cookbook review: the oh she glows cookbook

I have been following the blog oh she glows, for almost 2 years now, so I was anxiously awaiting this cookbook.

Hands down my favourite cookbook I have ever owned or tried. It's full of beautifully photographed vegan recipes for meals, snacks and desserts and includes recipes for making homemade vegan staples. I just counted and I have made 11 recipes out of it since purchasing it in March, and loved them ALL!

Although I don't label myself as vegan (see feta cheese in photo above), I'm also not afraid of the label! I find a lot of people are...they have the same reaction to "vegan" as they do to "feminist". Amusingly, even my meat and potatoes roommates have been wandering kitchen into to the kitchen to see what the amazing smell is every time I cook from this book and everything has passed the taste test. The recipes are hearty and filling, but without a bunch of hard to find ingredients.

I had been seeing and hearing about cashew cream for a long time and wanted to try it out...today was the day! In the top right picture is the "broccoli & cashew cheese-quinoa burrito" and my own potato roasties. So yum. Cashew cream is made by soaking cashews overnight (they turn rubbery) and then blending them. They turn into the neatest consistency. The "cheese" includes other ingredients like nutritional yeast and mustard. I am not a big fan of the idea of vegan recipes trying to taste "non-vegan," but this has a great taste all of its own. I can't wait to try the desert version (similar to whipped cream).

Pictured on the bottom left is photo for the "cream of tomato soup with roasted italian chickpea croutons." Next on my list!

I would recommend to anyone to check this book out, but if you are unsure, the oh she glows blog is also full of (free) recipes.

spring trend: clothes with a different twist

This spring I'm liking pieces that are made of unexpected materials.

2 favourites:

Silk sweatshirt from j.crew, unfortunately no longer available, but that I love the idea of.

The softest denim pants that are basically sweatpants, from aritzia (don't worry, I am aware that these pants are man-repellers and fully prepared to accept the consequences).

I'll get back to you when I manage to find a pair of dress shoes that feel like sneakers.

dartmouth pride

Alexis & I recently visited the Halifax Crafter's Market, a market of local handmade goodies. I picked up a "City of Lakes" tank top made by Dartmouth Clothing Co. I grew up in Dartmouth, so I am quite fond of the "city of lakes". Within the past couple of years, downtown Dartmouth (where I lived growing up) has been revived with an influx of cool local businesses. This started off with Two If By Sea (TIBS), a cafe that produces delicious ginormous cookies & butter croissants! You can also get "I <3 Dartmouth" t-shirts there (I have one, natch). Recently, above TIBS, Canteen moved in. Canteen is a gourmet sandwich shop, with delicious eats. Just down the street, you can find Kept, a shop of local made goods (gifts, jewelry, home decor, etc.). Other Dartmouth favourites include, Oceanic Art, the tattoo parlour where I get all my tattoos done (by Jan), The Wooden Monkey, a restaurant specializing in delicious meals (vegan, vegetarian, and meat options) that uses locally sourced ingredients, Celtic Corner, the local pub, and the Alderney Farmer's Market. Lastly, I would just love to own this poster made by local artists Yo Rodeo. 

photography

I started a photography blog this year. It was provoked by my friend Lauren, who has recently taken to photography (and is great at it!) You can check out her Project 365 here. I told Lauren I'd do a photo a weekly project, although that's sort of a lie since I don't always have time to get out every week. Sometimes I post extra photos to make up for it. The main reason why I started the photo blog was because I had fallen off the photography bandwagon for a while.

Photography has been a hobby of mine for about 10 years. My first camera was a Canon point and shoot, it was clunky and and cost about $450 (which, would get you a pretty decent entry level DSLR these days- also remember when digital cameras used floppy disks with 1.44 MB of storage??). I requested it for my 15th birthday and my lovely parents obliged. This camera allowed me to experiment with photo composition. Otherwise, the picture quality was terrible and I was confined to a fixed focus. The screen broke on me in 2006.

Portrait of Nichola, taken on some sort of Canon Powershot A Series camera (check that over-saturation and thick black border).

Shortly after this time, I inherited a Canon F1, which apparently cost as much as university tuition when it was purchased back in the 70's (this camera was also dropped down Grand Canyon once upon a time). The Canon F1 started my obsession with film photography, which led to me enrolling in NSCAD University's black and white darkroom photography course. This was where I began to understand what aperture, ISO, film speed, contrast filters, mixing fluids, etc. meant.

Portrait of my dad, taken with the Canon F1, processed & printed in a darkroom.

During this time, I also became obsessed with Lomography and instant photography. A lot of my money was going towards cameras, print costs, and film. My main squeezes were my Lomo LC-A, Holga, and Polaroid One Step Express. I actually lugged around my Lomo LC-A and Holga when I went backpacking around Europe for two months with a bag full of film in 2010. I was pretty dedicated. Before there was Instagram, there was slide film and cross processing.

