shhhhh

i have a secret to share. i have a strange nickname - it's pickle.

andre gave me that nickname because i love pickles. all sorts of pickles.

in japan there are so many different types of pickles and so many different vegetables get pickled. but my love for pickles isn't exclusive to japanese ones, i even love the lightly picked radish and carrots that you get at pho restaurants. that being said, dill pickles are at the top of my list (but only when it's home made - i hate those mushy ones at delis or sandwich shops).

so when shana presented me with her homemade, canned dill pickles in exchange for my crab apples, i could have cried.

my mom used to make homemade dill pickles but for some reason when i got into high school she stopped canning things. shana's pickles remind me of my mom's recipe. yum yum. i've been eating them as a snack these past 2 days.

maybe next year, i can sweet talk my way to get shana to teach me how to pickle!

glorious weekend

a weekend filled with lots of bike rides, dog walks, fall colours and poutine!

with the super crisp autumn air, it was a perfect fall weekend.

ambrosio evolution

my new italian rims




blue rim tape!

i had a sad accident on my bike about a month ago. on my way to my freelance gig, i ran over a huge gap in sewer grate and POP! the rear wheel on my grocery-getter (so christened by andre) went flat. it was partially due to rider error - i should have taken caution to avoid that gap but the rush hour traffic was going fast and close and i didn't want to veer too much to the left - and partially because i didn't have my tires nicely inflated.

and because my tires were under-inflated my alex rim was bent and severely scratched when i hit that sewer grate. so much so that the mechanic at hoopdriver said that there was no way true the wheel. the damage was that bad.


removing the tires off of the old rims


removing the tube

i was initially sad that i had to shell out money on new rims, but after installing them (with help from andre ... no matter, with more practice i won't have to rely on him for help with my bike) i'm actually happy i made the investment.

when i first started riding with the new rims, it felt like i was pedaling a entirely new bicycle. it was so smooth it felt (and still feels) like butter. the aerodynamics on the rims must be so well designed that it just cuts through the air with little effort.

i love them <3

happy birthday mr. lennon

it's john lennon's birthday today!

yoko ono is asking, "Let’s tweet a million wishes for peace for John’s birthday, October 9th http://bit.ly/IPTWISH"

i'm not a big tweeter - in fact i'm kind of perplexed by the whole phenom - but i'll try to think of something to tweet about.

autumn yummies

as a child, i detested beets. i would describe the taste as the same as eating dirt. to me they were the equivalent of eating a mud pie.

thanks to the good food box, we always get beets in our hampers come late summer and fall...and now as an adult i love them! i feel like i have to make up for lost time and i buy them even when they aren't included in the box!

my fellow beagle friend and blogger shana recommended a citrus beet recipe that i tried earlier this fall. it was delicious.

this week, i made a variation on the shutterbean recipe above. here's my version:

• 5-6 medium sized beets (boiled and then skin removed by just rubbing it off! rubber gloves are recommended. sliced)
• 2 navel oranges (sliced along the boats)
• tons of parsley
• a fresh herb mix (mint, basil, lemon basil, dill)

dressing
• 2 tsp honey
• 2-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• a pinch of sea salt and pepper

mix together and voila! a yummy salad that will last a week or two thanks to the apple cider vinegar.






my fresh herb mix was prepackaged. i picked it up from kind organic's booth at the dufferin grove market. the package wasn't labeled so i'm not sure of the exact contents but it was really delicious.

i tasted: basil, lemon basil, mint, a lemony mint (?) and parsley ... but can you identify any of the other leaves?