Nothing Better

I recently attended a wedding ceremony with my mom for an old neighbour held in ChinaTowns' Sun Yat Sen Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day and the ceremony was very sweet and quaint. Afterwards, I went exploring in the Gardens and want to share some of the shots that I took. The Gardens are filled with bamboo, willow trees, lily pads and koi fish.... enjoy!

bamboo

lily pads

A few days later, John and I were out in Tsawassen, and got to enjoy a gorgeous summer sunset. The sun was a brilliant orange ball setting over the horizon, and we had fun skipping rocks and looking at seaweed.

Our attempts at skipping rocks were not the best, but we had fun all the same.

Then, on July 30th, it was Johns 22nd Birthday, so I slaved for a few hours in the kitchen to make him a Summer Fruit Cake. I used a boxed organic vanilla cake, organic mint leaves, cream cheese icing (premade) and any fruit I desired. I made the cake in a casserole dish and lined it with parchment paper so that it did not stick and could be transported easily. I literally just "picked" the cake up by the edges of the paper and lifted it out of the dish for faster cooling. Once cool, I cut the cake in half (horizontally) and made a layer of icing and mostly blueberries. Then I laid the other half of the cake back on top, and did another layer of cream cheese icing, and then "strategically" placed all my fruits, which I had covered in a glaze. To do the glaze, I heated up some organic Happy Planet fruit juice and added a few tablespoons of apricot jelly. I cooked it until it became thick, and could coat the fruit. The goal was for the jelly to reset and leave the fruit with a nice sheen, and also help keep them in place. I saw this technique on "French Food at Home". I did not follow it exactly, and recommend looking it up so that it can be done better than I did. It still worked, but it could have been better. After I covered the cake in the fruit, I placed mint sprigs around it for a hit of colour, and also, to cut the sweetness of the cream cheese icing , cake and fruit, which are all sweet. It was a huge hit, and everyone commented on the mint being the perfect pairing for the cake! I will definitely be making this one again!

Next time, I will put up my recipes for my ultimate summer lemonades: Rosemary Lemonade and Mint Lemonade.  Ciao!

Get Your Groupon!

For those of you that don't know me, I am extremely thrifty and frugal when it comes to money. I refuse to pay more for anything if I know I can get it cheaper somewhere else. It can be hard to live a "spontaneous" and adventurous life when you are stuck on a budget and paying off student loans, and it is easy to become sad and depressed when you feel like you are limited in options for fun. Vancouver has great attractions, but they can come at a steep price. Enter GROUPON! Everyday, they email you a new "deal" for a Vancouver attraction, be it for restaurants, spas, activities, you name it, they got it! It works on "collective buying power". A company submits to be on groupon and offer a wicked deal, because they know in return they will get a huge boost in business from everyone who purchases their groupon. A deal must be "tipped" with a minimum amount of people purchasing this deal for it to continue. Usually, by the time I have checked my email, the deal is already on for the day. I have already received a mani/pedi from Solarice Spa for $40 instead of $90, $10 for $25 worth of products at The Rocky Mountain Soap Company,

and $30 for 30 days unlimited boot camp. These are knockout prices and today's is $10 for an express admission and 10% off to The Vancouver Art Gallery! Immerse yourself in culture people!

http://www.rockymountainsoap.com/

 Right now, the Art Gallery is showing:

The Modern Woman:
Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec
and Other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris
June 5 to September 6, 2010

There are also a few other gallery shows going on. Check out the link below!

There are other sites that offer sweet coupons too: Grooster, Living Social, Team Buy and the brand new eco-friendly Ethical Deal!

 http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/

ENJOY!