Easter Decorating

 After a long winter it seems particularly thrilling to bring some colour into the house by way of greenery, flowers and Easter pastels.

I found the giant blue hydrangea at the warehouse store and I could barely carry it in the house it's so heavy.  Everything else came from Sweet Violets, my favourite flower store in Guelph.

Foyer Flowers

Kitchen

 It's safe to say that I'm obsessed with adding a very pale blue colour to my house right now.  It sets off the wood tones and dark neutrals that we've layered the rooms with.  Contrast is everything.

Good Friday Dinner

 For dinner last evening I made a very simple potato salad with a shallot vinaigrette (with lots of lemon), chopped fennel and radish.  I topped it all with dill and some optional smoked salmon.  We started with a leek and cauliflower soup topped with sautéed shallots.
It was exactly the sort of dinner I like to throw together these days, composed of dishes I can prepare ahead of time.

 We have a large collection of these cute wool creatures that I collected over many years for the Rascals.  I guess it's me that plays with them now... I like to set them up for holidays on the kitchen shelf.

Dark turquoise candles in the dining room.

 I was never one to think of lighting candles during daylight hours, how does that make any sense at all?  MrBP finds it enchanting however and I've realized he's right, there's something so festive about it.

Pale blue tapers, tall ones!

I love these pale blue taper candles, they are very tall at eighteen inches.  Again that pale blue colour, here juxtaposed to red in the painting, a favourite colour combination of mine.

I hope you have a really wonderful Easter weekend.  We'll be celebrating on Sunday with The Rascals and Poppa.  It's meant to rain all weekend so I'll definitely be lighting lots of candles.
May the sun (or candlelight) shine on you!

xoxDani

Mop Philosophy Monday

Sweet Violets Bouquet

 Now that I'm recovered from the Plague it's time to catch up on all the stuff I didn't get done when I was ill.
It's a long list!
I have several hours of admin to do this week at my desk, never a task I look forward to.  I'll have to take frequent housework breaks, just to cheer myself up.
Cooking any easy dinners?  I think I'll put a butter bean gratin on our menu this week.

 This is so easy when served with some whole wheat couscous.  The butter beans themselves are from a can (very cheater-like) and if you see this Italian brand in your grocery store I recommend them.  The beans are steam-cooked before canning and they have a perfect texture.
I had a lovely large bunch of Swiss chard, and after sautéing it with shallots and mini sweet peppers I added the rinsed butter beans.

 Add some cashew cream...

 ... and top with my favourite mixture of ground nuts and nutritional yeast.  I posted the recipe for this nut mixture at the end of this post.

How's your week shaping up?  Any big projects to tackle?  Lots of eye-crossing admin to get done?
Whatever you're dealing with, I hope it goes well.
xoxDani

PS it seems I'm taking the week off blogging... not my intention to do so and I hope to be back by Friday/Saturday with a party-prep post. xxx

Carrot Soup

Sweet Violets bouquet, still going strong.
Love that shade of apricot.

 We've had a cold virus in our house this week and MrBP has been hit especially hard.  I've been cooking lots of pureed vegetable soups to try to get as many vitamins into our diet as possible.

I have an abundance of carrots these days from our vegetable delivery so I made this really simple soup.
It's so easy: saute a shallot, add some herbamare sea salt and plenty of peeled and chopped carrots.  Cover with with water and simmer until the carrots are tender when poked with your paring knife.

The pureed soup.

 Leave off the heat for a few minutes before pureeing the whole business in your blender.

Of course I added some cashew cream, I usually have some in the fridge these days.

Cashew cream.

 The cashew cream adds some nice texture to the carrots.

 The texture would be fairly bland without a topping, however.  I used this nut and nutritional yeast mixture that I've been sprinkling over all of our soups lately.

I cup raw cashews
1 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Pulse in your food processor until it has the texture of fine breadcrumbs.  Store in a jar on your counter and sprinkle whenever you'd like a slightly salty, breadcrumb-like topping.

How's your day looking?  It's March already, which has me thinking about getting out my St. Patrick's decorations.  I started a Death Cleaning of my laundry room yesterday and right now it looks like a bomb has gone off in there, I'll have to work on sorting that today.  And I'd like to take some photos of those Brora tweeds and wools that arrived yesterday!

