Black eyes and fresh food

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

Tea, yogurt and more!

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!

Forget about today until tomorrow

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.

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Hello, my name is...

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

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.