Ocean Treasures

New Look and Giveaway!

2012-01-28T13:22:00.005-04:00

With a New Year comes some changes. In 2009 I posted about the Most Comforting Things in my Home as part of Sherrie's Comfort Week and who can blame me for picking my fish tanks, which at the time I had 4! I am still comforted by my fish tanks but with a full time job and PhD to finish, I was doing the bare minimum to keep them healthy. So when a co-worker approached me about advice on setting up a tank, I offered to sell her my 50 gallon bedroom tank! So my space went from this...
to this..
It is a lot quieter without the noise of the pumps and feels roomier and brighter. I am happy with the change and I hope our friends will be happy with their new tank! They are coming to pick it up tonight with the bonus of a Mexican feast! I have so many cool recipes to post...Diego made Longaniza (a type of sausage) from scratch and we have some hanging to dry! If only I had more hours in a day... I will post some recipe soon though!

In the mean time check out this valentine soap giveaway that Teresa organized to raise awareness of her sister's shop. What a sweety! I wish she was my sister! :)

Have a great weekend!

Fruit Bats

2011-12-27T21:27:00.008-04:00

We saw these on the touristy Quinte Avenida in downtown Playa del Carmen on the 22nd. They are so cool I thought you might like to see them. I think they are the Common Fruit Bat, but as you can see from the video trying to get a good look was difficult. However, they were grabbing the figs and flying off with them!

We also saw many Baltimore Orioles and Common Grackles that spend the summers in South-Central and Eastern Canada (and elsewhere but this is where I saw them) and winter here on the Yucatan Peninsula. On our walk today we saw a flash of iridescent blue in the forest and discovered a flock of Yucatan Jays. We have a gecko that lives in our room.The Spanish word for gecko in Mexico is cuija and they make kissing sounds at night. We also see lots of butterflies, flowers, iguanas and gartijas (a small lizard).

Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-26T23:00:00.011-04:00

Okay, so I am a day late but still I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!! We started the day at the beach and found a small reef about 800 m away and did some snorkeling.
The party started at 8 pm and went until 6 am! I was pooped by 2 am and my Spanish was failing so I bailed early. We had a blast at the party, 10 adults and a 3 year old. This year the celebration was at Diego's sister's place to make it easier for our nephew Santiago to get to bed after opening his presents. The thing I find the most interesting is how they decorate their houses with Christmas trees, snowmen and Santa Claus. They actually import live trees from Canada and the vast majority of Mexicans have never seen real snow!!
They do have Santa Claus and he does come in the night so Santiago had more present to open in the morning! I asked them how Santa got into the houses since they don't have chimneys and they have bars on all the windows... I don't think any of them had ever thought of that before, not even as children! One tradition that we don't have is to celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men so on Jan 6. On that night the kids put out a shoe and get a little gift. There is also a traditional cake that I describe here when I was fortunate enough to experience the celebration in 2009.

There were lots of gifts to go around and with each gift you have to hug and sing which just adds to the fun and celebratory ambiance. It took almost 3 hours for all the gifts to be opened and then it was time to eat (at 12 am!!!). As usual we had WAY to much food and we will be eating leftovers for at least another couple of days. I made Canadian style turkey dinner to go with the more traditional Mexican dishes and everyone LOVED IT! I even brought canned whole berry cranberry sauce to give them the real experience.
We also had Bacalao a la Vizcaina which is salted cod fish soaked in water to remove the salt and then cooked in a tomato sauce with onions, potatoes and olives. This is a very traditional dish for Christmas in Mexico and dates back to the Spanish conquest. There is no cod fish in Mexico but the Spanish used to fish the cod off the Canadian and American coast and brought the tradition with them. The link to the bacalao recipe is from Diego's great-great grandmother! The one we ate this year (photo below) is from his brother-in-law's family.
We had pork loin stuffed with nuts, plums and grapes with a nut and red wine sauce. Although not traditional and it doesn't look very appealing in the photo below, it was DELICIOUS! I am getting the recipe for sure. There was also a lasagna with walnuts, almonds, capers, olives and ground beef...who would have thought to put nuts in a lasagna but it was very tasty!
For dessert we had ensalada de manzana (apple salad with a cream sauce - in the yellow bowl) and hojaldra. Hojaldra is very traditional at Christmas and New Years and comes from the Yucatan peninsula. It is a layer of a pastry, one of ham, another of cheese and then topped with another layer of pastry sprinkled with coarse grain sugar. Diego's sister made it and I forgot to take a photo but for New Years, Diego's mom is going to teach me how to make it and I will pass on the information because it is delicious!

Noche Buena

2011-12-24T13:47:00.004-04:00

Noche Buena or Christmas Eve in Mexico...we are preparing for the family gathering tonight. This will inlcude traditional food such as romeritos (dried shrimp with a type of grass and potatoes cooked in a chocolate and chili gravy),bacalao (salted cod with potatoes in a tomato and chili sauce) with the accompanying Canadian stuffed turkey. The gifts are wrapped and ready to be opened. For now we will head to the beach since the party doesn't start until 8 pm!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with good food, excellent company and lots of laughter.

A Delicious Twist on an Old Favorite

2011-12-10T10:07:00.007-04:00

Being in 2 different departments at the University leads to many holiday parties. So to keep things simple during a busy time I always fall back on an old favorite with my added twist....Banana Bread. What is the twist you ask? Well adding a holiday fruit like cranberries and to balance the bitterness of the berries a few chocolate chips for a decadent treat!
I made this yesterday and a friend asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share it with everyone!

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of shortening or butter or lard
2/3 cup of sugar (I use 1/2 cup when I have chocolate chips)
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
3-4 mashed very ripe bananas
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 - 3/4 of a 340 g bag of fresh or frozen cranberries

***Update Jan 19, 2012 - instead of white flour I used Spearville Mills' Whole White Flour and it was VERY moist! I also used 1-85% dark chocolate bar broken into chunks instead of chocolate chips and I enjoyed it much better than the sweetness of the the chips. It was heavenly to bite into a chunk rather than a chip!***

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add bananas and mix well. I sometimes freeze my ripe bananas to get enough for the recipe, if you do this too thaw them first and not need to mash them before adding them to the mix. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder and add in 4 portions to the mixture. Mix until smooth after each addition. Pour into a well greased pan and bake at 350F for 50 mins or until a knife comes out clean from the centre.

This tastes AMAZING right out of the oven with a little butter and a tea (or coffee)! The cranberries add extra moisture making this cake feel dense but the cake itself is light as is the flavour because of the bananas.

Enjoy!

Diego's Big Day!

2011-12-06T17:19:00.004-04:00

Diego successfully defended his PhD Thesis today!!! He is now Dr. Diego in Biological Oceanography! His defense was 2 hours long and he did GREAT with all the questions. I am very proud of his success! One down, one more to go in the family! But now, it is time to celebrate!

Brave New World!

2011-11-26T17:15:00.002-04:00

"What we are experiencing at the moment seems to be very exceptional…. This means that we are entering into the world which has no equivalent in the past."

If you didn't hear about it, you should read about it here... Arctic Sea Ice Loss Unprecedented in 1,450 years.

The fact that the ice is melting faster than the worst case scenario in climate models can be: 1) a testament to scientists conservative estimates OR 2) they were missing a piece of the puzzle OR 3) both. Either way, it doesn't look good...

Big FIND and my Pumpkin.

2011-11-05T11:00:00.006-03:00

Last week Sherrie came to Halifax for a visit and as usual after dinner we headed to Value Village and what did I find....
12 Nancy Drew Books!!! I loved reading these as a child and am now in the process of building my collection. I already had a few from childhood (still in my parent's basement...) but most I borrowed from the library. I just couldn't pass them up and I already finished my first book! They are great stories.
This year for Halloween we decided to stay home and hand out candy. So to let the kiddies know to come on over, I carved my very first pumpkin that doesn't have the traditional triangle eyes and toothy smile. I had a BLAST carving it and enjoyed it's glow all evening.
Now I just need to get the evil tree's eyes and the moon to glow next year. I also made roasted pumpkin seeds and they were a delicious and healthy snack that I enjoyed all week!
I hope you had a great Halloween!

More Good News!

2011-10-26T14:00:00.000-03:00

In the early morning fog on what was a beautiful Fall day I quietly celebrated getting another thesis chapter done...well almost...I am waiting for comments back from my committee members before I submit it for publication! For those of you who may not be familiar with graduate school and how it works I will give you a quick overview.

Once you have been accepted into a Doctoral program and you have a project you have to select a committee of 2-3 people other than your supervisor who will be there to help guide you and evaluate your work throughout your program. You want to choose people with a range of expertise that you can draw on but that can offer you insightful comments on aspects that you are learning and that your supervisor may not be an expert in. Once you have selected your committee you have to defend your proposed project. After about a year of classes and literature review, you write up a 5-10 page document outlining your project, its goals, how you will do it and why it is important. Then you have an oral exam (Admission to Candidacy Exam or ATC) starting with a presentation of your proposal then you answer 2-3 rounds of questions from your committee and can take up to 3 hours. This is a pass/fail type of exam and if you pass you move on to actually being a PhD candidate and doing your research. If you fail, you start again with another proposal but if you do not pass the second time you are kicked out. You typically meet with your committee once a year to keep them updated on your progress but are able to see them anytime for particular issues or one on one discussions. One year before you finish your thesis you have a Preliminary Exam. This is an oral exam that prepares you for your thesis defense (another ~ 3 hr exam). This exam is based on one of your thesis chapters. This exam is designed to be on the broader topic of your thesis not some particular data you collected, it is supposed to put your work into the broader context of the field and it meant to evaluate your ability to see the bigger picture and synthesize your work. Again, it is an oral presentation with 2-3 rounds of questions from your committee and an new examiner from within the University but external to your committee. Another pass/fail event and if you fail twice you are out. The last hoop is the biggest, the thesis defense. This is your last (~3 hr) exam and the one with the most riding on it! You are there to defend the work you have done for the last 4 -8 years (average at Dalhousie is 5-6, they kick you out with or without a degree after 9). For this event you have another external examiner but this time they are an expert in the field from outside the University, for example Diego's is coming from France! After the thesis defense then you have a BIG party! :)

You are not required to publish your chapters as you go but it does make it easier in the end. Most students who don't publish as they go have a hard time doing so once they have completed and moved on to the next thing. It is also nice to have all those publications on your CV right away, you are more competitive for the positions that do come up.

Now that I have 2 down...just 2 more to go! On to chapter 3!

Finally Some Progress!!!

2011-09-19T21:36:00.016-03:00

Friday was a GREAT day... After a long summer of hard work I finally finished Chapter 2 of my thesis!!! I also had my first chapter come out in print (you can view the abstract here) AND I finished the first week of teaching without a hitch! Diego is also progressing nicely! He has one chapter left to do revisions and his thesis will be off to his committee members...his defense...definitely before Christmas!

First and foremost I want to say Thanks to all of my friends nearby and in cyber space for your patience. It is hard but necessary to completely immerse myself in my work and I will need to keep at it for the next two chapters! I will keep you updated with my progress as I achieve "small" victories!

Of course it hasn't been all work. I do have to have some diversions to keep me from going absolutely crazy! Like my garden (the photos are from earlier this year)!

Kale
Our upside down tomatoes...they had white flies but still produced lots of cherry tomatoes.
Our herb garden was out of control! We also had lots of tomato plants everywhere! I made sauce with them for the winter.
We had lots of peas and the brussel sprouts are starting to form!
Our potato plants flowered...did you know the smell amazing!?! AND they made about 2 kg of potatoes! I planted red ones and they are delicious!
We also made a lot of delicious food...like this amazing Hawaiian Pizza! I made 3 batches of strawberry jam (Diego LOVES it on yogurt), 2 batches of strawberry-rhubarb and one batch of plum jam. They are all very tasty!
We had a couple of small side projects too (that are still in progress...). We were inspired to make our kitchen space more efficient so we magnetized our wooden cooking utensils! Now we have more counter space (no utensil holder) and they are right where we need them.
We also magnetized our existing spice jars to go on the side of the fridge and freed up some space on the shelf above the stove...it was a nightmare of crowded jars and spices were hard to find...not anymore!
Can you see the hanging wooden spoons? We drilled holes in our salsa spoons so we could hang them within reach...now they are no longer crowding up our drawer! Can you tell we have been spending too much time cooped up at home??!
The last item of note is my new found passion for vintage hairstyles! Diego bought me the above book for my birthday (end of Aug) and I have been doing vintage styles ever since!
I did this one on my b-day dinner out. I had victory rolls at the front, late 40's style. Many of them are time consuming and require patience BUT once you get the technique right then you can start making it more efficient.
This one is my favorite. It is a 30's style and the front has a finger wave. It is also one of the easiest to do! I usually do half at night (like foam curlers) and then sleep on it so it only takes 15 mins in the morning. Although, you do have to sleep in a kerchief! Diego loves the styles and laughs every time he sees me in a kerchief. I have yet to venture and try the beehive! I will let you know when I do!

Back to work! Ciao for now!

Amazing Salsa!

2011-07-16T08:04:00.003-03:00

Music that is!!! Last night we went to the Latin night at the Atlantic Jazz Festival and the headlining band was la-33 from Bogota, Columbia. They were AMAZING!

They put on a great show and the music...Diego and I danced the whole time!

Metallica ROCKS Citadel Hill!

2011-07-15T10:20:00.007-03:00

Ok, so I am not a HUGE metal fan but Metallica was one of my favorite bands in high school. Needless to say they are no longer on the top of my playlist but I do listen to them on occasion. However, when I heard they were coming to town, I jumped at the opportunity to see them live. The last time I had the chance I was 14 and to my great disappointment, there was no way my parents were letting me go to a Metallica and Guns & Roses concert... so it was time. Although, I was not ready to pay the $150+ to actually be in the audience. Luckily, it was an outdoor concert and if you place yourself just right on the hill you can actually see one of the screens (albeit far away) but you can hear the music very clearly. So at 8:30 pm last night we dressed in our rain gear and headed to the hill. By some miracle, it stopped raining as the band came on and held off for the whole 2 hour concert. My favorite part of the show was when they played One (see video).

From our vantage point we also got to see some gate crashers...literally! The fences keeping us out were held together by cable ties. Police and security would patrol every once in a while but they got pretty complacent about half way through the show and a group of kids pushed down part of the fence and bolted for the crowd. Security was way too late to catch them but they did step up patrol after that! We decided to leave during the encore so we wouldn't be stuck in a huge crowd trying to walk home. We passed behind the stage and I was glad we were 500 m away on the hill, the music was so loud I would have had to wear earplugs if I had been in the audience...am I showing my age or what! ?!

All in all, it was a good time, I am glad we went and now I can finally say that I went to see them but I think I had my fix for the year. Tonight we will head to the Jazz Festival to see a Columbian band with some friends. This is more our style and we will dance the night away! This will be worth paying for! :)

Delicious Food!

2011-06-26T10:51:00.001-03:00

Other than food, work, a little gardening and yoga outside (when it is not raining...which is not often!) there is not much else going on right now. I am trying very hard to get 2 chapters of my thesis done this summer so I can finish my PhD by next summer. I know I said I would take a blogging break this summer but I just couldn't help myself. I have actually been missing it. Since all the excitement in my life is about food, this is what I will be posting about today.
I made these amazing strawberry-rhubarb galettes for Father's Day (photo from the recipe website). My dad would have loved them! The recipe says that it makes 6 personal sized galettes but really one can be easily shared between 2 people. I did not have the 5 spice mix that it called for so I substituted with cinammon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves and they were DELICIOUS!

Yesterday, Diego and I made the fresh strawberry pie I posted last year at this time. I also have 10 quarts of strawberries waiting to made into jam and pies. I will freeze the pies uncooked to be eaten over the winter.
This is my latest cookbook acquisition and I LOVE it! If you love Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan food, this is the book for you! You can take a peek at it here. A friend of mine turned me on to it by cooking amazing recipes from the book every time we went over so I bit the bullet and bought it last week. Every recipe I have tried so far has been amazing. I have only personally made 3 from the book but have eaten at least 6. The recipes are not all that complicated but you should read them ahead of time. There are usually quite a few steps but you can do them concurrently...like cooking the chicken while preparing the sauce...

One of my favourite recipes from this book is called Beets with Tropical Flavours and has been reproduced here. If you don't know what to do with beets, definitely give this a try. I have beets peeled and ready to make it tonight!

I had a whole happy (free range organic) chicken in the freezer so I opened the book to the chicken & eggs section and just picked a recipe more or less (I read the ingredients to made sure I had everything) at random. I was not disappointed.

Aromatic Slow Cooked Chicken (serves 5-6)
Source: Mangoes & Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid

Ingredients:
2-lb of bone in chicken or on2 2.5-3 lb whole chicken
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup of grated onion
1 Tbsp of minced or mashed garlic
1 Tbsp of minced or mashed ginger
1 Tbsp of ground coriander
1-1/2 tsp of salt
2 green cayenne chilies, minced
2 Tbsp of plain yogurt
2 tsp of rice vinegar
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 cup of chopped fresh coriander leaves and stems

Wash the chicken and remove the skin and discard (this video shows you how to skin and cut up a whole chicken). Chop breasts into 4 pieces and separate the thighs and drumsticks. If the drumsticks are large, chop them in half. If you are using a whole chicken, you want to have 10-12 pieces. Remove any bone fragments and rinse the chicken well. Place the chicken in a heavy pot (I used my cast iron dutch oven) and add water. Bring to a vigorous boil, lower the heat and simmer partially covered for 30-40 mins or until the chicken is just cooked through. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside. Measure out 2 cups of broth and reserve. If you have more than 2 cups, you can use the rest to make rice to accompany the chicken. If you have less, top it up with water.

