I have just been diagnosed of the worst plight known to man: I have the sniffles.

The full blown sniffles.

Thankfully, I have this concoction I’ve developed that seems to take the edge off: gingerbeer and OJ (the frozen kind – it has more vitamin C). It pack’s a punch. I’m kind of intrigued to see what it would do to me if included some rum. Would that take it up to eleven? I could even switch the OJ out for lime-aide, and full on indulge my pirate grog fascination… Bad idea? Good idea?

Then maybe I can get Liam to make me some kind of elaborate soup for ME for once. I’m thinking a little something in classic Chicken, possibly involving some homemade noodles…?

I’m going back to snuggling the cats now.

I think one of my favourite kinds of weather could best be described as sweater – and soup – weather.

Since the weather outside could indeed be described as such (and Liam was generous enough to share his cold with me) we needed something warm and reviving around here. So I made a huge batch of tortellini minestrone.

Minestrone was pretty much my go-to winter meal when I was in my first few years of university. I lived in a big old house with a bunch of hungry people (including my soon-to be boyfriend), and for not very much money I could whip up LITRES AND LITRES of the stuff.

Pretty much all of the ingredients are things I like to have on hand in my fridge and pantry at all times. I don’t have to make any special shopping trips. Not to mention, this soup lasts for days in the fridge – and for weeks in the freezer – it is one of those rare foods that gets better on the second day. If you know you’re going to have a busy week, it’s the perfect solution. One hour of work, and you’re pretty much fed for the week.

Basically, what I’m saying is, minestrone is something I’ve perfected at this point. It’s sooo easy. And sooo good.

tortellini minestrone

• 1 large can of tomatoes (diced or whole)
• 1 small tin of tomato paste
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 red pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 package of frozen spinach (apx. 300 grams – 1 cup)
• 1 package of tortellini (apx. 350 grams – 2 cups – of whichever variety you prefer)
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp of fennel seeds (crushed, or ground)
• 1 small chilli pepper (fresh or dried)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups of stock (chicken OR vegetable OR beef – whichever you prefer)
• pepper
• salt

1. Dice the onions, carrots, celery, and red pepper and drain the tomatoes – reserving the juice.
2. In a very large pot, sauté the onions in the olive oil, then add the carrots, then the celery, then the red pepper, then the drained tomatoes, and finally the tomato paste (in that order) . What you want, is for the tomatoes to deepen and darken in colour – from a light orangey red – to a deep burgundy. That means the sugars in the tomatoes have caramelized. Yum!
3. Quickly, before the vegetables start to burn to the bottom of the pot, add in the reserved tomato juice, 2 cups of stock, the frozen spinach, and all the flavourings (bay, fennel, chilli, garlic, salt, pepper) and 2-4 cups of water (depending on how thick you like your soup to be -). Now comes the easy part: turn the heat waaaaay down to low and simmer for 30 min-hour with the lid on. Check it every once and a while and stir it (to make sure the vegetables aren’t sticking on the bottom).
4. 5-10 minutes before serving turn the heat up to medium or so and dump the tortellini and the frozen peas in (add extra water if necessary – the tortellini’s going to soak up a lot of it) – stick around and stir the pot every couple of minutes so the pasta doesn’t stick.
5. Fish out the bay leaf (if you can find it) and serve in big steaming bowls with sprinklings of parmesan and a side of garlic toast.

P.S. Minestrone isn’t really meant to be a set down in stone kinda recipe – What makes it really, authentic Italian is to use up whatever you’ve got lying around. So feel free to throw in any leftover vegetables (sun dried tomatoes, parsnips, fennel, rapini, cauliflower, Italian parsley, whatever!) and even any leftover meats (especially any pork – like bacon, prosciutto, ham or sausage) – even though I kept my version vegetarian.

I spent an afternoon at the book store (with a nummy gingerbread latte), and solved some of my confuzlement issues – as per usual, I was on the right track all along.

Since I liked his first book so much, I flipped through, and actually ended up purchasing Making Comics by Scott McCloud.

Yes, it’s a book about making comics – not illustration – of course. But I happen to be very interested in comics, and illustration is really just a single panel comic most of the time. I think there’s a lot they can lend to each other. Illustration is non-sequential-sequential art to comics sequential art, if you will. Ok, that was confusing… point is they have a lot in common.

