Friday 30 September 2011

Fine Tuning: The New Pornographers - Moves


Seeing as I'm in Canada right now, here's some Canadian music:


I believe you had something that's mine all this time.
So to sing along, cry, fork it over.

I live among the alarms where I trip, where they sing.
So to sing along, cry. Hey come over.

Up the hill goes the typewritered beat of my step.
So to sing along, cry, undiscover.

And all the years at quarter speed, haloed and trembling cling.
So to sing along, cry, turning over.

These things get louder.

The lava alarms and your true villain love are kept at bay.
So to sing along, cry like you wrote it.

Will the beams Be broke and crossed?
Motion sensed, it's all heat.
So to sing along, cry it's not over.

These things get louder.

So to sing along, cry.

You with all your moves.

{via}

Have a great weekend!

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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Thursday 29 September 2011

Guest Post - Jessi from Sparrows & Arrows


Jessi is one half of Sparrows and Arrows and hails from Canada. Together with her friend Cassie, she blogs about life, knitting, home improvement, favourite design finds, recipes and Harry Potter...  And she's my only "official" blog friend. :o)

Today, Jessi was kind enough to share some of her travel experiences with us. Take it away, Girl!

***

Hello everyone! My name is Jessi and I blog over at Sparrows and Arrows.

Since Annika is traveling right now I will talk about that. It's one of my favorite things to do and though I haven't left North America yet, I will someday see the world. :) 

Trying to pick my favorite place is hard - I've loved everywhere I have been. 

New York City

I love NYC because it was busy and full of life, and every where you look are things you recognize from TV or movies. 

Salem
Boston is stunning in the fall and there is nothing like being in Salem at Halloween. 

Pacific Highway, California

San Francisco

And I won't even begin to list the things I loved about California (if you ever have the chance to drive the Pacific Coast Highway take it!).

Shediac, New Brunswick
I think what's so great about traveling, whether it's 1 hour away or you have to hop a plane, is a chance to experience something new, and that's what's my favorite part I think - not one particular place but the feeling of being somewhere new. 

I also love the process of researching a new place and mapping out what to see and planning. planning, planning! I know some like to just go without a plan, but I really think it's wise to have a general outline of what you want to accomplish, or you may find you ended up seeing nothing at all.

Washington DC
Some things I have learned in my limited travels:

get travel insurance - it's cheap and takes the worry of something happening of your shoulders.

budget for meals - if you aren't staying with family you will have to buy all your food, try and find a hotel with free continental breakfast, it will help alleviate some of the costs.

Travel with like minded people - if your a go, go, go type (like me!) you want to be with people who are the same way and are eager to see things too. It can also be hard to travel with people on different budget - the friend who has tons of money to spend or the opposite - has no money!

Book tickets and passes before you leave - having tickets to parks or tourist sites bought in advance leaves more spending money in your wallet :)

Carry maps - you will look like a tourist, but who cares! I find the Frommer's Top 10 books great - they have small fold up maps that come in really handy

Have an extra memory card & camera batteries - buying theme in touristy places is like triple the price! 

Thanks for having me guest post Annika! I hope your having a great trip, and to your readers get out there and see the world - My husband likes to say, "that you'll never regret going on trip, but you will regret not going"

> Jessi

(All Pictures - © Jessi)

***

Thanks, Jessi, for telling us about some of the places you've visited and about sharing your travelling tips. Reading your post gave me wanderlust, even though I am already on vacation at the moment!

I would love to go to California, especially San Francisco. I absolutely adore that photo you took of the ocean! One day...




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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Guest Post - Reese from Rambles With Reese


Today I am happy to present to you a guest post from the girl behind Rambles With Reese

Reese is Canadian and resides in Italy after having lived in several other places and travelling the world. She writes a very inspirational blog and just opened her jewellery shop a little while ago. I was ever so chuffed when Reese decided to be one of the first people to follow my blog! And even more so when she agreed to guest post!

Now over to her and one of her favourite places in Italy!

***

Hello Everyone! It’s Reese from Rambles with Reese here. I’m so happy that Annika asked me to guest post for her while she’s on holiday in Canada, my home country. I can’t wait to read about her experiences there.

I live in southern Italy and thought that I’d write about a wonderful place in the Basilicata region that is often neglected by tourists. The town is called Matera and you may have heard about it. It has been used often as a location for major T.V. movies and films (think “Passion of the Christ”).