Rinse and dry the pot, then heat the oil or ghee over medium heat. Toss in the cumin seeds and black pepper and when the oil sputters a little (after ~ 30 sec) add the onion, garlic and ginger and stir. Cook for ~5-10 mins, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and translucent, then add the ground coriander, salt and minced chilies. Stir well and cook for several minutes to blend the flavours. Stir in the yogurt, one spoonful at a time, until well blended. Pour in the reserved broth and add chicken pieces. bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for several minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar and stir in. Raise the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook at a strong simmer for several minutes. Toss in the chopped coriander and simmer for another minute. Serve, hot with the remaining coriander strewn on top as a garnish.

This is amazing over rice or with Naan bread. We ate it for at least 3 meals and it just gets better with age. I followed the recipe to the letter (except the cumin seeds) the first time but next time I would cook the chicken in a separate pot while preparing the sauce to cut the prep time down by about 10 minutes. Since I used the same pot as the chicken, once everything was cut up I had about 10 mins to spare.

I can't wait to try some of the fish recipes on our CSF fish...that starts next week! They have more delivery locations this year and will set up a new location if you get 10 or more subscribers. Definitely check them out here if you like sustainably caught fish!

Keeping Myself Busy

2011-05-18T09:03:00.020-03:00

Despite teaching being done for the summer I have been keeping myself quite busy. Before my parents came for an Easter visit, I did a long awaited (ahem...6 years) clean up of our front entryway. It is a vestibule that is not heated or insulated but protected from the elements because it is closed in. I guess we kinda considered it part of the "outside" and it was sorely neglected. We used it as a storage area and stuff just piled up, it was such a mess. The walls were sooo dirty, it took 3 buckets to clean them! I finally got fed up with seeing the mess every time I came home. I thought to myself, "This is what greets me after a long day or work...it is also what greets our guests, this is not acceptable" and the cleaning began. I am not proud of our neglect, but I am proud of the final product!
We now have a welcoming place to greet our guests, a spot to store our scooters and hang our helmets complete with name tags!
Eventually, it will need to be painted but this is a good start!

I also prepared some lemon marmalade using this recipe and some of Sherrie's Meyer Lemon and Vanilla Jelly as a birthday gift for my Dad. He LOVES marmalade. I am not a big fan so I didn't try it...I hope it turned out okay!

Making Pectin

I know the lemon Jelly turned out AMAZING! I will definitely be making it again soon. We had it on crepes with blueberries and light maple syrup on Easter Sunday and it was delicious!
My parents brought us a gallon of Ontario maple syrup that we have been using up on yogurt and homemade granola! They also lugged a bunch of items from my youth, 3 sets of tarot cards, some kids Christmas books and my favourite musical pillow! Stashed in among the stuff were some lovely crocks that I have placed around the house (thanks for the spelling correction!).
While they were here, we stayed at the lovely place on the ocean from my previous post. We were lucky to have a couple of sunny days and took advantage of it by going hiking along the ocean.

Even though it was sunny the wind was still cold! We saw lots of eider ducks and some black guillemots! We also explored the remnants of World War II. There are lots scattered along the rugged coast along the Halifax Harbour approaches.

Bunker

Train tracks to bring concrete for building the bunkers and other supplies from ships.

Now I that they have gone and I am back at home I have been working on my thesis. I had a meeting with my supervisory committee last week and they have approved my remaining chapters (YAY!). Now I just need to buckle down and get them done!!! It is time to be a hermit which means I will be taking it very easy on blogging but I will continue to keep up with everyone.

Take Care! :) See you all soon!

PS. I hope you all like my new spring banner...complete with the ominous fog bank sitting just off the coast. I LOVE fog and we have been having a lot of it lately! :)

Weekend Retreat!

2011-04-30T09:51:00.010-03:00

I am lucky to be house sitting for my supervisor and her husband. They have been away since before Easter and we were lucky to have my parents come for a visit and stay at the house on the coast. My parents have gone now and I am enjoying a quiet weekend on my own in this peaceful place. As I am writing I look out the office window a pair of young deer walk by and stop to eat grass at the front of the house, I can hear the call of the male ring-necked pheasant, the family of crows and the fog horn on the hill.
The house in the background is their newly acquired guest house. The male pheasant brings his date for breakfast every morning and he calls constantly throughout the day.
Today it is foggy and cool. I cannot see the ocean from where I sit or sleep. This is the view from the bedroom this morning.
This is the view on a clear day.
The regular sound of the fog horn is comforting and will lull me to sleep tonight as it did last night. I miss this sound in Halifax. They decommissioned the fog horn 2 years ago.
The house is passive solar and heated with wood. I started my very own wood stove fire last night. I feel very independent! LOL. Today is cool and I have the fire stoked. It is a good day to have a hot bath and curl up with a cup of tea, the cats and my thesis.
Fredda is enjoying the warmth and laziness of this foggy day. I will post more on this lovely place when I get to my pictures at home. Have a wonderful weekend!

Let's Make History!!

2011-04-28T07:31:00.006-03:00

I am not one to typically blog about politics but I think this time it is warranted! My beliefs are closest to the Green Party of Canada. I think Elizabeth May is outstanding and would make an AMAZING Prime Minister! However, the reality is that although they are gaining support Elizabeth will not win the election (she might win her riding and if she does I look forward to seeing her in the house of commons!) and what we need is REAL change NOW....something other than the same old switch between Liberals and Conservatives that we have had since our first Prime Minister Sir John A MacDonald in 1867.

Unfortunately, our electoral system leads us to the scenario we have had for years, which in most cases seems to be vote for the lesser of two evils (strategic voting), rather than who you truly believe in to make sure the candidate you dislike the most doesn't get a majority. This youtube video explains it very well.

There are alternative voting systems but we need to get a party in there that will WANT to make a change to the system. The Conservatives want the status quo, that is their campaign.

So how do we make history??

Graph from http://www.electionalmanac.com/canada/

The most recent polls are showing a huge surge in New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) support (orange line in the graph). This has been attributed to the changing demographic. Thanks to social media and vote mobs, young people are getting involved!!! If we all get together and vote for NDP, get them in with as many seats possible, we are in for a change in the face of politics. Even if they do not win enough seats for Jack Layton to be Prime Minister they will be the Official Opposition! This has NEVER been done before! If enough of us get behind the NDP, we might change the outcome of the election altogether!!!

Imagine, someone other than Stephen Harper as Prime Minister! Imagine, a Prime Minister that actually cares about the people and the environment rather than big business. Imagine, electoral reform so we can vote who we truly believe in rather than the same old strategic voting. It is possible, check out the NDP platform.
So let's all vote NDP to get Harper out and get Canadian values back into the House of Commons.

Sweetness

2011-04-01T08:58:00.002-03:00

This week has been absolutely crazy, with barely a moment to breath. I came home two nights ago to find these on the kitchen table.
Diego's thoughtfulness almost brought me to tears. He is such a sweetheart. They were just what I needed to get me to slow down. Their colour makes me smile, their scent makes me relax and their meaning makes my heart swell.

Spring has arrived!

2011-03-21T08:25:00.009-03:00

Happy Spring!

I saw these crocuses displaying their colours 2 weeks ago even before many other plants had even started pushing the soil up!
Diego and I went for a long walk yesterday and although it was a bit nippy in the wind we found the signs of spring all around us.
We made it to the waterfront spring has been underway for a couple of weeks now. As soon as there is enough light (usually early March) the microscopic plants (phytoplankton) that drive the highly productive ocean system here off of Nova Scotia came to life and started multiplying. This is why the water in the photo below is greenish. Normally (now that we have sewage treatment!) the water would be crystal clear in the winter.
Once the phytoplankton get really abundant then the very small animals and larvae of bottom dwellers and fishes called zooplankton "appear" and begin to feed on the phytoplankton and each other! If you look closely at the photo you will see little round balls with two training tails. These are called ctenophores (or sea gooseberry). They are voracious predators and always appear after a week or 2 after the spring bloom starts. Eventually, the phytoplankton get grazed down by the very abundant zooplankton, which then also attract larger predators (krill, larger fishes) then eventually the whales arrive to dine on the feast that Altantic Canada has to offer.
Now that Spring has arrived to both land and sea, it will soon be time for planting in the garden! Above are the first awakenings in our garden. I can wait to have our very first chives!

Buns!

2011-03-05T20:08:00.003-04:00

I made these no rise buns this morning and boy were they good! So easy...except getting them not to split! That was my fault in shaping them... I used 1/2 of the recipe and made 8 buns.
They served their purpose as a vehicle for a delicious breakfast sandwich!
It has a fried egg, honey garlic sausage split down the middle, grilled tomato and mayo. A once every few months kind of treat but oh so delicious! The rest will no doubt serve as a great base for some homemade jam or as a side for some soup! You can also use the recipe to make pizza crust and loaves of bread. I love a versatile recipe.

Secret...

2011-03-04T19:53:00.000-04:00

I have been holding back a secret. We got a KitchenAid Professional 6 stand mixer for Christmas!!!

The only spot it fits!

We were so lucky that some of our friends went home to the USA for Christmas and brought it back for us. A Professional 6 here in Canada is almost $600!! I was able to get it for less than 1/2 price!! I have been using it a lot for baking desserts but I absolutely LOVE it for making pizza dough!

Making pizza dough before the final kitchen configuration...we definitely do not need to move the blender every time!

It is such a dream! I even made the herb and garlic baguette recipe that came in the user guide (yes, they included LOTS of recipes!). Let's just say that I haven't yet perfected the baguettes but they were quite tasty and worthy of another try.
The bowl is large enough to make pizza dough for 5 pizzas! We had a pizza party and it was a blast!
We made this pizza last week. It was a mix of "things we need to eat in the fridge before they go bad" pizza. The dough was perfect and the toppings were amazing! We fried the toppings in olive oil before baking and the results was delicious. We put onions, garlic, firm tofu, spinach, zucchini, salt and lots of oregano. The sauce was a thin layer of olive oil and we used feta cheese. A definite must try! The dough is a recipe from my Italian friend, so it is authentic!

Pizza Dough

1 cup of water
1 bag of yeast
2tbs of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 and 1/2 cups of flour

Mix the liquids plus sugar and salt and then add the flour. Then see if you want to add more flour, you need to have an elastic dough like the dough for pie crusts. Leave to rise for at least 3 hours in a warm place. If it is really sticky, you can put it in the fridge for a bit and it will roll out easier. Will make one 12" crust.

Enjoy!

Winter skin blues...or more precisely reds...

2011-02-27T12:08:00.002-04:00

Ever since I stopped using chemical laden products (in 2008) I have been struggling with keeping my skin blemish free and looking healthy. It is easy in the summer when the sun (even though I hide in the shade or under a hat/clothes) keeps those pimples at bay and the humidity keeps my skin from drying out but the winter is always troublesome. This winter has been especially bad with breakouts on my face, chest and neck and dry skin everywhere! I know that I am getting older and my skin is definitely changing BUT this is out of control! I always thought getting older meant getting dryer skin and wrinkles, not getting huge breakouts!

I used to be the girl who always wore makeup and never left the house if my blemishes weren't covered. Ridding myself of all makeup (except special occasions a couple of times a year) and other products was a huge step but in the end I felt free. I no longer had to spend 30-60 mins in the morning getting ready or 30 mins at night getting ready for bed. However, I think that letting go has also gotten me to neglect my skin. So now I think I need to get back into some sort of routine, that maybe isn't makeup oriented but rather with the goal of healthy skin.

I had started a new beauty regime in the summer of 2009 (see my post here) and I am not sure why but I fell out of it. Of course 2 years later, I don't even remember if it was working! So I have come up with a new regime that I think will promote healthier skin. I have decided on a rather aggressive assault on my unwanted guests in hopes that I can get the breakouts under control and have healthy glowing skin. It is a combination of what I posted in 2009 and some new ideas for smoothing and nourishing the skin. I personally don't mind wrinkles, I am not the type of person that obsesses over them. I think they are natural and beautiful but smooth skin and slowing the appearance of wrinkles is a product of healthy skin and a healthy diet and lifestyle which is something that I am striving for. All of the information and recipes below come from various internet sources that I found in my research.

Routine and Benefits of the Ingredients

Use a mixture (2:1) plain yogurt and lemon juice as a night cream. I mixed one cup of my homemade yogurt (see recipe here) with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. This makes a lot of cream and I would recommend making 1/2 to 1/3 of the batch and make it more often. I rinse my face, neck and chest with water then rub the cream on and let it dry before hopping into bed. The lactic acid in the yogurt is a gentle exfoliant. The yogurt also contains vitamins A and D which help to nourish the skin and help to sooth dry and itchy skin. The lemon juice contains citric acid which helps to slough off dead skin enabling new skin cell growth, flushes out pores and improves the skin's elasticity.
Use a 1:1 mixture of rosewater and lemon juice as a cleanser/toner. Rosewater stimulates blood flow to the skin, balances sebum (oil/wax produced by the skin) production and pH, tightens pores and has antibacterial properties. It is reported to be effective against acne, blemishes, scars, wrinkles and both dry and oily skin. Not to mention that it smells wonderful and has been used to treat many ailments for centuries and is extensively used in aromatherapy. I apply this using a fleece wipe after rinsing off the yogurt/lemon cream from the night before. I let is absorb and wait 30 mins before rinsing it off.
Use EcoYogini's sugar scrub in the shower. I made this recipe using peppermint oil to stimulate and revitalize, which is GREAT in the morning! The scrub contains honey which is touted as the oldest moisturizer in the world! It has antioxidants and anti-microbial properties helping to protect the skin from the sun but also fighting the bacteria and microbes that can cause acne. It also has a great ability to retain moisture. The scrub also has sugar which when rub gently on the skin helps to remove the flakes. I usually rinse off my rosewater/lemon toner in the shower, then apply this scrub to my face, neck and chest. I leave it on until the end and rinse it off with the suds of my shampoo.
Use a damp washcloth with a few drops of tea tree oil to wipe over my face, neck and chest. Tea tee oil has antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. However, it is toxic if taken internally so keep out of reach of children.
Massage a very thin coat of Sweet Almond Oil to my face, neck and chest. Almond oil balances moisture in your skin and is a good moisturizer for all skin types. It is also said to have anti-aging properties and it is used to fight wrinkles and dark circles under your eyes. I also eat almonds almost every day in my yogurt.
Drink 2-3 cups of nettle tea per day. Stinging nettle has a long history of medicinal uses and as a food source. It is a diuretic which help the body excrete toxins from your blood stream which can cause acne, among other health issues. This is touted as a tonic for general health because it has lots of vitamins such as calcium, iron, folic acid and zing among others. So I am on board for giving it a try. Stinging nettle grows here locally, so if I like it I may try to harvest my own!
Drink 3-10 cups of green tea per day. Green tea has lots of antioxidants that have protective effects against free radicals cardiovascular damage, some cancers, infections, toxins and much more. See my post about foods that fight cancer. Green tea has been shown to inhibit enzymes whose excessive activity contributes to the age related deterioration of the skin.

I know that acne can also be caused by changes/imbalances in hormones. Rosewater and stinging nettle are also thought to help in balancing hormones.

I know it sounds like a lot of effort but really it is WAY less (~10 mins per day) than my old make-up routine! You can also opt to use only parts of my routine rather than all of it. Either way, you should see a reduction in acne in about 2-3 weeks but can see and feel the benefits in your skin almost immediately. After 2 days, my skin is smoother and the flakiness is starting to go away. I will definitely report back in a few weeks on my progress.

Another Product Review!

2011-02-23T19:43:00.002-04:00

I have decided to do another product review fro CSN Stores. CSN stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything you need from office desks to gardening tools and bakeware! I only mention bakeware because this is what my review will be about! I have been baking bread quite a bit and am not fully equipped for it. So if you are into baking definitely stay tuned!!!

EYCC: Decreasing Tree Products Part II

2011-02-22T09:58:00.001-04:00

After 2 weeks of regular use I am still as enamored with cloth TP as I was the first day. My only issue with it so far is the name Family Wipes that seems to have taken a hold on the web. I prefer Toilet Cloth (TC) or just Cloth Wipes. Whatever you call it, it is definitely not for everyone. I have read lots about it and those who actually try it LOVE it and those opposed are VERY opposed. What I will do here is summarize two of the main issues with TC and how I have gotten around it. I will also share some of what I have learned along the way.

Our collection in a cute basket.

A lot of comments from those opposed that get posted are about:

Smell and
Diseases

One thing I am definitely not interested in is a smelly bathroom. Many people put their used wipes into a garbage can with a lid for later washing. Assuring everyone that there is no smell or only a smell when you open the lid. Others use a vinegar and tea tree oil solution in their can to "kill" the diseases and quash the smell but leaving a vinegary solution mixed with...in a can for a couple of days...definitely not up my alley. So I have come up with what I think is a good solution for this issue. I have decided to wash my wipes with my hands after every use! You are supposed to wash your hands anyways after you go just in case you got any on you, so why not wash your wipe(s) too! Did you know that 92% of Americans say they wash their hands after going to the bathroom but only 78% of women and 66% of men actually do (ew!)! If everyone used my TC method, they would all wash their hands!

With the exception of Hepatitis A and E, all of the diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route can be prevented with proper sanitation (keeping food and fecal matter separate and drinking treated water) and hand washing. So if the simple act of washing your hands with soap kills the diseases transmitted via bowel movements, why would this be any different for TC? The simple fact is washing your TC with soap and water whether it is boiling or not will kill everything on them the same way it kills the bacteria and viruses on your hands when you wash them. Except Hep A and E which can be killed by using bleach. So unless you have Hep A or E, washing your wipes with your hands also addresses disease transmission. Since you are washing your own wipe(s) you won't be exposed to anything that is not already in your body!

TP Line for drying after washing.

This is also helps to protect the people who actually do our laundry. Since we don't actually have a washing machine, pre-washing our wipes keeps them from encountering anything they weren't expecting. It also keeps them from being exposed any bacteria whether they are harmful or not. Humans naturally have bacteria, fungi and protozoa in our digestive tract that help us digest our food but they also suppress the growth of pathogenic microbes, boost our gut's immune system, play a key role in gut metabolism, mediate the synthesis of vitamins and are known to play a role in preventing allergies and inflammatory bowel syndrome. But not everyone's gut flora is the same and although it may not be harmful, it is best to keep them to yourself. However, if you do find yourself with Hepatitis A or E, you should take every precaution necessary to not spread it to anyone, including family members, so it might be best to discontinue the use of cloth wipes until you are no longer contagious and talk to your Dr. about it.

