sweet indigo life

Can you drink cabernet merlot with fish?

A balcony spotted while walking through SoHo, NYC last June

.

Of course you can! Providing they like that sort of thing.  LOL! Some fish don't drink after all. But seriously, we are heading over to our lovely neighbours for dinner, and I understand they will be serving fish.  Sooooo I am making a baked brie with figs (thanks Tracey! couldn't do red pepper jelly, my kids are eating too!) and a smoked oyster log.  You heard me right!  I used a popular social networking site to ask my friend, chef extraordinaire Tracey~ for what I might make to take to my neighbours this evening.  She responded in a timely fashion, probably because she too loves food and knows the value of contributing a tasty and well received appetizer!!!!

So, not thinking I nipped out to grab a bottle of wine as well, and just got caught up in the excitement of the taste test! They were taste testing the cab merlot so since I thought it tasted nice, Bob's your uncle.

Now, if you were serving fish, what would you drink with it?  I wonder what the people who live in the above apartment would serve?  If you want the recipes, e-mail me as usual.  You know the drill.  Happy weekend!! xo
 

Keeping secrets & other current events.

I am making a white bean chili, with chicken.  It smells of coriander and garlic in here. Shhh, don't say anything, it's for my sister-in-law who broke her leg.  Oh yes, the soccer star that she is went in full-kick and snapped one of her twigs.  So since she is laid up, I thought I'd nip over there tonight with this small yet clean-eating meal. 

The photo above depicts a my little ones dinner...mac and cheese.  Tonight I ate an avocado mixed with a tin of thai chili tuna.  She doesn't like that! So hence her choice.  Hey, I support her choices.  She eats a lot of fruit. :)

This week I was surprised by two of my favourite blogging friends, Vanessa & Tara.  Both sweet ladies sent me gorgeous packages to open full of surprises.  Thank you ladies!!!

Tara is in London this week, the lucky gal.  An email today informed me that there are still a couple of spots available for people to join us in Jordan.  Why not sign up for this trip of a lifetime?  Go check out the website here to read all about it.  I mean really, a week in Jordan with some blog friends...what could be sweeter?

I love the saying...Friday's dream on Saturday told, always comes true no matter how old.  Have you heard that before?  Whenever I had a weird dream on a Friday, my mother would put her finger to her lips and whisper, "Shhh, don't tell me.  Then it can't come true." Well last night I had a doozy! But I won't share it.  Just know that it was weird.  I dream a lot lately.  Lots on my mind I suppose. 

I'll leave you now.  I have some pictures to hang, and I'm going to finish off the chili.

Have a wonderful weekend..I'm happy that tomorrow is Sunday, because Sunday always brings the greatest treasures. ox

Warm-from-the-oven goodness :)

Last week there was a tap at the door.  There stood my neighbour, M, with her super lovely daughter A holding her tiny tot lovelies (two of them to be exact, dimples a-shining!)- holding a plate with four glimmering, sweet warm-from-the-oven, streusel topped wild blueberry home-baked muffins.

I gasped! M was returning plates from a tiny batch of samosas I had delivered to their door one night...and in her opposite hand, the muffins.

I ate two.  Yes, there are four, count that FOUR people in my family.  Cough...

Julian ate one.

One sat.

And sat.

Til the evening!  

Taunting me each time I walked into the kitchen.  There, on the table.  On M's designer white plate.  The wild blueberry gorgeousness, with sweet streusel topping...beaming at me like an angel.  "Eat me," it beckoned.

"No," replied my hips, calmly. 

Sneering, the muffin taunts, "Well, that cup of tea is pretty boring without ME."

Turning, holding back a tear, I whispered silently yet firmly, "Evil muffin, you who are so tasty and caloric, be gone! You are left for one of the children or both of them to split so stop teasing me it will get you nowhere!!!"

Looking rather forlorn and disgruntled, the muffin stopped.  It sat for a few more hours.  Each time it spied me it raised a sweet eyebrow of hopefulness. Hmmpph.

Later, I returned to the kitchen to see a plate of crumbs.  Ah, someone had succumbed, but not me. I couldn't help my schadenfreude.  {I was secretly happy that muffin bit the dust.}  That delicious, home-baked wild blueberry streusel- topped EVIL thing. 

When M returns home from her weekend I shall return her plate.  Between us, she'll never know how those muffins came to their end. ;D

The fruition of summer's requiem~

Olivia washing up one of our fresh tomatoes.

Summer's closing is drawing near.  But the still and the humming heat of only the last two weeks has produced many spoils. 

Tomatoes, for one.  I requested help with a stewing recipe on a social networking site this morning...and found some very useful replies, thank you! :)

In the coming week I shall peel, dice, boil and can these luscious red toms up for eating in the winter.  While eating my delicious vegan** dinner tonight, I dreamed of one I'd be eating in January....!

Organic whole wheat elbow macaroni and my stewed tomatoes! I'll put it with a simple salad starring my favourite raspberry dressing.  {Simple meals taste the best.} 

Tonight I'm catching up on the things that aren't so yummy, my expenses and my books.  Blah! ;)

I hope your night is way more fun than mine!! xoxo

p.s.** I ate a tofu enchilada, with a side of Spanish rice & beans.  My tummy is happy! I can't wait for THIS, next week...by the way, I'm not vegetarian.  Only part time, like 65% of the time! Maybe more...hmm...!

What are your skies like today?

~Bottle of coke~photograph by gillian da silva

Things go better, when Coke and I, get together.  :)

I'm drinking an icy chilled Coke right now...albeit in the form of a slushie from the corner store.  It's hot, I'm bothered... so I thought, why not?

