner with friends on Friday night, errands and some relaxing on a chilly Saturday, and then more relaxing and some clean up on a sunny Sunday. Overall, a pretty great weekend. Since the bathroom is now well under way there's not much for us to do on weekends - this is very "new" for us. We're used to being part of the progress instead of watching from afar. I have to say, it's pretty amazing to come home from work and see progress every day! If we were doing this on our own we would be nowhere close to where we are now, and we would have made more than a few rookie blunders along the way.

Before the drywall went up, the Mr. and I did some finishing touches on the framing, including framing out the spots for our recessed medicine cabinets:

Last week marked the subfloor being completed (the mr. did most of it, but our carpenter came in to finish off the tricky parts around the toilet), drywall going up, and tile going up! The ceiling also got fixed (from where we ripped out the wall), and some taping and mudding happened.

Well hello there, future home of the double vanity.

Sneak peak at my pretty new bathtub (we tried to protect it with plastic and tape...we'll see what happens :) ). We are going to have glass put as the third "wall" ontop of the pony wall (or knee wall) for a clean finish to the bathtub area.

On a non-construction note, I did some baking this weekend and tried a new muffin recipe for apple spice muffins from Smitten Kitchen.

They are delicious.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Family day french toast

Hi friends! I feel like it has been so long since I wrote a real blog post...I'm getting sucked into the winter blahs, and work is busier than ever (beyond busy) so when I get home the last thing I want to do is look at a computer screen.  But, give me a long weekend and some reno ideas and maybe, just maybe, I'll get inspired :) Today's all about food, but check back this week for some fun posts that relate to my 2013 goals.

It's family day here in Ontario (read: a holiday - woo hoo!) Who doesn't need a long weekend in February? We didn't do anything exciting, but the extra day and extra sleep was much appreciated. We celebrated with yummy food all weekend, including french toast for breaky this morning. Yumm.

And a few other photos from around here...

My lovely tulips from Valentine's Day

Quebec City {the food}

The Mr. and I escaped to Quebec City over the holidays. Neither of us had been, which is surprising since we both grew up in Ottawa. It definitely met our expectations and we loved the little sense of Europe it gave (the closest you can get within driving distance!).

The food in Quebec City was delicious! We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Le Pain Beni - their menu is focused on gourmet local winter comfort food (and I'm not talking poutine). The Mr. had deer and I had lamb - both were phenomenal. We also went to the Bar St Laurent in the Chateau Frontenac for a drink (a must-do in the city).

 1 - Le Pain Beni; 2 - Le Petit Cochon Dingue; 3 - Chez L'Autre; 4 - Le Petit Cochon Dingue; 5 - Chez L'Autre

Another food highlight was the little cafe we found - Le Petit Cochon Dingue (The Crazy Little Pig). The first morning we went there (yes, we went twice in 3 days) we got pain au chocolats (aka chocolatines aka chocolate croissants) directly out of the oven. They were heaven.

After a hard day of skiing, we rewarded ourselves with this (followed by a dinner at St Hubert! Not everything needs to be high class to be good :) )

For dinner on our last night we went to Chez L'Autre, a snazzy little place we saw while walking around. We had classic steak frites and the meal did not disappoint!

Check back tomorrow for more photos from Quebec City and our ski adventure at Le Massif!

Foodie files: Foolproof

How was your weekend?? Our car thermometer read 16 C on Saturday AND Sunday this weekend - bliss for the middle of January! It was lovely...good chance to open the windows in the house a bit, and drive around with the sunroof fully open!

We also cooked up a storm this weekend - between hardwood floor shopping (you saw my 2013 goals, right?) great entertainment like Miss America (so worth checking out the tweets under #MissAmerica for a good laugh) and the Golden Globe red carpet, we managed to cook a lot of great food (good enough that I want to brag about it on the interwebs...)

I made two recipes from Ina Garten's Foolproof cookbook - I got this for Christmas and if these two recipes (and others' instagram feeds) are any indication, the whole book is indeed foolproof.

