Strawberry and Chèvre Salad

Lest you think all I eat is fish sauce and butter, here's a nice plate of freshness. This salad has evolved a great deal over the past few years from an initial and complicated attempt to recreate a restaurant chain's "California" version. For a time I painstakingly prepared candied pecans and rolled the goat's cheese in poppyseeds. Both details were delicious but this simple rendering is as satisfying and incredibly easy.

Any crumbled soft goat's cheese mixed with chopped fresh herbs will do but I have been using a fabulous mixture I accidentally invented a while back when I was in zealot dinner party mode. I was making a simple green salad with chèvre to serve alongside a gorgeous pile of steaming Choucroute and I went way overboard in the amount of cheese I marinated in olive oil and herbs. The leftover mixture proved endlessly useful. I recommend trying it yourself. Crumble plain chèvre, drizzle with good olive oil and add chopped fresh thyme and rosemary. This will keep well covered in the refrigerated for ages. Possible uses include stirring into scrambled eggs and pasta dishes, spreading on sandwiches or burgers, or as a convenient treat with crackers and a nice glass of wine.

So, the salad. Dress three or four huge handfuls of mixed greens with the most perfect dressing: a scant teaspoon of olive oil, a big squeeze of fresh lemon and a sprinkle of coarse salt. Toss until well coated and taste a leaf to see if the dressing needs to be adjusted. Tumble in several quartered strawberries and a half cup or so of the crumbled herb chèvre. Toss gently. This is fabulous served with grilled or roasted chicken.

Ding, Dong! Here's a Little Bit of Cuteness for your Shopping Pleasure

This tote is eco friendly hemp and organic cotton, super strong and super cute for hitting the neighborhood market. It pairs perfectly with fabulous boots an yup, it's called the Skipper.

World Famous Ridiculously Simple Pasta, Featuring my friend Butter

I am not reinventing the wheel here. This is one of the most blogged about recipes of last year, along with these phenomenal sounding cookies. The sauce is courtesy of the wonderful Marcella Hazan and is not an exact duplicate of hers but rather a more garlicky riff off of it.

Easy as store bought pie:

Put a quarter to a half stick of butter (oh yes) in a pan, along with an unchopped half of an onion and two slightly crushed but still whole cloves of garlic. Add a can of crushed tomatoes or a can of tomato sauce. Let this simmer for forty-five minutes and remove the onion and garlic.

At the thirty minute mark, put a large pot of water on to boil and cook your pasta. I'll be straight, many people don't cook pasta properly. You need lots of water and a big ole' handful of salt. Get the water to a rolling boil before adding the pasta and stir well for the first minute or so. Make sure you go right back to the boil, putting the lid back on for a minute or two if necessary. Taste throughout and please remove from the water while in the coveted al dente stage. You need a little bite from the pasta to contrast the silky sauce.

Again, please don't rinse your pasta. I don't even strain mine usually. I just grab it with some tongs and place right into the sauce. The salty starchy pasta water lengthens the sauce and adds to the lovely consistency. Toss around and add some basil or cheese if you like. Really though, this is gorgeous on it's own.

Everything's better with butter, you know.

This One's for a Special Guy

Check out this cool new tee in Locomotive's Etsy Store. I am loving the mustard yellow these days and here it looks awesome with a black spray painted graphic stencil. The Elephant Jumper is for a special guy, indeed.

Make It Your Own: Customize!

I was so inspired at the last Portobello West . Gorgeous creations abounded, many made with recycled and reworked materials. So inspiring! I was thrilled to find Nap. I bought a beautiful one of a kind dress from Nap a couple of years back but have not been lucky enough to encounter this local Vancouver designer since. I love her incredible use of fabric paint, especially the beautiful blue and green bird featured on many of her recycled creations. One adorns my own Nap dress. It's perched on my right shoulder above a daring neckline and wide black and white sequined belt.

All these gorgeous products have me thinking about the idea of customization. So often an item in our home and closet is just not quite right for our current style and taste. In richer times we donate and replace these faded treasures, but with more awareness of our economic and environmental situation it seems more realistic to me to instead make the old new again.

