WINNIPEG

i have an idea! let's go to a place that's colder than the one we're in now. was essentially the thought process when we last minute decided to take a day trip to canada this weekend. and what eggboy was thinking when he grabbed his one year expired passport and failed to realize it until we arrived at the canadian border, we will never know. but being the honest, soft spoken, innocent farm people that we are (he is), we somehow got through (?!?) and then celebrated with the sweet canadian sounds of arcade fire as we drove through the sprawling snowy fields and into winnipeg.

first stop: obviously dim sum. 

you know, there is a gigantic weight off of my shoulders now that i know that the end to a painful dim sum craving is just over two hours away from my new home. if ever i express this craving and then suddenly disappear from the social media world (on account of roaming charges), you will know exactly where i am.

egg and i bopped all around town for the remainder of the afternoon. we stopped in shops of the record, stationary, and cake variety, we met a saskatoon berry (have you ever had a saskatoon berry? it is like a blueberry!), and all the while we had our bomber hats glued to our heads because, sweet lord, was it cold! again, though, i'm finding i really don't mind the extreme cold when i'm aptly prepared with three pairs of socks, three sweaters, and my sorels.

a solid block of time was spent with those hudson bay stripes. what is it about those stripes? when we tracked down the entire section of them in the hudson bay store, we immediately hyperventilated in unison out of such excitement. because we are silly americans and we like those things and yes we do spend entire minutes petting the wool blankets, dreaming of the day that we'll acquire one.

we also found a bakery that makes a hudson bay striped cake! oh, for cute.

as if the shortest day of the year could get any shorter, the sun went down at around four. it really didn't have far to go. it felt like it was setting from the moment it showed itself. so through the night we drove on home, but not before eating curry and picking up a pair of fleece lined leggings. oh yes, i am never taking these off.

-yeh!

SNOW CARAMELS

i promise, cross my heart, that i'm not just saying this so that all of you will visit me in this new tundra home of mine, but -16ºf is really not that bad.

maybe it's that i've been overly prepared with my new sweater layering skills and my new favorite thing, the bomber hat.

maybe it's that i never have to walk to a subway or hail a cab.

maybe it's that it gives me a good reason to stay inside and bake all day.

snow here is a friendly snow and people accept it. they don't kvetch about it, cancel their work, and then drink all day. life carries on, people bundle up, they drive safely. i hear there are even free cross country ski rentals at a local park.

this weekend, the snow helped us make caramels! we heated up our sugars and then poured it into the deep farm snow for the fastest cooling caramels i ever did make.

i imagine you can use any caramel recipe. i used the kitchn's. cooling caramels in the snow isn't the thing to do if you want perfect, smooth, rectangular, cutely wrapped, chewy caramels. it's more the thing to do if you want to have fun in the snow but are too much of a scaredy cat for a snow ball fight and just not feeling free spirited enough to make a snow angel.

they'll probably be a little bit crackly on the outsides from being frozen in the snow, and their shapes will be awkward. but you'll have fun, i promise.

basically all you do is you cook your sugars according to the recipe, and then instead of pouring the syrup into a prepared pan, quickly (and carefully!) run outside and drizzle it in some deep and clean snow. use a spoon or spatula to collect the hardened caramels from the snow, and then rinse off excess snow in a colander. pat them to dry and enjoy! 

don't forget to brush your teeth.

-yeh!

6 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO THIS WEEKEND (and a giveaway winner!)

i have this asshole of a to-do list sitting on my desk. it is hilariously long and my only hope is that i can grace through it without stress eating nachos or something of the equivalent. jk already did that yesterday. as excited as i am to have these deadlines, it's still a long freaking list. so i'm just going to make an alternative one because that's fun and it's a good way to procrastinate and maybe you'll get some ideas of what to do this weekend:  

have fun with rubber stamps! one time, mum and i cleared out the entire sale bin of the michael's rubber stamp department. it was a really strong decision. they are the perfect things for homemade greeting cards, especially when using a computer printer boggles your mind and even more especially when you want that rustic homemade loving vibe. you can get away with more misspelled words that way.

launder your bath mat. for the longest time i thought i smelled bad whenever i was in the bathroom... even on days when i showered. and then i realized it was because i hadn't washed my bath mat since i got it three months ago. (all together now... "ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!") 

introduce yourself! sometimes on instagram or twitter or pinterest or in comments here i see the same names over and over and then i get lost on the internet trying to comment back or follow back. i do way better with email (or the contact form at the left), so if you're not too sheepish, drop me a line and say hello and tell me your favorite dinosaur. or cake flavor, either one.

climb a tree. i bet a lot of good climbing trees got lonely when the internet came out. i remember my pre-internet tree-climbing days. they were fun. if it weren't so icy and cold out, i'd totally try this soon. (ooh, and if you're climbing a crab apple tree (because those are the best trees to climb) you should definitely bring back some apples to candy, a la imen!) 

become acquainted with the mulberry. have you ever had a mulberry?  i've never had a mulberry. i always just thought they were a leather handbag. 

listen to new tunes. i have been so satisfied with some music that's come out recently. i regularly sing along to lucius' new album, lily & madeleine make me want to watch the sun rise every morning, death cab's new release brings me back to eighth grade in a good way, the new arcade fire is one you should know if only for conversational purposes, and the son lux. the son lux. just listen to "lost it to trying" and hold your mind together because it will blow your mind. also, get your hands on the new genghis barbie album! (and not just because it includes my snare drum recording debut as dumpling barbie.)

 ...ok is that six things? alright cool. let's pick a giveaway winner... ms. katie kelly! congratulations! send me your info, lady! her absurd pastry was the snicoissoodle... a snickerdoodle flavored croissaint. sweet pete, get me one of those!

have a looooovely weekend everyone!!!

-yeh! 

BRUNCHING

it appears that people do not really brunch here. and they especially do not brunch during harvest. people are invited over for lunch on sundays... after they have had breakfast... and i think that is just weird. amiright that the first meal on a sunday, regardless if it is at 9am or 3pm, is brunch? or am i being far too influenced by my former roommate patrick who has a signed frances ha poster and sunday brunches religiously with a hangover and any one of his 3,000 besties?

when else does one eat pancakes? 

i may be wrong about this. maybe the whole town is having brunch without me? there's no bagel place in town though... and eggboy always engages in lunch on sunday as if its ingrained by his culture... so i think i am on to something... but i do hope to be proven wrong.

the point is: this was a very special weekend! 1. it rained alllll the livelong day (which means no harvesting!)  2. eggboysister came to town with her special manfriend!

so i made brunch and i set the table as such and we ate at noon and there was no question about it: it was not breakfast, it was not lunch. it had eggs and potatoes and buns. it was brunch. 

i was quite proud. and i was equally as proud of my little cardamom buns. i used this recipe from london eats and was inspired by call me cupcake for the fun twisty shape and photo. the recipe is a great one... although i'm not so sure i am convinced by cardamom. the only other time in my life that i've had cardamom was on top of a mountain in norway in the late nineties and i think something about that fond memory made me want to try something with cardamom. and maybe i've got bad cardamom, but am i wrong to say that it has the aftertaste of a bar of soap? cardamom lovers, please advise.

after brunch, egg and i finished the first season of house of cards and now i don't know what to do with myself when i feel like procrastinating doing to dishes... so i think i'm going to go cook something about it. bye!

-yeh!