Weekend Observations

Monday seems to have popped up rather quickly. Last week had been a full shoot week, so I did a little editing on the weekend, and lounged around at a beautiful park. Quiet and lovely. How was your weekend?

Most of last week, was spent shooting beautiful linens for St. Geneve. There is something to be said for well made linens. I wanted to throw all of mine out, when I got home. It's also pretty great that it's a local company. They make amazing linens, pillows, and duvets. I wanted to pinch a certain silk filled number. It was incredible. 

After a crazy week, it's always nice to hang out at a place like this. Whytecliff Park is about 25 minutes from Vancouver, near Horseshoe Bay. It's a great place for scuba diving too (we used to scuba dive often). If you find yourself in the area, you really should visit. 

That's it for today! Have a nice Monday. 

janis

Baked

Ah, hello sun! We finally seem to be getting a bit of a summer around here. How's your week been so far?

Went to see K.D. Lang last night. My husband, Robert Edmonds, designed her poster (that happens to be her profile pic on twitter), so we received a few tickets to one of her shows, here in Vancouver. I've always appreciated her talent, but I've never been a huge fan, didn't know much about her, but I am now.  Um, well, that voice. She opens her mouth and angels, butterflies and rainbows fly out of it. That woman can sing. Anyone else seen her live?

Ok, on to the chocolate ricotta cake. I had lots of ricotta in the fridge, along with some other things I wanted to use up. Here it all is, in a cake.

Flourless Chocolate Ricotta Cake - makes one 9" cake

500g (one container) ricotta
3/4 cup berry/superfine sugar
zest of 2 lemons
4 eggs, separated
250g almond meal
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Lightly grease a 9" spring form pan and set aside. Melt chocolate, in a large heat proof bowl, over a pot of boiling water. Stir chocolate until melted. Keep the bowl on the pot of boiled water and add ricotta, sugar, almond meal, zest, and cinnamon to the melted chocolate and stir to combine. Stir in egg yolks.

In another bowl, whisk egg yolks until soft peaks form. Remove chocolate mixture from stove and gently fold in egg whites, being careful not to over mix. The batter will be quite thick. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth out top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool in pan before removing. You could glaze this cake, but I had a small jar of chopped pistachios, so I sprinkled them on top along with a little icing sugar.

Have a great day! Back soon....
janis

Weekend Observations

I'm a little late with this one but, technically, it's still the weekend (Canada Day weekend) ;) How was your weekend?

I received a copy of Canadian Living magazine (thanks Brett!) featuring a story I shot awhile back. "Trash to Treasure" features the talented Colleen Sawatsky, of Vintage Home, and her patio make-over.  Heather helped with the styling. Here's a peek....

I also added some prints to my etsy shop. A series of images of Salton Sea and a couple of pink houses....

Thanks for stopping by!

Back soon,

janis

Hello, long weekend.

If you're in Canada, enjoy your long one. Happy Birthday to Canada on Sunday!

Baked

Ah, we're inching closer to the Canada Day long weekend. Can't wait. How's your week going? Hope it's been smooth sailing.

I baked a batch of Blueberry Almond Quinoa cookies...and they're not too bad for you. I've had two this morning already.  Good start ;)

Blueberry Almond Quinoa Cookies - makes about 20

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 large egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together, flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, maple syrup, brown sugar and apple sauce for a couple of minutes. Beat in the egg whites and almond extract for another couple of minutes. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon, to combine. Fold in the quinoa, oats, blueberries and almonds.

Spoon large spoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing about an inch apart. Bake for about 15-18 minutes, or until golden in colour. Place on a wire rack to cool...or eat immediately. Enjoy!

By the way, I'm over at Poppytalk today as well. It's a "Made in Vancouver" story about a couple of my favourite furniture designers from Bombast.

Have a good day! Back soon.
Janis

Weekend Observations

I can't tell you how happy I am that the sun is shining today. Ahh, I love it. Hope you all had a good weekend.

This post is a little about "baby steps", it seems. Baby steps with the weather inching towards being summery, getting organized, working on my sewing "skills" (ha!), and eating frozen yogurt pops instead of ice cream.....

My husband helped with finding a rod and hooks that would work with this cabinet. Merci, Rob. 

That was a bit of my weekend. What did you get up to? 

Back soon!

janis

Pretending It's Summer

Happy Friday! Did you have a good week? Plans for the weekend?

Thought I'd play a game and pretend that it's warm and sunshiny.  The rain has been pretty relentless (I still love you Vancouver).  Here are summers past in Melbourne, Hawaii, Naramata BC and, yes, even Vancouver....