A smattering of colours, patterns and textures

Some of my favourites from the Fall 2011 runways.

Sonia Rykiel





Anna Sui





Betsey Johnson





Jean Paul Gaultier



Louis Vuitton



Marc by Marc Jacobs

Sometimes you gotta feed your soul.

Photo by Adam - he's a big Devo fan ;)

Yesterday was my first foray into the world of fried chicken, and boy oh boy was it deliciously successful.
The store I used to work at had loads of cookbooks I would constantly leaf through, and one of my favourites was The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (even if they do look like they barely eat any of their food). They have two recipes for chicken: Tuesday and Sunday, with the Sunday being a little more complicated. I found a recipe online for their Tuesday Fried Chicken which I used as a guide. I couldn't find the other one, but knew that the main difference was that you brined the chicken, and so I began.

Seriously - best chicken EVER. I brined it overnight in a pretty basic brine of salt, sugar, peppercorns, and I added a bay leaf and some fresh thyme. Then I dredged the chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks) in flour with a little salt and pepper added, dipped it in buttermilk, and dredged it again in a flour,cornmeal, salt and pepper mix.

I let the chicken come to room temperature before I started and then after all the pieces had been dipped I let them sit on a rack for about 30 minutes as well - I can't remember where, but I read about this step somewhere.

Then, I fried it all up in lard. I'm not going to make this everyday, so why not eh? ;)

It is the juiciest, crispiest, TASTIEST chicken I've ever had - there are some happy tummies around here.

Film Friday - Cat's Eye

caitlin, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

My lovely friend Caitlin, during a get together at her lovely apartment on Canada Day.

(This whole not having a scanner thing is starting to get on my nerves, think I'll have to remedy that.)

This morning I finished Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, which Caitlin recommended. I loved it. And then she linked me to this awesome article on The Hairpin about it. In short - Caitlin rules.

Film Friday - Nanny's

summer summer summer, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

Late post. Internet issues and general slacktitude have made it quieter around here than I would like.

My youngest sister Cordelia turned 21 this week, which is pretty crazy. A summer birthday meant a lot of celebrating happened at my Nanny's house, where we would be frequently taking advantage of the pool.

Calypso, Cor, me and my nanny - all us girls in the sun porch enjoying some homemade cake - can't get much better.

Balloon surprise!

I was cleaning stuff out of my computer and came across some pictures from a few months back of a friend's birthday.
Lovely Devon was born in April, and at the time a lot our friends were out of town at Coachella, so her lovely fella planned a surprise party which consisted of filling her living room with as many balloons as we could. I took a few pictures on my little point and shoot camera, and a few on Adam's 5D. Can you tell the difference? ;P


The guest of honour, complete with octopus chapeau.


The man behind the hats.

Film Friday - new camera!

self, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

The always-popular bathroom self portrait.
Canada Day, 2011.

Got my first roll developed the other day, and everything works - hooray!

I got the camera body and lens separately, both on ebay and both for pretty cheap (all together I think the camera cost me $40) so I was a little worried.

Will Barnet

Growing up, my house was always pretty jam packed with art. One print that has stuck in my memory quite firmly is Will Barnet's 'Woman Reading'



I actually saw a framed print of this in a shop a while back, and had one of those stop you in your tracks/deja vu/nostalgia/bring you almost to tears moments. It was like my childhood in a flash.

It's such a simple, beautiful and cozy image. I think I liked it especially because it reminded my of my mum a bit, as she was always reading.
A friend mentioned Will Barnet recently, which lead me to look up more of his stuff. I love it! It's definitely very 70s, but in the best way possible and certainly doesn't limit it in any way. I'm a particular fan of his Silent Seasons series:









I also love the combination of people and animals - quite often cats. Lately I've been feeling a lot of guilt around my own lovely cat, Bella, as she's been a little neglected attention-wise since the arrival of Minnie. She doesn't seem to hold it against us though, she's more affectionate than ever. And so these next two pictures are dedicated to her ;)

Summer non-cooking

Summer has finally made its way to Vancouver! And with its arrival, my drive to cook has somewhat vanished. Today was the hottest day we've had so far, and I figured a nice, cool meal was in order.


No summer meal is complete without a gin&tonic, am I right?

The fruit salad is cantaloupe, mint and lime juice and was super tasty (and took all of 5 minutes to make).

Honestly, if you're looking for a low maintenance, lazy meal to make, gazpacho ain't it. But I had never made it, and once I get an idea in my head for a meal I gotta do it - and I'm glad I did! It was delicious.

I used this recipe as a guideline. Today was the Main St farmer's market so I picked up some heirloom tomatoes, red pepper and cucumber and used up some green onions and garlic I had in my csa produce box. Throw in some basil from my windowsill, and it was quite the local soup ;)

Gazpacho
5-6 medium to large sized tomatoes
1 long English cucumber, peeled seeded and chopped
1 red sweet red pepper, peeled and chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, minced
Two handfuls good bread (I used baguette), torn into pieces
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Olive oil
Red wine or sherry vinegar
Pinch of cumin

1. Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze the seeds and as much liquid as you can out, into a bowl.
2. Strain the tomato liquid to get rid of the seeds and reserve.
3. Chop up your tomatoes and put into a glass bowl along with the reserved tomato liquid and all the rest of your ingredients - except one tablespoon of basil.
*For the olive oil and vinegar I didn't measure, just but in enough to coat everything. If I had to guess I'd say 3-4 tablespoons of oil and 1-2 tablespoons on vinegar.
**I added a little water to the bread before mixing it in, probably 2 tablespoons or so
4. Let mixture sit at room temperature for an hour
5. Puree mixture in batches in a food processor or blender. Add a little water each time to get to a nice, soupy consistency. I used about one cup of water in total. Strain puree through a sieve - really push down on the solids to get out as much liquid as possible.
6.Add the remaining basil, and then season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

From what I've read, gazpacho really is best to eat as soon as possible, since the tastiness of it comes from the freshness of the ingredients. This seems like a recipe that would be really fun to play around with too - adding different fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano) and a jalapeno or other chili would definitely work. You also could skip the straining part if you wanted a chunkier soup, or reserve some of the chopped veggies and add them in after pureeing.
I can see myself definitely making this again this summer - I think it would be a great thing to bring for a potluck or bbq.

Film Friday - Addendum

19, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

A slightly-belated post - I realized I had a picture from when I tried Magnolia cupcakes. The vanilla ones were as good as mine (using their recipe) and I believe I got a red velvet but was a little underwhelmed because the icing gave my mouth that gross greasy feel (always use butter only, dudes).

Another gem from my NYC trip in summer 2009.

Canada D'eh

Red velvet, eh., a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

First ever try at red velvet cupcakes. I used the Magnolia Bakery recipe (their vanilla cupcake is my go to recipe because it is ohmygodsoawesome).

They're cheek-tinglingly sweet, so I'm happy. The other 24 of them are coming with me to a friend's house for some Canada Day bbqing and firework watching.
Hope all my fellow Canadians are having a lovely day, and everyone else too :)