This book talks about everything I could have hoped for, AND it’s got contemporary examples that I actually recognize this time around (O’Malley, Larson, Ware etc) AND it’s got exercises for me to play around with AND it’s got a meaty bibliography at the back AND it’s exactly as pragmatic and irreverent and practical as I’d like it to be.

I especially like how helpful it is when it comes to talking about depicting the things that readers/viewers/the audience picks up on, and needs to be drawn in to an image, or story. It seems to be based on some solid psychology/evidence of what has worked throughout comics history. That’s going to be really helpful, whether I’m illustrating or comicing (And I plan to do both, actually).

I think the only reason I don’t see it recommended everywhere, is that it’s really new – 2006 publishing date, to be specific.

However, I also really appreciated the pointing in the direction of Ed Emberly. His stuff is adorable, and awesome and soooo much fun – I’m probably gonna order some real soon (they only had one book, and it’s cheaper online). He’s gonna be a good distraction and reminder that I don’t always need to complicate things unnecessarily. Simple is definitely best a lot of the time. So thanks for that, Travis.

I have not been posting nearly enough pictures of my cats being adorable in recent weeks.
Hope this rectifys that.

The following is a list of the most awful things I have ever owned:

1. “Northern Star” (By Melanie C)
2. “Happiness is Not a Fish You Can Catch” (by Our Lady Peace)
3. “Jesus Freak” (by DC Talk)
4. An completely unread copy of “The Two Towers” (by JRR Tolkien)
5. A completely read copy of “Fall on Your Knees”, an Oprah Book club book (by Ann Marie McDonald)
6. A VHS copy of “Ever After”
7. A VHS copy of “Steven Curtis Chapman: LIVE”
8. At least 3 clown themed music boxes (one of which played “Send in the Clowns”, another which played “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head”)
9. A year long subscription to Focus on the Family’s magazine for teen girls: “Brio”
10. Two pleather skirts. One pair of pleather pants. One pleather jacket.
11. Psychadelic Daffy Duck Keds
12. Fake Doc Martens
13. Navy blue, yellow, lime green, pearly blue, black and at least 4 varieties of sparkly (multi, silver, purple, red, etc) nail polish. Often worn all at once.
14. A logo t-shirt from American Eagle
15. A fuzzy Elmo shaped backback.

I just thought you should know what you’re getting yourself into.

P.S. I also watch Grey’s Anatomy religiously.

I am researching books right now. Books of the instructional, non-fictional variety, to be specific. Books in lieu of art school (as previously discussed).

I recall reading Brian Lee O’Malley at some point say how awesome Understanding Comics is (which is a very well respected compendium of basic comic knowledge – done up, rather inspiredly, in comic book format), so I grabbed a copy at the Beguiling this weekend.

It came highly reccomended, and it remains highly reccomended. Good stuff there indeed. Some of the references are getting a little old, but for the most part Mr. Scott McCloud sticks to the classics (Herge, Spiegelman, Tezuka, Marvel) and they hold up excellently.

But now that I understand “sequential art” I feel the urge to sharpen my drawing skills, drastically. So I look to yet more books of the non-fiction variety. Unfortunately, it seems most instructional art books are not terribly advanced, not terribly sexy, and worst of all: pretty hippy-dippy-new-agey at times. Ick.

Here are some of the one’s I’ve seen most recommended, and the reasons I haven’t brought myself to purchase them yet:

1. Drawing on the Right Side
   From what I’ve heard this book steals most of what’s good about it from another, better book, and the rest is bad science – right brain/left brain drivel that was largely disproved years ago. I hate faux-science. I hate it when laymen, without following any actual scientific method or process come up with lame, simplistic theories and expound them for undiscerning housewives. This is why I don’t care for carb-free diets, or self help books.

2. The Natural Way to Draw
   This is apparently the much better and much more thorough workbook that the “Right Side” one took most of it’s exercises from. It’s apparently a classic, and and largely outlines the traditional method of learning to draw – the one most of us who’ve ever taken an art class have already been taught. The problem here, of course, is that in the 9 plus years of art training my little brain has experienced, I’ve likely worked my way through most of the stuff multiple times already. Grids? Blind contour drawings? No thanks. I had my fill in the ninth grade.