Diagram from: http://www.customprobiotics.com/about_probiotics.htm

We settled on washing our wipes with soap and warm water under the bathtub tap (not on full blast!) after every use and hanging them on our makeshift line in front of the window to dry. We opted for the tub to keep them away from things like toothbrushes. We also toss them in the laundry once a week to get that extra dryer fluffiness. This system works really well! We always have a clean and fluffy supply of soft TC!
I had the stomach flu (or Gasteroenteritis...which is not actually related to influenza, so calling it a flu is a misnomer) last week so I really put the wipes to the test! We all know the SF can make things a little messier than normal...in this case you may just want to jump right in the shower and skip the wipe altogether! This works on a normal day but when you have the SF, 20 showers a day isn't great for your skin or the water supply! Alternatively, a quick rinse of your wipe before a thorough soaping goes a long way. I also have to add...there is nothing like a fleece wipe to keep your behind happy in a heavy use situation! No more irritation or stuck on paper bits.

Finally, there is the issue of guests. We definitely don't want to impose our ways on anyone, so we have kept a role of paper in the bathroom for our guests. I still have to think about how to deal with guests who would like to try using TC. Perhaps a separate "guest" pile and line? It will definitely need more thought. I would love any comments in the whole TC issue and any suggestions on methods and guests would be much appreciated!

This initiative has been a great success. We have eliminated the use of toilet paper, which was our #1 use of paper products, and we are loving it! :)

EYCC: Decreasing Tree Products

2011-02-10T13:48:00.001-04:00

About 2 weeks ago I joined EcoYogini's Earth Yoga Challenge for Change (EYCC) challenging us to truly connect with our environment, with ourselves and to make a change rather than just think about it. It is a truly inspiring initiative that I signed up wholeheartedly for...thinking this might just be the sort of thing I need to take my eco-game to the next level.

Typical Nova Scotia Forest

First item on the Challenge: Decrease our dependence on unnecessary tree products. So I went over the things we already do to decrease tree products in our household.

Cancel all deliveries of flyers or junk mail
Reuse both sides of every envelope (great for lists!) or other scrap paper
Don't buy processed foods
Don't buy paper towels or tissue paper
Reuse all gift wrapping
Print on both sides of my paper at work or re-use it as scrap
Buy only post-consumer recycled paper and toilet paper
Encourage my students to print double sided or re-use paper already printed on one side
Read all my references for my PhD as a .pdf on my computer

These are all great and have reduced our paper consumption to one recycling bag a month! I realized that our biggest consumption of paper was toilet paper used for its intended purpose and as tissue paper. Ever since I heard about family wipes or cloth toilet paper I had been seriously thinking about it. Well here it was something I had been thinking about doing but never actually did it...

As most of you know I was pretty sick over the weekend and I was appalled at the amount of paper I was using to blow my nose! All of the garbage cans in my house were filling up with used tissue! That was the straw (or tissue) that broke the camel's back. So on Sunday I set out not only to make cloth TP but also some handkerchiefs.
I read a few websites to get sizes and materials for my two items and settled on ~4-5" for the cloth TP and ~8" for the handkerchiefs. You can make your TP and handkerchiefs out of anything you want but the thickness of the material, especially for the TP, can be an issue. Most sites I read also re-purposed old clothing for this new function. T-shirt material being the thinnest usually needs 3-4 layers to be absorbent enough. You also want to consider the softness of your wipes, whether for your nose or other you definitely want it to be soft...so I opted for fleece. I had the remnants of the sweater I used to make my tea cozy to be used up... so out came my machine and I was determined to stop using paper that very day.
I only had the top half of the sweater left but managed to make 16 cloth TP wipes (small grey and blue squares) and 6 handkerchiefs. Of course I had to decorate my handkerchiefs. The Calgary logo is where the sweater came from, Diego drew the two sharks for me and I made them out of bits of blue fleece leftover from the sleeves, the sea stars are bits of t-shirts that were kicking around and the flowers are from the same t-shirt my fish on my tea cozy came from! The only new material in all of this was the thread! :) It took 5 hours to make because of the detailing on the hankies but also because I stitched the edges of each of the cloth wipes and hankies to keep them intact even though fleece is not supposed to fray...plus it looks nice to have a border!
The seastars are my favorite. They are anatomically correct (leave it to a marine biologist!) albeit a little crooked...they were quite fiddly to sew! They were made in the image of a sea star found here in Nova Scotia, Asterias vulgaris or the Northern Sea Star.

Photo from:http://www.coastalsafari.com/SEASHORE.htm

As you can see they have many different colour variations but they all have one thing in common...the white dot. This is called a madreporite and is where they take in seawater for their muscles to work against in their tube feet so they can move. It is also part of their circulatory system and they extract oxygen from the water they take in and release wastes. It is called a water vascular system.

Photo from: http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/

Ok...enough of a tangent...back to the issue at hand cloth TP and handkerchiefs. You might be asking yourself...how has it been working so far? Well, I fell in love from the first wipe! They are so soft!! The handkercheifs are great, I can use the up to eight times before I need to wash them and I love the TP too...up to 3 wipes per square if you are adept at folding! I will continue to use them for at least a week and report back on my methods, techniques and the outcome in Part II of the cloth TP and hankie saga!

The Calm after the Storm

2011-02-04T10:42:00.006-04:00

I don't know what it is with me and Wednesdays these past 2 weeks...last week was crazy and this week was too but in a different way! This week was had a huge snowstorm on Wednesday afternoon/evening. They were predicting up to 45 cm of snow! So much that they closed the University (which almost never happens unless it is a state of emergency!) at 12:30 pm to let everyone get home safely. It was a good call BUT that meant that my 2:30 pm lab was canceled! So I stayed home to nurse my developing head cold and watch the snow come down...
The first 15 cm fell before 4 pm and the snow just kept coming. While shoveling I was hoping that the University would be open on Thursday (I have 2 labs on Thursdays!) and I wouldn't have to run 3 make-up labs...but definitely doubting that it would since the snow was predicted to continue through the night.
The next 15 cm fell before 9 pm and luckily the storm abated with 15 cm to spare. However, my head cold raged on. I slept for a total of 3.5 hours the whole night and woke up to this amazing sunrise!
Luckily, the University was open on Thursday and I only had to run one make-up lab that evening. After 6 hours of teaching and only 3.5 hours sleep, I was happy to come home to a delicious dinner (thanks Diego!) and a cozy bed. After 12 hours sleep, I feel refreshed and am happy that today is a University holiday! Today was supposed to be a day to work on my thesis but I think it will be a day of rest and taking care of my cold.

Happy Friday!

Crazy Week...with a little Zen at the end.

2011-01-29T08:04:00.009-04:00

It has been a bit of a crazy week.On Wednesday we had a pipe burst in the main floor flat AND the lights on our large kitchen fish tank (pictured here) stopped working. Both issues were quite urgent since it was a radiator pipe that broke we had to shut of the heat. We are lucky in that we have lovely tenants and the issue was quickly resolved. We will need to do more on it but not until the spring/summer. The fish tank on the other hand took a lot more work to solve the problem. It was a race against time since the corals need light to live and can only live 2-3 days without it...we had the lights up and running again by the end of the day Thursday, before any serious damage could be done. Lastly, we are waging a war against the mice in our house. We typically get one 2 two every winter but this winter has been especially bad. We have caught 5 so far (2 adults and 3 babies), we think there may be more but aren't sure...and since my allergies are out of control, this weekend will be a deep clean of the whole apartment...closets and everything. This will help to control my allergies but also let us know if they are still around. In the mean time I will leave you with some photos of the flowers that bring me joy everyday, even among all this chaos!
This is bloom from a piece of my great-grandmother's Christmas cactus. I have had it now for 2 years and this is the first time it has bloomed. We had the original in our house for a long time when I was younger but I had forgotten the colour of the flowers.
My friend gave me her 2 orchids before moving back to Venezuela. One has started blooming and reminds me of her every day. I am looking forward to when the other one blooms. Two others from my collection are also blooming and are so bright and cheery, you cannot help but smile.
I love the delicate dots on the one above and the small stripes on the ones below!Have a great weekend! Now I am off to clean!

Sewing Project on the Fly

2011-01-23T18:32:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I woke up to find a dead car battery so while I was waiting for CAA to show up to boost me I decided to start a sewing project I have had in my mind for a LONG time. I decided to make a tea cozy!

Requirements:

To fit over my tea pot and new french press!
Made out of material I had at home.
My own simple creation...no pattern involved!

Since this was my SECOND sewing project since home ec. class in grade 7 and my first one was little pouches for some homemade lotion 2 years ago, I was prepared to make mistakes so that I could learn along the way but promised to love my cozy no matter what!

Here it is over my french press.

I used an old grey fleece sweater that Diego no longer wore. I doubled it up for extra warmth. I also found an old t-shirt that a friend gave me that was no longer wearable but had a cool fish on it. Cut out the fish and some strips for trim, added some funky stitching and VOILA! Two hours later, a slightly deformed but functional tea cozy!
I am definitely proud of my cozy. It satisfied all of my criteria, works great, has great character and doesn't look half bad for a free hand job! Best of all, it was reused material and the fish reminds me of my Irish friend Corinne! What better item to make with her fish, she drinks a lot of tea and keeps me stocked with an Irish supply!!

Next project: Handkerchiefs with the leftover fleece. I hear it is the best material for noses and will reduce my paper consumption even more!

Winter Sunrise

2011-01-21T08:05:00.006-04:00

This was the scene over Halifax on Monday at 7:30 am. We haven't seen the sun since and are getting ready for another round of snow tonight.
A feathered friend also stopped in around 9 am. This is not a sight we see everyday, seagulls don't usually hang around our neighbourhood. Doesn't he look just a little mischievous...About half an hour later I caught him on the deck....
Now the crows have also discovered my compost stash...They must be getting really hungry and a little mess is the least of my worries if they can get a little morsel out of it! I guess I will have to clean it up before the snow flies!

New Blog!

2011-01-17T19:53:00.004-04:00

My Mom made her very own blog! Click on the photo and take a peak. It might interest some of you! She is an amazing photographer, birder/naturalist and sky enthusiast!

Snow!

2011-01-14T07:42:00.008-04:00

We have had a LOT of crazy weather this year. The amount of flooding and heavy snowfalls in other part of Atlantic Canada has been unprecedented. We have been fortunate as Halifax has come out mostly unscathed. We have had a greenish winter so far but finally had a couple of significant snowfalls this week and I thought I would share some photos of our walk in the snow on Sunday.
We have an old cemetery close by and it is a quiet refuge from the city. I go there often for a walk, run or just to admire the old stones and read about those who lived here before us. Joseph Howe and Alexander Keith are buried here!

Finally, I saw this little guy in the park...don't you just love his hair!
Typical of Nova Scotia, it has warmed up and rained a little. So a lot of the snowmen around the city are looking sad and shapeless. It may not last much longer, so I am glad we got to enjoy it!

CSN Product Review: French Press

2011-01-08T10:27:00.008-04:00

It has been almost 2 months since I posted that I would be doing a product review for CSN stores and I am just getting around to posting my review. As you know from the title I got a french press. Not just any french press...the Bodum Columbia 12 cup Double Wall Stainless Steel French Press!

Isn't it gorgeous!?!

We used to have an insulated coffee pot for our drip coffee maker BUT it died (as well as a few other before it!) after only 2 years! So in the interest of producing less garbage and drinking better coffee we switched to a more permanent solution. We bit the bullet and invested in a large insulated french press because we both LOVE coffee in the morning but I always get up quite a bit earlier than Diego so in a normal glass press the coffee is cold by the time he gets to it or he needs to make a fresh batch because I drank the 500 ml!
I love that it is stainless steel. The shape is classy but can go with any decor. The handle is solid and ergonomic making it a pleasure to pour. Most presses have the metal coil on the plunger so to avoid the metal on metal, Bodum replaced it with a silicone ring. Silicone is inert so it doesn't leach any toxins into your coffee nor does it leave a flavour. The only part of the press that is plastic is the part of the lid that has the pouring screen. I would have preferred stainless but unfortunately all presses that I have seen are like this and I did look at many before choosing this one! Luckily, your coffee only comes into contact with it very briefly when you pour.
I love the spout. Our old french press had this tiny triangular indent (like most) that almost always ended up pouring out the sides and onto the counter. It always made a mess. This spout is large and rounded allowing it to pour so smoothly and I have yet to spill a drop!
It does keep the coffee warm for 2-3 hours if you filled it to the top to start with and about half the time if you fill it half way. I am sure if you warmed up the carafe before you put the coffee in, it would stay warm longer but I don't want to use more water and electricity than necessary. However, there are some pros and cons with the lid. The good thing about the lid the strainer for any stray grinds but also when you turn the lid it blocks the opening preventing the steam from escaping, helping to keep it warm. Not all presses have this feature. In my books this was essential for keeping the coffee warm. However, the lid itself is not at all insulated! So the rising heat is lost via conduction through the metal cooling rather than keeping the coffee warm. That also means that the lid gets very hot to the touch making it difficult to turn the lid to the strainer position to be able to pour your cuppa joe. You won't burn yourself but you can't always turn the lid in one swoop because it is quite hot. That being said, I love having had steaming coffee pour out of the press 2 hours after I made it, which is more than I can say the old insulated drip coffee carafe could do!

Holiday Coffee!

Overall, I am very happy with my new press and would recommend it to anyone in the market for one. Like most things there is room for improvement but the issues themselves are in my opinion very minor. The hot lid is easily overcome by using a tea towel and I am very satisfied with the amount of time it keeps our coffee warm. Also, all the parts are dishwasher safe, which was an important deciding factor now that we have a new dishwasher! We have been using our new press everyday since we got it and I would not go back to any other method of making coffee...except maybe the occasional espresso. This a great daily workhorse and looks great on the table for a dinner party.

The last thing I wanted to comment on was the service I received from CSN stores. I ordered my press in mid-November and I expected ~2 weeks delivery since it was coming from the USA via ground shipping. After 2.5 weeks and no press, I was contemplating calling CSN when I received an email and a phone call from them informing me that UPS had lost the package and asking if I wanted a replacement or a refund. I immediately responded that I would like another one sent but that I needed it to get to me before I left for holidays on Dec 22. The press was sent out the same day and a week later, 5 days before the 22nd, I received my press. The customer service was amazing! I was astonished that they contacted me before I contacted them and they did everything to accommodate my deadline. They were prompt, pleasant and polite. I would definitely buy again from CSN stores and recommend them to anyone looking for something they cannot find locally.

If you have any questions, leave a comment and I will get back to you!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T18:15:00.005-04:00

Happy New Year!!

Image from: http://fireworksfx.com/display.html

Ok, so maybe this wasn't take last night but it sure is a beautiful display on the MacDonald Bridge in Halifax!

Wishing you all love, health and happiness in 2011!

My new relationship with...FISH!

2010-12-12T12:50:00.000-04:00

Life has been absolutely INSANE since September started! I introduced some new teaching material that has been a great learning experience for me but has kept me off of blogging among other things. This is a post I have been working on for a while that I finally had the chance to finish!

This is the latest chapter in my adventure into liking all food. I am on a journey to be a less picky eater and enjoy all food that is presented to me. I think that with some amazing recipes and the slow but consistent approach to eating something you dislike, you will start to actually enjoy those recipes and even want to eat those dreaded items.

Foods on my dislikes list include onions, mushrooms, fish, seafood and lamb. So far I have been incredibly successful with onions and mushrooms. Onions were fairly easy because I could tolerate them cooked but what really sold me on onions were the small grilled onions (cebollitas) in Mexico...oh so sweet and delicious in a taco!
Mushrooms took a little longer. It took a year of eating mushroom risotto with the mushroom chunks getting bigger with every time we made it to finally be ok with eating them in other dishes. I am now even eating them raw in spinach salad!!!!

Image from: manjamakan.tumblr.com

I have tried scallops...twice...once in 2008 (see the delicious Mexican recipe posted here) and again this past Spring when my parents visited for Easter. I guess I have been slacking on my slow and consistent method here...

In comes the fish. Fish has been on my I really DON'T like at all list for a long time...well except when beer battered, deep fried and covered in tartar sauce...but then is it still really fish at this point? Knowing this, imagine Diego's surprise when I came to him and suggested we buy a half share in the new Community Supported Fishery (CSF - for more info on it see EcoYogini's great post and interview here) called Off the Hook. The idea of paying in to the fishery at the start of the season to share in the bounty and in the hard times with the fisherman was very appealing. Not to mention getting to know the fisherman and supporting a sustainable hook and line fishery rather than the destructive dragging of the ocean floor. Bottom trawling, which is how bottom dwelling fish like haddock, cod, hake, etc. are caught and is THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE way to fish.

Image from: http://shrimpsuck.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html
Image from: http://www.leicesterfoe.org.uk/marine.html

The giant net drags across the bottom catching everything in its path (including deep sea corals, sponges, crabs, and the list goes on) and wreaking havoc on the bottom. Destroying the habitat that these fisheries actually depend on (talk about shoot yourself in the foot)...

...and throwing away anything not in the quota. This deep sea coral grows in the dark cold waters of the Atlantic and took HUNDREDS of years to grow that size and it is just being tossed over the side of a deep sea dragger.

Image from:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_bottom_trawled0_bottom_cleared/html/5.stm

The critters below are also bycatch and are what most of the fish we are catching eat, so we are at the same time decimating the food source of any remaining fish...any wonder why our fisheries are collapsing...we are taking out too much, destroying their habitat and food supply with destructive fishing methods and near the coasts we are also assaulting their nurseries with our pollution and coastal development...

