This weekend, I treated myself (and the boyfriend, lol) with a trip to the Interior Design Show 2010 which happened this year at the Metro Convention Center. And of course, I took a bunch of pictures!

More pics after the cut (61 thumbnails) …

Read the rest of this entry…

So I’m sitting in a Starbucks and nothing interesting is happening. I got the first viewing on my house today so that’s a little exciting for me. I’ve done all the necessary polishing, scrubbing, vaccuuming, etcetera. I’ve been burning the Body Shop’s Sandalwood and Fireplace oils to give the place a gentle rustic scent. I just made sure everything was in place before I grabbed my laptop in my spiffy new power red non-leather laptop case and left in my cute little green Yaris. Because I know that when it comes to selling your house, it’s best that the owner and family isn’t in the home when the place is being shown. It just makes the clients feel a little more comfortable.

I don’t know how to currently define myself. I’ve long since stopped thinking of this house as my home. I go back and forth between here, my parents and my boyfriend’s and I’m not really minding it. I feel like I’m between corporate and bohemian. Transitioning is weird.

Hmm. I kinda want to go shopping now. Off to the mall I go.

So today is supposedly the hottest day of the year, at least in Toronto, and I’m sitting here with fast food psyching myself out to tackle the overgrown weeds in the back yard.

Gardening can be fun. I think it’s not for me. I might have a brown thumb that once in a while I paint green and pretend, but I really don’t have the patience for it. And I hate dirt.

I think my next property will be a condo and the most gardening I may ever do will be balconey tomatoes. Because tomatoes rule.

Anyway, I came home from a preparatory  purchase run at Home Depot… paper yard waste bags, a garden hose to replace my ripped up one, some new trimmers, and gloves, that sort of stuff.  It is bloody hot out there. And yet I need to do this because if I sit on my ass and play the Sims all day, then I’ll be the biggest wanker ever.

Still. It’s so bloody hot.

This recipe actually won our company chili cook-off a while ago for a friend of mine. She vegetarianized Rachel Ray’s “Indian Summer Turkey Chili” recipe… if you want that recipe, go ahead and google that. I like turkeys and don’t think they should be killed for chili, or for any other reason for that matter. In any case, the mass above has been adapted several times since the original and it’s pretty delicious. It’s sweet corn, Yves Veggie ground, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, jalapeno, chipotle BBQ sauce, and Guinness.  That’s the foamy substance at the bottom of the picture. All simmering in a crock pot!  The key ingredient for this recipe is the bbq sauce and the beer. Go nuts with it, your chili will reward you.

I’m drinking the other half of the draught can now. I never thought I’d like Guinness before, but I actually do.

Yummo!

I now have first plum tomato harvest. Not much, yet, but there’s still a lot more that are still green.

The rain has been really good to everyone’s backyard gardens this season. That and decent growing soil made my little tomato plants grow into a rampant monster. Bad weather and burgeoning fruit knocked down the plant and the stakes over the weekend, so I ended up re-staking them. They really do need to be pruned, but I’m just too damn lazy for any of that.  I’m so pleased, from the looks of things I’ll have more than enough tomatoes to treat myself to, and maybe some  i’ll be able to preserve.  Yay!

I’ve been snacking on these Cherry Tomatoes as they ripen. They’re delicious!

(more tomato plant pictures after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry…

I thought my gooseberry harvest was scant a couple of weeks ago. For some reason, yesterday I went out to check on the shrub and found a bounty. I picked up maybe 2 or 3 quarts of gooseberries, and there is still more ripening. Gooseberries have a firm texture, a thicker skin and I guess the only way I could describe it is an “apple” sort of taste. And they look so pretty green, and ripe red too. This batch of berries went into three and half half pint jars of jam. I’m so glad I decided to harvest my gooseberries this year.

More gooseberry pictures on Flickr!

This is a picture of brownies I made sometime last year, using this delicious recipe from Vegweb.  I revisited this recipe again a little while ago and was going through the comments. I particularly love the comment “They’re just like the real thing…” Hmm, pet peeve of mine, particularly when I once in a while indulge in baking: that vegan products are somehow the “fake” version of the other products that contain dairy/egg.

This is sort of why I think naming anything “vegan” does more harm than it does good. It instantly puts weird associations and prejudices in different people’s heads.  And when you do mention that something you made is “vegan”, instantly people are looking for the differences between that and the other recipes they’re used to… hence comparisons like “it tastes just like the real thing!”.  I’m not a big baker person, but when I do bake, I usually try to make it as vegan as possible… that is no dairy, no eggs, no other animal products. It’s simple, and if you follow a good recipe you come out with a product that is tasty and delicious. If it’s not delicious, scrap the recipe, make something else. So let’s see… what makes a brownie? Chocolate - check. Square or rectangular shape - check.  Cake-like texture - check. More chocolate - check. Deliciousness - check. That seems to be a brownie in my definition. It’s not a fake brownie just because it’s vegan.  It doesn’t “taste just like the real thing”. It is the real thing.  It has nutritional value. It’s fattening. It’s yummy. Put it in your mouth, eat it, it’s fun!

Anyway, I’m off to have my fake dinner.  Rant done!

Blueberry jam by me!

A while ago, I bought a canning pot and a bunch of supplies. The idea was, if I had enough gooseberries, I’d make some jam. Unfortunately, my gooseberry harvest last week was literally a handful, and I don’t think I’d be able to harvest the whole bush in a single batch.  So I went to the market today and bought way too many blueberries (harvested in Pelham, ’cause i’m into the local food thing).

While it stormed outside today, I made my first batch of blueberry jam.

I ate it. It was delicious!

There’s a handful of these already on my cherry tomato plants and even more flowers. My Romas are flowering too and look ready to fruit. In other garden news, my cucumber plant keeps getting torn up by some animal and every time, I diligently replant it. It’s struggling, and doesn’t look like it’ll survive even if it doesn’t get dug up again.