The Decadent Life

Fall

2010-09-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

It's Fall.

It's a precious time of year that reminds as all to take care of ourselves.

When our noses start to get stuffed up we need to take that echinacea, and eat some healthy homemade soup with extra kale added that we grew ourselves.

Your body is having as hard a time as your mind is with the change of the season.

Embrace it.

Reach out and grab those leaves falling from the trees. Give extra cozy hugs to all your friends. Have a soup party. Bake bread. Dance in your wool socks while listening to your fall soundtrack - what ever that may be.

Don't forget your coat.

Don't forget to thank Mother Earth. For providing what we need. For providing us with all this- all the seasons, the things that fill you with wonder. The sun that shines through the kitchen window. The sun that's different from the summer sun but just as glorious.

Fall reminds us to take care for winter. To stock our shelves, to harvest, to bring out the sweaters and socks we forgot existed. To buy those huge squash at the market, to buy the last summer fruit you can find and freeze it so you can taste a summer-sun strawberry smoothie months from now.

It's a time when you feel relief from the hot, hot summer months.

It's a time when you make plans. When you feel excited for the Winter to come. When you look forward to cuddles and coziness and good books and knitting and candles burning and discovering things about your lover you never knew before until you took the time to lay in bed with them and stare into their eyes for 35 minutes while keeping one another warm.

Happy Equinox!

Happy Fall!

I am filled with love and wanting to share.

Here is a fall mix for you.

I am totally 100% addicted to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.

And Van Morrison.

And all I want to do is drink coffee and wear tights.

xo So much Love,

-C

Black eyes and fresh food

2010-04-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

We are getting to be really busy these last few days, Dan started his exams, I picked up an extra shift today, and we are packing! As I write this Dan is sitting next to me packing up books and art supplies, humming along to Bob Marley. But, We have a few photos floating around that I wanted to share so here they are....

At Dan's work (he works as a cook at a tapas bar and also a bar back) they had a Post Apocalyptic Fetish Night (what?) and those photos are the result of his costume... When he came home from work late that night I had no idea he was going to have a fake black eye and it really scared me for a minute.

This is our lunch from Yesterday. French bread from a bakery in the Market here, 2 yummy Quebec cheeses, free-run eggs, Ontario green house tomatoes and really good Quebec spinach! Along with homemade mayonnaise, homemade chutney (that Dan's sister Rach gave us for Christmas) and black tea! Best lunch ever!
We went to the Market on Sunday (after we had a great (late) brunch at the Scone Witch, which is a really nice brunch/lunch place here and worth checking out!) and picked up some fresh Ontario produce, including these small red skinned potatoes. I thought we should use them for potato salad which is exactly what we did! It was so good and Dan plated it so beautifully! Such a summery meal!

Hearts,
-Ceilidh

TheSis Crew

2010-04-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Today I am writing about two of my favorite designers, and my best friends, who make up TheSis crew. Marnie and Lauren are sisters who live in Nelson BC, in a beautiful little mountain home! Marnie has been doing design work for ever working with clothing, printing, interior design etc., Lauren recently finished fashion design school in Vancouver BC, and is a magical fashion designer. They both dress amazingly well too!

Marnie and Lauren on a trip they went on last summer to Montreal.

I have picked a few of my favorite pieces from there Etsy shop to show you here (and a few pieces that aren't on their etsy shop yet). Marnie and Lauren hand make clothing, re purpose used and vintage clothing, make jewelery, and Marnie also is an illustrator and makes prints of her works (found on her calendars in there Etsy shop)

Lauren's new creation, the t-shirt bandage dress and one of Marnie's summer collage t-shirt dress es.

Marnie's summer crop top paired with Laurens appliqued skirts(neither are available online yet) and another Bandage dress (this one is made from an old recycled sweater).

Their stuff is really, really hot and they are such lovely gals that it makes it all even better, you can read more about Lauren and Marnie on their blog here. And one last photo....

Marnie, Lauren and I at a friends birthday party before I left Nelson.