Poppies in Lisbon, taken with a Lomo LC-A, slide film and cross-processed.

Florence, Italy. Taken with a Holga, Kodak Portra VC 120mm. 

After this trip, I took a year off to work between university degrees. This meant disposable income. This meant the purchasing of my Polaroid 180. Around this time was the death of Polaroid and square format Polaroid film. All of a sudden, Polaroid film was in high demand, costing $20-30 for a box of 10 exposures. Luckily Fujifilm was still making affordable type 100 film. However, this was also when film photography suddenly became very expensive.

Portrait of my friend Katharine, taken with the Polaroid 180.

I then remembered that my lovely friend Candace, gave me a Canon XSi DLSR (yeah, she gave it to me for free- I have been pretty lucky with inherited free Canon cameras). I was pretty reluctant to shoot digital because it was lacking that film vibe; the colours, the contrast, that grain. I wasn't that familiar with all the digital settings and didn't really want to be. It wasn't until I assisted on a couple wedding shoots with with pro photographers that I learned how to use the various settings on my DSLR. This was also when I learned that I never want to shoot wedding photography for a living. 

Candace and her son Solomon, taken with the Canon XSi.

These days, I primarily shoot digital because film costs are high, processing and printing costs have doubled/tripled in the last several years. Sometimes I'll treat myself to some Impossible Project film and pull out my Polaroid SX-70 or the Polaroid 180. My favourite lenses are my Sigma 17-70mm and Canon 35mm and I like to shoot with a wide aperture.  I really dig Parker Fitzgerald, Scott Schuman, and Vivian Maier. And I still aspire to have a Hasselblad 500 CM and my own dark room one day. Oh, and a Canon Mark 5D III and the Canon 24-70 mm & Canon 10-22 mm lenses.

But in the meantime, you can check out my photography blog here (and older photos here).

Favourite photo, taken with the Lomo LC-A

d.i.y. dual tone circle scarf

I knitted this scarf a while ago, and meant to share sooner because spring is on it's way and scarf weather will soon be no more! This was my first project with circular knitting needles. It was also a fluke that the colour scheme worked out so well because I only had half a ball of the camel wool and added black to finish. The only thing I would do for the next scarf is knit it thicker (40-50 cm).

Supplies: Yarn(s) of your choice + a circular knitting needle

Directions: Cast on 130-140 stitches (approximately, depending on the thickness of the yarn, but my yarn was fairly chunky). Making sure all the "knots" are facing one side the entire time otherwise, it can tangle and become a huge mess, continue knit stitch until you get bored of the first colour or the scarf becomes 40-50 cm thick. Ta da. An affordable circle scarf.

"two ingredient pancakes"

I've been making these banana egg pancakes for breakfast pretty much every morning since someone posted the recipe on my Instagram. It's not much of a recipe, because it's just banana and eggs! But I've altered it and added vanilla and cinnamon. So what you need is:

1 ripe banana

1 egg

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract

Mix. Cook with coconut oil. Add some fruit! And tadaaaa pancakes! And to avoid the extra sugar of maple syrup, I've been making a blueberry reduction sauce to put on top of the pancakes. For that you will need:

3/4 cup blueberries
1 tsp honey

1 tbsp water

Cook til the sauce reduces and becomes thick. Pour on pancakes and enjoy!

new favorite app: vsco cam

The VSCO cam is my new favorite photo app. I've used so many photo apps and although some of them are great, VSCO cam by far is my favorite. The design, the interface, the presets. All of it. Here are some photos I've taken with it.

one little thing

A treat arrived in the mail today! I ordered the gold iphone 5s in September and was willing to wait a few months just so I could get the colour I wanted...and then promptly covered it up with a phone case (black case, picture on the left)!

If you haven't heard of rifle paper co. before, they make really lovely products. I follow Anna Rifle on instagram, so I knew this clear iphone case was up and coming and ordered it as soon as it was available. Now I can see my blingy phone! I do love the old case though too (also rifle, but no longer available), so I'm sure I'll keep switching it up. I also ordered this sassy little notepad:

PS keep an eye on the rifle instagram for discount codes posted occasionally, but it's also just a great source of eye candy.

a hologram for the king: a novel

I love this image by Lori Nix the NY Times review of the book.

Similar to Jaime's birthday resolutions, I keep telling myself to read more books, especially now that my degree is wrapping up and in theory I should have more time to read because I don't have to spend all my time reading textbooks, right? Anyway, I just wanted to share this book I picked up at the airport when I was out and about. I ended up finishing it in just over a day because it was an easy read. Dave Eggers is so great at conveying the intimate moments of life through words. If you end up reading it, let me know what you think.