too good tuesday 7

YAY, too good tuesday is back! Lots of things to be happy & thankful for: It was my birthday last tuesday! And it was too good: festive army balloon, epic pulled chicken tacos, scrumptious a la mode brownies, raspberry inspired cocktails, purple tulips and a happy and jingly chloroplast. I also got many messages or calls from loved ones and a few belated gifts arrived too!Getting the bikes tuned up and hitting the hills! My parents buried dearest dexter‘s ashes on a beautiful hill on the family cabin’s property: offering him a mighty fine resting spot, and hopefully further closure for all of us. A return to childhood with healthy snacks: ants on a log! The top row was the 1st test with hummus, cracked pepper & basil; no clever name for it as of yet though, nor the other “log” experiments I am dreaming up.A fantastic “may the fourth be with you” kegger party, which I made an epic t-shirt for. Geekery and alcohol will always prevail.

A lot of time was spent with my sketchbooks last week too (as I mentioned in my post yesterday). Any too good things happen lately that you’d like to share?

too good tuesday #3

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time to share all of the things that were too good to me this past week:

getting spicy (not to mention DELICIOUS) in the kitchen.Finished a large pencil drawing commission (will share the results next week). In the making of the piece, I became great friends with my pencil sharpener (but I secretly wish that David Rees had just been hanging in the studio with me).Lots of grey days here in the mountains; I’ve been feeling calm and composed instead of sad and sleepy… perhaps this is why. My super inspiring friend, and co-collaborator on Patterns & Paws, Anika Starmer’s Flickr page. Seriously. Wow. Scoring this vintage “cookbook” all about properly freezing food! (here is a similar online reference). Getting selected by the jury to do BOTH Make It Shows in Vancouver and Edmonton! More to come on that this week (along with news about another HUGE upcoming show!)

Did you have some good things go down last week? Share them with me in a comment below :)

spice up your life

For several months now I have been trying to live a healthier lifestyle, including eating cleaner and always cooking from home. A common complaint from people when switching to a healthier diet is that “it lacks in flavor,” and to all of those people, I have only one word to say: SPICE. Not only does it make food tastier, more exciting and better looking, there are also tons of health benefits that are found specifically in herbs, roots or seeds. This quick little article from Whole Living is a great reference that lists the health properties of commonly used spices and also gives you quick suggestions of what foods go best with which spice.  Much like anything, with just a little practice and testing, you will get the hang of using these flavor-boosters in no time. Unless I’m baking, it’s rare that I get my measuring spoons out anymore: I just have fun adding dashes of flavor here and there, because experimenting and happy mistakes should all be a natural part of the creative act of cooking. So don’t be scared, shake on some spice for extra flavor and coincidentally extra nutrients. To make adding spice to my everyday cooking much simpler, I recently organized, cleaned up, re-stocked and properly labeled my (normally neglected) spice rack. This beauty was gifted to me by my mother several years ago when I left home, and I must admit I hadn’t been using it as often as I’d liked: it needed a switch out of spices and some better labels. The addition of more frequently used spices, a nice cleaning, and some radtastic black and white name tags from my Dymo Label Maker, made my spice rack one of the best things in my kitchen now! So what are you waiting for? Get your spices out, get them organized and inject some health and heat into both your cooking and your lifestyle.