Roasted balsamic beet salad - this was delish! Very similar to a beet salad I've made on my own accord, but with arugula, which is always a good addition

Ina's Winter Minestrone soup - sooo good! Very hearty (read: filling) and flavourful. I even got to use turkey broth my mom groze for my from Christmas! Recipe here.

These next two aren't from the cookbook, but are tasty none the less!

Blueberry + cranberry oat muffins

Homemade pizza (credit to the chef, the Mr!) with sausage, onion, basil, spinach, gruyere, and parma cheese. SOOOO good. Will be making this again..

Now we're back to the week but at least we had some soup leftovers for lunch! The rest of the soup (pre-spinach) is in the freezer for another day (it makes a ton!)

Weekend recap {mini-Christmas}

Hellllloooo long lost friends! Thought I would give a little weekend recap to get back into the swing of things on the blog...this past Sunday was "mini-Christmas" for me and the Mr. It's a way for us to celebrate Christmas on our own, since we typically spend actual Christmas with our families. In the past we have said that mini-Christmas day is NO chores, NO work NO projects. Welllll it didn't quite go like that this year, but we haven't had a project in a while so it was basically a "gift" for the Mr. to work on a project (or at least that's what I like to think...). Before we get to the details, let's talk food...

We had Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast

and Beef Wellington with roasted leeks and brussels sprouts for dinner (so good).

I will share some of my Christmas wrapping later in the week...but for now onto the project!

A couple of weeks ago we bought an over the range microwave - we are so DONE with not having a hood fan. When we did the kitchen we toyed with putting in a hood fan, but our microwave is currently above the stove...so where would it go? It would have to take up valuable counterspace which wasn't really an option. So a microwave/fan combo was it. Well, those things have plugs that come out the top (instead of out the back), and they need a cabinet above them to be secured into the wall. Enter, project. The Mr. and his friend figured out a plan to get a new electrical wire up into the kitchen, which was then used for a new outlet above where the microwave will be hung.

Now we just wait for the electrical to be hooked up at the panel, and for the actual install to happen!

That was our delicious and busy weekend (although, more busy on the Mr's side than mine)...how was yours?

Holiday party DIY's

Yesterday I gave a peak at the Christmas party we hosted, and as promised today I will share some of the simple DIYs that we did.

Epsom salt candles
I saw these on pinterest and knew that I would be making them for our party. I have a collection of mason jars in the basement that the Mr is always encouraging me to use (ok, encourage is my word. His word may be "recycle"). How could I get rid of them when I know Pinterest is chock full of ideas? This one is super simple - put Epsom salt in the mason jar as your base, push a candle into it, and voila - candles in snow.

Bunting flags
This one is really easy and maybe teetering on overdone, but I like the cheery look of bunting flags. For these I used old scraps of wrapping paper (those ones I always keep just in case I find a present that needs a 2"x2" piece of wrapping paper - riiiight). Bunting flags are a much easier way to use up the odds and ends. I cut them into triangles and some pinking-sheared rectangles, punched two holes in the top and the laced white yarn through. Although I have different shapes and different patterns I made sure to keep everything white and red to carry a simple two colour theme.

Gold pine cones & nuts
These are leftovers from my wedding three years ago (do you get the message that I like to re-use??). I took pinecones and walnuts and spray painted them gold for some glitz. I put some in vases to complete my table runner centrepiece.

Wreath
I bought a fresh wreath from Home Depot and planned to Zhush it up. Unfortunately the last few weeks have got away from me, but I did manage to snip some berry branches from my front garden (it looks exactly like holly). Not a huge change, but it looks a bit more festive!

And finally the food. I baked a couple of weeks ago and put the cookies in the freezer until this weekend. Then I made a few recipes to round out the table including pistachio covered truffles (my new favourite) and mini pizzetas with caramelized onions and mushrooms.

