"In the introduction, Mr. Picard writes that it took 400 litres of syrup to test the cookbook’s recipes. One of the first ones is for pancakes deep-fried in duck fat and drowned in maple syrup. There’s also recipe for tourtière but topped with sweetbreads, sautéed calf’s brain, slab bacon, pecans, 3½ ounces of foie gras, arugula, and half a wheel of soft, washed-rind cow’s milk cheese, as well as gouts of maple syrup. (The arugula was doubtless a momentary lapse.)" ~ Chris Nuttall-Smith for the Globe and Mail on "Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon"


I want to own this cookbook and eat at this restaurant so badly that I could cry.


Also, for reference (i.e., how to skin a squirrel) see also: The Joy of Cooking.

This is easily the best motivational poster I've ever seen.


Children! Reach for Excellence! Achieve the Dream! Distinguish yourself from the crowd! Work hard and escape the poop-filled fishbowl of your mediocre life! Figure out how the fuck you're going to breathe once you do succeed!

I've fallen in love with The Domestic Man.


I hope my husband understands. I think if this recipe for Eye of Round tastes half as good as it looks, he'll eventually forgive me.

via Highbrow Paleo


Edited to add: tried this recipe using Montreal steak spice and it was brilliant. We may have to name our next kid in his honour.

"In their recent article in the U.C. Davis Law Review, Professors Bernstein and Triger document the emerging trend toward what they call “Intensive Parenting,” defining its three primary components: (1)the parents acquiring sophisticated knowledge on child development needs may be, (2) “concerted cultivation” of a child’s talents, orchestrating child leisure activities and intervening with schools and other institutions on a child’s behalf, and (3) closely monitoring many aspects of the child’s life. Consistent with this is an obsession with safety, and investment of energies to ensure that a child is thoroughly and adequately supervised at all times." ~ David Pimentel, "Criminal Child Neglect and the "Free Range Kid": Is Overprotective Parenting the New Standard of Care?" (via Hunter-Gatherer)


The above quote is basically a "what not to do" checklist if you're trying to avoid raising co-dependant, depressed, narcissists.

And here I thought I was just being lazy and uninterested.

The extremely passive-aggressive skinny dog would like you to stop laughing and remove the sweater now.


Trust that she won't be asking me to remove it the next time she has to go outside in -30C to take a pee.

Poor, poor bred-by-humans-to-the-point-of-being-completely-devoid-of-survival-abilities creature.

I'm officially fucking old.


I will preface this all by saying that I have never at any time in my life been anything resembling cool, popular or even "with-it" (as my mother would say).

Nonetheless, the indicators are starting to pile up:

• I had to search the archives of my own blog to see if I'd ranted about feeling old before. Ranting + ranting about being old + forgetting whether you've previously ranted about being old = yer old. Get those damned kids off my lawn!
• I find myself occasionally using expressions that my mother does (see above). If this were a parenting thing at least it would make some sense. However, so far I've been able to maintain some originality the the realm of "things I say to my kid 50 times a day". I'll make my own parenting cliches thank you very much.
• This is the first year I'm confident that I haven't seen (or even heard of) any of the movies nominated for an Academy Award. I'm sure they're all shit anyway since nothing good has come out of Hollywood in the last 10-15 (20?) years but it's a still tad disconcerting.
• I was in a mall the other day for an hour. The full-force of the consumer-assault-on-the-senses left me feeling disoriented and depressed for days. I used to only feel that way in clubs or casinos. Or arcades. Or change rooms in mall stores. Or mall stores with loud music. Wait, maybe this is just a personality thing and not a sign of aging.
  
• Bruno Mars? Who the hell is Bruno Mars? And what kind of name is that anyway?
• Can someone explain to me explain to me what happened to La Senza? They used to carry my favourite go-to ginch: cute, flattering, comfortable. Apparently, according to the marketers at La Senza, kids these days are all about ethnic-nylon-neon-leopard-BDSM. It would be fascinating if it wasn't so scary. More importantly: where the hell am I supposed to buy underwear now?

I've come to realize that the most clinically-significant symptom of my elderly status is, that for the most part, I really don't care that I'm not 20 and/or "cool". At first I thought that this was a wonderful sign that I was getting more confident with age but now I'm starting to get paranoid that I'm actually just experiencing the first stages of dementia.

Anyone need me to pick up some lemons next time I'm at the store?

It's a good thing I like citrus with my gin-and-tonic.

Do you think this is one of those deep insight things where you have to be stoned or otherwise mentally-altered to truly understand it's profound and life-changing meaning?


Ya, I'm leaning towards thinking it's total bullshit too. Fucking hippies.

This morning I woke up grumpy as hell.


My alarm clock had the audacity to go off on time, my head hurt, my hair hurt (?!), my skin felt dry and scraped, I found a nice new zit (I'm 33! When the hell will indignity this stop!?). You're getting the picture I'm sure.

Thankfully on my walk to work I discovered quite possibly the best cure for one of these days: pet a Basset Hound. Also be sure to tell him very seriously that he's terribly handsome.

If you cannot find a local Basset Hound to love-on, there's plenty of pictures here that may help. A Basset with nerd glasses? Yes please.

Some Friday linkies for your clicking pleasure:

• Kate Christensen's blog kills me with it's amazingness. I want to eat and do everything that she describes. Via Orangette.
• My brother sent me the link to this article. The first line won me over completely: "Without wishing to overstate my case, everything in the observable universe definitely has its origins in Northamptonshire, and the adoption of the V for Vendetta mask as a multipurpose icon by the emerging global protest movements is no exception."
• These so-sweet casual family pics are inspiring me to hit someone up to take some of us. I'm also making it a delayed resolution to stop acting like a total goober anytime someone does try to take a picture of me.
• As criminal and tragic as this sounds, I'm going to make a vegan-paleo version of this apple crisp on Saturday for a friend's (challenging? ill-conceived? misguided?) concept potluck dinner party. Do you think it would make me a terrible person if I brought a small shaker of homemade bacon bits to surreptitiously add to my own portion?

Reflections on a forth (and final) week without processed food, booze, dairy or sugar:

• The only time I really, really missed booze was when we had people over for dinner on Sunday. There's nothing like a nice glass of red wine to take the edge off of the worry that you might accidentally kill a friend with your cooking. Happily, no one died.
• It was amusing to see the look on people's faces when they ask about your "cleanse" (we were stumped for what else to call it when people asked) and you tell them that you're mostly just eating meat and veggies. People seemed very confused about the meat part. Poor meat, still getting a bad rap.
• I think me and sugar might really have broken up for good. I'm not opposed to using a bit now and again (and I certainly won't be one of those parents preaching the evils of sugar like it's a deadly sin) but it's really started to creep me out how it's added to everything. I'd like sugar to stay where it's wanted. You know, places like fudge instead of salad dressing.
• Last night we ended our 30 days with beer and wings. The beer tasted as amazing as anticipated but I cut myself off after just one pint because I could really feel it. Apparently "Sub-Operation Cheap Date" is a rousing success.
• I would definitely recommend this sort of thing to anyone who's looking for re-set their taste buds/metabolism and do some mindful eating. It gave me a ton of insight into my own food-related habits and triggers. A big thing for me to realize was that I often use food rewards for myself (e.g., I went for a run so I deserve some almond M&Ms as a treat). While that's not always a terrible thing (e.g., if/when you ever hike the West Coast Trail, plan to make your first post-trail meal a burger, yam fries and beer, it'll help keep you motivated through all the ladders, mud and outhouses), I do want to try to use it less to justify unnecessary mindless consumption.