Some random randoms;

I'm loving the sound of birds chirping in the morning outside my window, something I didn't hear in the city due to high traffic.  They singsong me awake, and then in the evening, the happy buzz of insects chirping goes well with my evening tea.  Nature, it seems, has sought me out and found me.  :)

I am grocery listing for the upcoming week, we are vacationing by the lake and I mustn't forget marshmallows, or the children will completely freak out.  Cheese strings, check.  Cheesy popcorn, check.  Big fat hot dogs with mustard, check. :)

Remember the movie "Vanilla Skies"?  Well I was one of a few people who actually liked that film (I found it interesting, as far as psychological thrillers go), but the name was taken from a painting by Claude Monet. My skies look like that right now.  I'm wondering what your skies look like today?

I just love jelly beans.  Especially the Jelly Belly kind, and I like to eat them with my eyes closed and try to guess the flavour.  Any idea what my fave one is?  I adore this one.

Have a super beautiful day followed by a cosy happy sleep with vivid gorgeous vast and sweeping epic dreams. xo

Added random bonus;

14 years ago I was in the delivery room for a most beautiful moment, the birth of my nephew.  Well he now TOWERS over me, and is such a cute thing you could pinch his cheeks all week long.  HERE is the cake my brother and sister in law got him for his birthday...super cool, don't you think? Yes, that is his actual cake featured on the blog, "Cake it from me". Is she a genius, or what??

Our tasty Sunday.

Lamb chops, in light oil and mint.  So melt-in-your-mouth.

A double skewer of pork souvlaki.  Big squeeze of tzatziki sauce. :)

Roasted corn dripping with hot spicy butter and hot peppers.

A tasty way to spend a Sunday.

xoxo

My delicious summer.

Bakery window, Greenwich Village, NYC

Toronto has THE best food. :) NYC has THE best pizza though.  It's true.

(Go ahead.  Challenge me.)

Off to a concert tonight.  Isn't summer so much fun? xo

Super sweet (and simple) summery goodness.

Planning trips. Aruba or Dominican Republic?

Eating fresh juicy fruit.

Lazing about. Swimming.  Reading.

A perfect summers day. 

Over at sea to sky, we are all about summery fresh goodness.  Enjoy your most beautiful Sunday, whatever you end up doing. xo

Enjambement.

 

It's Sunday and I'm happy to be home putzing about doing what I do best. (My new bedroom windows allow the sun to tap me on the shoulder, waking me up.  It's a sweet view, with the golden light coming up over the houses on the street. I'm surprised to be up so early, as last night we saw Paul Potts in concert.  Not Pol Pot.  LOL!!! The Nessun Dorma's were weep worthy. But truly my fave of the evening was Caruso...love that song!)

So...today I'll eat toast, drink tea, flip through my book, fret about my hair (Thursday's appointment seems so very far away!), attempt more unpacking. 

I'll weed the yard, fuss over the kids, call my mum.

I'll make a dinner.  (After I go to the grocery store and spend so much more money than is necessary because when I shop I'm a chef!  I can go on T.V. and prepare culinary delights for the nation to envy and emulate! Taste buds will stop in their tracks! Faces will gaze upwards in praise singing...)  It'll likely be a simple meal.  Who am I kidding?  It will likely have an avocado in there somewhere! Oh I've also been told there is far too much food being thrown away.  We compost now, and well, let's just say our bin was overflowing this week!  Egg shells and tea bags baby.

I'll nip out with some excuse or other with my foot to the floor (pedal to the metal baby) and gun it to some pretty location, camera in hand, hoping, wishing and praying for the right light! The right subjects! The right mood! And right when I'm about to snap the perfect photo my cell phone will ring and it will be my sweet husband asking me to pick up milk, and "How much longer do you think you'll be?"

Whatever Sunday brings you, whether you are washing your car (windex those inside windows, it makes for better night driving), making spaghetti bolognaise, watching Amelie, painting your toenails, chatting with your friend on the phone about closet organizers & the benefits of aioli sauce on a salmon burger...or just napping on the couch with the dog curled up behind your knees....do it with L O V E.

Have a  lovely Sunday mon cheries!!!

p.s. Did you have to look up the post title? Perhaps you are a smarty pants and don't need to. (If so, good fa you!)

Do you know why

It is relevant

Here, now, for you to grow!

Wiser, stronger you will be

for using this in your _____ :) 

? {Lousy example, true!)

edit:

I'm sorry for the comment trouble guys.  It should be fixed now. :)

The royal avocado.

 

Mashed in with a tin of albacore tuna, a splash of lemon.  Or with a spoon straight down the hatch.  Your choice. :)

This little fella hails from Peru.  His brother (in the bag of five that I bought) was rubbery.  Has that ever happened to you?  The skin was the right colour, as if he had ripened along with his kin in the sack.  But then....nope.  He didn't want to become one with me.  He went into the composter.  I've never had a rubbery avocado before!  Weird. 

I cut them in half, score them with a knife, then squeeze out the squares.  Easy peasy.

I'll be eating lots of these in November, in California. (Insert happy clap here!) I'm looking for an apartment rental, and may have found a great one at AirBnB.com...a very neat site that connects travellers with apartments.  I was lost browsing on there for ages! Go see, maybe you have a place you'd like to rent out.  For those who give it a try you will save money, meet new people and have all the comforts of home.  Some cities are dreadfully expensive, like Washington D.C...so it makes sense to go with an apartment rental. :)

Eat an avocado today!!! xo {Have a blissful weekend! I'm estate sale-ing again and hitting this beach on Sunday. What you doin?}