DIY Wedding Favours

My friend and roller derby coach threw together her wedding to her beau of nine years over just under a month and had lots of cute, genuine, DIY bits about her wedding: everyone did their bit. I offered to do her "giveaway" and made her s'more packets. I got s'mores ingredients and put them in nice goody bags and sealed them with a label that said, "Wes & Holly Smorever!" So good.

De-Limpify Your Summer Greens

When I was in elementary school I was a big dork. I did science fair every year that I could until I figured it wasn't cool anymore which was probably Grade 6 when I was invited to have my project displayed at the High School next door. My 'Handwashing Kills Bacteria' was an enormous hit for teachers trying to teach disgusting teenagers to wash their filthy hands but It was a lesson in humiliation for a buck-toothed, floppy haired 6th grader dressed like a 40 year old Christian choir leader.

The project I remember most fondly was pretty darned cool (or more likely I was too young to realize what a dork I was becoming)* and I use this technique to 'spruce up' wilted, sad greens from the Farmer's Market. 

Does this happen to you? You've enjoyed  a leisurely Saturday morning with family or friends, walking to market, perusing the local bounty, sipping coffees downtown only to find depressingly limp greens in your shopping bag when you (finally) get home? 

Just chop the bottom with a knife, (a serrated one works well for woody stuff like bunches of oregano) and put your greens and herbs in glass jars or containers and leave them on the counter or in the fridge.  Never again will you have limp greens! It's science!! (which I think is just... Magic: Explained). It's like having a little counter top garden and the duck has fun picking herbs from it to add to her noodles and cheese.

Boo-urns

The (boo-urns) bok choy above has had the water evaporated from it's cells. The plant cells themselves get all limpy and kind of empty. Think of a garden hose that has no water in it, it is sort of like that. When you add the greens to water, the plant sucks up the moisture and the cells fill back up again and are firm and lovely. Just like your full hose. Tadaa! It's Magic!!

Tadaa!

*If you care: The project included celery with leaves on top that I dunked in water with food colouring, the celery used the coloured water for hydration and you could see the colouring in the celery. I think I used red and I remember that you could see where the celery plant sucked up the water, some ended up in the leaves too. It was pretty cool, well maybe it was.

Happy National Aboriginal Day!

Watching how to process and bbq salmon with the almighty Robinson Family of the Tseshaht First Nation

 Today is National Aboriginal Day! It's a day to celebrate all Aboriginal people in Canada in the way that you want to. So at my work we throw a huge feast and expect to feed somewhere between 500 and 600 people. Today was a doozie, but a lot of fun. I got to sit with the Robinsons and watch them process 50 salmon, cutting them open, flattening them on stakes, and leaning them in bricks to bbq over a fire. I sat outside for maybe 30-45 minutes and learned so much (even some Nuu-chah-nulth) and it's humbling to know how much more I have to learn.

We cut SO MANY watermelon which we then served to over 550 people! 

My coworker Irene makes the best baked bannok ever. She made loaf after loaf starting at 7am this morning. At the end of our day we ended up dipping the crusts in icing: it tasted like an old fashioned doughnut.

Aboriginal Day, like Women's Day, is really important to me. I get super politicized about issues relating to Aboriginal people in Canada and this day is a good one to pull people together to be together. With the current political climate and the STUPID FUCKING Federal Government (and they're beloved treasury board) and then the recent cuts to a 22M Aboriginal youth fund for all of Canada (3M in BC alone, 1.5M in the lower mainland) if more than one Aboriginal person is in a room, it's definitely political.  There was a recent article in the Georgia Straight about warrior nations and societies and I'm looking forward to the resurgence.

WIPs (Is it wednesday already?)

It's the first day of summer! First of all I'm so glad I was up before 6:30 today because it was actually sunny! Now the overcast sky is the perfect excuse to sit inside and watch House all day long and not feel guilty! 

I sold my car yesterday. Looking for a little truck to replace it.YIP! 

It's summer! Time to break out the Hef!

I donated blood last week for the first time ever and was happy to find this great bike rack out front! 

Rejuvenating wilted greens after cutting the bottoms and sticking them in water.
...it's alive! The chives started blooming on the counter yesterday.

Latest idea to transform the duck's noodles & cheese into something I want to eat too.

New glasses for the duck? 

Community: Bike to Work Week is wrapping up! It was crazy busy during the week, then I started working a lot at the hospital, so things were on the proverbial back burner for a while there. I'm not too worried about it because deadlines are approaching for reporting and we'll be awarding prizes and certificates at City Council on June 25th. So I think that the timing is pretty good. Announcements for prizes went out yesterday (2 weeks after BTWW was over, 1 week after results deadline) and the award ceremony will be next week. Things will be a little more formal at Council this year so we'll see how that goes. I'm planning an informal get-together for BTWWers at Nancy O's (a sponsor) after the meeting too. That should be fun. I've also been approached to do another radio spot now that it's all over and have been informally invited to take on a role in the Urban Cycling Coalition here in P.G.. What that would probably mean is that I would step down from the derby board (though maybe I can still Chair the fundraising committee?!) Anywho, I think it's time for a change. So it might be a good thing? Maybe I need to use my crazy mad skillz for something else for a while, like being an Urban Ambassador of AWESOME for P.G.. Is there funding for that? 