Bracelets and necklaces can be twisted together and secured with a sparkly brooch to create a unique and eclectic new piece of jewelery. Necklines can be cut and altered with ribbon and rickrack. Patches and applique made from felt, painted canvas and buttons are fabulous to adorn purses and jackets we are bored with. A little fabric paint and a sense of humor goes a long way.

If you must buy new and are on a budget, consider purchasing a basic item and making it unique. A wonderful example is this oh so cute gift from my lovely and skilled friend Jennifer. She is a talented writer, crafter and future guest blogger here at Ding dong, who sent me a set of awesome customized potholders recently. They are a reminder of all the fun and tipsy cooking and dinner party times we have had.

How wonderful to create something so cute and special out of a basic household item! And you can do it too. Get out there and recycle and customize!

Oh Spring!

Two straight days of sunshine in Vancouver and the cherry blossoms and magnolias are blooming in full force. So lovely!




Now, get out there and check out what's blooming in your neck of the woods!

Chasing the Nuoc Mam Dragon: Fresh and Crunchy Noodle Salad

To me, this is the perfect sunny spring day dinner. It's healthy, crunchy, and loaded with fish sauce and herbs. The following is barely a recipe but bear with me and you will find yourself parked in front of a huge and satisfying bowl of hot sour salty sweet (and crunchy herby!) goodness.

Generally you will need:

A nice big handful of dried rice noodles (rice stick), depending how noodley you want your salad
Nuoc Mam (fish sauce)
2 Limes
Garlic and Ginger, finely grated or chopped
Rice Vinegar
Sesame Oil
Half teaspoon of sugar (white sugar is fine, and so is a little crumble of palm sugar)
Fresh chilies (I use fiery hot Thai Bird’s Eye Chilies, but Jalapeño could work here too)
A mixture of fresh, crunchy vegetables such as julienne carrots, peppers or daikon, half moons of seeded cucumbers, sprouts, shredded or torn lettuce, cabbage, etc.
Green onion
A bunch of chopped herbs, any or all of fresh cilantro, mint or Thai basil works beautifully

Cook noodles according to package directions until they are el dente. It is nice if they are a little chewy, a lovely texture with the slippery dressing and crunchy vegetables. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water. I hope you don’t rinse wheat pasta, but please do with rice noodles. Set aside.

While the rice noodles are cooking and cooling combine the dressing: juice the limes and stir in a little garlic and ginger and two or three tablespoons each of fish sauce and rice vinegar, the sugar, a tablespoon or two of sesame oil, one or two chopped fresh chillies and two tablespoons of water. Taste and check for a balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet flavors. Add lime if not sour enough, and fish sauce if you are looking for a little more salt or umami flavor. I believe the sugar and chillies are self-explanatory, but Sambal Oelek is a great addition for more lovely heat.

Wash, de-seed, chop, shed, julienne and tear up your vegetable and herbs in whatever combination appeals. Toss the veggies with noodles and enough dressing to coat and generously fill your bowl. Incredible!

If you are certain to have leftovers don’t mix all the veggies, noodles and dressing together. Store separately then combine right before digging in with embarrassing gusto.

Serves two hungry people, possible with leftovers if you can restrain yourself.

Lookie Lookie

Loving these little toddler and small kid tees in the locomotive shop. How cute will this be stretched over a chubby toddler tummy, or on a wild and crazy obsessed-with-question-asking, front teeth missing Grade 1?

So cute.
Jay is hard at work in an amazing custom ordered toddler red "Baby Elephant" hoodie with a train patch on the front. It is a little ones version of this hoodie. I can't wait to see it and will be sure to post a preview before we ship it to the buyer!

Amazing Art Dolls from Etsy Seller Julieta of julietaromano

This is a huge departure for me. For the longest time I thought stuffed dolls were creepy and stupid, not to mention a terrible idea for a romantic gift. I have yet to understand the ugly doll craze happening at craft fairs and online either. But I *love* Julieta's hand painted art dolls. They are bright and gorgeous and modern with just the right touch of strange. Check out Freddy Mercury from the Let's Dance collection, how awesome is he with his rock star O face?


This is 0029 from the coexistencia derivada collection. Yes, dark. Yup, kinda scary. But I think totally original and interesting. And, well, pretty.



And here is more of the coexistencia derivada collection. Please do check out the link for detailed images. Some are wonderfully graphic, and others more medical with fallopian tubes and all the related bits. Brilliant!