BC Observations

Happy BC Day to my fellow British Columbians! Hope you're enjoying your long weekend.

A few weeks ago I headed out on a road trip, with with my mom, 2 of my sisters and a nephew. We were taking my mom on a "sentimental journey" to Kitimat BC, about 1400km from Vancouver, and we only had a week to do it. She had lived there for a few years, as a teenager, when the town was brand new, and for one year "reigned" over the town as Miss Kitimat. Pretty cute. The town of Kitimat was created to support the aluminum smelting industry in the mid-50's. Before that, it was a tiny fishing village. Here are some pics of our road trip to northern BC....

An abandoned old church near Lytton BC. 

The Fraser River.

Barkerville is a national historic site of Canada located along Williams Creek. It's an old "gold rush" town built in the 1860's. Many of the original town's buildings still stand today. Incredible history. 

The old Canadian National train station. 

Kitimaat Village, just outside of Kitimat. 

What I really noticed is that since the town was born in 1954, the architecture is very much of the era. Loved it. Even the abandoned buildings still looked great. I'd love this one to be turned into some kind of accommodation. 

A-frame architecture for the First United Church.

This is Miss Kitimat (aka my mom) taking a look at what was the town centre, where she was "crowned". 

My City

Happy hump day! Hope your week's going well.

I wanted to share a story I did for The Simple Things magazine, one of my favourite mags. Each issue they do a "My City" feature, and they asked me to do one on Vancouver. I love these features, so I was pretty happy to do one for my hometown. Click here for the whole story.

What do you love about your city? I'd love to hear about it.

Have a good day!

janis

Weekend Observations

I hope you had a nice weekend! I'm still in weekend mode, as it's Victoria Day today. I do love a holiday Monday.

Here's a bit of what went on around here this weekend...

Had a sneak peek at a house designed by Evoke International Design. Landscape design by Considered Design. Styling by McCarthy•Hinder. 

Popped down to Seattle for a whirlwind day trip, with a couple of good friends. Checked out the European Masters exhibit before it wrapped up, at the Seattle Art Museum. Found ourselves in Fremont, a cute neighbourhood filled with shops and restaurants. Picked up some Swedish clogs at Lambs Ear Shoe Boutique....had to have them. 

If you're in the Vancouver area, you have to check out the Grand Hotel exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It's all about the evolution of the hotel. Love it! It's on until September, and I plan to visit several more times. So much to take in and absorb. 

A few links to some of favourite blogs...

• a beautiful modern home in Santa Barbara at Design Elements

• "roughing it" at SF Girl By Bay

• Nanaimo Bar Cupcake anyone? Recipe by Rosie, of Butter Baked Goods, over at Poppytalk. If you're in Vancouver on May 25th, stop by West Elm for the Etsy event and meet Rosie along with several Etsy sellers (I'll be one of them). 

Have a great day! 

janis

Weekend Observations

Hello All! How was your weekend? I just got back from 5 days in Palm Springs, and despite the massive wind storm it was great. Here's some of the weekend...

After the chaos of the Saturday wind storm (to my knowledge, there were no injuries), Sunday was a lovely day of calm...

Links:

•The Backyard Oasis exhibit, at the Palm Springs Art Museum, was fantastic. Click here for more info.

•Salton Sea is a pretty crazy place to visit. Loved it. Click here for info.

•The Hideaway is mid-century hotel, with large rooms and a lovely pool. So quiet and peaceful! Check it out here.

•Would loved to have used the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, but that wind. Click here for more info.

That kind of wraps up the weekend anyway. What did you get up to? Let me know!

Much more Palm Springs fun to share with you - will be posting on Poppytalk soon!

Back soon,

Janis 

Yarn + Trees

Happy Hump day before Christmas!

I found myself, last minute, in Seattle late Monday night into the very wee hours of Tuesday. We saw Prince play at a nightclub, after his arena show. Wow and wow. Absolutely amazing. I was 5 feet away from that magical man. The show wrapped up at 4am and on the way home (2.5 hours away), we saw this spectacular display of yarn bombing. They looked beautiful in the dark with no one around.

I feel like knitting our tiny tree, in our back yard, a Christmas sweater now ;)

Back soon!
Janis

Baked

I hope you all had great weekend! How's your Monday going?