Hearts and extra love to M and L!
-C

Falling into place

2010-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day. We had been getting a bit worried about moving out to Halifax at the end of the month. We had no idea how we were going to get there, let alone how we were going to get all of our stuff there, and then yesterday everything seemed to fall right into place. Not only in terms of moving, but a few other things too. We've even got an apartment in Halifax that's 99% sure to be ours! It's nice when stuff like that happens!

Last night I made a really yummy, really healthy, really local warm salad for dinner. We didn't get to take any pictures of it, but at least I can tell you all about it!

Basically it consisted of some boiled, then thinly sliced and pan-fried beets, kale fried with maple syrup, pan-fried carrot and parsnip, hemp hearts, apple, parsley and goat cheese. Holy cow was it good! And eating a meal like that just makes you feel so good, getting those 5-10 servings of fruits and veggies in one bowl of salady-goodness.

We've been really busy lately trying to get stuff in order, so, sorry about the lack of posts. Hopefully we'll get some more going soon. In the mean time you should watch the show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution". He is the coolest friggin' chef ever, and he's awesome in so many ways.
Also, cook some food, play or listen to some music, sing, enjoy spring, send a letter, take a day off from everything, learn something new, read a book, finish something you've started, start something new, and have lots of fun! That's what we'll be doing for the next little while.

Um, Yes!

2010-03-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

I just found this Metric video and I am in love with it (but mostly just with Emily Haines, the lady singer). She is SUCH a babe! Phew!

METRIC - Sick Muse - OFFICIAL VIDEO from Metric Music on Vimeo.

Check out her solo stuff too, She is a gem! Plus, she does one of the best covers of Don't think twice, it's alright , in my opinion, with her Metric band mate James Shaw (which is also one of my favorite songs to sing with Dan!). Also, they are a Canadian band, which just kind of adds to how wonderful they are.

Right now I am going out to enjoy a Shirley Temple and watch a movie at this cool restaurant called the Imperial, It's really close to where we live, and my friend Rene hosts cool movies there every Tuesday for free! Tonight he is showing Harold and Maude. In the past 2 months I have had 4 Shirley Temples, after not having them for years. They are so good!!!

Hearts,
-C

Tea, yogurt and more!

2010-03-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

As Ceilidh mentioned yesterday, we've been doing some pretty fun creative projects lately, so I'll tell you about a couple that I did, along with some food that I cooked the other night!

First was a (very late) birthday present for my Dad. He's a pretty big tea drinker, so after thinking about a few different options I decided to make some tea as "from scratch" as I could. No, I didn't grow the tea, but I mixed up a couple different black teas with cinnamon, cloves, a touch of pepper, and a few dried cranberries. Then, I put that all into tea bags which I sewed up and put on little tags. Finally, Ceilidh covered an empty tea box with brown paper, and I put all the tea bags inside.

Later, I decorated it a bit, put the ingredient list and a description of the tea, and finally my parents' address and sent the box in the mail just like that. I called it "Shelter From the Storm" because my dad is a big Dylan fan, and because the name fit the tea pretty well.

A few days ago I made something that we've been meaning to make for a while: Yogurt! It's easier than you could ever imagine, and takes less time than you'd think. Use whole milk to get nice thick yogurt, add granola and honey and enjoy!

Heat one quart of milk to 180°F. Cool to 113°F. Mix a bit of the milk with a couple tablespoons of yogurt. Add that mixture back into the milk. Let sit in a warm place for at least 5 hours. Refrigerate.

A couple years ago when I was living in France my Dad would constantly tell me that I should go out for omelette et frites. The other night, that's what we had for dinner! It's a quick, easy meal. Deep frying the fries takes a while, but if you don't have the time, you can bake them, or just pan fry the potatoes, for a less oily meal. Bon appetit!

As of Late.....

2010-03-25T09:02:00.001-07:00

Lately, Dan and I have been getting up to some pretty creative endeavors, but we have also been taking a lot of time to enjoy the spring sunshine. We have been sitting on the porch a lot basking in the sun (I pretend I am a cat) and playing guitar. We have such a cute little neighbour, she is probably3, who likes to join in on her ukulele.

Our bed is a really good place
to lay in the sun too.

