Sweet Rush

The crisp was great! A blend of rhubarb and apples, jacked up with ground salba, flax seeds and shelled hemp seeds. We paired it with some vanilla frozen yogurt for an awesome dessert.


I made Jerk chicken the same night as the crisp, a variation from Anthony Sedlaks recipe from his book The Main. I made the Jerk marinade myself using my magic bullet and let some chicken breast marinate for a few hours. Then I heated up some lentils and black beans as a side and made a pineapple red onion salsa to go on top. John barbecued the chicken and it was fabulous!

Last night we made mustard marinated pork tenderloin with a leek, yam and parsnip roast and home made garlic butter for garlic bread. The pork was super tender (from the barbecue a la john) and the whole tenderloin was only $5 on special at Thriftys! Super good deal (should be on for a little while longer) and if you are going to make pork tenderloin, don't forget to remove the silver skin that usually covers a section of the meat.

For fashion lovers, this months Flare magazine (Canadian and only $3) has an awesome designer prete a porter pull out section featuring Chanel, D&G, Versace etc! And the free May issue of Alive magazine is out at Thriftys (Choices in Vancouver) and they have some super good information on detoxes and cleanses.

Brighter Than Sunshine

It finally feels like Summer is around the corner, as we have had some gorgeous sunny days! My flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the produce is amazing!

I had to pass along the Root Cellars awesome new double ad Wednesdays! Each Wednesday is their new flyer day, but they are holding over the previous weeks ad, plus adding the new ad for a double ad and double savingssss!!! Pretty awesome idea... so Wednesdays are now produce day for John and I!



We go a little nuts at the Root Cellar (it's hard not too!) but now we have tons of fruit and veggies to last us till next week: leeks, carrots, tomatoes, endive lettuce, broccoli, onions, zucchini, watercress, rhubarb, spinach, yams, asparagus, baby bok choy, mangos, apples, strawberries, grapefruit, oranges and the list goes on!

I am planning on making a lovely rhubarb crisp on friday and a huge salad to use up some of those veggies!

gorgeous green asparagus

Tranquile-Tea

My first post is dedicated to my mom!

I know she wants to see the new teapots I have acquired in the past few months, so mom, I will put up some photos!

The two teapots above are both from The Sheiling in Cadboro Bay, Victoria BC

My mom and I are tea freaks! I have two whole shelves devoted to tea and teapots. Some of my favorites are earl Grey (of course), a smoky creation my mom made (a mix of russian caravan and lapsang suchong from Granville Island in Vancouver), and jasmine green tea.




Tea is the most popularly consumed brewed drink worldwide (especially in asian countries) and has an amazing amounts of antioxidants that are great for your health.

Fun fact: if you add some lemon juice to green tea, it boosts your antioxidant absorption by 80% because of the Vitamin C in the lemon.

Nowadays, there is an abundance of tea varieties available at you local grocer: black, green, white, oolong, and rooibos (red) all mixed and matched with various flavours and added qualities. The most popular form is the traditional "tea bag", where the tea is, for the most part, ground into a powder-ish like form for fast, easy brewing. But more and more people are embracing loose whole-leaf brewing, either in the new "triangle" tea bags, or with you own tea steeper. Whole-leaf brewing lets the whole tea leaf unfurl fully, allowing for a greater depth of flavour.

The picture to the left is my smoky loose leaf tea mix, with a blend of danish flower petals to make it pretty :)

So, after catching a nasty cold and being pretty miserable and barely being able to speak.... I still had a pretty good week! My boyfriend (John) and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on the 12th (nothing too exciting though seeing as I was quite sick) so we will have a better celebration this weekend. Then, I was at work (I work at Thrifty Foods in the front end as a cashier and online personal shopper) and I was finishing up a shopping order in the seafood department and noticed a gentleman in front of me, hectically ordering salmon and king crab legs (decadent!)but his voice caught my attention. I knew that voice! He sounded just like Anthony Sedlak from the food network show The Main, but his hair was short and he looked different. I knew he was coming to Thriftys at some point to do a cooking class, but I did not know when! I was very unsure on whether or not it was him, so I casually asked him a few questions to hear his voice some more (creepy, I know). I was sure it was him, but confirmed with one of my supers. Then proceeded to have a mild freak out of excitement, because I'm a huge fan. I then made some calls (special thanks to erin and mike) to quickly drive me home and back so I could get my cookbook of his to sign! He was super nice and gave me a great note and autograph.

Thank you, Anthony, for making my week (besides my anniversary of course!)!