3. The Artist’s Way to Spiritual Creativity
   This book is definitely one of the ‘hippy-dippy-new-agey’ ones. It’s even got the word “spiritual” in the title. I’m far too pragmatic for that sort of thing, I’m afraid. I just end up mocking it whenever I skim it at the bookstore.

   Besides, it’s really a writing guide. And I write fine, and quite prolifically. I even have a pretty strong and definite literary voice.

   And of course, I am an illustrator (who sometimes writes) not a writer. I understand that it might help me ‘embrace my creative side’ and every-time I decide “no way, not for me,” internally, I find myself looking at it again just to see why so many people highly recommend it… But the same people who recommend it also like Sark a whole lot. And I’m not a fan. She’s like a middle age women’s answer to R. Crumb (who I’m not a fan of either. But I respect Crumb more. At least he’s a bit more irreverent).

   Basically, I just wish there was something along the lines of this book that would allow me to keep my street cred (“The Indie Way to Being Cool,” maybe…? Yes…? No…?).

   But above all else, this book DOES NOT teach you how to draw good. It doesn’t teach you to draw, at all. It’s not, actually a drawing manual. So all this is moot. Nope. No good.

4. Creative License
   Again, this one is a bit too self-helpy for my liking… and a bit unfounded… and too inspirational: You can do it! Hang in there!. With some (as in very limited) drawing advice thrown in.

   I like Danny Gregory, I really do, he’s a nice guy and a good illustrator, and a great blogger – but I’ve read a good chunk of his blog, and I’m not sure there’s much in this book I couldn’t glean from the blog itself. Or that there’s much left for me to learn from him in general.

   From reading his blog, I’ve found that he doesn’t seem terribly open to change or advancement in style or technique. I’ve often read him railing against those who would dare to tell him that he could improve himself in one way or another. And I just don’t think that’s the attitude I want right now.

   I’m a highly critical person. I beleive in constructive criticism. I thrive on lots of in depth discussion and nit-picking. I mean, my boyfriend reviews Sorkin on Ain’t it cool, for goodness sake. Besides, there seems to be far too much discussion of WHY to draw, and not nearly enough on HOW to draw, and that’s what I’m really aiming for. More instructional, less inspirational.

So, anyone out there got any better ideas?

Or am I just being a stubborn, snobby, stick-in-the-mud?

(All in all, I think for now it seems like lots more life drawing is the way to go.)

Am I the only one who’ll kinda miss winter when it’s gone?

I like the blustery weather. I like the fluffy snow.

I like getting bundled up to go outside. I like mittens, and scarves, and toques, and berets, and pea-coats, and parkas.

I like curling up with a book, or some knitting, or sewing, or illustrating while sparkly flakes fall outside.

I like making minestrone, and chilli, and roast beef, and baked ziti, and spaghetti Bolognese.

And I feel like we didn’t get our fair share of winter this year. Granted, I happen to think that Toronto looks especially pretty when it’s “Rosy and Gray” out (as Ron Hawkins put it).

But this year there’s been far too much grey. Not nearly enough fluffy-white-stuff.

If you decide to make that brisket I gave the recipe for yesterday (or have already made it – and good on you for that) here is what you should do if there are any leftovers:

1. Warm up any leftover gravy and add in any leftover meat.
2. Make some fries (my oven roasted potatoes sliced into shoestrings will do).
3. Crumble up a couple hundred grams of fontina cheese.
4. Indulge in some of the best poutine of your life.

My theory is: Calories don’t count in February. Especially not when your boyfriend is sick and snuffly and grumpy and pathetic and has to head to work on a cold night.

It was probably wandering past all the restaurants serving up fillet minion in a red wine reduction on Valentines day, but for some reason I wanted something red, beefy, winey and onion studded for dinner that night.

But, being the kind of person that can’t leave well enough alone, I didn’t want to blow 30 bucks on some boring tenderloin or other schmancy cut of meat. In the grocery store, at the butchers counter, I had an epiphany, “Ooooh… a combo the best of the two finest beef dishes known to man: brisket and bourguignon! That’s it!”

This recipe is not for the faint of heart. Or faint of meat.

A brisket is the ideal meal when you’ve got some extra patience and time on your hands – it doesn’t require too much active participation, but does some require some time (3-4 hours) to gently braise. The other night Liam was working at a local theatre, so I knew he wouldn’t get home ’til late. Perfect opportunity for some braising.

We got some great Argentinean merlot for this. You don’t need to get anything fancy, but it has to be a pretty butch red wine to stand up to the red meat. Of course, a Burgundy would be most authentic – but this is not meant to be authentic boeuf bourguignon, it is merely an interpretation of it’s flavours. So really, anything goes, and I decided to keep things relatively simple – a good cut of beef doesn’t need too much mucking around with.

This serves two with leftovers. Which you will most definitely want.

bourguignon brisket with roasted potatoes

• 1 small beef brisket (apx 1 pound of meat)
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 cup of good vegetable stock (home made would be ideal)
• 1/2 pound of small shallots (or apx. 1 dozen , or a good handful)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tablespoons of cold butter
• 1 pound of potatoes
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• Cracked black pepper corns
• Course sea salt

1. Peel the shallots, but leave them whole. Dice the garlic. Season the meat with the salt, pepper and diced garlic – vigourously massaging it it into the meat.
2. Put the meat into a small casserole dish with a lid. The brisket should have a bit of fat on one side. Put that side up. If it does not have much fat on the top (and believe me, fat is very necessary to keep the meat from drying out), put the butter right on top of the meat.
   Pour the wine, herbs and shallots in (reserving one shallot). There should be enough liquid to almost cover the meat.
3. Put it in the oven (preheated to 300 F) covered and leave it there for 3-4 hours – checking occasionally (every 30-60 minutes) to make sure it does not dry out.
   The liquid should slowly evaporate and thicken (leaving you with a delicious sauce) but if it is evaporating too quickly, feel free to top up with stock and baste as neeed.
4. Now for the potatoes: 1 hour before you expect the brisket to be done, chop up the potatoes and place them on a baking sheet with 1 tsp of olive oil, and a good coating of salt and pepper, and the reserved shallot (diced). Take the brisket out of the oven, and “borrow” a teaspoon or so of it’s roasting juices to add in with the potatoes. Toss well. Return both the meat, and the potatoes to the oven.
5. The brisket is done when it falls apart at the mere sight of a utensil… Ok, not quite, but when it should shred really easily with a fork. Remove the meat from the oven and it’s pan and wrap it in tin foil, letting it rest for 15 minutes to a half hour.
   Remove the bay leaf from the juices and if you have not yet used the butter, add it to the sauce now (it may be kept warm in the oven until the meat is ready to serve).
6. After the designated waiting period, you should shred the meat with a fork into manageable pieces and give it a light coating of the sauce. The potatoes should also be done around now – they should be evenly gold, crispy and roasted on the outside, and soft on the inside.
7. Serve the roasted potates and shredded, saucy brisket accompanied by freshly steamed and salted green vegetables (we had rapini, which was excellent) and a vessel of the rich, juicy, shallot-studded sauce.

Yesterday was surprisingly pleasant. We don’t normally go in for much holiday related festivities on Valentines day – we generally find it a bit tacky.

And I don’t even mean just all the red and pink and hearts – that stuff I don’t mind.

I actually kind of like red and pink and hearts.

It’s more just the clichés that get to me. (Red roses, champagne, teddy bears and all the other commercialized “hallmarks” of a greeting card holiday.)

And of course on the other side of the coin you’ve got all the virulent anti-valentines day people. (So you’re single. I get it. Do you cry on Fathers Day because you don’t have a father? How about Secretaries’ Day because you lost your secretary in a freak typing accident? Flag day, because you were once choked by oversized Australian flag? Black History Month because you’re a WASP? Let your coupled friends celebrate the love in their life and get over yourself.)

Overall, I really believe that romance is spontaneous. Romance should just… kind of… happen.

The more you plan and plot and organize and carefully schedule romance the less romantic it becomes.

And yesterday, Toronto sparkled under a good two feet of confetti like powder.

So we headed out to the Distillery District – it’s pretty red brick Victorian industrial buildings looked very nice indeed under it’s fluffy blanket of snow.

We had Mayan hot chocolate and a few choice truffles at Soma Chocolate Shop – I’ve heard that the place is amazing and the best chocolate in the city – and I was not disappointed.

The hot chocolate was gently spiced with chilli pepper, cinnamon and Madagascar vanilla – just enough to warm the back of your throat – but not burn your lips. Absolutely perfect for a blustery February day.

The truffles were truly some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had! They had that gentle crackle and crunch when you bit into them that instantly melted inside your mouth – and a perfectly clean chocolate flavour on the inside. Not too sweet, no muddiness, just clean, clear, creamy, smooth chocolate flavour. My favourite was a cocoa powder covered whiskey flavoured one (appropriate because the Distillery was once actually a distillery, of course).

One of the best parts about Soma is the gigantic windows they have where you can watch the chefs prepare the chocolate – and they make much of their chocolate from scratch (!!!) so it’s an incredibly interesting process.

Afterwards we stopped by my absolute favourite store/gallery in Toronto – Distill. I do not have the money for anything there but my hope is that one day my entire wardrobe will be purchased there. At very least, I always pick up a few new ideas whenever I push past those big heavy old doors and above all else I find inspiration hopelessly romantic – and vice versa.

So due to the blizzard of the century that is continuing to fill my window panes with snow we didn’t get to have Tapas yesterday.

Which is too bad, but also okay because instead we had Portuguese churrasqueira – chicken (with sticky piri-piri sauce) and a HUGE dolce de leche and strawberry torte. My family came down from the suburbs for post-birthday celebrations (my birthday was on Sunday), and it was pretty a cosy event.

We’ll make it to tapas eventually – specifically this place which looks AMAZING. I’ve never seen so many things on one menu. Certainly not so many that I actually found intriguing.

We did get buttons (big swirly plastic horn ones) for my coat.

We also found two brand new jackets for Liam (black velvet AND brown suede). Plus a bunch of adorable skinny ties, (that I’m going to make even more adorable) at the thrift store. He will be styling and suave next time he get’s a big interview. No more scouring the house for his one nice tie.

No yarn yet though. Got a bit distracted by the jackets, and then we had to beat it back to home to meet up with my little brother.

It’s too bad about the yarn. Would have been nice to curl up in this Winter Wonderland that’s going on out there with some knitting. Will have to make due with some button sewing.

Today I plan on:

1. Buying some yarn to make something with (maybe I should decide what I’m making before I purchase not enough yarn in the wrong size… – another scarf?)
2. buying some buttons for my currently button-less pea-coat so I don’t catch my death of the cold (it’s khaki cotton duck and goes with everything – I’m thinking of going in a tortoiseshell, or military brass direction)
3. thifting up some ties I can alter and make fashionable for the boy (with silk screen and embroidery and felt maybe?)
4. crossing my fingers that Liam’s interview yesterday went well (I’d really, really, really enjoy being the well-heeled girlfriend of a hot young copy writer for an advertising firm)
5. having tapas for the first time

Just because I am, like, the best girlfriend ever, I just re-designed Liam’s website for him. Check it out, it’s extra pretty.

Yeah, you wish I were your girlfriend right now.

Here are my inspirations this time around:

1. the colour of a manilla envelope
2. vintage office supplies
3. Paul Smith‘s stripes
4. Get Smart
5. the Game of Life‘s logo

Just ’cause I’m not in school, doesn’t mean I want to stop learning. Never. I want to be self-taught. Here’s how I’m going to do it.

I’m gonna do my best to:

1. be serious and professional when learning, creating and pursuing
2. be open-minded and light-hearted when learning, creating and pursuing
3. go ahead and aquire (and read) as many good art, illustration and design books as I can, whenever I can
   (right now: rummaging thrift stores for vintage children’s books counts)
4. go ahead and buy tools that will make it easier and more fun for me to create whenever I can
   (right now: one of those little wooden bendy model guys and an adjustable stool for my drafting table)
5. take workshops somewhere in something technical but creative whenever I can
   (right now: print making, or jewellery smithing, or comic creation really interest me)
6. go to LOTS of life drawing
7. read more (everyday)
8. write/blog more (everyday)
9. draw more (everyday)
10. create, for no reason other than to create (everyday)

So long as I make some kind of change to myself or my environment, made something happen, learned/made/created/adapted/altered something in the world somehow (flapped my butterfly wings, hoping for a hurricane in Guatemala, so to speak) it’ll be a good day.

Some interesting reading on being self-taught:
autodidacticism
amateurs are the devil

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that my solution to many an art related conundrum is: faux-wood, peel-and-stick vinyl. I love me the fake wood shelf paper.

Maybe it seems at first an odd choice, perhaps a bit trendy, perhaps a bit kitschy – but it actually has some significance to me, odd as it is.