We received roses from a family friend of Dan's, as a congratulations for something we will surely be talking about soon on here!!! And I bought some really great cotton which I am going to knit into pretty baby things for my sisters soon-to-be- baby! The colours are glorious!

My favorite project I have gotten up to recently was making special valentines day cards for a bunch of my girl friends in BC. Above is the one I sent to my best friend L. They turned out really lovely and were so much fun to make and I know they brought smiles to the faces of my friends. Plus, I got some pretty great mail in return (my favorite chocolate, hand made Alice in Wonderland envelopes, machine sew cards!).

And, Last but not least, Dan and I bought a new to us Polaroid camera yesterday after we sourced out a few places online where you can still buy film! We are really excited about it because we are using it for a very special project (details to come!), now we just need to wait for our film to arrive. Also, if you are wondering how we get our pictures to be all cool and polaroid-y now we use this really simple program (that is kinda annoyingly slow) called Poladroid, which you can download for free here!

Hearts,

-C

Forget about today until tomorrow

2010-03-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

I said that I'd talk a lot about music in my posts, so, I'll tell you a little about my musical history, in hopes that it'll give you some context when I'm talking about music in general.

My family is not an especially musical family. My dad has been playing guitar since he was a teenager, my Mom played piano for a little while, one of my sisters played piano as well as flute when she was in high school, and I guess we all played recorder when we were in elementary school. When I was twelve a friend of my parents' son (who was about 15 at the time) had a blues/rock band, in which he played lead guitar, and my parents took me to a show of theirs. I thought this guy was the coolest person I'd ever seen! Much cooler than my Dad who just played Bob Dylan and Van Morrison all day on his acoustic guitar. So, I was convinced that I wanted to be a lead guitarist too.

My dad started me off on his acoustic guitar, and once I was really hooked, we went out and bought a cheap Stratocaster rip-off and an amp. I took lessons for a couple years, and very quickly fell in love with the instrument. After another little while I got an acoustic guitar, and upgraded my electric guitar to a Gibson SG, and later on a Marshall stack.

A friend of mine asked me to play bass for his band. I had hardly ever even picked up a bass guitar before then, but he assured me that it was basically the same thing as guitar, with less strings, and it was a punk band anyways so I just needed to be a fast picker. From there I joined another band, Blackjacket, with whom I went on tour across Canada. (As a side note, it was during that tour that Ceilidh and I spent our first time together just the two of us, when my band played in Nelson, where she was at the time!)
Since then, my electric guitar has been stolen, so I've only been playing acoustic guitar. Which really isn't the end of the world, because I've been listening to a lot more folk lately, and since beginning to write music, the things I write work best on an acoustic guitar anyways.

So now I spend my days in the sun, playing guitar and harmonica with my lover.

-----

Nihon Ryōri

2010-03-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

Dan says:

"The beauty of Japanese cuisine is its simplicity. There generally aren't a lot of seasonings or spices, the ingredients themselves do the talking. Because of this, it's especially important to get good quality food. Genetically modified monster cucumbers aren't going to have any flavour, and you'll end up eating soy sauce with a side of sushi, just to get a bit of taste.

"Another bonus that comes from this simplicity is that Japan cooking requires minimal equipment and minimal cooking time, which saves time, money and precious nutrients!

"But enough about all that, what did we cook tonight?

"As far as equipment is concerned, we used pretty much the same things as last week: a knife, a couple bowls, a pot, a cutting board, and chop sticks. Plus I used a candy thermometer for deep frying.

"I made Vegetable Tempura, and even though it was my first time attempting it, it turned out great. The key to success for anything deep fried is a candy thermometer. I bought one a little while back at Home Hardware, it cost less than 5 bucks, and it is a must if you're going to deep fry anything or make candy or yogurt. They usually come with a little chart for temperatures, the one we got has it on the case, which is nice and convenient.

"Making something like tempura can sound intimidating, partly because the first thought that comes to mind is that you'll have to buy a bunch of specialty ingredients, or go through some complex process. On the contrary, everything I used we already had in our cupboards/fridge, and I barely glanced at the recipe that I found. Plus, I replaced the corn starch with more flour and nobody was the wiser.