Craft: Diandra and I are scheming a Home Sweet Home Knit Along. We are thinking about featuring 1new exciting and fun knitwear designer per quarter, you get to decide the project  that you want. We are almost ready to announce the details for the first designer so stick around! You know it's going to be fabulous!

I feel kind of stuck with knitting since I have just finished a bunch of larger projects and don't really like to ones I have left. I recently picked up a bunch of yarn from the thrift store ($1 per ball!). The haul includes some chunky handspun (yee!), heathered chunky slippers for me yarn, and some cotton for dying. I think I'll make it into a craft with the duck; we'll wind it into cakes then dye in the cake with boiling hot koolaid! Then knit it into more Ball Band dishcloths. I bought some handpainted by Darlene (the former owner of Robyn's downtown P.G.) and will make 'Pick, Pick, Pick it up!' with it. It's really nice looking. Heading down to her shop today to wind it into hanks. How depressing another 'summer' where I'm knitting winter projects. Good for local yarn shops, bad for my psyche. Mark said the other day, "If we have another crappy summer, we are moving to the Okanagan". I have to agree except I would miss my friends/family and OK derby girls are bitchy. I started sewing more last week and am going to start making Coffee Date Dresses in all sizes. I've already been commissioned to make one for BB Gunz. I'm looking for a new sewing machine now since I'm tired of fighting with my old one. I hates it! 

Kitchen: My fridge is maybe dying so I've basically been living on very few perishables and have been storing my greens on the counter. Have you ever tried this? I love it! The green look great sitting proudly and full on the counter in jars of water. I'm soaking mung beans now that I found my pickle container (in the dying freezer holding parmesan rinds for soup) which I think is the perfect bean sprouting container. Making cookies occaisionally and I found this link to make artisan bread in a roasting pan. Oh, it's nice. I'm looking for a bar fridge as well because I want to make my own cheese. Mostly blue cheeses. Would you buy a lovely grey blue locally-made cow's milk cheese? I need a name...Cameron St. Cheese Co.?? Also, I think I got food poisoning last night. Or, my body had a strong aversion to that one tiny sip of tawny that I had. Do you know what happened the last time my body didn't want booze? I had a duck. Here's to hoping it was poison not a parasite. 

Yarn from Darlene

Staying informed

Robyn and I are making cork boards for the D-I-Y Craft Fair this winter

Coffee date dresses for everyone! 

Eating In: Cimo's Tomato Ragu

Ok. So I've been hearing about how easy a simple tomato ragu is to make and haven't done it. Till now. WOW! SO easy and totally exactly like Cimo's (and other fancy italian/pasta houses') tomato sauces.

You will need: 
2 tomatoes
1 glug of olive oil 
1 spoonful of butter or butter-like product
2 garlic cloves
a small handful of fresh basil 
salt and pepper to taste 


Toss all the ingredients into a shallow pot or fry pan. Make your pasta of choise, angel hair is how Cimo serve this stuff but it will also hold up well with a kamut or whole wheat pasta too. As the tomatoes cook, you can smash them up with the back of a fork to create a smoothish texture. Cook until most of the water from the tomatoes has evaporated and the sauce has thickened.
That's it. I'm not kidding.
This sauce is great as a base for other flavours; add chorizo or bacon if you are feeling carnivorous, add some spice, or try it boosted with some shredded spinach freshly picked from your fantastic garden.

Serve this with a bottle (yes, a whole bottle) of an Okanagan Valley grown Meritage or your favorite Pinot Noir for a full-on Cimo experience. Add a loaf of gnarly bread from (a different) Red Rooster and some kind of cheese for a Laura-inspired evening of simple eating bliss.

Hey! It's my mom's Birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!

WIPs

Chocolate cookies dough from smitten kitchen (egg free!)

the colouring page I made for 'Mark McVey's Ice Cream Fun Day' 

Bike rack from Urban Racks Vancouver installed at Team Powerhouse Realty in downtown P.G.

Paulie sweater for me with Briggs sockweight and Jezebel Merino

Hot pink vintage cardigan adapted from Pea Pod Cardigan with Debbie Bliss 4ply

Diandra and I've got lots on the go. It's spring and that means all the regular stuff to do plus a garden plus more biking which makes for a much more enjoyable but albeit busier life. I've been working on having weekly goals (just a to do list with a broader spectrum) and making sure that I take some personal time to read, knit, and take care of myself everyday so that I can get things done and not get too stressed out by the little things. 

