A quote for my door

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." 

A fairly dry paper on land use planning and health ended with an inspiring quote by Goethe. Had I still lived in my banana yellow room in Kitchener I would have copied the quote all pretty onto a white paper square and sticky-tacked it to the back of my door.

Bonne fête papa!

Chocolate buttermilk cake covered in a mascarpone cheese frosting, filled and drizzled with homemade ginger-pear (from the garden!) jam.

Recipe adapted from here.

Peach Pie

I'm failing terribly at this one line a day thing. I'm going to ditch it because I have a bad short-term memory so when it comes to writing a new post, I've already forgotten the awesome line I was going to write and it doesn't turn out that interesting. That's my excuse.

Mom gave me half a dozen peaches to bring home with me last weekend and they started to go bad. Fast. Just a little patch of mold here and there, nothing very appetizing, yet not worth wasting the entire fruit either. I was actually a little excited about the fuzzy stuff that isn't the ordinary peach fuzz. Why? Because I finally had an excuse to bake peach pie!!! And to use a wine bottle as a rolling pin (#feeling like a classy adult)!! Ever since I saw a board advertising it at Wanda's I've been craving peach pie. I actually don't even remember ever having it but I immediately sensed that I would love it at first bite. And I did. Oh I really did.

Demonstrating a lot of self-restraint

Smitten Kitchen is always so damn reliable. 

Sushi Island with the York Gals means admiring the half Japanese, half Chinese decorations topped with  valentine heart garlands, a Christmas stocking, mini santa claus, and Easter eggs.