 

The food was a hit, and I now have a new love for pistachios. What's your favourite new recipe for the season?

Weekend recap

It was another busy busy weekend, but some very exciting stuff happened! Before I get to all the details...have you entered my giveaway yet?

Saturday I went to Queen West for litterally the 4th or 5th weekend in a row (I like it there...but I've been doing so many trips that way for fabric samples, returns, and ordering)! Anyways, this trip was to pick up the fabric for my chair! Yahoo...I then went up to RE:Style studio to put the chair and fabric in Lindsey's capable hands! Speaking of...did you see my giveaway from RE:Style?? Head to yesterday's post to enter.

Then we headed to the gym, and after we got home I got busy with Christmas baking! I turned on the Christmas tunes (fully aware that it's not even December...but these things freeze perfectly!) and baked for a few hours...here are my finished concoctions (if you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen these!)

We call these "almond mice" in my family! They were my dad's mom's specialty (almond shortbread)

Gingerbread...to be iced another day!

checkerboard cookies - this is the first time I've made these...Next time I would do it a bit differently, but they taste good!

Sunday I went (where else) to Queen West to meet up with a friend for brunch at The Saint on Ossington (so good!). We went antiquing after that where I picked up a snazzy little house treat...more on that later this week.

One more thing - Don't forget to enter my giveaway for One of a Kind tickets!!

Weekend recap

Phew...why do weekends go by so fast? If you are off today, hoorah for you! I was at work, so no extra time although I think I really could have used it this weekend.

So...here's the little weekend run down...

Friday night the Mr. and I went to see Rick Mercer film.  It's a super, fun thing to do (that's free!) on Friday night - make sure to watch it this Tuesday, you may see the back of my head! We also went to Milagro Cantina for dinner (tasty mexican).

Saturday morning, I went all around the city- hit up Home Depot where I got a wreath (it's on my porch but needs some zhushing...so be a bit patient on that one), then I headed to the salon to get my hair cut - usually it doesn't take long to do my hair, but I think my stylist was slow on saturday because I was there over an hour! Luxiourious, yes...until I started stressing that I would get a parking ticket (don't worry, I was safe).

Then I trucked over to the west end to order my fabric for my chair! yahoo...so excited to get that project off the ground (side note: these chairs became available again...and were on sale....but I was really looking forward to having a custom project that I'm sticking with the upholstery project!). I stripped and re-stained the legs of the chair on Sunday (with help from the hubby - he held the flashlight when I was doing the second coat in the garage at 9:30 last night!). After ordering fabric, I took a quick look for Christmas party dresses (if you missed my post here, I would love that blue dress but it's sold out). I saw this one:

French Connection via  

Loving this dress...it's more expensive than I wanted (particularly after dropping $$ on chair fabric), but it's a contender...ugh I hate waiting until the last minute to buy something...on the off chance someone else will wear the SAME THING to the party!

Anyways, after the no-luck-dress-speed-shop-at-two-stores, I went to a furniture store to look at a coffee table, followed by 1 HOUR in traffic to get home (grrr...a bunch of exits / on ramps to the Gardiner were closed, which meant Lakeshore (where I was) was a nightmare, and some north/south streets were also closed due to water mains breaking). Not the best traffic luck...but it didn't end there...Saturday evening we went to Costco and then to Ikea, where I was pumped to get a few fun details for Christmas.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast (homemade waffles and bacon anyone?), hit the gym (had to after that breakfast), and spent some time outside because it was warm and nice. I stripped and re-stained the legs of the chair, and then we made a delicious dinner which included stuffed squash:

Yumm....From the new issue of LCBO's Food & Drink (available in Ontario)

Sunday night was topped off with Amazing Race, and like I said before, a couple coats of stain (and yes, we could have had them done with the re-upholstery, but we wanted to have some hands-on involvement in our project!).

Hope you all had a great (albeit maybe more relaxing weekend)!