Kitchen: I made these double chocolate cookies into bars for our fundraising Garage Sale at Sarabellum's place on the weekend. Holee: yum! Egg free (which was a happy accident since I didn't have any eggs to use), low sugar, high chocolate, and so fucking good. 

Community: Bike to Work Week stuff is wrapping up, I've got some writing to do today for the final reporting. I'm still waiting for a couple of our larger teams to submit their results, then I'll be doing a little tinkering with the statistics to finish it all up for another year. Phew. 

I've been having some great conversations with other bikers who are interested in some direct action around town to make cycling safer for bicycle commuters around the City. So we'll see where that goes. 

Roller Derby work is wrapping up for the year since we've got a couple more travel games to finish up our season: one in Ft St. John in a couple weeks, then Quesnel in July. We are shifting into more recruitment and community events. You can find us at the Cruisin' Classic Father's Day Show 'n' Shine. So I'm organizing that for us for this weekend. Which means patrolling Fb discussion thread where I listed what we need to do and email organizers to make sure that we can have a legit table this year. I've got Asia coming to snap some pin up derby photos for us too. Yay! 

Craft: I'm working these two sweaters right now, well actually I'm almost out of the grey yarn (Briggs at $5.95 per hank! geez that's a great price!) for my Paulie sweater and am waiting for more on order. I've made myself a deal that I can keep working on it until I run out of yarn but then I have to sew my hot pink sweater up before I can get going on Paulie again. I still have a couple pairs of plain ribbed socks kicking around that I'm not that excited about and actually, that's pretty much all I have on the go for knitting. It's strange not to have 10 projects on the go.
As for sewing, I made a 'Coffee Date Dress' from Burda last week with some thrifted material and took it out for it's first dinner on Sunday night. It looks great. A fantastic fit, I think I'll make another, it was really easy to make up. The facing makes it look really professionally done. There is a designer fashion show coming up in October here in P.G. so I've been trying to figure out an outfit to put together for that. I'm looking forward to hearing from the organizers to find out about their vision, colours, and story for the show. They will also have a sale area so if I can make some extra items for the show I can sell them there. It would be great to make a whole bunch of simple yet classic dresses for the ladies of P.G.. I plan on digging through my stash for more future dress candidate material this week. Hey, why wait? i'll do it today.

Show us your tips! (Knitting tips)

If you need to create a super stretchy cast on or bind off edge (like for toques or lace projects), use a larger needle to do the work for you. Similarly, if you have issues with your edges being too tight, try this technique too. It looks weird and feels strange but it works! Once you are done casting on/binding off give it a stretch, the extra yarn slack from each stitch will make the whole edge bigger than otherwise. Experiment with needle sizes, I like to go up about 4 sizes or so.

Here I used a 4.5mm needle for my lace project and a 10mm needle for binding off. I had to make sure that my larger 'bind off needle' had a sharp enough point to work the lace weight yarn. This was my first Estonian Lace-inspired project and my first attempt at working nupps (those little bobbles, they're tough but I got it!). It was really satisfying to get this one off the needles since I altered the original pattern so much that the edging didn't work at all.

Garage Sale Score!

On Saturday morning I went to take my kid for a walk and just by our house there was a garage sale and these two wire baskets were $1/each! I love baskets (who doesn't) and these are perfect for my yarn storage. And, I got three baskets of yarn into these two, which free'd three baskets up for other things (such as holding our VHS and DVDs, our old skool nintendo, and becoming my projects basket next to the couch). Have you scored anything at a garage sale lately?

Apple Loaf of Goodness

For the longest time I've been craving a loaf made with apples (vegan) and would spend countless hours scouring the internet and cookbooks for the right combination of what I thought I wanted. The other night I gave up on the perfect ingredients list and went with one of the first few from a google search, and found this one: Apple Swirl Loaf. I pretty much followed the recipe to a tee, but used oats instead of oat flour, doubled the oil, added 1/4 cup of almond milk, and doubled the amount of apple. When I was putting it together, instead of "swirling" the apple mixture into the loaf, I poured the batter into the loaf pan and split it down the middle as best as possible with a valley-shape, which I poured the apple mixture into and OH MY GOD when I pulled it out of the oven and immediately pulled a thick slice off (which I smothered in Earth Balance), the warm loaf and gooey apple centre reminded me 100% of an apple fritter. YUM.

BBQ'd Pizza

This is probably the best idea ever. The first time I ever had it was at Loki's house, years ago, and I didn't ever recreate it, which is kind of odd, because it's super easy, and super delicious. The basic gist is divide your pizza dough into "individual" or small pizza portions and roll them out relatively thinly (You want it to cook through before it starts to char). Put the dough on a piece of tinfoil that has been generously coated with cornmeal. Put toppings on dough. Carefully put tinfoil and pizza into the bbq that has been preheated to 450-500F), close the lid and check it EVERY minute (it takes between 3-5 minutes depending on the dough's thickness. Use metal tongs to check to see if it's done or not. If so, pull the pizza and foil onto a plate with those tongs. 