"You can use whatever veggies you'd like, but we had shitake mushrooms, carrot, yam (these were our favourite), and broccoli. The batter is easy enough to make, the only thing I had trouble with was the fact that the recipe didn't say what consistency it should be. I really like when recipes tell you things like "Mix X, Y and Z together until a stiff dough forms", so you know if you've got it right or not. Especially when you're substituting ingredients, or are too lazy to use measuring spoons! But anyways, mine was something along the lines of pancake batter, without the lumps. Then it's just a matter of dipping and frying, just make sure your oil is around 375F, it's crucial!"

Ceilidh says:

"Alright, I have been craving sushi lately like mad. If I could only pick one food to eat for ever it would defiantly be some kind of sushi. But, I kind of have an issue with buying a bunch of ingredients, like ginger and wasabi, that come from so far away, along with things like avocado and mango that you can't even grow in Canada! So, this weekend when Dan and I went grocery shopping at our local awesome shop, Herb & Spice, I decided I wanted to buy some sushi ingredients and try to focus on making a more local kind of sushi! I would say it was a pretty successful mission! The more unusual ingredients that we had to get before making our sushi was Nori Sheets, Rice vinegar and Sushi Rice.

"We already had all the veggies and Braggs (which is a really good kind of soy sauce). The rice vinegar was actually made in Quebec, so that was a really good find, and I was really excited about it. I suggest becoming a label reader to find out where the food you purchase actually comes from!!! The sushi rice was grown in Cali- which is too bad because it is traveling too far!!!!- and by mistake I bought Nori sheets that were from china but I know for sure you can get ones from Maine and I am sure there is a west coast Nori supplier.

"Other than that I just cut up a bunch of carrot, cuke and some cooked beets and packed in some alfalfa sprouts that Dan sprouted last week. This turned out to be nontraditional, as we didn't use ginger and wasabi.... or fish, but it did turn out really, really well! Sushi is really fun to make and is so beautiful and I always feel satisfied making it and using my hands so much. I challenge you to make some sushi that supports local food and see how good it is for yourself!"

& now Introducing...

2010-02-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

Well Hello!!
This is Ceilidh- I make up one half of the Decadent Life!
I just moved here to Ottawa a couple months ago to live with
Dan (he makes up the other half of this creative project), whom
I am madly in love with. Before moving here I lived in Nelson, BC,
but I am from Nova Scotia! Now that I live in Ottawa, I work at a
coffee shop where I am a barista. I am learning so much about
one of my great loves- Coffee! With the rest of my time I try to relax
a lot and bake bread, cookies and other yummy sweet stuff, and
I try to always have an artsy project on the go ( I will be sharing
what my current project is in my next post!).

I feel like I have lots of energy and creative juice to share and I have
a lot of inspirations in my life and love finding beauty in everything!
And that is what I hope to contribute to this creative endeavor.

And one of my favorite blogs of the moment, Sandra Juto who
takes incredible photos of her life (that is one of her photos
above!)! They are really, really great and she really likes coffee
too!! I hope you enjoy it! Dan said he wanted to make love with
this blog 'cause a all the wool, good food and coffee.

Hearts
-C

Winter Stir-fry

2010-02-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

Stir-fries are great because you can just throw whatever you have into them, so they can change a whole lot based on what's available at the time. For this particular mix of ingredients, we were able to get everything from either Ontario or Quebec (except the rice, oil and spices). Plus, it's super easy, healthy, and delicious, so we figured it would be a perfect first dish to post.

Starting Time: 6:39pm

All you need in the way of equipment is a knife, a cutting board, a pan or two, a pot or two, a stove and a wooden spoon or chopsticks to stir things up. In the way of food, grab some rice, carrots, beets, onion, potato, squash, tofu, tahini, Bragg's or soy sauce, cumin, ground cloves, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Dice the potatoes, carrots and peeled squash, and boil them until soft. Meanwhile, start cooking the rice. Fry the onion in oil until translucent, add the other veggies, and some salt and pepper to taste. Peel and cut the beets in half, and boil them. Chop up the tofu, and put it in a pan with some oil. Add some tahini, Bragg's, cumin, a pinch of cloves, and some pepper, fry until browned. When the beets are a bit soft, drain them, and cut them into chunks.