Played around with different pizzas over the weekend, so I thought I'd share my favourite with you. We brought back heaps of fresh corn from our trip, and I wanted to make sure it all got used. Tastes flipping great on this pizza! To be honest, I hadn't heard of Appenzeller cheese (from Switzerland) until the guys at Benton Brothers Fine Cheese, recommended it. It. Is. Good.

Appenzeller Cheese,  Corn and Tomato Pizza - makes two 12 inch pizzas

Pizza Crust:
2/3 cup warm water (about 45c/115f)
1 8g packet active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra for oiling bowl
1 3/4 cups to 2 cups whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/4 cup finely ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Garlic spread:

1 bulb garlic

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil

Topping:
3/4 cup fresh corn (about 1 cob)
3 roma tomatoes, sliced
1 cup Appenzeller cheese (or whichever cheese you prefer!), grated
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, shredded

To make pizza dough:
In a large bowl, stir together 1/3 cup warm water, yeast and sugar. Let stand for about 10 minutes, or until mixture turns foamy. Stir in remaining 1/3 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 3/4 cups flour, cornmeal and salt and blend until mixture forms a dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, adding up to the remaining 1/4 cup of flour if dough is too sticky, until smooth and elastic 5-8 minutes.
Place dough in a deep bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Punch down dough, and cut in half to form two thin 12 inch pizza crusts. I rolled my dough out a little, then stretched it out when on the pan.

To make garlic spread:
Cut top off garlic bulb, then place oregano leaves on top, sprinkle a little olive oil over top, then wrap bulb in foil. Bake in a 350f/180c oven for about 40 minutes. Let cool, then squeeze out garlic into a small bowl, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and mash with a fork.

To assemble pizza:
Spread garlic mixture all over pizza dough. Sprinkle corn over top, then tomato slices, then cheese. Bake in a 400f/200c oven for 15-20 minutes, or until crust is a light golden colour and cheese is melted.

The great thing about making pizza, is that you can add anything you like for toppings. A perfect meal. Enjoy!

One more thing. If you have some time, pop over to Poppytalk!  I did a road trip post there today. I posted heaps of pics from our trip. I do feel like a bit of a homer, but I really do think BC is a beautiful place!

That's it for today. Back soon!
janis

A long, lazy week wraps up

I just returned from our road trip to BC fruit and wine country, so my apologies for being a little, well, lazy.
We've been taking advantage of the last of the warm, summer days. I promise to have some fun stuff for you starting again on Sunday!

Until then, happy friday and have a fantastic weekend. I'm looking forward to catching up with your blogs!

Back soon!
Janis

Last of the Summer Road Trips

Taking off for a few days with a few friends. It'll be so nice.

Have a great weekend everyone! We'll catch up soon!
janis

Happy Camping

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you had a great week. I just got back from my camping trip, and I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of things. Do you ever feel like that after a relaxing get away?

I absolutely heart Nicola Lake, located near Merritt BC. It's hot, dry, smells of pine, and there are pinecones everywhere. This is why I named my blog Pinecone Camp. Conjures up the best memories, and I'm always completely relaxed there.

View from our campsite. So pretty. 

A ranch on the way into town.

Hedley, BC is an old gold mining town. Tiny, friendly, and on this particular day, wildly hot. 

Bromley Rock is just east of Princeton BC. Breathtakingly beautiful. 

That's a small sample of this beautiful province. Have a lovely weekend! 

Back soon.

janis

Baked

Hello Monday! It's B.C. Day, so it's a holiday Monday. Sweet. How was your weekend?

I'm leaving for a camping trip, so I'll have zero access to internet. Feels strange, but it will be a nice break. Made heaps of food to take on the trip, and these biscuits are part of the hamper. They're really easy to make, and delicious. Love the kick of chili, but you could really put anything in these.

Cheddar Chili Spelt Biscuits - makes about 14

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole spelt flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dried chili flakes
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, spelt flour, baking powder, sugar, chili flakes and salt. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until crumbly. Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the milk over top of mixture, then sprinkle the cheddar cheese. Stir with a fork until a soft ragged dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough gently to come together. Pat out dough to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. With a floured 6 cm (2.5 inch) biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits, gathering and pressing dough together until finished. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Brush tops with remaining milk. Bake in a 400f/200c oven until golden, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Happy BC Day to my fellow British Columbians! Have a great week everyone. Back later this week!

janis
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