Image from: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tags/bottom-trawling?page=1

Knowing all of this, I bit the bullet and decided that we would try one season and if I hated it...at least I gave it a fair go and helped the program get off the ground. We had 5.5 lbs of fresh whole but gutted fish almost every week for 18 weeks this Summer and Fall! This translates into fish for at least 3 meals a week!!

Haddock about to be filleted.

I got to fillet my first ever fish and did a decent job of it! Although this ended up being Diego's job most of the time.
We always cooked all of the fish right away since freezing them or leaving them whole for a couple of days added to the fishy flavour that I don't enjoy. The fish were always less than 15 hours out of the water before they hit our pan. The taste was amazing! No fishy flavour whatsoever and once cooked they kept their fresh taste for the three meals!
To ease me into eating fish we started with an old favorite....Fish Tacos! These are essentially battered and fried little pieces of fish that you can put into a fresh corn tortilla with some Mexican Tartar sauce and Guacamole. Delicious! We used a typical beer batter (with Corona of course) and the Mexican Tartar sauce is just mayo, pickles and grated carrots! I will post my AMAZING guacamole recipe soon. :) It is a party pleaser.
After a couple of weeks of fish tacos we ventured to try another Mexican Favorite that I and all of the guests we made it for enjoyed very much and it is very simple...however, I don't remember what it is called! It is fresh haddock fillets layered (in this order) with juliened onions, diced tomatoes, secret sauce (see below) and topped with some dabs of butter. You wrap this all up in a large amount of tin foil and bake it in the oven or BBQ. You want enough foil to be able to flip it often to cook evenly and not have any juices come out. We ate this several times because it is SO GOOD!

Secret Sauce:
75% mayo, 25% mustard

I would make enough to have 2-3 tablespoons of sauce per layer of fish.

Once it is cooked (this will depend on how much fish you have) just slice open the top of the foil layer stick some spoons in and place it in the middle of the table. Spoon contents into a corn (or flour) tortilla, add some guacamole and ENJOY!
Closer to the end, I started to feel a little more adventurous and we made an amazing baked lemon rosemary haddock with a dill cream sauce. I used fresh rosemary from my garden and dill from the farmer's market. I lay the fillets on a bed of lemons then topped them with a few lemons and sprigs of rosemary and baked them in the oven at 350F until the fish was cooked (30-40 mins). In the mean time I made a creamy dill sauce using this recipe. We ate it with a side of Greek style baked sweet and red potatoes with onions (essentially olive oil with a very small amount of dill, and salt and pepper to taste, baked in my cast iron dutch oven in the oven beside the fish). The combination was AMAZING! Neither the dill or the rosemary were too strong. They were subtle and the combination was perfect. I scarfed this plate down pretty fast!
One of the last recipes we tried was the Moist Baked Haddock recipe found here. I did substitute the Pepperidge farm stuffing with Italian style bread crumbs.
We did enjoy this recipe but we really liked the bread crumbs so we would often just bread and bake the fish (no mayo, etc) to eat in tacos (of course with some salsa or guacamole!) or just straight up with some veggies on the side.

We both loved joining the CSF and will join again in the Spring. It is an amazing opportunity to support a truly sustainable fishery and get all the benefits of eating fish while feeling good rather than guilty about it! We also, really got to know the organizers and the fisherman. We met their families and know our money is going to support them directly and not some faceless corporation. If you are in Halifax, the Valley or Digby and you eat fish, you should definitely check them out!

To learn more about fisheries you can watch the documentary The End of the Line or take a look at Seachoice.org.

Don't have a CSF near you...here are some things that you can do:

There are some fisheries that are being sustainably managed, buy these fish. To know which ones check out the Canadian Seafood Guide and the Canadian Sushi Guide at Seachoice.org.
When in a restaurant, ask questions about where the fish comes from and how it was caught! The restaurant owners will become more informed and buy what the customer wants but they won't know unless you ask!
Not all fisheries are equally destructive so you will need to arm yourself with information to be able to make the right choices and ask the right questions.

Happy Fishing!

How could I resist?

2010-12-01T14:03:00.005-04:00

Aren't these gorgeous??? I have never seen any with the red centre. I bought them on Remembrance Day and thought the red was a perfect fit. I have 3 more orchids that have flower stalks growing and I never remember which is what colour so I always get a surprise!

Still no package from CSN, even though I check every day...must have been held up at the border but it can't be long now!

CSN Product Review and a confession

2010-11-14T09:12:00.005-04:00

Vickie at Frenchy Addict inspired me to take part in doing product reviews for CSN Stores. They have everything under the sun from pet and gardening supplies, shoes, kitchen accessories and even children's luggage! They even have some eco-friendly options, which may need some research before buying but at least they have potential alternatives.

I always prefer to buy locally but no matter what some things just have to come from away so I thought why not got to a one stop online shopping place! I have to confess that I LOVE shopping AND I have to seriously restrain myself.

Why do I restrain myself? First and foremost the environment. Everything we buy has a footprint and I want to minimize my footprint to keep our home (aka Planet Earth) livable for future generations. Secondly, we have a tiny place so we have no room for just stuff...so we are always careful considering what we buy...do we need it and where can we put it. This is also something we try to convey to family and friends with respect to gifts... However, once a year to satisfy my shopping urge, I will blitz Value Village or the Salvation Army for used clothing and kitchen items...I also always go there (or Kijiji) first before buying anything new.

So why shopping online? Well, I sometimes find it very hard to find exactly what I want here in Halifax. It is the largest city in the Maritimes BUT finding some specialty items can be very time consuming and you are almost always faced with well...they just don't have that this side of Montreal.

I know many of you are thinking, what about the impacts of transportation?? Almost every single product you can buy in the stores comes from somewhere else, so technically the impact of transportation will be the same BUT you get exactly what you want...not something close enough that may end up in the trash because it wasn't perfect!

For you coffee/tea lovers...stay tuned for my review!

Lest We Forget

2010-11-11T09:57:00.005-04:00

Today we remember those who have given their lives and continue to fight protecting the interests of our country and other countries who have been or currently are under siege. Although, we may not agree with war or the reasons for it, the people who were/are there on the front lines truly believe(d) in the cause and were/are willing to die for it. It is this tenacity and strength of conviction that we should respect and pay tribute to. We should also pay tribute to the families who have been left behind or are faced with the challenges of welcoming home a wholly different person.

Flander's Fields - The Great War

War takes huge toll on society and today we are faced with this stark truth more than any other day of the year. We should cultivate the feelings that Remembrance Day stirs in us to support efforts to resolve conflict through more diplomatic, humane and peaceful means to end the cycle of loss and suffering and honour the ultimate sacrifice already made by so many.

Finally a DISHWASHER!

2010-11-06T09:46:00.023-03:00

Installing a dishwasher was our first large home renovation project... I say large project because we never had a dishwasher in our flat and it took 8 full days from start to finish!!!. If I have never mentioned this before, you need to know this now for you to understand...our house is 109 years old and was divided into two flats likely in the 1940's or perhaps even earlier. Our kitchen was likely the master bedroom since it is the largest room on the second floor and our sink and counter space is located in what was probably a dressing room and is quite small (as you will see in the series of photos).
Being an old house and having been converted into flats means that there are many oddities that adds the character that we absolutely love...but can also cause some headaches with home renos because what is standard in new houses...is not in our house!

The first thing we needed to do was determine where we could put a dishwasher. We figured out that the only place we could put it and be able to open the door fully was about 4 feet from the sink. We also found out that the depth of our counters was definitely NOT standard...to accommodate the back door (exit is right across from the sink in the above photo) they had to make the counters narrower (19" rather than the typical 25" in North America). So herein lies two problems:

We could not put in a North American made full size dishwasher (they are 24" wide and deep)
To accommodate a 19" wide (20" deep) dishwasher, we would have to not only cut out the cupboard...but also the lathe and plaster wall behind it!

Pilot holes to see what is behind the wall. The cupboard you see to the right (with the tupperware) is the one under the drawer in the first photo and that is the back door immediately to the left. This is avery small kitchen!

Diego had a good time using a reciprocating saw to cut out the wall and cupboard that we lovingly referred to as the "Schwarzenegger" because he had to hold it like a big gun and made a lot of noise!

Cupboard and the wall taken out...notice no insulation on the outside wall...not even paper!

We decided that since the dishwasher was going to be on the outside wall that we would insulate behind it using some pink insulation that we bought and some foam board we had in the basement. We then closed it in with wood that we had in the garage, basement and from the cupboard we removed and plastered the cracks to seal it.

Our first try.

Sadly when we tried the dishwasher, it was sticking out too far to be able to fully open the cupboard beside it...so we decided to carve out 1/2" of the studs you see in the photo...so we had to undo everything we had just done, setting us back one day. Time spent on this part so far...3 days. However, when we were done it was all painted and the dishwasher slid in nicely, we were glad we did it.

The eletrical and the plumbing took another whole day on their own! The plumbing under the sink was installed before dishwashers even existed, so we had to redo the whole thing!

Cast iron and copper plumbing under the kitchen sink.
Diego cutting the cast iron pipe with the "Schwarzenegger".

Our beautiful new plumbing!!!

We had a minor set back with the electrical when Diego wired the dishwasher to the light switch...which of course induced panic when we tested the connection by turning on the dishwasher and it didn't turn on!
When we flicked on the switch to see what the problem was the dishwasher came to life and we had a good laugh!!! It took 1/2 a day to re-wire it and get it right! Time spent so far...4.5 days. The next part is what took us the longest...rebuilding the cupboard in the small space beside the dishwasher. Since our kitchen is so small we had to do something to make this space useable and we of course couldn't make it simple...like shelves...no we decided to make a small larder (aka: a drawer with shelves). We also wanted to reclaim as much wood as we possible could, not just to save $$ but to save TREES!!! This of course made it more difficult because the pieces were sometime bowed but also because this old house is a little crooked!!
This was such a technical job. So much finicky cutting and adjustments to get it "straight" in a crooked opening!
It took 3.5 days just to get this built, stained and layer of clear coat!
But now I have space for our cooking utensils and my teas (yes they take up 3 shelves) and we have a DISHWASHER!! This will save on water and headaches figuring out who will do the dishes!!! :)
Even though it feels like we should have lost space, we actually gained some in the main part of the kitchen! With a little re-arranging and purging of items not used in years, we now also have a potato and onion drawer!!!

It was well worth the 8 days! Now we just need to sand and stain all the cupboards the same colour...

Trees

2010-10-16T09:42:00.014-03:00

After Earl, out two 55 ft Norway Maples in the back sustained some heavy damage (see previous post). We were also worried that the next strong wind might wreak more havoc...so we decided to have them pruned.

View from our second floor deck before.

We called 4 different places to get estimates. The prices ranged from fair to outrageous! Luckily, we have wonderful neighbours that helped us with the cost and we decided on a small company with 2 guys who had a number of years experience and boy did we make a good choice (you can click the image to get to their website)!!
They arrived in the morning and worked away all day climbing, trimming, chipping and chopping and always asking our opinion as they went...making sure we got what we wanted.
There were no ladders involved at all! The owner of the company was a real monkey, climbing all over the two trees even up to the tallest and out on the smallest limbs! We were riveted!
His partner waited at the bottom to guide down larger branches and delt with the chipping and clean up.

He even cut the larger branches that couldn't be chipped into logs that he then also split for us for firewood! Now we just need to buy our backyard firepit we have been dreaming about!
Here they are preparing to take down the top of the tree that broke off during the hurricane and got stuck among the branches.
They did such a great job, I sent them home with a jar of homemade jam each! Here is what the trees looked like after the pruning.
Although we can now see our neighbours in the back, we all get a lot more light into our backyards. Not to mention we all feel a little safer during those high windstorms now that the branches aren't as heavy! Thanks again Green Heritage!!

Just the 3 of Us

2010-09-06T16:59:00.012-03:00

Me, Diego and Earl...Hurricane Earl that is! On Saturday September 4th, 2010, the category 1 hurricane made landfall about 100 km southeast of Halifax at ~ 11 am.
Diego and I lived through Hurricane Juan in 2003, a category 2 hurricane that made landfall in Prospect, NS which is around 50 km away from Halifax and the city was devastated! Diego and I actually slept though Juan and awoke to the state of emergency that ensued, so this time we actually got to watch the storm until it subsided around 3 pm. Juan really devastated the trees in Halifax and we lost power for 10 days!

These two photos were taken just around the corner from our house!

This is the popular Public Gardens in the heart of Halifax, it was closed for months.

So we prepared for the worst.
We brought in most of the plants and what we left out we tied down with the furniture.

This is the beginning of the storm.

We had ample propane for the BBQ and gasoline for the car and generator....yes we bought a generator...for our corals! We have hundreds of dollars worth of corals in our large kitchen tank and we were not about to loose it all...that and we also have a sump pump that we would like to power to keep the basement from flooding...We also had lots of candles (and battery operated fire alarms) and flashlights. The storm howled and we jumped with every bang but after a couple hours we decided it was high time to do something fun as a distraction...
So out came Lord of the Rings RISK and the large bottle of red wine we had been saving and the battle for Middle Earth began.
Four glasses of wine and a knock on the door later, we were out to survey the damage with a neighbour. The top of one of our trees broke off and was (and still is) dangling up high in the tree. We will have to hire someone to come in to deal with it and trim our tree back in preparation for the next one! Many other branches also broke off and we helped the neighbour clear it out.
Luckily, there was no damage caused by our trees...but our other neighbours weren't so lucky...at least it was their own tree so there won't be any neighbourhood rifts.
All in all it was a mild one compared to 2003...but it is just the beginning of the hurricane season...with the waters off our coast warming and our climate changing we are bound to have a few more doozies, if not this year...perhaps next. Our running joke is that every year from now on will be the worst year for hurricanes on record...lets hope we are wrong!

Birthday Mushrooms!

2010-08-28T09:23:00.008-03:00

It was my birthday last Sunday and in the usual fashion we had a party on Saturday...and guess who forgot to take even one photo? Both me and Diego! Regardless, it was a GREAT party with about 30 people and the weather was perfect to be outside! As usual we cooked too much Mexican food (it was DELICIOUS!) but enjoyed it all week! I also want to say THANK YOU to all that came and for the AMAZING gifts! One of the gifts from Diego was a lovely walk around the neighbourhood (I LOVE walks!) that ended at this tree behind the Oceanography Department.
As you all know that with my new job came an in depth learning of terrestrial ecosystems and a deep fascination with mushrooms. But really aren't they gorgeous?!?!
They were large, soft, rubbery and BRIGHT yellow and orange with beautiful ruffled edges. They are called sulphur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus) and young specimens are edible (with caution) but they were too beautiful to even contemplate eating!
I took about 20 photos, then we sat quietly under the tree and enjoyed their beauty and the cool shade of the huge tree in the hot afternoon. This was a perfect moment to top off a wonderful birthday weekend.I continued to look at the mushrooms every day this week, but even on Monday, just one day after we went to see them they had already started to fade. You can even see the top one in the photo below starting to loose its brightness.Now they are a mess of whitish yellow at the base of the tree. It's like they kept their splendor just for my birthday. I hope they remember for next year! :)

Awning!

2010-07-22T15:51:00.008-03:00

So far this summer has been a scorcher! If you weren't convinced climate change is happening, it must be hard to be a skeptic these days!So with all this heat and clear blue skies, our south facing completely unshaded deck was like a grill. We couldn't go and sit outside until at least 6 pm or we would burn our feet on the hot wood and our skin in the unforgiving sun! Our umbrella just wasn't cutting it.

Photo from :http://www.aquasuperstore.com/outdoor-living-and-deck-accessories.aspx

It is very similar to the one pictured above and the shade provided was only enough to barely cover us sitting at our bistro set. So we bit the bullet and bought the awning we have been talking about for years. When we went to the store to check it out, the dimensions were a perfect fit for our deck...it was meant to be!

It is about 5pm in this photo so the sun is lower in the sky and starting to be shaded by trees.

We installed it ourselves on Sunday which in and of itself was an adventure! It took us a while to find the roof rafters, 3 hours to be exact. They decided to put aluminum siding over the cedar shingles, likely in the 1950s which meant they had to put another faceboard (with a small gap behind) to make it flush. So imagine our confusion when everywhere we drilled (4 holes) we found rafters...which was in fact the other faceboard. Lucky for us, Diego figured it out. So with a longer drill bit in hand we did in fact find the rafters and properly secured our awning!

Our celebratory beer after a long day of hard work in the hot sun!

We love it! Now we can use our patio in the rain too and not get a drop of water on us! I love sitting out in the rain! It also helps to keep our kitchen cool since it shades the window and door which is definitely a bonus in helping to keep our fishies below 30C!

Thank You!

2010-07-09T16:18:00.008-03:00

I want to say a great big THANKS to my parents!! I got a phone message from a flower shop on Wednesday but because we were watching the Spain vs. Germany game in a sports bar, we got home too late to get the delivery on Wed. So we spent the rest of the evening and the whole day on Thursday trying to figure out who the delivery was from!! After various jokes about a secret lover, the flowers arrived and they were a congratulations on your first house gift from my parents!
My mom sure knows what I love! They are AMAZING!!
Gerbera daisies with 2 different kinds of lilies and they smell AWESOME!!
I will thoroughly enjoy every view and breath while in my kitchen! The lilies have a blueish hue because it is so hot that we have to have the canopy on our fish tank open to keep the hot lights from killing everything! I am wearing my sunglasses as I write! :) So far the temp has not crested 28C in the tank...anything above 30 = meltdown! Let's hope for some cooler weather!

BIG News!