My grandfather (being the crafty cocktail gentleman that he was) loved the modern world. He surfed the net, read the New York Times, and downloaded mp3s of vintage jazz singles.

He loved pretty much any modern innovation – the quicker and the simpler it made his life, the better.

For example, he was a huge fan of the pressed aluminum cladding that made his work (as a heating and furnace guy) much easier.

When he saw the way Franky Gehry used these resilient sheets of metal to sculpt entire buildings he was impressed.

So, needless to say, wood on a roll was something he used quite a bit of. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he loved his Chinese antiques, but if something needed doing, it might just have gotten a coating of sticky vinyl by the end.

So you know those boring black sketchbooks? The really cheap ones you can get at any art supply store? I use them. If I used anything more expensive I’d be too worried about making a mistake and ruining them, and wouldn’t be as loose and experimental with my sketching as I like to be. So I don’t use those expensive moleskins that are so popular. Instead I just personalize the cheap ones and make them look pretty: I cover them in wood grain vinyl.

And now you know why.

Sooooooo… What do you think? Of the re-design? Like what I’ve done with the place? Go ahead, Click around, check it out, you’ll find a few new things hidden here and there (hint: check out my links page, and my sidebars). Please tell me if anything is ceasing to be functional for you, or if my link colours are too bright, or if my text is not readable enough, or if my sidebar is not where it should be (to the left of the main content, by the way…).

In the meantime, here’s a few of my inspirations for that header image up there:

1. Geisha of course
2. Mamechiyo’s kimonos (especially on blythe dolls)
3. Vintage illustrations of Chinese ladies in cheongsam (sometimes known as “Shanghai girls”)
4. Miso Pretty’s take on shanghai girls – really awesome product design (hint#1: if you ever wondered what to give me as a present… hint#2: my birthday is on the eleventh…)
5. Mary Blair’s “It’s a Small World” murals in combination with her Cinderella concept designs
6. Cupcakes! Yay!

I’ve been thinking a lot about how me being at Art School was like playing a shell game.

An awful lot of people were selling it awfully hard. And it seemed like some of them had made a go of it (though usually under much different circumstances). And yeah I was doing very well on my first attempt. Very very well. I won my first try. I found the nut under the shell. I won.

But I looked around at an awful lot of the artists I respect, and they claim to be ‘self taught’ and do very well for themselves. Some of them were even my professors.

And the first question I would ask anyone is: do you need a degree to be an illustrator? And the answer would always be a resounding no.

The second question I’d ask is: Why does none of this make sense? Why am I not learning here? And their answer would be: You’ll understand when you graduate. When you get out there in the real world. When you start working.

Funny thing is, I already have some experience with the real world…

And I know, I know, that ultimately it was just a waste of my money. All I really want, or need is some more life drawing experience. And OCAD had cut life drawing in first year down to almost nothing. And I can find life drawing classes (without disgruntled professors who force me to draw with messy charcoal) for 10 bucks a pop throughout the city. And I can go (or not go) whenever I feel like it.

I’m smart enough and strong enough to be an artist on my own without gambling my time away at shell games.

Because the wisest move you could make in a shell game is to walk away.

For Christmas, on a whim, my sister got me the Amy Sedaris cookbook from Urban Outfitters, guessing that I might like it.

Boy was she right, I LOVE IT. So much so, that I ordered it from Amazon so it would arrive on it’s release date. I already had it sitting on my shelf at home.

But it was ok, because my mom traded it in for a gift card. Now, I haven’t been to Urban Outfitters in a while, but it turns out the place is much more than just genitalia shaped pasta, and ironic T-shirts. There’s pretty much A TON of stuff there right now that I LOVE that looks like it would fit right in at my apartment (most specifically in my bedroom which is the last room in my house that needs sorting out and decorating).

I like the retro birdcage bedspread, because I do not have enough retro in my life as it is. One can never have enough. Plus, there are matching curtains.

I’ve always wanted a sparkly thing to hang above the bed. I like sparkly things. I like staring up at sparkly things.

I often faint and think “man, I wish there was a sofa here to catch my fall.” Well, there’s always this product. Extravagant furniture I don’t have the money or room for? Yeah, that would be nice, thank you.

There’s also the most likely suspect/bedspread. It’s got a kimono theme. Guess what Asian accruement I am obsessed with right now? Yeah, I might just actually purchase that one. It’s purty.

