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.

Served at a cafe near St. Lawrence market last winter

For the first time, I finished an entire bag of coffee grinds all to myself #feeling like an adult

Studio 54

"You lined up for Studio 54. I lined up for Studio 54... the movie."
While watching Sex in the City I thought, well, there goes another pop culture reference I don't get. Funny enough, while browsing through an post titled Preserved Moments of Historical Sass, Diana Ross (in a dance pose that eerily resembles Bryanne's) showed up in the very last photo at the very bottom of the page with a caption that reads "captured at Studio 54". Now I'm intrigued. It turns out it was a crazy night club in NYC back in the 70s. There's a good collection of photos here that make it hard to believe it ever truly existed. I'd line up to watch Studio 54... the documentary.

I went on a site visit today and while waiting for the planner and ecologist to do their thing, I spotted something I was hoping would be a butternut. 

My thoughts are jumping from Zen Pencils to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty but it might only be because I'm dreading writing a dreadful "Field Experience Report."