2010-07-02T08:54:00.012-03:00

Diego and I bought our House (ie: the one we are currently renting the second floor flat!). We are now the proud owners of a Duplex! Closing day was on June 30th and we had an adequate celebration of bubbly and sushi. Yesterday was Canada Day (Happy 143 Canada!) and we had a small BBQ with friends, with a toast to the new house and some lovely fireworks to top it off. Now the new garden and plants I have put in are not in vain!
New veggie patch in the backyard. I planted eggplant, carrots, parsnips, fennel, snow peas, dill and green onions.
Close up of zucchini and green onions.
Our side of the house garden with a jungle of cherry tomato plants coming back from last year's leftovers! I used the plants as ground cover over the winter and low and behold, they seeded themselves! :)
The radishes also seeded themselves, but bolted early on since we had some hot weather in early June. I will collect the seed heads this time and keep them for a cooler location next year.
There were a few leftover onions that have gotten huge and will be very tasty! I also planted some cilantro which is coming along nicely and some nasturtiums for a colourful and peppery salad treat!
Yesterday was a great day for some sun tea! Citrus mint sweetened with Honey. Refreshing! I will leave you with a couple of photos of our beautiful petunias!
Have a great weekend!

Coastal Adventures

2010-06-30T08:29:00.020-03:00

Last week the Biology Department at Dalhousie University hosted a conference for the Association of Biology Laboratory Educators (ABLE). We had 3 days of workshops (Wed - Fri). The workshops are for teachers to showcase exactly what they do with students for a particular topic. The participants do exactly what the students would do in the laboratory, then we have time to ask questions, discuss the logistics details and of course go over the assignment and student evaluation. I gave the Forest Ecology workshop which is the field trip to Point Pleasant Park that I do every Fall with my class that I posted about here. We had 20 "students" in each of the morning and afternoon sessions of the workshop and everyone had a blast rummaging around the forest plots. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. I did have my camera but got sidetracked identifying plants and chatting about the exercise.
Saturday was excursion day for the conference participants and I was fortunate enough to lead the Peggy's Cove and Sea Kayaking trip. There were 39 people on our little excursion and our first stop was a hike to Polly Cove (pictured above). We had 1.5 hours to explore the coastal barrens, named so because of the obvious lack of trees due to the very harsh winter conditions and very shallow acidic soil. I obsessed about the carnivorous pitcher plants before and I will do it again here...but only a little. They bloom for a few months and at this time of year the flowers are fresh and colourful.
Here is a field of them!
We also saw another carnivorous plant called Sun Dew. The do look like little suns with dew on them! See the red "flames" ringing the yellow centre? Click on the photo, you will see them better.
They are like a little (the size of your fingernail) Venus fly trap with what looks like water droplets on the tip of each hair. The droplets are actually sticky and and trap any unsuspecting insect the scurries over or lands on them. I would have never know about these if it hadn't been for some botanists in our group! I love hiking with Biologists! :)
We also saw two species of tiny pink orchids. This one is called Grass Pink (it's leaves are grass like) or Calopogon tuberosus. The other was the Dragon's Mouth Arethusa bulbosa. They are both bog orchids and are quite small, maybe the size of a loonie (our 1 dollar coin for you non Canadians).

Image from http://www.blupete.com/Nature/Wildflowers/SnakeMouth.htm

We actually have 39 orchid species in Nova Scotia. I just planted the Pink Lady Slipper or Moccasin Flower in our backyard a month ago! I hope the 3 of them will survive and thrive!

Image from Vickie Emms at http://www.redbubble.com/people/diamondwillow/art/1830118-8-moccasin-flower-pink-ladys-slipper

After we headed into Peggy's Cove. Don't get me wrong, this place is beautiful but it is now crawling with tourists. I much prefer the quaintness of it 10 years ago when I first arrived.
You know you are with a group of Biologists when...I asked the group what they would prefer, shopping in the quaint stores and art gallery OR checking out the algae and tidepools. There was a unanimous roar of "ALGAE" from the group. So we only spent an hour here checking out the lighthouse and eating lunch...the bathrooms were really popular! :)
My favorite view of Peggy's Cove...Its intertidal zone, which is where we went next. We spent 1.5 hours splashing around the tidepools along a nice long stretch of intertidal (not pictured above) before heading off to do some sea kayaking.
The weather had been overcast but warm until we arrived to our kayaks. The the wind picked up and the temperature dropped about 5 degrees. It was hard paddling against the wind and waves. We were battling whitecaps at some points! Another participant and I got to help out in a rescue! One fellow capsized and we aided the guides to try to get him back to shore. It was an adventure! He was cold and lost his glasses but unhurt. It will make a great story! :)

All in all we had a great day and the conference was a success! Now I have to get back to focusing on my thesis. I have 1/2 of Chapter 3 submitted for approval and comments and Chapter 2 is taking shape!

Have a great Wednesday!

Strawberry Mania and the BEST Strawberry Pie EVER!

2010-06-25T20:58:00.013-03:00

It is strawberry season in Nova Scotia, so the stores (and farmers market) are filled with delicious local berries.
Even my little plants have produced 4 berries for Diego and I to enjoy!
So what did I do with this bounty of berries? Well of course I bought 8 pints to make pies and jams!! :)
I also went a little CRAZY with the rhubarb...I mean really what better combination in a pie or jam? or on their own in muffins or a cake? Let's just say I was a little busy on Monday evening...
I made a batch of delicious rhubarb muffins using this recipe that I posted last year...YUM! I also made some strawberry-rhubarb jam which turned out really dark but is very tasty...especially as a natural sweetener for my homemade yogurt...or an ice cream...or on buttery toast...or anywhere you might want to use jam!!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

4 cups of rhubarb, cut in small pieces
8 c. sugar
8 cups of strawberries, washed and hulled

Sprinkle pieces of rhubarb with sugar, let set 12 hours. Bring to a boil, add strawberries. Boil until thick, and seal in sterilized jars. Place filled jars in water and boil for 10 minutes for long term storage.

I also discovered a recipe for fresh strawberry pie in my cookbook entitled Cook Great Food by the Dietitians of Canada. There are a number of really good recipes but this one by far takes the cake...or pie to be exact. I have already made it twice (and we ate it all without sharing... shameful I know). This is THE BEST PIE EVER! Go right now and make it, you wont be disappointed!
The recipe calls for a pre-prepared graham cracker crust. I did not have one on hand so instead I made a shortbread and vanilla cookie crust using a recipe in the same book for a gingersnap crust for a pumpkin cheesecake (I am thinking Thanksgiving for this recipe!).

Crust

1.5 cups of cookie/cracker crumbs of your choice
1/3 cup of melted butter
3 tbsp of brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients and press on the bottom and sides of the plate. Refrigerate.

The filling

5 cups of washed and hulled strawberries
1/3 cup of cold water
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
4 tsp of cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp of cold water

Puree or mash 1 cup of the strawberries, you should have about 3/4 cup of puree. Here instead of using a potato masher or pastry cutter to puree the berries, you can combine them with the water and sugar in the blender. If you haven't already, combine the puree with the water and sugar and blend well. Place the mixture in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Whisk in the cornstach mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened (~1 min). Remove from heat. While the sauce is cooling place the remaining berries stem down on the crust. I used whole berries for the bottom layer, then cut the rest in half to line the sides of the plate and fill in the holes between the whole berries. Pour the sauce evenly over the berries and chill until the sauce/glaze is set (~3 h). To make it easier to cut and remove from the plate, take the pie our of the fridge ~ 20 min before you are going to eat it. Top with whipped cream and your taste buds will melt!
I still have lots of berries (and rhubarb) left for strawberry jam and strawberry-rhubarb pie. I made lots of pie crusts now I will fill them and freeze them! I also have plans to buy more berries to freeze whole for some mid winter snacks and maybe another of these pies! Don't wait to make this one...only you may not want to tell anyone about it because you will HAVE to share! :) ENJOY!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T09:17:00.008-03:00

Today is Father's Day and unfortunately, my Dad is in Ontario. Although, I cannot celebrate with him in person and I was a slacker at getting his gift sent (:s)... I will spend the day doing things that we would do together (clean the car and have a beer), that he would want me to do (clean the car... and work on my thesis) and that I would do for him (make jam!).
Speaking of jam... Here is you gift Dad! Homemade spicy ginger-rhubard jam that is delicious on ice cream (and anything else you want to put it on)!! I will send it out next week. :)

Gingered Rhubarb Jam (slightly modified from this recipe)

Ingredients:

4 cups diced fresh rhubarb
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation:

Combine rhubarb, sugar, ginger, and lemon juice in a large saucepan and let stand until sugar is moistened by juices (~20 min). Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until thick and clear (~15 min). Ladle into hot sterilized canning jars and seal immediately and use within 3 weeks. However, if you want to keep it longer term then process the sealed jars in a boiling water bath for about 10 mins.

To make the jam, I needed candied ginger...so I made my own and it really is quite simple.
I used this recipe which I won't reproduce because his instructions are great and photos are beautiful!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!

Cribbage!

2010-06-07T18:24:00.007-03:00

We had some friends over on Saturday night and they taught us how to play cribbage!
So we finally put our Christmas Gift from our downstairs neighbours to good use! Isn't our little cribbage dory gorgeous? We had a blast breaking in the dory...probably had nothing to do with this... ;)
I enjoyed the Maple bubbly but I think the jury is still out for everyone else who enjoyed a glass (or 2)! It sure took the edge off the bumps and bruises from my first fall off my scooter on Friday. Yes, I am a fearless scooter rider...which means I travel at high speeds and the pothole ridden sidewalks in Halifax are no longer my friend... :( I promised (17 times) Diego to be more careful while riding. Lucky for me I was wearing my helmet and nothing was broken (other than my pride that is...). Unfortunately, we don't have photos or a video because I am sure it would have been hilarious (especially since I wasn't seriously injured!). After a few days of calm, my shoulder is feeling much better and I will be back in yoga class on Wednesday! Thank goodness because I have been eating all the (DELICIOUS) brownies I made for Saturday's game night! :) (The tupperware was full 2 days ago...)
Ingredients

Batter (~24 brownies)
4 squares (113 g) of unsweetened (or very dark) chocolate
3/4 cup of butter
2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1 cup of flour
1 cup of coarsely chopped toasted pecans (optional)

Icing
4 squares (113 g) of semisweet chocolate
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp water

Lightly grease a 13x9" baking pan. Melt chocolate and butter in a large bowl in a double boiler (or microwave chocolate and butter on medium for 2 minutes). Stir in sugar until well blended. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour and nuts and spread in the pan. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25-35 minutes (mine only takes 25 but it depends on your oven). Check them after 25 mins with a knife, if it comes out clean they are ready! Make sure you don't over bake them. For the icing, melt the chocolate and butter together (microwave or double boiler). Then blend in the water until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies and ENJOY! :)

Best when shared! :)

My First Harvest

2010-06-05T08:51:00.007-03:00

As I was wandering around the garden last week I came across some radishes. Funny I though since I didn't plant any but I did remember some of them bolting and going to seed. I didn't actually get any radishes last year and with my disappointment I didn't want to plant any more this year. With a little research (which I should have done BEFORE planting...) I discovered my mistake...I planted them in a spot that is too hot...which makes them bold and flower. So imagine my surprise when I came across this beauty last week!
Diego and I shared it over lunch on our deck. It was the only one and it was delicious. A very subtle taste. Sadly the remaining plants in the garden are getting huge but no swelling at the roots.
The seeds are starting to sprout in my new veggie garden, the planters are filled and it looks like it will be gorgeous out today so I will make the rounds with my camera! My herb garden is very happy. My chives are now in full bloom and I also have 2 types of parsely, sage (which is also about to flower!), lemon and coconut thyme, rosemary and spearmint.
Great for mojitos, sun brewed iced tea, brownies...I love mint, so I put it in everything I can. Diego rolls his eyes at my obsession sometimes...
Have a great Saturday!

Sticky Rice

2010-05-28T15:35:00.000-03:00

So we had homemade sushi again for dinner last night. I got to eat my favorite roll...sweet potato, avocado, green onion, tamago (sweet egg omelet) and jalapeño havarti cheese (our newest addition...YUM!). :)

This time we had sticky rice left over...what did I do with it you ask?
Made Coconut sticky rice!!! It is SOOO easy and delicious! I am pretty sure you could do it with any plain leftover rice and it would be to die for!

Ingredients

1 cup of sticky rice
1 cup of coconut milk
1 tbsp of sugar
1 pinch of salt

Heat the coconut milk in a pot over medium heat. Stir constantly and let the coconut milk simmer. Boiled coconut milk will curdle so definitely no multi-tasking. ;) Add sugar and salt. Remove from heat. Pour 3/4 of the hot coconut milk over the hot sticky rice (I reheated mine in the microwave and it was perfect!). Let it sit for 5 minutes. The sticky rice will absorb all the coconut milk. The rice should be a little mushy. Spoon the rest of the coconut milk on top of the rice at serving time.
In Thailand they eat it with mango. We didn't have any on hand so we used banana! I am sure you could use any fruit on hand or just eat it straight up!

Diego is not a fan of coconut, which means more for me!!! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

My new Favorite Veggies!

2010-05-21T19:48:00.004-03:00

I found this AMAZING simple recipe called Mediterranean vegetable tian from this book.
Ingredients:

1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 bunch of fresh basil, chopped
1 small eggplant, sliced
2 Italian tomatoes, halved (I used one medium sized tomato, sliced)
Olive oil

Place onions on the bottom of an au gratin dish. I don't have one of these so I used my clay cazuela from Mexico. I am pretty sure it would do fine in a dutch oven or other baking dish with a lid. Drizzle olive oil (~2.5 tbsp) over the onions and then sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Cover with a layer of zucchini, again drizzle olive oil (~2.5 tbsp) and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste (repeat for every layer). Layer the chopped basil, then the slices of eggplant and finally the tomatoes. Cover with the lid and bake in the oven at 135C (275F) for 2 hours.
Sadly my photo is blurry (looked fine on my little screen...) but you can see the beautiful layers of sheer deliciousness! I used some leftover tarragon from this great slow cooker chicken recipe instead of basil the other day... INCREDIBLE! I am thinking of trying this with dill tomorrow!

Happy May 2-4 long weekend! :)

Amazing Yogurt and Goodbye number 5 Plastic!

2010-05-19T08:44:00.006-03:00

So I jumped on the yogurt making band wagon like Sherrie at 22 Pleasant and Eco Yogini because we eat a lot of yogurt and unfortunately we only recycle number 1 and 2 plastic containers in Halifax. I followed Sherrie's method...but ended up getting tasty but slimy yogurt (eek!). So I did some reading and found that most recipes are not precise enough for me (you will see below some of the comments I read) and I really wanted to get to the bottom of why it was slimy! I found out that you need to heat the milk to at least 180F to denature the proteins so that is is thick and creamy and not at all slimy! Let's just say second time is a charm and it is really easy! :)

So here is what I did to get perfect delicious plain yogurt!

Ingredients:

2 L milk (I used Organic homogenized but have read that you can use any type)
250 ml of starter (I used an organic probiotic yogurt, see this post to read about the benefits of probiotic!)

Heat the 2 L of milk in a medium sized saucepan to at least 180F. I used a thermometer but Sherrie said that she let hers boil and it turned out lovely (for milk to boil it must go above 180F) but most yogurt sites do not recommend boiling probably to reduce scorching, so this is up to you. Once it reaches the right temperature, remove from heat and let it cool to between 105-108F. If you don't have a thermometer, one post said that it is the right temperature if you can leave the tip of your finger in for 10 seconds without screaming! It should be hot but not scalding. Mix in the starter. This will take some mixing to get it nicely blended. Also, the milk forms a skin on top. You have 2 options...mix it in (this will take more mixing) or take it out and blend with a little salt until it is the consistency of whipped cream and spread onto toasted bread for a traditional Mexican treat! YUM! :)

Once your starter is mixed in, place the lid on your container of choice and wrap the whole thing in a couple of towels and place in the oven (off) with the oven light on. The oven light will keep the inside of the oven warm enough for the bacteria to work its magic! I used my enameled cast iron dutch oven because it holds heat wonderfully and it worked perfectly! Leave this for at least 15 hours. I usually start mine at around 5 or 6 pm so that it is ready the next morning when I get up. And this is what you get in the morning.
To get it nice and thick you need to strain our the whey (liquid that you get on top of your yogurt). This is where you can play to get your perfect consistency.
To strain the yogurt, I used my large strainer lined with a white towel (now my yogurt towel!) placed on top of a large bowl. Pour the yogurt in and watch the whey drain into the bowl (you can see a stream of whey in the photo above). I strain mine for a couple of hours. I usually mix it up a little after about an hour to get most of the whey out...I like mine really thick! This recipe makes about 1.25L of really thick yogurt, so depending how you like it will depend on how much you actually get. You can also use they whey for baking!