Taste of fall {butternut squash + carrot soup; and roast chicken}

This past weekend Sunday was all about cooking (and a little pumpkin carving...you'll see that tomorrow). We like cooking, but especially in the fall and winter because it feels like spending a few hours in the kitchen working on dinner is totally legit (especially on a non-stop-rain weekend that we just had). The leftovers that come with them are pretty sweet too.

I made this "creamy" (no cream) butternut squash and carrot soup (and added ginger, black pepper and a bit of thyme for flavour). This recipe makes a tonne of soup (about 8 or 9 cups I think). I started it in my biggest pot and by the time I got all the veggies in I saw I would have to swap to my stock pot instead! Since the soup doesn't have any cream in it, I kept some in the fridge and froze the rest. Easy and impressive soup to have on hand for cool days or as a starter for a dinner party.

As a side note...I usually puree my soup using an immersion blender, but this time I actually scooped out the cooked veggies, let them cool a bit, and pureed them in this puppy (batch by batch):

This may not be my best kitchen fancy, but it still does the job! Using a blender to puree the cooked vegetables (with a bit of broth to help the blending) make the soup so smooth. It's worth the extra time to do it this way.

The Mr. made a delicious roast chicken with carrots, onions, and parsnips (it was our first time cooking parsnips - they are amazing!). The chicken came from my sister's friends' farm and it was very tasty! The bones and skin are in the freezer to be used for broth soon.

What have you made / tasted lately that gave you a taste of fall?

Taste of fall {Carrot muffins}

It is definitely fall out there! At least Toronto isn't getting snow like Calgary is (I could NOT deal with that...).

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make different muffins so I found a carrot muffin recipe to try out. Note - if you try this recipe and you aren't used to carrot muffins don't be discouraged if the "batter" is pretty dry when you mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones! I thought it was too dry so I added a bit of milk, but in the end they probably didn't need it. I also added some raisins and you could add walnuts for a nice crunch.

The cinnamon, ginger, and moist carrot make these muffins a great morning snack.

I can taste fall {lemon cranberry loaf}

Another weekend come and gone...can you BELIEVE it is October?? September flew..and I mean flew by. I remember the first week of September being at work and thinking, wow everyone is on full-speed-ahead-mode. That has not changed but it's now October...we'll have to wait to see what it brings.

Let's rewind a little bit for a weekend recap...The Mr. and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary that I mentioned last week with a phenomenal dinner at Ici Bistro on Friday night. It's a small french bistro with excellent service, great wine seelction, and food that is to die for. If you are in Toronto and looking for a special meal I highly recommend Ici.

Saturday we did tons of errands and wandered Queen East to see if these chairs were still available...needless to say almost a year later they were nowhere to be seen, but it was a nice afternoon walk.

Sunday was the day of domesticity! It started with the Mr. making eggs benedict for breakfast (he's the best), then we did some yard work, laundry, ironing, and I started on a little fall project that I hope to showcase after the craziness of my upcoming week(s). In between I got into fall cooking - roasted butternut squash soup (if that doesn't scream fall, I'm not sure what does), pork with maple mustard sauce, and glazed lemon cranberry loaf (recipe here).

Hope you had a delicious weekend as well...

Taste of summer: easy no-canning-required blueberry jam

Fall is here. I think it's official. This weekend had that fall chill in the air and had me reaching for my coat! Time to get that living room project of mine started...

This weekend we went to Ottawa to visit friends and family - too short as always, but thankful for all the fun visits we had. Since this weekend had me caught in the middle of being excited for fall and missing summer I thought I would post something I haven't gotten around to yet.

This summer I made blueberry jam and it was delicious. The best part of it? It's super easy (and I mean SUPER easy).

The recipe is Real Simple's Blueberry Jam . It requires blueberries and sugar...no pectin, no canning, no fuss.

 

 

 

 

 

I made about half the recipe, and ended up with about 3/4 of a cup of jam. It was the perfect amount to last a few weeks in the fridge without feeling like I had to eat it every day!