Whatever you get up to today I hope it's a success,
xoxDani

Mop Philosophy Monday

 I replaced my dishwashing brushes last week: don't the new ones look so capable and promising?

 Have you been baking granola?  Me too.  The latest batch was made with plenty of flax and walnuts, coconut oil and cinnamon.

 It did smell delicious while it was in the oven.

 Once it was done baking I added big handfuls of dried cherries.

 Have you been doing any celebrating?  We were out last night for our good friend David's birthday.  Such a fun time, and we're all looking forward to travelling to New Orleans together once spring finally arrives.

Are you a fan of sparkling wine?  I am, and so is David.  We brought him a bottle of this for his birthday:

My favourite sparkling wine: Hungaria.

Hungaria is the perfect dry sparkling, and the price point is much better than champagne.  It has the same sort of complex dry fruitiness to it without the nine million dollar price tag.

Sweet Violets outdid themselves again with a beautiful bouquet, look at these colours:

Sweet Violets Bouquet

Apricot tones with bits of violet and that dusky green eucalyptus: Bella!

How is your week shaping up?  I've got so much housework to do, more Death Cleaning of the storage room (it's taking me forever), plenty of admin tasks, Year-End work that is crossing my eyes, and about 217 loads of laundry.

It's also month-end this week, which means I'll be posting a No Shopping update.  Hang onto your seats because there was a spectacular failure of epic proportions, all will be revealed!

Have fun today, even though it's Monday,
xoxDani

Mop Philosophy Monday

Arrangement from Sweet Violets Flower Shop

 What do you think of red roses contrasted with eucalyptus in a bouquet?  I love the colours and shapes together, a perfect centrepiece for the table.

Making any healthy snacks?  I made this roasted carrot and red lentil hummus the other day and it has been a huge hit, everyone loves it, even Lil Rascal.
You can find the recipe here.

Roasted Carrots for the hummus.

 I've been plodding on with the storage room Death Cleaning.  De-cluttering takes such a long time whenever there are family mementos involved.
I have trunks in the storage room for my older rascal kids to hold various memories of childhood.  The blue trunk was Ole Rascal's camp trunk too, so it is a memory itself, before it's even opened.

Rascal Trunks

 Cooking up any detoxifying soups?  I made this one the other day and it would have been much better without the addition of beets.  I don't care for them in the slightest but I keep trying, they're so full of vitamins.

 The next time I'll skip the beets and just add more butternut squash.  Here is the recipe if you feel like giving it a try.

We've had a busy weekend not just with our rascals but with a little getaway to Langdon Hall.  I've got an overnight travel Colour Story coming up and some photos from our trip.  Stay tuned Tooties.
I hope your week is off to a terrific start.
xoxDani

Kitchen Flowers

Emma Bridgewater tea mug.
Inspiration for some yellow tulips in a vase.

 This is the time of year, more so than any other, when I really crave the colour and life provided by some flowers in the kitchen.
I trotted over to Sweet Violets yesterday morning to pick up some yellow tulips for the countertop and these primula for the windowsills in the kitchen.  Primula are in the shops at the perfect time, clearly I'm not the only one who's looking to brighten things up the end of January.

I always like to see the girls who run the flower shop, they're a lovely bunch.  Sara was helping me with my bouquets and so I was able to get an update on her chickens, yes she has chickens and they're quite the characters too!  The last time I was in she was taking them back and forth to the veterinarian in a laundry basket due to illness, now they are happily healthy and she told me she's getting better at giving them care when they're sick all by herself.

When I returned home I was thinking about those chickens as I walked Scout around the neighbourhood in the sunshine.  Then, what did I come across but a magnificent, bright green wooden chicken coop with all the bells and whistles, parked right in the garden at our neighbour The Chef's house!

Looks like we'll be getting some new neighbours, I wonder when the chickens will actually arrive?  I'll attempt a photo of the coop at least on a day when the sun makes a return appearance.

What have you got planned for this last Saturday in January?  We're going to stock up on groceries and champagne, I'm hosting a birthday dinner tonight for someone special, details tomorrow!
Have a really wonderful day today, I hope it's colourful,
xoxDani

Happy Easter

Wishing you a lovely Easter Sunday whatever you're up to.
It is Spring here today, we've just emerged from an intense ice storm, all has melted and the neighbourhood feels like a fresh beginning.
Peace and love to you today,
xoxDani