Don`t forget to reserve 250 ml of your lovely yogurt as started for the next batch! I have also read (but not yet tried) that you can freeze your starter. This would be especially handy if you are not going to make batches back to back. :)

Happy yogurt making! :)

Foods that Fight Cancer

2010-05-11T18:34:00.002-03:00

This is my follow up to yesterday's introductory post about this book.
Here I will briefly summarize some of the more important information about benefits of the foods for preventing and fighting cancer :

Seaweeds have properties that cause cancer cells to self destruct! Eating dried (nori in sushi) or rehydrated seaweed (like in seaweed salad or miso soup) or using it as a base in soups and broths is a great way to take advantage of their benefits.Wild wakame (typical in miso soup and seaweed salad). Image from http://www.marlin.ac.uk/shore_thing/creature/August2008.html
Mushrooms are rich in anticancer molecules that slow tumor growth and the progress of cancer. Mushrooms of Asian origin (shiitake, enokitake and maitake) and oyter mushrooms have the most but even the white buttons have some! :) (I love them in mushroom risotto!)Cultivated enokitake mushrooms. Image from http://frutasfranciscosalado.com/?tag=enokitake
Flax seed contains Omega 3 fatty acids that we can convert into DHA and EPA forms. They also contain lignans, these are phytoestrogens that reduces the harmful effects of having high blood estrogen levels. To get all the benefits you must reduce your Omega 6 fatty acid intake (these come from grains) to achieve a balance of 1:1 of Omega 3:6. Also, you must grind the flax before consuming and only grind right before eating or else the Omega 3s will break down.Brown flax. Image from http://www.nutsonline.com/cookingbaking/seeds/flax/premium.html
Herbs and Spices. Eat lots of Turmeric, Ginger, Chili pepper, Black pepper, Cloves, Mint, Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, Oreagno, Parsley, Coriander (Cilantro), Fennel and Anise. Fry turmeric in olive oil for 1-2 minutes to increase its potency by 10 times!My basil (top) and spearmint plants that I planted today.
Always use olive or canola oil for cooking. Olive Oil image from http://blackstrands.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/danis-do-it-or-lose-it-list-natural-oils/
Probiotics (who knew they were actually good for you and not just marketting from the yogurt companies!). Probiotics are good bacteria that can actually pass through the very acid conditions of your stomach to colonize your colon. They help your immune system, prevent carcinogenic substances from being taken up, reduce the amount of harmful bacteria and reduce the risk of and are use to treat digestive tract cancers. Eat them every couple of days since they only stay with us a short time!!! Good and Bad bacteria in your intestine. Image from http://www.drnatura.com/flora_protect_jr.php
Eat Cruciferous veggies (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, etc.) 3 times per week! They are our front line defense against cancer! Kale Image from http://www.galensgarden.co.uk/vegetables/images/kale.jpg
Eat lots of soy! Isoflavones are found exclusively in soy and are great in preventing breast cancer. However, if you have a history of breast cancer, you should actually avoid soy. Soy nuts (a good snack that also lowers your blood pressure!) Image from http://www.laurelonhealthfood.com/2007/08/soy-nuts-lower-blood-pressure/
Tomatoes contain lycopene which interferes with prostate cancer! However, they need to be cooked and eaten with olive oil to get the full benefits! Image from http://thundafunda.com/how-to/how-to-grow-tomatoes-at-home.html
Berries! The active substances found in large amounts in strawberries, blueberries, raspberries interfere with the formation of new blood vessels to a tumor. Other antioxidants found in blueberries and cranberries interfere with tumor development! No sacrifice to eat lots of these in my opinion! :) Mixed berries image from http://www.wairere.co.nz/how-to.mvc
Citrus fruits contain limonene and studies have found that consumption of citrus reduces by half the chances of developing digestive tract cancers by interfering with cancer cell growth and reducing inflammation. Grapefruit image from http://www.earthsongcandles.com/Ionic_Aromatherapy_Salt_Cry.html
Drink 3 cups of Japanese Green Tea (from leaves not bags!) per day. It contains one of the highest concentrations of anticancer molecules of all the foods. Catechins target a large number of processes associated with the development of cancer cells and should be on the top of any cancer prevention and treatment list! Japanese green tea image from http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-414.html
Red Wine has high concentrations of resveratol (found int he skin of grapes) which is the only molecule of dietary origin that will act simultaneously on more than one crucial phase of tumor development!!! It also has cardiovascular benefits! However, consuming large amounts of alcohol will counteract any benefits. So keep it to one glass a day along with a healthy diet to get the maximum benefits!Glass of wine image from http://stanford.wellsphere.com/general-medicine-article/a-glass-of-red-wine-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away/508379
Last but definitely not least... Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa) can significantly slow down the growth of some cancers induced by carcinogenic substances! However, since chocolate is calorie packed it should be eaten in moderation and never with milk! Milk will actually prevent the absorption of the beneficial compounds. Your recommended daily intake... 2 squares a day.Dark Chocolate image from http://www.definebody.com/nutrition/what-makes-dark-chocolate-healthy/

I would have to say, all of these recommendations make complete sense and all are pretty appetizing. For those of you who know me, know that it took me over a year of training to actually like mushrooms and that I am not a fan of food that comes from the sea (for more than just environmental reasons...it typically tastes bad!). But I am slowly learning to like them. It is all mind over taste buds and eventually, like mushrooms, I will actually begin to like them. While others, like chocolate and red wine I need to exert a lot of discipline to not exceed my daily dose! :)

Although this post has focused on cancer, these tips are really for healthy living in general. Combine these with some yoga and other physical activity and you are set in mind, body and soul!

Mother's Day...Sushi!

2010-05-10T19:58:00.010-03:00

I am not a mother (yet...I need to finish my PhD first!) and my mother and grandmother live in Ontario. So I thought that the best way to celebrate Mother's Day this year would be to take care of myself. Something I know my mom would want me to do.
This book was recommended to me by a close friend who was diagnosed with cancer, was treated and so far the coast is clear. He was recommended this book from his friend with terminal cancer who was given 6 months to live 2 years ago. He continues to fight his battle in good health and spirits outside the hospital! Nothing short of a miracle! He owes it all to his radical change in diet and following much of the simple advice in the book. We have a lot of cancer in our family (both sides actually) so I bought this cookbook for myself and one for my mom. The book itself is half information about how cancer works and the benefits of the foods for preventing and fighting cancer written by leading cancer scientists from Quebec and the other half is delicious recipes with the food they talk about, written by top chefs, also from Quebec!
So we decided to take some of the advice (I already started a summary post for this that I will finish up tomorrow!) to heart and we made our very own SUSHI! We used all organic veggies (carrots, green onion, green pepper and sweet potato), avocado and we thought about using the banana to make a bananacado roll but decided against it after tasting the Tamago!
Tamago is a sweet egg omelet and I used this recipe to make it. It is typically made in a special square dish but these instructions are for those people who don't have it...like us! We used fresh pastured eggs for our omelet! We decided to fold our omelet since that's what our Japanese friend did in the little square pan.
Here's a shot of my first roll, tamago, green pepper and carrot! YUM!
This one was my favorite roll, tamago, avocado, green onion and fried sweet potato! The BEST! We opted not to have any seafood since I went to the market late and none of the seafood left was sustainable...
Also, these little white dishes (sorry it's blurry) were found at a yard sale! Who would have thought that you could stop at a yard for a candy thermometer (odd item I know), find it and these little dishes to boot...? Not me but it definitely happened! :)

So we ate our very own delicious sustainable sushi, packed with all the benefits of the seaweed, veggies and soy sauce. Here's to you mom! Happy (belated) Mother's Day!
PS. In case you all thought I was awful for being late...I did call her yesterday! ;)

New Urban Transport System!!!

2010-05-09T13:39:00.004-03:00

I bet you thought this meant we were getting a new Bus system in Halifax! Wouldn't that be nice! What I am actually referring too, is our new scooters!!!

Diego and I got these Xootr Ultra Cruz kick scooters and we LOVE them! We bought them used off of Kijiji - Vancouver. They are awesome because they fold up nice and small so you can bring them wherever you go...or lock them up like a bike if you want too! I highly recommend them because of the large wheels, they are super efficient so the slightest down slope and you go without pushing! I have been using it to get around to most places in the last week and it is easier and faster to get ready than a bike and definitely easier to store!

Check out the video!

Spring Peepers in St. Andrews NB

2010-04-20T20:52:00.008-03:00

Has it been a month already??

Classes are winding down at DAL but my class is just winding up! I am at a statistics workshop at the Huntsman Marine Sciences Centre in St. Andrews New Brunswick! I was too tired today to work on anymore data...I have been staring at my data for 2 full days now (no end in sight until at least Friday!) So I decided to get out and stretch my legs after dinner and catch the sunset.
This is the Upper Campus and I am staying on the main floor of the brown building on the right (Needler Hall). The one on the left is a former summer estate house called the Anderson House.
One of my many sunset shots!

Finally, this little pond is just outside my window (turn up the volume!). I will listen to these little guys until I fall asleep tonight. What a wonderful place!

Happy Tuesday! :)

Flowers

2010-03-20T09:28:00.007-03:00

I saw these on my walk to work yesterday...They were not freshly planted either! The pansie was the most surprising...I almost missed it, just a slight flash of yellow among the dead leaves.
Diego bought me these beautiful roses a couple of weeks ago...the last two are still hanging on but will likely be hung up to dry today. I love the colour contrast and how the glow when the sun hits them!
This photo should be landscaped and is on my computer but blogger isn't cooperating...

Have a GREAT weekend everyone! :)

Sunshine and Warmth = Dread and Frustration

2010-03-13T08:57:00.010-04:00

It has been wonderfully sunny and warm here this last week. I, like many, am awaiting the Spring with baited breath. However, this early warm weather and the flowers coming up in the gardens has mixed feelings for me. For me Spring is about renewal, everything coming alive after the cold and dark of winter gives me joy and fills me with love and life...well that is how it used to be. Increasingly, the good feelings are mixed in with feelings of dread and frustration.

DREAD because this mild winter with very little snow, crazy snow and rain storms and early spring all scream CLIMATE CHANGE. The changes I have read about in the scientific literature are becoming more and more obvious to me. One thing that really drove it home to me was this post by Sherrie over at 22 Pleasant. The snowdrops in her garden are coming up a full month earlier than they were 4 years ago! That is one week earlier per year! THAT IS A HUGE CHANGE! With very little snow and rain (so far) this year, the forests are dry and lots of forest fires are on the horizon. We saw first hand on April 30th last year right outside Halifax what that can mean for people when we had that huge forest fire in Herring Cove.

Halifax skyline on April 30th 2009. Photo from CTV.ca

DREAD because Canada is getting warmer. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change synthesis report (you can download it here) and book, Keeping our Cool: Canada in a Warming World by one of Canada's leading Climate Scientists Dr. Andrew Weaver (who is also on the panel) all point to increased events of severe weather, drought and fires with increased warming. Snow and rain are predicted to come in storms where lots of it is dropped all at once rather than over time (sound like this winter?). Rain events like this have been happening more often, this causes flash flooding and land slides and it doesn't soak into the ground in the forest. When you have heavy rainfall or rapidly melting piles of snow, it is just too much water all at once to be absorbed by the soil and it just runs off. You can try this with your own garden or houseplants. If you water them with lots of water too fast, your pot overflows but if you slow down the water but still give them the same amount, it soaks in. So these events don't help the dry forests...

We are also predicted to have a very HOT summer this year. I don't know about you but, I live in a second floor flat and it get unbearable sometimes... this will just cause more people to go out and get airconditioners which consume huge amounts of electricity and in Halifax, our electricity comes from coal...so more CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) feeding climate change.

Halifax's Coal Burning Power Plant.

FRUSTRATION because of the belief in the general public that this is an issue still being debated in the scientific community. THERE IS NO DEBATE IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT THIS ISSUE, WE ALL AGREE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING! There has NOT been one study published in the peer-reviewed literature that does not point to significant changes in almost ALL ECOSYSTEMS OF THE WORLD!!! Those who put doubt in the minds of the general public, if you dig deep enough, can all be traced back to being funded by those individuals and corporations with a vested interest in the status quo.

FRUSTRATION because of our lack of leadership in the Government. There is nothing I despise more right now than Stephen Harper's face, especially with his fake smile. We had the chance to be a leader on this issue but instead we faltered and blocked much of the progress on a global scale. Dr. Weaver goes into detail of the politics of the issue in Canada (very interesting indeed). The bottom line is that the Conservative Government DOESN'T CARE about this issue. They abolished funding agencies within the government designed to support climate change research not only in the natural sciences but also in social science. They have no goals or target and essentially ignore the issue. This is an issue that affects ALL of us and we cannot deny it any longer...when will we act? When countries run out of water? When there are food shortages because of drought? When there is war because of both food and water shortages?
Despite all of this dread and frustration there is still hope, this is what Dr. Weaver's book has instilled in me. If you haven't Dr. Weaver's book yet, get it from the library or a friend, or buy it if you have to but if you care at all about this issue or if you aren't yet convinced you absolutely NEED to read it! It explains the science in a very clear, easy to understand manner. This was written for the people, not the scientists, remember, we already know it is happening!!! It also goes in depth into the "debate" in the scientific community, the media's role in disseminating the science, the politics and the covert tactics of those with a vested interest in continuing to emit GHGs to create doubt in the general public about the issue. I think it is so IMPORTANT for EVERYONE to understand the science, media and politics of climate change. Once you do, you will no longer be able to deny or ignore it. Although this book is sad, scary and frustrating, it is hopeful and we CAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF GLOBAL WARMING but we need to force our Government(s) to ACT NOW!!

Do you think Stephen Harper would read it if I sent it to him?

Canada's Big Night!

2010-03-02T21:07:00.004-04:00

This is a video we took on Spring Garden Rd in Halifax on Sunday night just after the gold medal goal of our homegrown Sidney Crosby. Diego and I wanted to take to the streets to celebrate all of the athlete's achievements in these games. Looks like many others did too...

Way to go Canada!!! Finally...something to be proud of after such disappointing politics!

Green Search Engine

2010-02-19T13:57:00.004-04:00

I wanted to let you all know about a new search engine (as good as google, yahoo, etc) that donates up to 80% of the $$ generated from users clicking on the sponsored links to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF!! Also, all of their servers are run on green electricity, so they do not cause any CO2 emissions!!! Check them out by clicking the link below. If you like the idea, make them your new homepage and tell everyone you know! :)

Happy Award!

2010-02-17T08:48:00.011-04:00

Teresa over at Life Homesteading and Everything gave me this award 11 days ago but have just gotten around to it now... THANKS Teresa!! I am honoured!

The rules to this award are to list 10 things and 10 blogs that make you happy.

Things:

1) Snow days like yesterday! We got 30 cm of snow in the night and the University was closed...a great day to go for a walk, make some soups and work on my thesis... This is the view from out our back door in morning!
2) Cooking! It is so relaxing and rewarding. My body always feels better with a home cooked meal! This is a cream of broccoli soup I made last week...delicious and not a lot of cream!
3) My fish tanks...I already posted about those here and here.

4) My blooming orchids! I took these photos this morning...I love the light that reflects from the snow.
5) My first cup of coffee in the morning.

6) Singing birds when I walk to work.

7) Sunshine streaming in my window in the morning.

8) Swimming. I do this at least twice a week and it is so relaxing and calming. I LOVE being in the water!

9) Practicing Yoga. I am taking this amazing Vinyasa Flow class twice a week and I supplement with some Ashtanga 1-2 times per week. It is so calming and invigorating at the same time. My body and soul thank me every time I do it.

10) Last but definitely not least....being madly in love with Diego even after 7 years!

Blogs that make me happy.

1) Lisa at Eco Yogini. She is always so informative and candid. Her honesty is refreshing! :)

2) Barb at Mammy's Love. Her journey through whatever life throws her way is inspiring!

3) Sherrie at twenty-two pleasant. Her energy level, recipes and craftiness keep me coming back for more. Not to mention her cute little boy P...and Boy #2 on the way! :)

4) Vickie at Frenchy Addict. I strive to have her outlook on life now and keep it as I age. Not to mention she is such a talented knitter!

5) Sarah C at Blooming Where I am. The anecdotes and things to be thankful for really make you be thankful for your life and surroundings!

6) Little House in the Suburbs. SUPER Informative on anything from making your very first vegetable garden to homemade beauty products and cinnamon toast!

7) Cake at Whistling Leaf Blower. I love reading about her adventures and great recipes! Cosmo always makes me smile!

8) Parikha at Sixoneseven. Great recipes, gorgeous knitting ideas and beautiful baby D.

9) Ingrid at Words Starting wiht "P" are Cute. A very talent woman, spinning her own yarn! Any news on the newt?

10) Teresa at Life, Homesteading and Everything. Back at you Teresa! I love your blog...the homeschooling stories, anecdotes, recipes, all keep me fed and laughing!

Don't feel like you have to play along but I wanted to let you all in on a little piece of my happiness! :)

Re-vamped!

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I posted a photo of our favorite fish tank...much has happened in our lives the last year which means it got a little neglected. I still changed the water but it was starting to look sad. So over the Holidays Diego and I decided to dedicate some time (and $$) to making the kitchen tank look beautiful again!
Diego and I built the canopy (the top part that holds the lights) and stand in 2005...our 1st carpentry project together! It took 2 weeks because the tank is 6 ft long and 2 feet wide (and 2 feet tall!), so it needed to be huge and well...we didn't know that a 2" x 4" is actually 1.75" x 3.5" so we had a few issues. Regardless, it turned out and now we have a beautiful stand and workstation...this is my workstation, so I am looking at this as I write! I love it! It makes me HAPPY! :)
This is our giant clam (Tridacna squamosa) which we have had for a year in another tank but decided it was high time for it to be front and centre (it is the size of a football!)! This is not your typical clam, most live in the sediment and filter particles out of the water for food. This one does filter particles BUT it also photosynthesizes like plants! Which means it needs light to survive! In it's beautiful mantle (the purple part) it hosts symbiotic algae cells. Symbiosis describes a relationship between 2 organisms where both organisms benefit and in this case the algae (called zooxanthella) provide sugar (product of photosynthesis and the basis of metabolism) to the clam in exchange for nitrogen and other nutrients the algae need to grow! Corals have the same relationship with the same type of algae and they too capture particles to supplement their diet. I think they are among the coolest things ever! (**Note: I say this A LOT when it comes to anything alive in the sea or on land...I LOVE the natural world and am fascinated by it...so no matter how often I say it, I mean it!).

Here is a little tour of our tank. The blue fish you see perched at the beginning is a bicolour blenny, the only other fish we have are 2 clownfish and a Hippo Tang (that is very shy so is not in the video).

The other REALLY COOL thing we got recently was a rock that is covered with a species of hard coral called Porites that has Christmas tree worms, barnacles and (here it comes...) the COOLEST filter feeding crabs! Check out the video! (My apologies for the blurry parts...).

The crabs live in holes in the rock/coral and have modified antennae that look like combs that they sweep through the water to capture passing particles!!! They then take their "net" to their mouth and just clean it off and stick it back out to catch more! They are so CUTE! The video gets in nice and close to one of them. We have 4 living in our rock. Two that have spotted claws like the one in the video and the 2 others have stripes!
The Christmas tree worms, are tube building filter feeding worms. They come in many colours, on our rock we have blue, white and brown, and red ones. You cans see a blue one at the beginning of the video on the bottom right of the rock. You will see some blurry and not so blurry close ups of some of the worms. You can see that they have a spiral top that is wide at the base and tapers as it gets to the top. If you have seen Avatar, you have seen these as terrestrial plants that when touched retract into their tube. These "plants" in the movie look EXACTLY like these worms. Although, I was perplexed at what these "plants" fed on in air...the delicate feathery top of these worms is designed to capture small passing particles in the water, not in air. The entire surface of the feeding appendages (feathery top) are covered in tiny hairs called cilia (the same kind that line your lungs) that move the food down to the worms mouth at the centre of the base of the feathery top. They actually do retract very quickly into their tubes, like the plants in Avatar, to avoid being eaten by passing fish. They are actually light sensitive (as well as motion), so if a fish passes overheadand and casts a shadow they will retract.
Last but not least, the barnacles! You can see one feeding on the bottom left of the screen as the video zooms in on the crab. It too is a filter feeder...can you tell that there is lots of food in the water column in the ocean? So many organsms make a living capturing suspended particles from the water column! Barnacles are cool in that they are a crustacean, like the crabs, but they have built an outer shell that houses a little shrimp-like animal inside. The little barnacle lays on his back inside the shell and uses a modified arm that acts like a giant fan that they stick out to capture passing food. Also, relative to their body size, barnacles have been deemed the organisms that have the longest penis in the world! Why is this you ask? Well since they live attached to the bottom, their nearest neighbour could be quite a distance away (ie: a few centimeters) so to be able to reach them...they have a really long penis!

Although marine tanks are AMAZING, there are many sustainability issues that surround the industry. Suffice to say in this post that we only buy tank-bred or sustainably harvested fish, corals and other invertebrates. The majority of our corals were grown here in Halifax and our rocks handmade by a close friend. I will save the issues and more eco-friendly options for another post.

Well that's it for today! Have a great weekend!! :)

1st Draft and Cream of Mushroom Soup

2010-01-11T08:09:00.005-04:00

I finished the 1st draft of the manuscript of the first chapter of my thesis this weekend. I have been working on it for 1.5 years now...the analysis was complicated and took 6 months of that time to get a handle on...not to mention the 8 months it took to learn MATLAB and write the code to process my data before I could analyze it! I posted about MATLAB a while back. Teaching last term took so much of my time, writing definitely took the backseat. However, now that this term (labs start today!) is essentially a repeat (with minor modifications) of last term, I am hoping to have more time to write my thesis and blog!!! :)
Since I was up bright and early (5 am!) this morning preparing for my class and I finished early...I decided to post the recipe for this AMAZING cream of mushroom soup that I made (in my new enamel cast iron dutch oven, which I LOVE!!!) just before the Holidays!

Ingredients

Half cup of butter
Quarter cup of flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 pound of mushrooms, finely chopped
1 pound of mushrooms, roughly chopped
4 cups of broth (I used capon broth since I had just made it but you can use chicken, veggie, turkey and even beef for different flavours)
4 cups of cream (half and half or whipping – I used 2/3 half and half and 1/3 whipping)
Quarter cup of fortified wine, such as sherry, port or Madeira

Salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp of Herbs de Provence

Preparation

1. Melt butter in soup pot on medium low heat

2. Add onions, garlic and salt. Sautee until they are soft.
3. Add mushrooms, and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the fortified wine and cook for one to 2 minute(s). Here you want the mushrooms to take on the flavour of the wine but not to evaporate it all.
5. Add flour in a bit at a time, stirring it in as you do to help prevent lumps.
6. Add broth a bit at a time, stirring as you do to prevent lumps. After enough broth has been added to make everything liquid, add the rest of the broth.

7. Bring to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or so. This will allow the flour to thicken the soup somewhat.
8. Add the cream, pepper and Herbs de Provence. Gently simmer the soup without boiling for about ten minutes to allow the flavors to mix completely.
9. Taste the soup and add any salt, pepper or other spices you feel are missing!

This is a very versatile soup...the flavours will change depending on the type of mushrooms or broth or spices you use. So play with it and enjoy!!!

Have a great Monday! :)

T-squared

2010-01-05T20:23:00.009-04:00

So obviously this post is about two things that start with T....

We got a big winter storm on New Year's Day here in Halifax. We were having dinner and playing The Settlers of Catan (Christmas gift to ourselves) with some friends.
This is not technically one of the T items but definitely deserved a photo! :) If you have never played this game run out and buy it now it is AWESOME!

What were we eating you ask? We were eating the Tourtiere I made before Christmas!! Which is the 1st T item on my list.
Tourtiere is a meat pie that originates from Quebec (the official French Province in Canada).
It is traditionally eaten as part of the Christmas eve revellion (a party after midnight mass that lasts into the wee hours of the morning), Christmas and New Year's meals. It can be made with ground pork, veal or beef or a mixture! We traditionally eat it with ketchup in our family but it is wonderful with a tomato chutney too. Since Teresa requested the recipe, I will divulge our family secret and give you the Thanase Tourtiere Recipe (with some Alli modifications for extra flavour!).

INGREDIENTS (MAKES 2 REGULAR PIES OR 1 DEEP DISH - crust recipe not included but I can post the one I use if there is demand...let me know)

1 lb of each of ground pork and beef (I use lean)
1 large onion, thinly diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup of water
4 pie crusts (or just 2 for deep dish)
ground cloves
cinnamon
sugar
salt
pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Fry the onions until tender. Add garlic and fry until just before it turns brown (~1 minute). Then add the pork, beef, water and spices and simmer for an hour adding water as necessary to prevent drying. Do NOT overcook the meat or your pie will be dry. So here is the thing with the spices...the recipe says a pinch but I use a lot more than that (not to mention there was no garlic in the original recipe...oh the plain recipes of the past)... I would say at least a teaspoon of each of the cinnamon, salt and pepper, 0.5 tsp of cloves and 1.5 tsp of sugar. Play with the spices to get it to your liking but this is my best estimate. It should be flavourful but not overpowering (especially the cloves)...so definitely add a little and taste as you add more. Once the meat is done, put it into a pie crust, cover with a second and cut some steam vents on top (see my photo below...they are so beautiful, I thought to post it again...).
Place in a preheated oven at 425F and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Bast the top with egg white to get an even brown top. These pies freeze very well. Freeze them in the raw pie crust and do not defrost prior to cooking. Just pop them in at a lower temp (~350F) for longer so the top doens't turn black before the centre is cooked. Monitor the internal temp with a thermometer...you just want to make sure it isn't still cold in the middle without risking burning your finger (trust me, I've done it before and it is not pleasant!).

So after, we finished consuming said pie (among other delicious gooddies brought by our guests), we looked at the HUGE pile of snow outside (like 25 cm!!) and decided it was time to go TOBOGGANING!!! It was the first time the sleds went out this winter and it was a blast!

(me on my crazy carpet!)

We went to the Halifax Citadel, a National Historic Site located on the top of a glacial drumlin.
See all that green grass... well all that gets covered in snow in the winter and some areas are really steep. We we flying down the hill on the side with the trees in the summer photo above. It was perfect for an evening of shear FUN! I highly recommend it to anyone living in Halifax! We left our place at 9 pm and came home at 1 am. We sure worked off that pie!

Happy Tuesday!

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T10:42:00.003-04:00

Wishing you all Health, Wealth and most of all Happiness in 2010.

Chirstmas Eve

2009-12-24T09:10:00.019-04:00

I cannot believe it has been another month since posting...and that it is Christmas Eve already!!! What have I been doing you ask? Well I have been busily trying to get myself organized and ready for teaching next semester so that I can relax for a couple of days and finish off the first chapter of my PhD thesis! When not working I have been busily preparing the house for our Christmas at home. We typically go to Mexico or Ontario, but this year we decided to have a Halifax Christmas. So I got some pine and cedar branches, and large pine cones for some festive decorating.
I really wanted to keep this Christmas as low impact as possible. So we used our Norfolk Pine houseplant as our tree. I finally got around to decorating our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!
Do you see the resemblance?
Our Norfolk Pine is only about 60 cm tall (with the pot!). I was afraid to put more than the felted snowman, santa and candy canes for fear that it would break in half. It is leaning sadly over just like the one above...but it is better than no tree!

To keep with the sustainable theme, I made all of my gifts. This was a labour of love and took a lot of my evenings and weekends to get them all ready for giving. I made 200 peanut butter balls, 3 dozen molasses cookies and a batch of my memere's (endearing word for grandma in french) sucre a creme (or fudge in english).
Here they are after their chocolate bath!
I couldn't resist a molasses cookie...
I also made my own honey sweetened apple sauce with the apples we picked in the fall.
I also made some cute labels for my creations...I also made an orange scented body lotion using this recipe on Healthy Living with a Twist and a revitalizing (peppermint scent) sugar body scrub using EcoYogini's recipe.
Last but not least are little aloe plants I received from a friend and decided to share in little "pots" purchased at Value Village, a second hand store.
I also wanted to make Christmas as traditional as possible...well actually a melding of 3 cultural traditions...French Canadian (my mom's side), English Canadian (my dad's side) and Mexican. What better way to do that than through food...
Here I am making tourtiere, a french Canadian meat pie...
The finished product! We will likely eat these on New Year's eve. Last night we ate Mole Poblano (chicken with a spicy chocolate gravy) with homemade corn tortillas. I made it in my new enamel cast iron dutch oven! Thanks Mom!!
Typically, mole poblano at Christmas time is eaten in a dish called Romeritos. This is a typical dish from Mexico city that has dried shrimp and a plant that is called romerito and resembles rosemary. I am not a fan of shrimp and romerito is hard to come by in Halifax, so we went with chicken.

Tomorrow, we will have turkey with all the trimmings! I have been busy but promise to keep up over the holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! May your holidays be filled with the warmth of family and friends!

Love,
Alli

The Last Hike

2009-11-25T09:00:00.014-04:00

We found out last Thursday that Claudia, Rodrigo and Santiago are going back to Mexico. There were many reasons for this but they said they liked Canada and hoped to return soon. Since the news Diego and I have been trying to enjoy our last week together and do as many Canadian things as we can before they go. On Sunday we went for a beautiful hike at Gibralter Rock along the Musquodoboit Rail Trail. For more info click here. What an incredible trail!
It was a steep hike up especially with a one year old in our arms but the view from the top was breathtaking!
You could see the entire valley! Diego and I thought that it would be a great hike in the winter with gampons, right after a snowfall... snowcaps on all the trees...especially early in the snow season when it is not too cold!
The forest itself was really dense, full of moss, lichens and ferns...so guess who went camera crazy...
Doesn't this look like a snowy layer?
What a lovely lichen!
The forest on the way back down to the "mountain" (ie: very large hill) was still and quiet, full of evergreens and obviously very damp with its moss carpet.
So many boulders covered in moss with small trees...
There isn't much soil here for the trees and much of the damage from Hurricane Juan in 2003 was still apparent, interspersed with the hope of new life. (See my other post here about Hurricane Damage)
After the hike we went down to Martinique Beach, a very long fine white sand beach.
It is a Provincial Park just south of Musquodoboit Harbour bounded on one side by the Atlantic Ocean and the other by a huge salt marsh. It is our favorite beach and also one I take my students too for my summer class.
Here is Tio (uncle) Diego showing Santiago the ocean.
To finish off the day we had fish n' chips. It was an amazing day...very Nova Scotian. We all got the chance to explore somewhere new and enjoy each others company. We will miss them.

Hope you are all have a great week!

Where to begin...

2009-11-08T22:06:00.020-04:00

It has been 42 days since my last post and I feel a little hesitant about it. Not for any other reason than I have fallen out of the habit... well here goes. Since I last posted so much has happened!
I guess I will start with the awesome field trip I did with my students to Point Pleasant Park (seen above) in October. For those of you who are not familiar with the Point Pleasant, it is a large urban park on the tip of the Halifax peninsula. In 2003 it was hit hard by Hurricane Juan (see before and after pics below!), so we have a trip every year in October student visit the same 6 sites around the park and measure the regrowth of the trees and other vegetation.

Before and after Hurricane Juan photo of the same spot in Point Pleasant Park

Students estimating the percent cover of ground vegetation in a 1x1 m Wood Frame

Although, there is a lot of regrowth... ...it will take a LONG time for the trees to come back! I discovered 2 things on this field trip. 1) The students LOVE field trips (even in the rain)!!! I am brainstorming all kinds of ideas to get them out even more, what a wonderful way to learn. 2) Terrestrial habitats fascinate me just as much as marine and I have opened a whole can of worms!!! ;)
Let's just say I am getting ready for the next field trip...or really that I am now obsessed with learning about the land around me now that I am comfortable with the ocean!

Thanksgiving was a blast!! It was The Mexicans's (Diego's sister Clau, her husband Rore and their son Santiago) first Thanksgiving so we had a party! We invited a few friend and as usual, I was the only Canadian...who would have thought sushi would go well with turkey! Diversity is wonderful! :)Diego and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary in a cabin in the woods. This one room cabin has no electricity or running water...just a wood stove for heat and propane stove for cooking and candles to see by. What a wonderful place! It is located on the property of a place called Windhorse Farm they are an organic farm that also has a large property where they sustainably harvest wood using a team of horses. They also have a variety of cabins and retreats and tons of hiking!!! Guess who brought all her new plant books with her... We spent the weekend eating, hiking, identifying plants and mushrooms...making tea with sweet fern and playing checkers. Here are some pics I took of this wonderful place.
Can't you just see a smurf walking out of this mushroom?
Some fruiting lichens (a grey species with pink spots and a green species with orange spots!)
Other delicate lichens among the moss.
Last but not least, a rooster video! (I though of you Teresa!)

There...that wasn't so bad...actually I am really enjoying this...I think my break has been long enough!! I will post again soon! I just want to let you all know that although I am not commenting, I have been keeping up and am enjoying reading all your blogs!!
My best to you all!

Checking In

2009-09-27T22:11:00.015-03:00

Life since my last post has been just INSANE!!

I was in BC for 5 days total...not very long at all. However, I did get to enjoy my morning runs around UBC campus (except for the beach security guards that kept kicking me off the beach because it wasn't yet 8 am!) but did not get to the cupcake place Teresa mentioned. :(
I did get to visit my cousin in Victoria whom I haven't seen in 7 years! She has three kids and a husband that I met for the first time! We had a great time!
This is the view from their deck and the birthday pie Pheonix (eldest daughter) and I made for her dad with blackberries she and her brother Paul picked the day before. It was a lemon blackberry pie and was DELICIOUS!
Upon arriving I was rocketed into my new job teaching the lab portion of a second year University course in Ecology (~150 students). I absolutely love it BUT every day is crazy and I am living week to week and working 6 days a week! Luckily, next semester will be the same thing over again so I will have a little more time to breathe now that everything will be prepared!
Here is an experiment I set up in the greenhouse for the students. They will be looking at the the effect of crowding on the growth of corn plants. From left to right you have an increasing number of plants per pot (1, 2, 4, 8 and 16). You can see that the pots with one or 2 are WAY taller than the ones with 8 or 16! Ah competition...for light, water and nutrients. Such a simple experiment yet very effective!

At the same time as all of this insanity... Diego's sister, brother-in-law and their son moved to Halifax from Mexico!!! They live in the flat below us, so we have been busily helping them adjust to life in a colder and culturally (and linguistically) different country! We took them apple picking yesterday. What a glorious day it was, sunny but cool!
We picked Cortland and MacIntosh apples and 2 kinds of pears.
We left with 3 - 10 lb bags of apples and pears, a squash, a sweet pumpkin (for pies of course!), a 10 lb bag of beets and some sunflowers!
That's me in the back picking my 8 for $2!!! SCORE!
I don't forsee any calmness in the near future but just so you know even if I don't post for a little while...I am still alive and well! Even though I am not posting comments, I am keeping up with everyone!! I will post again soon!

Warmest wishes to you all! Enjoy the fall! :)

Morning Run

2009-08-27T18:14:00.003-03:00

I am in Vancouver, British Columbia...on the west coast of Canada for a workshop. This morning I woke up bright and early as I am still on east coast time (4 hours head!) and went for a run on the beach... this was the view!
I will finish my workshop tomorrow and then I am off to Victoria on Vancouver Island to visit my cousin that I have not seen in at least 8 years! I am excited to see her! I will post more on my adventures later...our break is almost over!

I hope you are all having a great week!

Celebration!

2009-08-23T17:12:00.009-03:00

Yesterday was my 31st birthday and to celebrate Diego planned a nice big party for me! It wasn't a surprise party but nonetheless I was very happy with the idea!

So we invited about 40 people including kids. Although only half could make it we had GREAT time! We ate Mexican Carnitas (which means "little meat"), salsas, guacamole, frijoles charros (cowboys style beans) among other goodies that everyone brought! As usual we ate our fill an have a tonne left...it is my mom in me coming out! ;)

Although, we told people not to bring gifts that just coming to the party was gift enough, I did receive some wonderful gifts!!
This wonderful bead set and instructional manual will set me up for making jewelry...which I wear a lot of...Diego thinks I was a crow in a past life! And a gift certificate from the GAP...the gift that keeps on giving! Not only do I get the surprise of opening it but to go shopping for a gift!!!
This soap dispenser was from Lisa and Andrew...they knew just what I needed to beautifully display my homemade liquid hand soap! Not to mention it is made in Canada and GLASS! Thanks!! :) The pottery in the photo was handmade by a very good friend and I am delighted to have a piece of her art in my kitchen! I will use it often!
Last but definitely not least was the gift Diego gave me. He bought me a gorgeous set of Labradorite (my new favorite stone!) jewelry (ring, earrings and a pendent)...the photo of the ring does NOT do the stone's beauty justice! Labradorite is a type of feldspar mineral in the plagioclase family that are a major constituent of the Earth's crust but this particular type of crystal is only found near Nain in Labrador, Canada.

The party lasted well into the night (3:30 am to be exact!) and we drank lots of tequila, laughed, told stories and played guitar. We were so happy that Hurricane Bill did not arrive as predicted at midnight! In anticipation for the hurricane, just before bed Diego and I raided the tomato plants for fear that we would lose them to the winds!
Now that the high winds and rain are almost over and our headaches are almost gone it will be time to get to the cleaning! Luckily, we had enough foresight and help from the troopers who stayed until the end to most of the cleaning last night!

