ITHACA’S ACQUIRED TASTE

Posted on February 16, 2012 by popcornsnaps| 2 Comments

Last summer I wrote a story about Sasha, one of my favorite people in the world, and Ithaca, one of my favorite places in the world, for the new food quarterly ACQUIRED TASTE. Finally the issue is out. Even though it seems like that particular evening was a million years ago, I’m so happy with how it came out, and it makes me feel good to remember those times and that summer. I’ll never get over the tiny thrill of seeing my photos in a glossy mag, it’s almost more exciting than seeing my words in print.

Buy Acquired Taste here!

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STAYCATION SUCCESS

Posted on February 16, 2012 by popcornsnaps| Leave a comment

I mean, COME ON. That’s just perfect jerk chicken.

It’s so beautiful to me that I even made it the backdrop to my computer desktop but then I had to take it down because it was making me too hungry.

So yeah, last weekend’s Tropical Staycation at Le Pick Up was a crazy, exhausting, fun mess. One of my friends, who visited the restaurant for the first time that night, said it was like “being at the best family dinner imaginable, one where the food is actually good and the company is even better.” I can’t imagine a better compliment, or vibe better suited to Le Pick Up.

More photos to come!

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DAY OF LOVE AND HEARTS

Posted on February 14, 2012 by popcornsnaps| Leave a comment

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not, I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love, family, friends, and cheese! Especially heart-shaped cheese. Sometimes, splurge purchases are the best purchases.

What are you doing today? Last year, Adam and I had a spectacular meal at Le Filet, but this year we are going to watch my dear friend Diane Cluck play a show tonight, and beforehand we’re having Rotisserie Portugalia chicken (the best barbecue chicken in the city, in my opinion) with friends, supplemented with lots of new Plenty recipes. I can’t wait.

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Posted in celebration, cheese, romantic

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COUNTRY WEEKEND

Posted on February 13, 2012 by popcornsnaps| 3 Comments

Sometimes you don’t know how badly you need to get out of the city until you have finally escaped to the country. And then you realize, I needed this. Seven years in Ithaca maybe transformed me into a country mouse, and I miss the wide open spaces of winter and snow. So we escaped into snow hikes, wood-fired pizza, birthday tarot card readings, intense full moon, chocolate cake, snow angels, baked eggs for breakfast, country-western music, and the most peaceful and sunny bedroom room I’ve ever stayed in. Thank you T + N for our country getaway!

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Posted in celebration, family, nature, outdoors, party, people, travel

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ARCHIVAL FUTURES

Posted on February 13, 2012 by popcornsnaps| Leave a comment

Well, I wrote my first music feature for the Montreal Gazette! Pretty cool news for me. Oh, and look! My beautiful friend Amber made it into the story, too, as did a whole slew of talented and super smart Montreal folk.

Read the full story here.

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COUNTRY BREAKFAST

Posted on February 10, 2012 by popcornsnaps| 3 Comments

Adam and I recently escaped the city for a brief, blissful weekend in the country at our friend’s farmhouse. The morning we were to leave, Adam and I prepared a perfectly our-style “lumberjack” breakfast for our friends as a thank-you. My favorite was the baked eggs and mozzarella, set on a simple tomato sauce fortified with red onions, celery, and pancetta. With a few leftovers from the night before, I also made a rustic sweet potato hash with shaved brussels sprouts, spicy Italian sausage, and balsamic vinegar. Seriously though, could baked eggs be any easier? We just cracked them right into the sauce and then shoved the whole pot in a medium-low oven for 15 minutes, or until the egg whites looked set. And then we dug in.

It’s not the kind of breakfast we would normally make for ourselves, but out in the country, surrounded by the snow-capped mountains and the silent air, it was just the right thing.

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Posted in breakfast, celebration, nature

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BARLEY, REDUX

Posted on February 9, 2012 by popcornsnaps| 1 Comment

For Elizabeth, who likes to eat the same thing over and over for weeks at a time, too! It warms my heart to see other cool chicks adopting the same lazy strategies.

Seriously though, does anyone do this? I have literally been eating barley with stir-fried vegetables for lunch every day the last 2 weeks, is this normal? I would say I’m in a rut, but I actually kind of love it. I see it more as a blank canvas, easily adaptable to both the contents of my fridge and my demanding palate.

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STEVE GUNN + DOC DUNN THIS SATURDAY!

Posted on February 9, 2012 by popcornsnaps| Leave a comment

Hey Montreal friends!

I’m hosting a concert at Le Pick Up this Saturday, Feb. 11 with Brooklyn guitarist Steve Gunn and Toronto musician Doc Dunn. There’s a great video of Steve here, and it’s even a million times more magical live.

A word about Steve:

Brooklyn guitarist Steve Gunn’s prodigous talent for fusing traditional American song structures with a raga influence is almost criminally unheralded. Gunn’s songcraft is so strong and his playing style so effortlessly beautiful that folks should be shouting his name from every tall building and mountaintop. This native Philadelphian has been a stalwart of the American experimental scene for closing in on a decade. He is known by many for his contributions as one half of the core duo behind GHQ (with Marcia Bassett) as well as for his many other affiliations with underground luminaries such as Tom Carter, the Magik Markers and Marc Orleans.

And another word about Doc:

“Fresh out of the guitar soli school of William Eaton‘s soaking echo, Doc Dunn eschews in a new dawn of steel string reveries. As Dunn wades through the Takoma streams, he permeates the finger-picked tradition with standing waves of lysergic ether, free-basing his way into a tradition too bleak for the soft shores of the Rooted mind. Triplic layers of twang will melt their way through wires and speakers before their murky waters settle inside our distant (ear) drums.” — Weird Canada.

This is going to be a lovely, beautiful night, and I will be making appropriate concert snacks. Please join us! The show begins promptly at 9pm and is all ages.

 

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BARLEY LOVE

Posted on February 8, 2012 by popcornsnaps| 2 Comments

Woah woah woah. It hasn’t ACTUALLY been almost a week since I last posted, has it? I thought winter was supposed to be a time of mellowness, introversion, and regrouping, so can someone please tell me what happened?

Without a lot of time on my hands to fuss over daytime meals, I’ve been eating a lot of “stir-fried” barley lately. Barley takes a little longer to cook than pasta but has a very satisfying chewiness and keeps me full forever. And barley is supposed to be good for you, right? Anyway, lunchtime usually goes something like this: empty the contents of my fridge (in this case, half a bell pepper, a third of a fennel bulb, a handful of mushrooms, one shallot, some garlic, and half a purple carrot), chop everything into same-ish sized pieces, pour lots of olive oil in a pan, and fry everything together until golden and caramelized. The barley gets added at the last second, as does the juice of a lemon, some apple cider vinegar, and some torn basil. Super, super comforting and crazy delicious.

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Posted in grains, lunch

PLANET VENUS

Posted on February 3, 2012 by popcornsnaps| Leave a comment

Have I ever mentioned that I’m one of the co-hosts behind the CKUT radio collective VENUS? Well, we recently started a blog! It’s mostly just a way to keep all of our playlists in one place, but we’ll also try to post other special things, like interviews, photos, and video. Please check it out.

Yesterday Anna and I played tons of killer early electronic music by ladies like Laurie Spiegel, Doris Norton, Clara Mondshine, Pauline Oliveros. Full playlist and link to stream here.

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