Tomorrow I will be in Pickering for the annual Art on the Esplanade Artfest.
This is a fabulous outdoor event at Esplanade Park in Pickering (right near the Pickering Town Center- at Brock Road and the 401).
11am - 5pm, rain or shine!
There is an outdoor food court, art exhibits, hands-on art projects for the kids, live musical performances, art activities and 100 arts and crafts vendors! Find out more here.
Jewelery, paintings, wood carvings, fashion, more paintings and artists and me!
I also have 3 new items I am debuting at tomorrow's craft show (photos forthcoming).
A brand new bubblegum and rubber duck soap toy for the kids, a whipped Shea and Coffee body butter and, by popular demand, an exfoliating soap with loofah in it!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Friday Dance Break is being hopelessly romantic...
...with John Mayer (featuring Taylor Swift) from the 2009 album Battle Studies.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Friday Dance Break + the end of the world?
So, apparently the world is going to end tomorrow.
While, I head out to buy supplies for the coming zombiepocalypse I give you three dance break videos!
We can dance if we want to.....
And these two guys are both phenomenally talented and, just, well, really talented.
Also, you can buy this song in iTunes. How awesome is that?
Enjoy the long weekend and the end of the world!
While, I head out to buy supplies for the coming zombiepocalypse I give you three dance break videos!
We can dance if we want to.....
And these two guys are both phenomenally talented and, just, well, really talented.
Also, you can buy this song in iTunes. How awesome is that?
Enjoy the long weekend and the end of the world!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Kitchen Adventures: Pizza!
So, last week I decided to make pizza for dinner. And not just any kind of pizza. The Real™ Homemade kind. The true Italian kind.
It was going to be an adventure.
I had already bought my 00 flour in preparation. 00 flour refers to how finely milled the flour is. In Italy there are three types of flour 1, 0 and 00, referring to how finely ground it is.
For a good pizza dough you want the finest you can find, this will make the dough easier to work with. (There are different types of Italian 00 flour, specialty pizza flour and regular 00 flour - either will work for a pizza dough).
If you don't have any Italian stores nearby a combination of general purpose flour and high-quality bread flour will work.
Under the recommendation of my awesome friend, who is also an amazing cook, I was going to use Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe, from How to Cook Anything - it's very simple and only has 5 ingredients in it.
Of, course, as I was about to start making the dough I realized I had no idea what kind of yeast to use - the recipe calls for instant yeast, but the two I had in the cupboard has extra words on them! What to do!
So, I called my aforementioned awesome friend and left a frantic message, which went something like this: "Oh my gawd! You HAVE to be home! I have a yeast-related baking questions and I don't know who else to call! CALLLLLL me!"
Luckily, she returned my call in record time and explained the difference between the various yeasts and which one I needed to use.
Turns out I did have instant yeast, only it was called "quick-rise," which is how the confusion arose.
Apparently you can also tell the difference between yeasts by looking at the size of the yeast granules. The smaller granules are instant yeast, and the larger granules are regular yeast (the kind you need to add sugar to and allow to feed and rise).
Well, I tossed all the ingredients in the food processor- and voila! Dough! And it worked! Woo!
Step one complete.
After waiting about an hour for the dough to rise it was time to roll it out. Now, I am the kind of person that loves to bake, but tends to have problems with doughs and rolling pins. Not so with this! It was s'wonderful, s'marvellous dough!
Whether this ease of rolling was due to the type of flour I used, the perfection of the recipe, or a combination of both I don't know - but suffice it to say - this was the easiest dough I've ever worked with.
The dough recipe I made was enough for 3 good sized pizzas (either large quarters, or 6 slices).
We made three different ones and had an entire pizza leftover!
Pizza one was a classic margarita with tomato sauce, slices of mozzarella, Parmesan, fresh basil, and more mozzarella.
Pizza two was an organic, free-range spicy pepperoni pizza, and pizza three was made with artichoke hearts, olives and capers.
They were all delicious.
Verdict: Not as hard to make as you would think, but definitely messy. Also, fun. A great dinner!
It was going to be an adventure.
I had already bought my 00 flour in preparation. 00 flour refers to how finely milled the flour is. In Italy there are three types of flour 1, 0 and 00, referring to how finely ground it is.
For a good pizza dough you want the finest you can find, this will make the dough easier to work with. (There are different types of Italian 00 flour, specialty pizza flour and regular 00 flour - either will work for a pizza dough).
If you don't have any Italian stores nearby a combination of general purpose flour and high-quality bread flour will work.
Under the recommendation of my awesome friend, who is also an amazing cook, I was going to use Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe, from How to Cook Anything - it's very simple and only has 5 ingredients in it.
Of, course, as I was about to start making the dough I realized I had no idea what kind of yeast to use - the recipe calls for instant yeast, but the two I had in the cupboard has extra words on them! What to do!
So, I called my aforementioned awesome friend and left a frantic message, which went something like this: "Oh my gawd! You HAVE to be home! I have a yeast-related baking questions and I don't know who else to call! CALLLLLL me!"
Luckily, she returned my call in record time and explained the difference between the various yeasts and which one I needed to use.
Turns out I did have instant yeast, only it was called "quick-rise," which is how the confusion arose.
Apparently you can also tell the difference between yeasts by looking at the size of the yeast granules. The smaller granules are instant yeast, and the larger granules are regular yeast (the kind you need to add sugar to and allow to feed and rise).
Well, I tossed all the ingredients in the food processor- and voila! Dough! And it worked! Woo!
Step one complete.
 |
| Pizza dough, awaiting rising. |
After waiting about an hour for the dough to rise it was time to roll it out. Now, I am the kind of person that loves to bake, but tends to have problems with doughs and rolling pins. Not so with this! It was s'wonderful, s'marvellous dough!
Whether this ease of rolling was due to the type of flour I used, the perfection of the recipe, or a combination of both I don't know - but suffice it to say - this was the easiest dough I've ever worked with.
 |
| A mostly round rolled out pizza dough. |
The dough recipe I made was enough for 3 good sized pizzas (either large quarters, or 6 slices).
We made three different ones and had an entire pizza leftover!
Pizza one was a classic margarita with tomato sauce, slices of mozzarella, Parmesan, fresh basil, and more mozzarella.
 |
| The basil and mozzarella pizza. |
They were all delicious.
Verdict: Not as hard to make as you would think, but definitely messy. Also, fun. A great dinner!
 |
| The mess my kitchen counter was in while making this! |
Friday, May 13, 2011
Friday Dance Break - Hey hey hey, it's an ordinary day!
Great Big Sea!
What more do you want on a beautiful Friday afternoon?
What more do you want on a beautiful Friday afternoon?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Garden Update...
Well, it's almost time (not really, but almost) to plant the rest of my planned veggies in the garden, but in the meantime my garlic and yellow onions have started to sprout!
Over the Victoria Day weekend I'll be planting tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers and lots of herbs!
It'll be fab-u-lous!
Over the Victoria Day weekend I'll be planting tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers and lots of herbs!
It'll be fab-u-lous!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Friday Dance Break- Take me Home tonight!
It's 1986. You've got a synth, a saxophone and Ronnie Spector...
I give you- Eddie Money with Take Me Home Tonight
Long Live the 80's ;)
I give you- Eddie Money with Take Me Home Tonight
Long Live the 80's ;)
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