But I also like this adorable quilt It would match the vintage quilt block I’ve got hanging over the window.

This lamp would make my Chinese dude lamp a matching couple then my lamps could date. Or get into scraps with my jaguar lamp (that still needs to be re-wired).

I also giggle a bit at these hot pink sheets that look classy, but aren’t, at all. They’re pretty classic Urban Outfitters fare.

But, then again, I may just blow the whole kit and caboodle on…

Shooooooooooooooes!

Do you think 50 bucks should cover it all?

The other night I was at my parents house and they somehow roped me into making dinner. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but it had something to do with my little brothers love of Mexican food, the general lack of said Mexican food up there in sunny north Toronto and there being a unappetizing frozen lasagna in the deep freeze.

I think at some point I mentioned that I could make a mean enchilada, and how they are the (muchos easier) Mexican equivalent to lasagna…

And suddenly I was making them dinner in their own house.

Seriously though. Enchiladas are muchos easier to make than lasagna. Especially my recipe which relies on a few grocery store helpers (like those rotisserie chickens and a bottle of tomatillo salsa).
But if you want to spend a couple hours roasting a chicken, make your own tortillas from scratch and hunt down tomatilos in the dead of winter, then be my guest (actually, having fresh tomatilos might be worth it – they are super yummy and sweet).

My family devoured my enchilada, so I’ve decided to publish it here so they (and you) can make it themselves next time.

chicken, chorizo and black bean enchiladas

You will need:

• 1 whole rotisserie chicken
• 1 package of flour tortillas (10 small OR 6 large)
• 1 jar of salsa verde (green tomatillo salsa)
• 1 cup of shredded monterey jack cheese (or cheddar, or mozzarella, or whatever you like, or have got on hand)
• 1 chorizo sausage
• 1 small can of black beans
• 1 small can of diced tomatoes
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 chilli pepper or dash of hot sauce
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

1. First, remove the meat from the bones of the chicken and shred it into small pieces with a fork. Then, chop the chorizo and pepper into bite size pieces and dice the onion and clove of garlic.
2. Now, sauté the chorizo for a few minutes. You should not need to add any oil as the chorizo’s fat will melt and release it’s oil into the pan. Add the onion, pepper and garlic and continue sautéing until the onion is soft. Add the shredded chicken, beans, tomatoes, cilantro and spices and simmer on medium for 10 – 20 minutes, or until the flavours meld.
3. All right, now for the messy bit: One at a time, gently fold the tortillas (so they curve into a U shape, like tacos) and fit them upright into a casserole dish so that they are all evenly spaced and fit nicely. This will make filling easy. Then, take your filling and spoon it into each tortilla. When each and every tortilla is evenly filled, carefully tuck the flaps of each tortilla down and around so that instead of a U you now have a tube.
4. Don’t worry if some of the flaps still stick up. You’re just going to dump sauce and cheese on the top, and that will weigh them down. So go ahead. Spread the salsa on top (you’ll probably only need about 2/3 of the jar), and then sprinkle the cheese evenly over that.
5. Then stick it in the oven and broil the heck out of it – in other words, until the cheese on top is golden and bubbly (probably not more than 10 minutes). You’re done! Yummy!

P.S. You could make this vegetarian really easily by omitting the chorizo and chicken and replacing it with a dash of olive oil (for sauteing the veggies) and couple cups of cooked rice. It’s already got black beans, so your protein is covered. You could probably even take it up to eleven/vegan if you hunted down some veggie cheese.

Almost finished with my re-design…

Not quite finished with that header up there (the cupcake’s really just a placeholder for now).

Whenever I get into these site overhauls I get a bit obsessed. Thankfully this time I didn’t stay up all night ultimate fighting code.

As you might be able to tell (if you’re at all familiar with these things) I used K2 which is supposed to be the best template out there for wordpress.

It’s all right. Maybe it’s the code induced exhaustion but I’m not sure I can recommend it yet. We’ll see though. It took a long time to figure out what did what. K2 allows you to override the out of the box CSS style-sheet with your own custom style without altering the original code, but I had to stick: “!important” (a CSS code that makes your code literally more important) in front of everything to get anything I wanted to stick.

There was also a lot of finicky stuff hidden away that had to be hunted down and made right.

I’ve at least got it looking the way I want it now.