• Food,  Recipes,  Stuff + Things

    Finding Hygge in the Chaos of Moving House + Creamy Tomato Basil Bisque Recipe

    I can hear the rain outside and I have a cup of tea. As I type this, I’m bundled up in my sweats and a blanket. It’s officially soup and stew season. My favourite. But 99% of my kitchenware – so,  everything – is packed up. Naturally. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about beginning a year of immersing myself in the Danish concept of hygge. You may wonder why I decided to start this at the same…

  • oatmeal cookies pantry staple
    Food,  Recipes

    Hygge Honey Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Life is a little chaotic right now, but baking relaxes me. And I’ve also discovered the wonderful world of hygge. Let’s get hygge and make cookies! Sharing a simple, tasty recipe for honey oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that will make your home smell and feel super hygge any time of year. About a month ago, I picked up a book a book called The Little Book of Hygge, and it, like yoga did many years ago (and…

  • Recipes,  Stuff + Things

    Holiday Season Survival Tips and No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

    We are now full on into the holiday season, which means shopping, parties, shortbread, and, let’s face it, feeling a bit like you’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off. This is not a feeling exclusive to Christmas time, but it’s certainly amplified at this time of year. Unexpected guests, forgetting presents, hopping from event to event (I had three last Thursday!). How to survive the most wonderful time of the year – and, really, anything…

  • Drinks,  Recipes,  Stuff + Things

    Flashback Friday: Sinus Clearing Raspberry Martinis

    My laptop is finally out of the Mac hospital (hooray!) and while my Europe photos were loading this evening, I was clicking through my iPhoto library. While flipping through, I landed on pictures from an epic Halloween party from many moons ago at my friend Alison’s parent’s house where entry was only given if we were a) dressed up; and b) dressed as something that started with a “P”. (I was a dead pageant queen.) It was a really fun…

  • Food,  Recipes

    Mexican Fiesta, Cilantro Salsa, Oscar Sunday

    It’s a rainy Vancouver Sunday, but it’s Oscar telecast day, so I am choosing to pretend that I am in (what I assume is) sunny California. I can’t wait to see the pretty dresses and the handsomely dressed men and to find out who wins what. (If Anne Hathaway doesn’t win for Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables, something is wrong with the world.) I stayed in bed reading a bit longer than planned, but that’s what…

  • Food,  Recipes

    Saturday Morning Fire Alarm Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

    Back in March, I was up in Whistler for a work retreat and on one of the mornings, I went to my favourite Whistler breakfast places, La Brasserie des Artistes. It’s a small, funky place with great bacon and eggs (and great everything), but I had never tried their buttermilk pancakes. When I went in there I was actually craving French toast, which they reminded me they do not have. But the pancakes were highly recommended and…

  • Food,  Recipes

    Chocolate Decadence – Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Pie

    So it’s day 2 of OHAC, and I am desperately missing one thing: dark chocolate. It’s my favourite pick me up snack and I can’t have it. (On the upside, I went to a really, really great yoga class tonight and while it wasn’t chocolate, it made a bit of a frantic day much better.) Dark chocolate is good for you but it has caffeine and dairy. I could turn to carob, but guess what? It has…

  • Recipes

    Tomato Basil Bisque

    I’ve been down with a cold for the past few days and I have to tell you, I’m so done with the fluids. Broth and tea get boring very quickly. Even chicken noodle soup has been boring (perhaps because I didn’t have the energy to make homemade and we had Campbell’s…). So today being day 4 of fluids, I decided that I was getting my butt out of bed and making Tomato Basil Bisque with a grilled…