Than you ALL for a wonderful birthday! It was the best b-day party in a long time!

BBQ Pizza Care of Sherrie!!

2009-08-11T19:34:00.004-03:00

So I tried Sherrie's BBQ pizza recipe and they were sure tasty!
The dough recipe made for four little pizzas but we found the crust to be too thick so next time we will make them a little thinner and likely get 5 out of the recipe. We had tons of variety. I wanted to make them all different and have on piece of each! Each one cuts nicely into 4 pieces so just enough for dinner and lunch for both of us!
The only thing they all had in common was my laziness...I didn't want to make sauce so I made them all "blanche", or with just a drizzle of olive oil and some salt. We tried a range of toppings, fresh herbs from the garden and cheeses. We both agreed that the one with the old cheddar and the other with Brie (second photo) were the best.

Highly recommended...definitely worth the extra effort to make the dough...next time I will make sauce! :)

A Wonderful Sunny Day!

2009-08-07T08:14:00.013-03:00

So, here I was thinking of working on my thesis chapter all weekend. It was supposed to rain and besides I NEED to get it DONE! However, I awoke Sunday morning to a beautiful sunny day that I just couldn't resist...I mean who could with an average of 5-6 days of rain a week since May!So I got up early and made Sherrie's (at Twenty-Two Pleasant) best bread ever (get recipe here) which need to cool off before eating...so what better way to let the bread cool than to go for a hike!!!
We went to Polly Cove, which is near Peggy's Cove, which for those of you not from NS is along the Atlantic Coast about 30 min drive Southwest of Halifax. It is quite a unique place. The landscape is called barrens. This is because it is really rocky with low lying shrubs in the areas where a very thin layer of soil has accumulated. There are a few trees but they are generally stunted due to the low amount of soil and large amounts of salt in the air from all the storms! The photo above is along the path in to the Cove.
This is the view of the Cove which is somewhat sheltered and had more trees. This was our view over our delicious lunch of hummus, pita, cheese and fruit. Check out the more exposed island on the right side of the photo...not a tree in sight.
This is the view of the very exposed peninsula we hiked to. The plants that do live there are quite interesting indeed. In the low lying areas where some soil accumulates it is quite boggy and nutrient poor so we have this carnivorous plant called the Pitcher Plant.
The leaves form a tube (redish) where water accumulates inside and the plant secretes digestive enzymes to make it a toxic mix for any unsuspecting insects that may happen to fall inside. How does it get insects inside you ask? Well some do just fly in for shelter BUT if you look closely at the green inner lip of the entrance there are fine downward pointing hairs (click on photo to enlarge and you will see this), so anything that lands on this part actually slips and falls in. This is how the plant supplements the nutrients it cannot get from the soil. Pretty cool eh?
It also happened that they were blooming and have really cool flowers!
The rocks were also covered in lichens. These are considered fungus but in reality are a mutually beneficial relationship between algae and fungus. The algae cell lives inside the fungus and photosynthesizes giving the fungus some of the sugars produced from harvesting sunlight in exchange for other essential elements and nutrients. The diversity of lichens is astounding...
The only bits of rock you see in this photo are the little pinkish bits, everything else (black, grey, different greens) is different species of lichens!

Once we finished our hike we headed back to town with a short stop at Chocolate lake (named so for the Chocolate factory that used to be on its shores) to take a refreshing dip. It was unusually hot at Polly Cove. Typically the South wind off the 12 degree Celcius water keeps the coast cool, but no breeze on that day!
We headed down to an outdoor concert and while listening to the music I noticed a huge fog bank just waiting to envelop us once the land got cool enough. So we headed down to the waterfront to get our ice cream before the chilly fog moved in....headed home and munched on some delicious bread while watching season 6 of The X-Files.

Have an excellent Friday! :)

A Nice Visit.

2009-08-02T09:46:00.005-03:00

Two weeks ago my parents drove from Ontario to visit for a few days. They came laden with things, some of which includes my baby photos and stuff for our numerous fish tanks. Needless to say we have been so busy that I just yesterday go around to putting it all away! Which was very satisfying since it was blacking part of our narrow hallway!
One of the things my mom brought for us was this beautiful hens and chicks basket. I absolutely love hens and chicks, they are so cute and their flowers so colourful and there is such a huge variety (as seen in the basket) that you can never get tired of them!
We had a lovely visit, we spent much of our time eating out, drinking wine and beer, chatting, and fixing the rust on my car (THANKS DAD!). We also went swimming in a little lake in the heart of Halifax called Chocolate Lake...not sure why since the water is so clear! On our last full day together we went to watch the Tall Ships parade in the Harbour. We got to see lots of beautiful Tall ships sailing around and had a lovely lunch int he park. The only day with real sunshine!

These were taken in the Parade in 2006...I forgot my camera this year!

I hope you are all having a great weekend! We have sunshine here, so I am off to enjoy it while it lasts! :)

It's Official!!!

2009-07-28T20:18:00.008-03:00

I can actually let the cat out of the bag now!! I have known since last Thursday that I GOT the teaching job at DAL!!! I wanted to wait until I got the letter in my hands before announcing it to the world and I got the letter today. I have already written my acceptance letter and will hand deliver it tomorrow! I will start my new job on Tuesday August 4th (the 3rd is a Holiday in Halifax). So to celebrate I decided to make one of my fav. super calorie loaded dinners! Not good for the waistline but good for the soul! It is really easy and dates back to the days when I barely knew how to cook (at least 6 years now!).

Potato and Onion Perogies with Fried Maple Bacon and Onions (oh yeah gotta love maple bacon!)

Ingredients:

1 package of frozen potato and onion perogies (around 30 perogies - here I use no name brand but you can use whatever brand/flavour you want)
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
300 - 500 g of maple bacon (or regular bacon but be sure to drizle a little real maple syrup on it, the sweetness is wonderful)

Coarsely chop bacon and onion and fry together until golden brown. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add frozen perogies.
Once they are floating in the water they are ready to be added to your golden bacon mix. I definitely fry the whole lot at once in the bacon grease (not for the faint of heart!).
Once the perogies have been browned they are ready for your plate. Garnish with grated extra old white cheddar and sour cream and enjoy!!!
I used to eat this at least once every two weeks (how did I stay thin?) because it is easy and delicious but now it is relegated to once a year! I guess it could be a side dish if you only eat a couple...this lot will actually make dinner for us tonight and lunch for tomorrow. I cannot see myself eating 15 in one sitting...or can I! :)

I hope you are all having a great day!!!! I definitely am!

Update and a New Friend!

2009-07-17T09:19:00.006-03:00

The interview went well yesterday. Thank you all for your kind wishes!

I was pretty exhausted when it was all over. It was 45 mins of questions and I felt good leaving the interview but you always think back about things that you should have said. Luckily, there weren't too many of those. I think overall I did ok for my first interview of this sort. Even if I don't get the position, it was great experience to know more or less what to expect next time. Anyhow, now there is more waiting... I should know sometime next week!

On to our newst addition to our plant collection!!
It is a 35 year old cactus (anyone know what kind?). It is 75 cm (or 30") tall and 45 cm (or 18") in diameter! It is so heavy that it took BOTH Diego and I to carry it up to our apartment. We covered it in a blanket to minimize the number of spines we got in our bodies! However, we were still picking many out of our hands with tweezers after re-potting it!

So where did I get said cactus you ask?? For FREE off Kijiji. This lovely lady was advertising it as a piece of Nova Scotian History! She was moving her father to a new location and they couldn't keep the cactus and wanted to find a suitable home where it would be appreciated and well cared for! So being the plant lover that I am I couldn't resist. So I sent her an email with a link to my blog and I think with all the photos of my plants and gardens she decided I was the one!!! :)

So here is the story. The cactus grew from a piece of Joseph Howe's Granddaughter's cactus. For those of you who are not up on Nova Scotian History. Joseph Howe was the premier of Nova Scotia from 1860-1863 and fought against the Canadian Confederation from 1866-1868. After failing to persuade the British government to repeal the confederation he became part of the Federal Cabinet under Sir John A. MacDonald. In 1873, he was appointed Lieutenent Governor of Nova Scotia but died after only 3 weeks in office (for more info click here).
Now back the the granddaughter...she lived near what is now Penhorn Mall in Dartmouth. The government expropriated her house to build the highway. Having to move, she decided to donate her cactus to the museum. The sister of the lady who gave me that cactus worked at said museum and took a cutting of the plant 35 years ago and now here it is, quite a lot larger chez moi! I think it is pretty cool! Diego is not a fan of cactuses given that he lived in an area where they are THE plant (desertic area on the west coast of Mexico) and has been pricked many times in his life, but given the history of this one, has welcomed it into our home!

So we dicided that given its history and sheer girth, we need to name it...any suggestions?

30 minutes and counting!!

2009-07-16T12:05:00.002-03:00

I have my interview in half an hour. I am super nervous but totally excited all at once!!!

Time to go practice my 10 min talk one last time....

I will catch up with you all very soon! :)

Delicious Sunny Lunch (with a side of rant)!

2009-07-12T09:53:00.011-03:00

Friday was one of the first days that we had sun here in Halifax!! We have been almost an entire month of rain, cloudy skies and fog. I really like the cool weather, my fish tanks and most of our gardens especially appreciated it, but our petunias did not.

So to celebrate Friday's Sun, I made myself a delicious lunch to enjoy on our patio. Here is what I made.Can you see the cherries in the salad?? It was delicious!!So if you are wondering what is all in my lunch... The lettuce is this beautiful purple romaine that I got in my organic food box this week. I just added some cherries (quartered), pecans and unripened goat cheese. For the dressing I sprinkled on a little salt, drizzled some olive oil and Fig Balsamic vinaigrette (President's Choice). Simple and delicious. The wine was Banrock Station Unwooded Chardonnay.

Up until this point everything was perfect! I had just found out that some repairs to my car would only cost $200 rather than the $2000 the dealership originally estimated (always get a second opinion!) so I was ready to bask in the long awaited sunshine when the neighbour started up his lawnmower!!!!!!
So here comes the rant! I just have to say lawnmowers are the bane of my existence. This is the BIGGEST reason I do not like living in a city. At any point during the day, every day of the week you can hear the wh+ine of a lawnmower or weed whacker and there is always a chorus when we are about to sit down to eat. I wrote my Maters thesis at home 4 summers ago and even during the day there was always the sound of lawnmowers...I think people secretly came home on their breaks to mow their lawns!!!

I often think we should have a lawnmowing bylaw, where people have allotted times during the week where they can cut their grass so that MOST of the time you are FREE of having to listen to these sounds. Everyone complains about the parties the students in the neighbourhood have BUT they have them like once every couple of weeks, nothing compared to the drone of the lawn tools!!!

I think the by-law is a good idea but really, why do we even have to have lawns??? Many people in the neighbourhood have turned their front and backyards into low maintenance perennial gardens. They flower, look beautiful and there is no need to have a gas powered noise maker to trim it back. Plus is adds diversity to the landscape, which is WAY more interesting to look at. It provides pollen for the bees and homes and food for a variety of animals and insects. It really is just WONDERDUL!!
Alternatively, let the grass grow!
This is what we are doing while we are slowly converting out minuscule lawns into perennial gardens. The grass is filled with clover and other native flowers and ground covers that are great food and habitat for so many organisms and are massacred when you keep it so short. Plus, Kentucky blue grass (the typical lawn species) needs so much water and fertilizer, which wastes so much water and pollutes our coastal ecosystems with excess nutrients from the fertilizers leading to all kind of problems. For example, algal blooms that lead to decreased oxygen in the water that can kill fish and really make the water stink like rotten eggs!!! This can lead to things like the "dead zone" at the mouth of the Mississipi river.

The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone: blue is oxygen rich and red is oxygen starved.

This area is so starved of oxygen that NOTHING can live there. Granted this dead zone if from intensive large scale agriculture BUT any fertilizer contributes to the problem (think about the number of lawns out there!!!). Check out this link to NASA and this other link for more information about the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone and dead zones in general. The impacts of nutrients in coastal ecosystems is what I study and we are dumping so many nutrients that we are changing the food webs and jeopardizing the ability of these ecosystems to store carbon (bad for climate change), cycle nutrients and provide habitat for organisms of commercial and non-commercial value. This is all VERY bad news for US, not just THEM.

So I say down with lawns (and lawnmowers, associated greenhouse gases and impacts of fertilizers...I haven't even mentioned pesticides...but I won't go there today)!!!

As I sit here and reflect on my post I realize this might offend those who love their lawns and I am sorry for that, I hope you will forgive me! I would love to hear about your thoughts on lawns, what they mean to you and why you love, hate or are indifferent about them.

Thanks!!!

2009-07-03T12:47:00.000-03:00

I want to say THANK YOU to all of you for your kind words and support during this exciting time!! I also wanted to share a surprise that I discovered yesterday... I haven't been to my office in at least a week...maybe more...due to the application and house drama...but look what I found when I went into work yesterday!!
My Very First Pay-it-forward item! So what is inside the gorgeous packaging you ask...
A beautiful handmade pottery plant plate and fish charm! Thanks Teresa!!! I don't know how you knew that the only plant that didn't have a plate has this exact colour on it and is the right size!!! How Perfect!! The charm is the sweetest and I am excited to find it a suitable chain! :) I promise all of you on my list to start getting to mine very soon...

Also, remember my veggie garden? This is what it looked like two weeks ago...look at it now!
Everything it growing like crazy!! We will son have some swiss chard and cherry tomatoes to harvest!! I love the tomatoes in salad or just right off the plant...growing your own food is so rewarding!

Thanks Again!

Life lately and a wonderful Canada Day!

2009-07-02T13:33:00.009-03:00

Life has been really busy and very exciting lately. On Tuesday I submitted my application for a teaching position at Dalhousie University!!! The position is for an instructor for a second year Ecology lab, which is right up my alley!!! If I get the job, I think there is also some potential to mold into my dream job! Not only do I love teaching, but I love working in the Biology Department. The people are awesome and it really is the people you are surrounded with that determine your quality of life! Also, Diego and I LOVE Halifax, the city itslef and the people, it is a great place to be and raise a family, we really want to STAY!! So all in all, I am really excited about this position, it gets us on the right path...I will find out by the end of the month and keep you all posted!!!

Here I am with the students from my Intertidal Ecology and Diversity class this passed May!

We are also talking to our landlord about buying the house we are living in!!!!!! Our house is located right near the University (walking to work is so important!!) and in a very sought after neighbourhood so the houses are pretty expensive. The only way we could even contemplate living in this area is by having an income property where we can use the rent from one flat to help pay the mortgage...which is exactly what our house is...plus we live in the smaller flat so we would make quite a bit more on the rent for the main floor flat... We are kind of waiting to see if I get the job before really commiting to anything. Luckily, we have a wonderful landlord that really likes us and wants us to buy it, so he is willing to wait.

Last but definitely not least!!! We celebrated Canada Day with some new friends!!! We had EcoYogini and her fiance over for dinner last night! We ate great food, drank copious amounts of wine, missed the Halifax Fireworks but cheered to Canada over a sipping tequila!!! We had a lot of fun getting to know each other and I see a great friendship blooming! Thanks guys for a great evening and Diego and I are already looking forward to our next date! ;)

Wishing you all happiness today and everyday!!!

More Rhubarb than you know what to do with?

2009-06-21T22:28:00.004-03:00

Here is a recipe you will just love!!

Dad this goes out to you, I know you love Rhubarb!! Hopefully mom will make them for you on my behalf! Happy Father's Day!!! :)

Rhubarb Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 c. melted butter (or oil if you prefer)
2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
5 c. Flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 T. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 c. thinly sliced rhubarb

Mix on low speed the butter, milk, vanilla and eggs. Add all remaining ingredients except rhubarb all at once, mixing on low speed. Fold in rhubarb. Fill muffin tins and sprinkle each top with a bit of sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 375F for 17-23 minutes.

So Simple and delicious! Enjoy!

New Veggie Garden!

2009-06-18T12:43:00.008-03:00

For a while now I have been craving growing some of my own food for mostly health and environmental reasons but the added bonus on the pocket book never hurts! :) Never having grown veggies other than tomatoes in pots I was a little hesitant but after reading this post at Little House in the Suburbs I was determined to start this year! So we monitored our backyard throughout one full day to see where the best spot would be. Our backyard is surrounded by huge beautiful trees that give a lot of privacy and also block out the sun for 3/4 of the day! Somewhat disappointed we went looking for another location...the front yard...again too shady...the south side of our house is very sunny and mostly driveway...BUT...
We found a little strip of grass that we transformed into our veggie garden!!! See it with the reflector? Our driveway is shared and wanted to be sure neither we or the neighbours would run into it. We used rocks that we collected from a local beach and reused wood that we had in our basement! So really the cost of this garden was just the soil, plants and weekend of fun building it! (also check out our second floor sanctuary, the petunias are visible from the street!)
We had to modify the layout as seen here but kept the veggies the same with the addition of lettuce! Since it is a lot larger we also added some other flowers.

So here is a list of what we planted:
Swiss chard
Cherry tomatoes
Red Peppers
Radishes
Basil
Bush beans
Onions
Red and Green Lettuce
Marigolds
Gladiolas
Lillies

Here is a pepper plant and the swiss chard with the radishes poking up in between! The basil is just starting to come up and I saw 2 beans poking their heads out of the soil. I will keep you posted on the progress!

Happy Friday!

A picture worth a thousands words.

2009-06-12T18:47:00.003-03:00

Title:Breaker

Artist: Owen Freeman

Narrative: “This artwork is meant to convey not only the similarities between life about and below the ocean, but also to reflect the cyclical nature of water in a tangible visual way. By allowing ourselves to consider that the ocean floor is as important as the land we walk, the hope is that the notion of disconnectedness can dissolve and we can begin to think from within the ocean, rather than simply above it.”

The other winners of the ocean artwork contest open to students of all ages at aquariums across the U.S are found here:

http://community.csc.noaa.gov/coastalamerica/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1589&Itemid=197