Done!: 7:17pm = 38 minutes

Put the rice into shallow bowls, add veggies, then beets, then tofu. Serve with chop sticks and Bragg's. Enjoy!

Dishes

2010-02-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

First things first: what's "dishes" all about?

We both love food, everything from buying it to baking it, from cooking it to consuming it. For this blog, we want to share some of our ideas about cooking:

You know what's going in! If you make everything from scratch, you know what's going into your meals, and what's going into your body. We try as much as possible to buy organic products, because of the benefits to our health and the earth.

You know where it's coming from When you buy raw ingredients, it's a lot easier to figure out where your food was grown/produced. Whether you're buying carrots at the farmer's market or raisins at a bulk food store, there's usually a label, or somebody you can ask to be sure of where your food is coming from. We also try as much as possible to buy food that was produced close to home, for us right now, that means Ottawa.

It's easy! Cooking doesn't have to be a long, difficult process, you can make delicious food without a whole lot of expertise.

It's quick! Making great food doesn't have to take all afternoon, sometimes making something from scratch can be just as fast as making something out of a box.

It's delicious! If you cook all your food from scratch you control everything that goes into what you're making! So, you can choose how many potatoes to put in, or how much pepper you can handle.

Now, nobody is perfect. We can follow some of these rules all of the time, all of these rules part of the time, but it's hard to follow all these rules all of the time! However, when we choose what dishes to put on this blog, we're going to try and pick ones that exemplify all of these qualities as well as possible, because our aim is to inspire you to do the same!

So, put on an apron, open up the cupboards, fire up the stove, and whip up some dishes!

Hello, my name is...

2010-02-22T09:14:00.001-08:00

Dan!

I'm writing a quick post to introduce myself, and to give an idea of the things that I'll be posting about in the future. So first, a little bit about me...
I live in Ottawa right now, with Ceilidh, who is my partner, lover, muse, friend, and so much more. I'm originally from Richmond Hill, which is an ugly, suburban, uncultured, consumerist younger brother of Toronto, but in the last few years I've traveled all across Canada, lived in France, and have been in Ottawa for the past two school years, at the University of Ottawa. I'm an Environmental Studies major, but I have recently applied to the Culinary Arts program at Nova Scotia Community College, and am impatiently awaiting a response.

This past November I got hired as a chef at a restaurant/bar here in Ottawa called The Collection. We have a small, but dynamic menu, based on local food that's available, and all of our ingredients are bought fresh in the Byward Market (which is also where the restaurant is located). Working this job has inspired me more than ever to cook completely from scratch with quality, local, fresh, healthy ingredients, which is one of the things Ceilidh and I will be sharing with you on this blog. Other than my passion for food, I'll be writing a lot about my other big interest: music (expect a lot about Bob Dylan). I'll probably throw in some posts about books I'm reading, things I'm knitting, places I've traveled to (or would like to go to), and whatever else is on my mind (expect a lot about Ceilidh).

That's all for now, I'll leave you with a little something, and see you next week...

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Oh, and by the way, if you want to just look for my posts, click on the picture of me up top.

the Decadent Life

2010-02-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

Dec•a•dent - noun
one of a group of French and English writers of the latter part of the
19th century whose works were characterized by aestheticism, great
refinement or subtlety of style, and a marked tendency toward the
artificial and abnormal in content.

Our names are Ceilidh and Dan, we live in Ottawa, ON, Canada, and we are madly in love.
We decided to start this little project because we both have a ton of inspiring ideas

in our minds and a lot of creativity we wanted to share with you!

We think our life is pretty decadent even in its simplicity. We both only have part
time jobs, Dan is a student and we live in a tiny apartment, in cold, cold Ottawa.

Mainly we will be posting about the incredible food we cook up (Dan is an aspiring cook),
music that we're listening to, sources from which we draw inspiration, and whatever else
is filling our lives with decadence.