We did this as a pizza bar so everyone made their own pizza. In most instances the cheese melted as fast as the dough cooked, but you have to make sure the toppings and cheese are spread evenly: a mountain of cheese won't melt.

I particularly like this method of cooking pizza because you're not heating the house on a hot day, everyone gets to pick their own toppings, and there's something extra delicious about charred little bits of dough. 

Bike to Work Week: Community Building for P.G. and B.C.!

Well, if you haven't figured it out yet, last week was Bike to Work Week here in B.C..
As for P.G., I was hired by the Bike to Work Week PG Organizing Committee and the PG Cycling Club to coordinate the event. Basically I did all the icky stuff. The early morning icky stuff. The morning Celebration Stations had to be set up for 7:30am commuters, and there were lots of them. Every morning we hosted at least one station, and we added a couple afternoon stations this year which were great!
It was a fantastic week. I'm still working on a bunch of stuff: catching up on lost sleep, organizing photos, waiting for stats to come in, writing thank-you letters, meeting with Jill, getting ready for the prize drawing, and awarding prizes at City council meeting again this year. Great idea. Another chance to look awkward in public. Thanks Jill.
This year we got lots of media (radio, t.v., online media, newspapers...) and had our very own lovely photographer. So now there are lots of photos of our event (and next year's poster). It also means that if you came to the stations early/late or not at all, you can check out who was there later/earlier and how much fun you may have missed.
It's great! I really think next year is going to be huge for P.G.. YAY!
If you are interested, you can see our photostream here. Asia did a great job and she is for hire!

Here are some of the great photos of our event. More soon!

WIP

Vegan Chocolate Pudding Pie  

This week one of our roomies and I nailed together these pallets to make double compost bin. It's huge!! We were going to hide it in a small part of the yard but well, it was twice as big as I expected (dimensions and math are not my strong suit), so we put it right next to the duck enclosure. We have a pipe dream of having chickens on the other side. The benefit is it's close to the poop stations. I've never been an epically awesome composter so I hope this is a new beginning


KITCHEN: I'm back in my groove and I love it. I'm baking up a storm (I blame the unnecessarily cool summer to date) and cooking a number of different comfort foods. Today I made vegan meatballs with gnocchi and sauce, and have a nice vegan roast on the horizon. Oh, and carrot soup and grilled cheese later this week? So comforting.

COMMUNITY: This past weekend I skated in my first roller derby bout (not just a scrimmage) EVER!! We played the Harbour City Rollers (our sister team) and lost our faces off, though we broke 100 !! It was so much fun and so much adrenaline! Wowzas. Our league didn't even put on the show so all we had to do was show up, skate, and help rip the tape off the floor afterwards.

There's a bunch of other community stuff going on (as always) but I kind of need to put my nose to the ground on a bit of it before I tell you more about it: soon.

CRAFT: I'm knitting a lot, which is really nice. I just finished a giftie (shawllette) for my derby wife, Chia Grr'vara, and am plugging through a sweater for myself, stewart's anniversary socks, and a sweater for seth. I also am going to make stewart a totoro hat and finally bought the yarn for it. Hurrah! I have been feeling more crafty lately, though, and look forward to tackling some other projects.


What have you been up to this week?

Pickling!

It's on my yearly bucket list to can pickles this year. REAL pickles. You know, when you want a garlicky dilly pickle and you go to the store and spend $6 on a jar to find out they're from India?? No. Thank. You.

I've had previous experience pickling with cabbage, carrots, spicy green beans. But I want to pickle "pickling cucumbers", the gazillion process kind where they sit in your fridge in salt for a specified amount of time. Oh, and some fermented ones, too.

So I found it was easier to start with something like pickled beans and pickled carrots. REAL easy. It's kind of stupid how easy it is (like I'm being Punk'd or something). Marisa from FOOD IN JARS just did a video with the Daily DIY about pickling. Check it out. Do it YERSELF. It really is that easy. XO

Working...

Sorry for the lack of recent and new posts! We're working on it. I've been working like crazy organizing Bike To Work Week PG this last week. We had a huge event this year and it was lots of fun! Today is the official last day but the work is not over yet. Next up: compiling kilometres cycled by participants, figuring out prizes, ordering bike racks for the entire city (!!??), and presenting awards/prizes at City Council on June 25th. One of the exciting new things we were able to do this year is have a photographer at most Celebration Stations taking photos of participants' cycling-inspired happiness. 

I miss you, let's have lunch next week! Where should we go?

oh, and- How's your garden coming along?