Matera is amazing and has stunning views. It is truly unique as it is home to some of the largest, abandoned, underground cave homes. I love to stroll around here and just walk. There’s lots of room to move and not many people come here.







So, the next time you’re in Italy and want to get off the main tourist track, come to the region of Basilicata where you will be pleasantly surprised and glad that you took a detour.

Thank you Annika for having me! Hope you’re having a blast in Vancouver and the west coast!

(Photos provided by R. K. Carrozzini)

***

Thank YOU, Reese, for sharing this place with us. It really looks like you're taking a step back in time when you go to Matera. And how cute is that last picture! It looks like Reese's husband is serenading her!



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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)


Tuesday 27 September 2011

Four For The Day


All of this week I am posting over at a blog called Four For The Day. This blog is a project by artist S.Arden Hill. Every day, somebody posts a photo of a different collection of four things from their possessions. The guest editors change weekly and my week started off on Monday. 


This was part of my first collection. Can you guess what it is?

Click here to get to Four For the Day and to see what other things I hold dear.

Click here if you are interested in becoming a guest editor yourself.

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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Monday 26 September 2011

30 Days Of Lists - Week 4


This is my collection from week four of the month of list love.

DAY 19


DAY 20



DAY 21


DAY 22



DAY 23

DAY 24


DAY 25



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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)



Friday 23 September 2011

Fine Tuning: Gonzales - Dot


Hello and Goodbye (for now)! 

Tomorrow, I am flying to Vancouver for just over two weeks, to catch up with Marco's family! 

I love that place, so I am quite stoked to get to spend time there again. It's only my third visit, but I really consider this beautiful city my home at heart. Can't wait to see the mountains on the drive from YVR and to have my first Timmy's donut!

I will be leaving my blog in good hands. I somehow convinced a few fabulous ladies to look after this space while I am gone and they have prepared some great guest posts. I might poke my head in once or twice, but I am happy to hand over the reigns to these girls for a few days.

Please make them feel welcome. I know you will! And if you are one of them: you have my utmost thanks! I felt all warm and fuzzy when y'all agreed to take care of All The Live Long Day for me. xooxooxo!

Let me leave you with a video of a Canadian artist today:


See you all soon, don't have too much fun without me!

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{via}
© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Thursday 22 September 2011

A Gift For A Girl


I had to give a little girl a birthday gift the other day.


I made this reversible drawstring pouch for her. I followed a great tutorial to do this. It took less than an hour to put together, but I must say that I cheated a bit and used pre-cut fabric squares.


Inside the pouch, I put a Russian doll. I had found the doll at a flea market and I knew from a good source that the girl would like this.


And inside the doll pieces, I put goodies. A bracelet, a stamp, some hairpins, and chocolates in the big one. I believe opening that was a favourite.

I think the gift was well received, as I got a big hug and a humongous smile from the birthday girl!

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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)




Wednesday 21 September 2011

Boozy Tiramisu


This is a proper adult version of tiramisu. It's tiramisu how I like it. Soft and spongy and drenched in amaretto. If you are not so much of an amaretto fan, you could of course always use more of the coffee and less of the booze... 

My recipe is very easy to make. Not that tiramisu is overly complicated to begin with, but I don't dip the ladyfingers in coffee before layering them. I add the liquid after I've have laid out the biscuits in my chosen serving dish. It's all a lot less messy and frustrating that way. No mushy biscuits that come apart at the lightest of touches!

 

Tiramisu 
(serves 8)

Need To Have:

500g mascarpone
300ml double cream
70g caster sugar
200ml cold espresso
200ml amaretto
about 40 ladyfinger biscuits
50g milk chocolate
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Need To Do:

Whisk together the mascarpone, double cream and sugar until light and fluffy.

Combine espresso and amaretto.

In a large shallow serving dish (I used a ceramic casserole), lay out half of your ladyfingers. Carefully pour half of the coffee mix over the biscuits and let stand until they have soaked up most of the liquid.

Spread half of the mascarpone filling over the ladyfingers. Take care not to disturb the biscuit layer.

Grate the chocolate evenly over the mascarpone layer. This works best if you freeze the chocolate for a little while before handling it.

Add the next layer of ladyfingers. You should be able to use up all the remaining ones. Pour over the other half of the coffee and amaretto.

Spread the remaining mascarpone on top of this. Cover with cling film and put into your fridge for the flavours to infuse. Ideally the tiramisu should be left overnight.

Just before serving, dust the tiramisu with the cocoa.

