This year, I got what I wanted!
We are brining our first turkey, and it does look rather pretty (as Nigella’s Christmas cookbook said it would). I’ve never made one before, but since they were on sale, and I got a big honking roasting pan for a wedding present, I figured: why not?
In other less pleasant new, as you could tell from my tweetings, we have Christmas mice! Not as cute as it sounds, I’m afraid.
Thankfully we have a house full of (now) seasoned mouse hunters, and have caught and released all the creatures we’ve found so far.
Also thankfully, they seem to solely be living in our lower kitchen cupboards, which store mostly cookware and well sealed pantry goods.
The little buggers were smart enough to claw through the plaster in the exact right sliver of a spot on the wall, which was not covered in wood, and would give them entrance to our cupboards.
They were not, however, smart enough to choose a house wihout 3 resident cats.
The first years my parents got married, my mom sewed up some Christmas decorations for their little Scarborough basement apartment out of bright green and red and white calico. She made two lovely stockings, and a bunch of little love birds for their tree.
Every Christmas they get pulled out from storage, and still look beautiful – they’ve held up better than most of our familys other ornaments. And on Christmas morning, if I’m at home I wake up to the handmade green stocking, at the end of my bed.
So, now that this is our first married Christmas, I figured I’d make some little love birds for us too, out of more scraps leftover from the wedding
This is my wonky little birdy prototype. He’s a little funny looking, but he’s a first attempt, and I think once I tweak the placement on the next one, he’ll be looking much cuter.
But now… Mmmmmmmmmmm… Liam is baking bread! So excited!
Today we decorated while listening to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes on vinyl – both really cozy winter albums.
I even crafted up a new garland for the tree – it was just little circles cut out of scrap fabric from all those banners I made for the wedding. I just ran them through the sewing machine in a row. Easy!
In fact, I think I’m going to make a more thorough attempt at holiday crafting this year.
I still haven’t really talked about Paris.
I think I’m still absorbing it.
When I got back from my last big vacation – London a couple years ago – I hated being back in North America. I watched the BBC because all accents that weren’t British felt like they hurt my ears to hear.
I actually wanted out of Paris, bad by the last couple days – but not because I hated it.
I was sick with pandemic flu, exhausted, overwhelmed and wanted my own bed and North American drugs!
But being back now, living our lives here, every once in a while I am reminded of a moment, a view, a time on our honeymoon, and am transported back, quite distinctly.
Yesterday I was hit with a remembrance of perching on the edge of a crooked little cobblestone street – more of an alley, really – in the old Jewish neighborhood, with night time revelers, and scooters flying past us while we gobbled up some of the messiest and most delicious falafels of our lives.
I think that little trip of ours is going to carry us through our lives. Which I guess, is exactly what a honeymoon should be.
A couple years ago, there were a bunch of one pot wonder dishes floating around on the food blogs that involved chicken cooked in with rice. I usually have pretty specific methods of cooking rice, so the concept of just throwing it in a pot with a bunch of other stuff seemed pretty far out to me.
How did the chicken cook properly!?
How did the rice not stick!?
How did it all not end up one gloppy mess!?
Then I came across everybody like sandwiches version, and I knew I had to give it a try anyways.
And… it was delicious. Not gloppy at all. And the chicken was roasty and toasty and perfectly cooked!
Then I forgot about it for the last two years…
But I brought home a beautiful bright red Staub cocotte from Paris, and suddenly one pot dishes were on my mind. As were the rich, rustic flavoured foods of North Africa, like the Tagine I had in a little Tunisian restaurant in the Latin Quarter.
And I was reminded of that one pot chicken and rice that was so delish. And perfect for a dreary November.
So here’s my take on the dish – with a little bit of North African flair – although to be fair, they’d probably use cous-cous instead of rice. But since Liam actually said he liked this better than the food we had in Paris (high praise indeed) I recommend sticking with rice. But you could easily make this vegan, just like Kickpleat suggests by substituting chick peas (a very North African choice, by the way).
One Pot Chicken and Rice – with North African Flavours
So it’s been a while. And I have so much to share!
But I’m trying to get this (likely) pandemic flu out of me first. It’s set up shop in my respitory system, and it’s taking it’s sweet time moving on.
In the meantime, we bought a PS3 with some of our wedding funds, so I’ve been playing a lot of Fat Princess.
I also bought myself a copy of Julia Child’s mastering the art of French cooking so I can replicate some of the French food I had on my honeymoon – so much butter and cream, I hope I don’t myself become a fat princess!!! I get to use the beautiful Staub cocette I brought back from Paris, which makes everything a little yummier and a little easier.
Last night I recreated that scene from Julie and Julia where Amy Adams makes Beouf Bourguignon and pretty green gimlets. Except for I didn’t get drunk and burn it, of course!
One week ago today I was married.
I could make a list of all the things that went wrong (It rained, we forgot our bestman’s tie, we had no non-alcoholic beverages, someone cracked the croquembouche before we got to it).
But none of that mattered because it was perfect, perfect, perfect. Better than perfect, actually.
Despite all of it, I don’t feel that different today.
Happy, certainly…
Well rested (at long last)…
Relieved that we pulled it all off without a hitch (well, maybe that one)…
Excited to be jetting off to Paris in two weeks…
But I don’t love Liam any more or less. I don’t feel any more committed to him than before we slipped on our rings.
We’ve always been connected, always felt that we were forever.
The way I’ve always looked at it this big shindig, is that we were throwing this big amazing party – less to act like the glue to our relationship, the thing that cements us together – and more a celebration of the strength of the bond that was already, always, there.
And that’s what it was: The biggest, best party of our lives. With all the people we love most.
Do you get how perfect, perfect, perfect that is?
These are some of my new things from the shower. My cupboards just looked so shiny and pretty, I had to share.
So far, I’ve been sleeping on satiny new sheets, dining off these lovely dishes, and stocking my gourmet kithen and it’s enough to make a girl feel like she’s on holiday!
Also of note: look how my Fire King collection has grown! My lovely aunt Lisa did a little bit of sleuthing and found out that I love old fire king mugs. So she ordered a pretty little lot of them on eBay for me! Isn’t that so thoughtful! I particularly love the old pink one. I’ve never seen one like that before – isn’t it cute?
These are the invites, if you haven’t seen them yet. I’m pretty proud of them, actually. And I should be – they were weeks and weeks of work!
Pie? You ask.
Yep, pie. We’re asking all our friends to bring their favourite pie in lieu of desert.
Pie is, I guess, the closest thing we have to a theme for this shindig, along with a collegiate, 30’s, Wodehousian flavour (yes, we’re complex, abstract kinda people).
I’m particularily happy with the way it all came together… our concept being rather complex and abstract and all. All those colours, all those themes, all our ideas, they’re in there somewhere, represented and personified. Which is ideal really – they say an invite should be a hint, a taste of what’s to come.
So hopefully that means that all our hard work will ultimately pay off on the big day, like it did with our invites.
This is why I’ve been away from writing. Those invitations. They are beautiful, they are done, they are away, and they’ve mostly been recieved – so I can talk to you about them without ruining any of the surprise.
And so far, everyones been delightfully surprised. I like making a splash with my little bursts of carefully plotted ephemera. It makes all the weeks (and weeks and weeks) of careful plotting and planning worthwhile.
Especially since, now, I’m a little distracted from wedding planning.
What? However could I be distracted from something so vital, so big, so exciting?
Well… Paris!
We’re honeymooning in Paris. Yes, a cliche, I know, but a good one, don’t you think? Something worth doing, worth experiencing, even if it’s been done before.
Finally working on the invites. Actually the bulk of the work is done. I’ve been slow and sluggish working on things, but I want to get it right.
Other than that, I’m enjoying the summer, in a variety of ways. We went to my familys cottage last week, and yesterday we took a stroll down the street through little India looking for shawls for me and my bridesmaids. I dreamed of dressing like an extra in the Darjeeling Limited – and was nearly convinced to by a lady in a shop who told me: “everyone should wear sari!”
Then we got a snack from a street vendor – fresh grilled corn on the cob smothered in butter, lime juices and spices – amazing!
I would apologise for for the lack of reading material, but what are you doing inside reading this? Get out there, enjoy it too!
Honest Ed’s is a funny place. It makes me feel a combination of excitement and depression when I’m inside it.
It’s so old fashioned with it’s flashing lights, it’s antique entertainers eight by tens, and hand painted signage. There’s the smell of cheap, Chinese plastic, thick in the air – obviously toxic.
But then I find certified organic shampoo for sale, and all is forgiven.
You can’t go in expecting to find exactly what you want, but often you’ll find something you need anyway.
We’re sitting in a friend’s shady, cool backyard, with a couple of beers, and their dog who we just tuckered out – pretty much completely.
It’s a fancier part of the Annex, bordering on Yorkville and it’s fun to imagine living in one of the beautiul old victorian mansions somday, ripping out the walls and finding treasures and secrets burried inside.
Despite the rather European calliber of strikes in this fair city, it’s been a swell summer so far, and I’m willing to bet it will continue to be one.
I picked up new glasses this week.
I wanted something a little more nerdy, but also sophisticated, and I think I achieved that.
I went all the way to the crazy, gigantic, asian mall here (also known as Pacific Mall) to find them, as I heard from a fellow blogger that there was a good little glasses kiosk there.
The frames I found are by SALT – which is apparently a very trendy california company whose styles are worn by all the celebrities. I just liked that they were a sturdy, classic design, made of a funky, gradated, grey plastic (I’m a sucker for flashy, layered plastics).
We have been making beer at a local u-brew in preparation for the wedding. Not only does this save us money, but it is a whole lot of fun to experiment with!
We’ve found a spot that can make pretty much any kind of beer you can dream up – so far we’ve made an easy-on-the-corriander belgian white beer, and next up is oatmeal stout with a whisper of coffee!
Despite the rather cool weather we’ve been having we managed to find a sunny afternoon to enjoy our beer in our new lawn chairs (they were Ikeas’s last two in the whole province. I love their bright red colour – it really pops against the grass, and makes them feel funky and retro and maybe a little european to me).
I went to a costume sale last weekend where a bunch of vintage clothing sellers, and movie costumers were selling off old stock. I expected to find a few wedding related bargains, and boy, did I ever!
I came home with a lovely old antique kimono that I’m going to wear when I get ready – vintage boudoir style! It is bright green, with pink lotus flowers painted on it, and a bright pink silk trim on the inside, that coyly peeks out (it doesn’t seem to photograph so well, unfortunately – at least not with my crappy little iPhone camera!). It’s much brighter than I originally pictured, but I’m a pretty bright person, and it matches my bedroom – so I think I could probably hang it up in there as art when I’m not wearing it (double score!).
It was – get this – 30 bucks! And it’s real, direct from Japan! The idea of vintage clothing – clothing someone else wore once – sometimes creeps me out a little, but I love the idea that some little Japanese girl once wore my kimono – maybe to a happy picnic under cherry blossoms!
I still need to figure out some sort of belt for it – I was thinking of going a non traditional route and buying one of those metallic bow belts from American Apparel. But if I find an more appropriate obi-like solution, I might go in that direction too.
My parents recently got back from a lovely vacation in Greece and Turkey, and brought me back (along with Ouzo, Turkish Delight and olive oil soap) something I’ve wanted for quite a while:
A pouf!
It’s not the fanciest pouf (it’s large, unembellished and a plain off-white) but it makes the perfect ottoman for my vintage velvet club chair…
And a good cat bed on occasion.
The best part is it comes unstuffed, so it didn’t take up a huge amount of room in my parents luggage, and it was TEN EUROS.
Which, if you’ve ever looked at purchasing one on this continent is about 1/10th the price you find them for here.
We had a great long weekend. An especially nice day was had on Saturday, as we took a trip to Kensington Market and popped into my favorite little Mexican grocer to pick up some exotic, fun ingredients. This is part of my vow to make this summer the Summer of the Burrito, in this house.
I always get stuck in a rut come the hot months, cooking my house into a humid, hot mess (soup? in August? What was I thinking!) when I should be eating foods that require little to no cooking! So the Summer of the Burrito is my way of combating that. They can be stuffed with lots of fresh ingredients, grilled meats, and if I want to make rice and beans ahead of time in the cooler parts of the day, they’re pretty self contained in a pot, and they re-heat super easy! And all I need to have around to make it happen is lots of tortillas, which keep much longer than bread does (which is an an issue in house of only two people – you can never finish the whole loaf before it goes stale).
It’s a pretty ideal plan, actually.
What did I get in the market? Wonderful fresh tomatillos, a poblano pepper, 4 ridiculously cheap limes, a few delicious sodas (made with cane sugar!) and a bar of mexican hot chocolate – man is that stuff good! I’m actually wondering if it would taste good chilled over ice, but I also enjoy a little hot chocolate in the summer sometimes too. It reminds me of my grandparents, who used to let me run through the sprinkler in their backyard, but then would wrap me in towels and give me hot chocolate afterwards.
The tomatillios found their way into a salsa verde, of course. I’ve been making a lot of my own condiments recently because, well, I kinda have this thing for them. My fridge is crammed full of condiments. So I’ve vowed, rather than let the fridge burst at the seams I’m making more of my own. And salsa is a great place to start it’s so easy, and – with a little salt and citric acid to preserve it, it will last for a couple weeks (in the fridge of course). Best of all fresh homemade salsa is soooooooo much better than the bottled stuff!
Salsa Verde
I have been searching for old fireking mugs, for pretty much as long as I’ve been thrifting – and I’ve been hitting the sally annes and charity shops for a very long time (I did grow up in the nineties, after all). I only ever find ugly orange and brown seventies ones, or McDonald’s branded eighties one. Ideally, I’d like the pretty primary coloured fifties and sixties ones.
There is a beautiful diamond patterned set my family shares up at our cottage, in all 4 colours (red, yellow, turquoise and dark green) still in great condition… But of course I can’t just take those. They belong to the cottage.
Finally, a few weeks ago, while thrifting, I ran across this old beaut! He’s not in perfect condition, but he’s charming nevertheless.
Most mornings now, I fill him up (rather triumphantly) with some good South African rooiboos.
Christine on tweets for 2010-01-25
the Sis on christmas ready
kickpleat on a chicken (and rice) in every pot Christine on married kickpleat on married