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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

lollipops

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Why I Love To Cook


See this soup? I had it for dinner yesterday. I took this picture just after I finished cooking. A moment after I had scattered a sprinkling of parsley on top. Just before I sat down to eat it. 

It's a simple beef broth with meat, vegetables and potatoes. 

It took me a full day to make.


And that, Ladies & Gentlemen, is why I love cooking!

I had not been feeling well. Down and out with a full-blown cold, probably due to the changing weather. I was taking a sick day. I was home by myself. Nobody there to care for me. So I thought I'd take good care of myself. I made this soup between naps and watching recorded TV.

It all started with the leftover beef joint from Sunday lunch. Bones and all. I placed it in a big pot and covered it with water. I added a carrot, an onion, some parsley stalks, peppercorns, a bay leaf and some sea salt. I let all that simmer for a good two hours.

I strained the soup and salvaged the meat and carrot and let it cool a little bit. I then cut the carrot into very small cubes and picked the meat off the bones. All the meat. Every last little morsel of it. I cut that into cubes as well and put it in the fridge.

My beef broth was then left well alone for some time. It needed to cool, so that all the fat would collect on top. I skimmed it off.

I broke and separated an egg. I set the egg yolk aside to use later. I whisked the egg white into the cooled and skimmed broth and brought it back to a rolling boil. When the egg white cooks, it rises to the surface and binds all the impurities that are in the broth, which clarifies it. 

I took the soup pot off the heat and strained it again, this time through a clean dish towel. What slowly and steadily dripped down into the new, clean pot was a clear and fragrant consommé. Just watching that liquid collect made me feel purified somehow. And the savoury steam rising up from the soup cleared my head.

I whisked my egg yolk and another whole egg with a bit of milk, salt & nutmeg. I poured the mixture into a small plastic bowl and set it afloat in my tiniest pot that I had filled with water. As the water slowly heated up, the egg set into royale, or Eierstich, my favourite soup garnish from childhood. You cannot let the water boil, you just need to let it simmer slowly and be patient.

Waiting for my egg to set, I heated the broth for a third time. I cut a few potatoes into dainty cubes and added those to the pot. They took about  fives minutes to get to al dente. I decided some frozen peas would not go amiss. I added them, too. I retrieved my meat and carrot from the fridge and in the soup it went. 

While everything was heating up, I took the set egg out of its bowl, running a knife carefully around the edges. Out came a little cake of pale yellow, mottled with tiny air bubbles. I did some more cubing and dropped the egg pieces into my pot on the stove. I finely chopped some fresh, greener-than-green parsley and set it aside.

Just as it was getting dark outside, I got myself a spoon and a napkin. I fetched a bowl and ladled some of the hot soup into it. I made sure I gave myself a lot of meat and vegetables.

At that moment it occurred to me that I wanted to write this post. I paused to take the picture and then gathered my thoughts while I was sitting at the dining table, eating. 

The soup I had made was nourishing. It tasted salty and beefy. The peas added some pop, and the carrot and potatoes were comfortingly soft. The parsley on top gave an aroma of gardening. The consommé was a rich golden colour. There were specks of green and orange and cream floating around in it. I could feel that this dish was going to help me get better.

But not only eating my soup was nourishing. The whole process of making it had done me good. 

I had made this meal with just myself in mind. I had made it for a sick me, hoping to make myself regain energy. I had carefully added all the ingredients I like. 

I made this soup from scratch, using remainders of another meal that might otherwise have gone to waste. I had used different methods of cooking and not once did I need to refer to a recipe. This was cooking that came from the heart. Rituals that have been with me since I was a little girl, hanging out in my grandparents' kitchens.

I took my time to go through each step. Even though I was feeling unwell, focusing on making myself dinner distracted me from my headache, my tired body and my stuffy nasal passages. Doing something I love felt like the best medicine. And I love to cook. 

I love to cook because cooking is all about taking time and taking care. I love to combine ingredients and creating something new and wonderful. Making a meal combines a little kitchen magic with a little confidence. 

Cooking is about satisfying your needs, and the needs of the people you care for. Spending time in the kitchen is about patience and achievement. Cooking is nourishment for the body, and nourishment for the brain.

Cooking is all about love.

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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)

Monday 19 September 2011

30 Days Of Lists - Week 3


Another week, another list of lists. 

We're already more than halfway through this, I'm going to miss it when it's over!

DAY 12


DAY 13


DAY 14

DAY 15


DAY 16


DAY 17


DAY 18 


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© All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated)