Happy Yogini!

We have a new guest blogger joining the SC team this week: Emma Fletcher. Emma juggles an wide array of activities in her daily life; she contracts as a Project Manager and Corporate Trainer, dabbles in holistic and energy work, is a certified yoga teacher, world traveler and is currently studying for her Canfit Personal Trainer Specialist designation. Did I mention she is also an IT whiz who loves studying astrology?

Emma is also very funny, refreshingly nutty and gorgeous. She doesn’t leave her yoga practice or philosophy on her mat but weaves it into everyday life.

She recently took a road trip to The Kripalu Center in western Massachusetts for a weeklong restorative yoga-teaching course. She shares her solo road journey with us today!  Thanks E!

Have a great week! Happy Valentines and Happy Chinese New year! Both February 14^th!

See you next week and scroll down to read Emma’s first post!

Hello from Winnipeg!

Hi guys! It’s Diana again, reporting from Winnipeg. I’m here for a couple months performing at the beautiful Manitoba Theatre Centre in The Drowsy Chaperone… an absolutely hilarious show where I play the dim witted, wanna-be leading lady, Kitty.

Old factory.

I’ve only been here for a couple weeks so far and haven’t had much of a chance to explore, as rehearsals take precedence, but I can tell you that Winnipeg’s downtown architecture is stunning!

This building is great! Here they seemed to have installed windows after the sign was painted.

I’ve have been noticing a lot of old signage painted directly onto the sides of brick buildings. They signs are worn and faded and many are flaking right off.

Some signage is partially hidden or so high up between buildings that you can’t see the full image.

It’s fun to guess what is underneath...

On some buildings you can see the layers of old signs that were there before. Time and weather reveal history.

What kind of place was this?

A great old sign

I’m so glad no one painted over these signs. It’s nice to see the history of a building this way.

RBC.

I am glad they have been preserved. I just love it!

Classic

In Jean Paul Sartre’s Nausea, the author makes an interesting observation about 3 o’clock.

“Three o’clock. Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. An odd moment in the afternoon. Today it is intolerable.”

I have always felt a similar way about 3 o’clock (minus the intolerable part.) The afternoon has melted away, but the evening has yet to begin. It’s too late to start a new project, and too early to get after dinner activities started.  I feel a drop in energy at this time every day. I never have to ask what time it is, I always know. Coffee is always made at 3, and my focus is regained.

Vic at 3pm. Not joking. (The espresso machine is warming up inside.)

I was curious to see what other people’s lives looked like or felt like at 3 o’clock, so I asked them to take a picture at 3 and send it my way. Here are some of the pics I received.

Di working in her studio at 3pm.

Mike at 3pm.

Winnie's "Teenagers at the Movie theatre" at 3pm.

Carole's 3pm

Tom's 3pm

Kerri checks her watch...and waits for the school bus.

Greg's 3pm photo.

Norah and Jonah at 3pm.

Thanks to everyone who sent pics!

Say Hello to Amy!

Suitably Cool welcomes Guest writer Amy Adilman today. (You guessed it, she’s my sister!) You may remember Amy jumping high in the post on Play a while back. Her post today is on “Banana Dreamboats.” A campfire treat we enjoyed as kids that her kids and fellow campers are well…bananas about today. This is her first post for Suitably Cool although she has been writing secretly for years. See Amy’s full bio here.

Oh you Dreamy Dreamboat you!

My family loves camping and being outdoors. With just a few weeks of summer left and finally nice weather, I wanted to share a favorite camping treat that was passed down to me and is a MUST when we are camping.

Gather your ingredients.

I have a very laid back approach to meal times and snacking while we are camping and structured meals just don’t fit for me in the great outdoors. Kids eat their meals sitting in their lawn chairs around the campfire with grubby little hands and huge smiles on their faces as they talk about the day.

Cut your banana.

We camp for 8 days every summer and 2 of the nights the kids really look forward to are called “Banana Dreamboat Nights!” We book the same two weeks every summer, as do many families, so we meet up with the same “camping friends” every year. It only takes a few minutes after pulling into our site for the “camping kids” to find one another and inevitably one or more kids will ask me if I brought the bananas. I pack about 20 of them and then mid week go to town for more. This simple recipe has now been passed on to many families, who look forward to dropping by our tent to share in our camping ritual. It is not unheard of to have 20 people around the fire each making Banana Dreamboats.

Open the banana up.

Growing up out west, Banana Dreamboats were a big part of our summer experience. We had a little cottage on a lake with a huge fire pit, which was the center of our social lives every evening, from the time we were really little, right through our teenage years. At least once a week we would make Banana Dreamboats on the open fire. I love that I have passed this down to my kids and that they enjoy it as much as we did. The simple steps for Banana Dreamboats are below. Kids seem to make the best ones as they stuff them so full and max out on the chocolate!!!

Put it on tinfoil.

Banana Dreamboat Ingredients:

• Large Bananas – Not Too Ripe
• Miniature Marshmallows
• Jersey Milk Chocolate Bars – These work the best as they have no filling and are just plain Chocolate that breaks easily. I love buying the Darker chocolate for myself,
• Chocolate Chips
• White Chocolate Chips

Add your marshmallows first! They are glue that holds it all together!

Take a firm banana and slit through the peel by the stem. Run the knife the length of the banana until about ½” from the end. Press hard enough that you are cutting through the banana but not through the bottom of the peel. Grasp the banana in your hand and push the two ends towards each other to “open up” the middle for stuffing.

Go crazy!

Place the banana on a square of tin foil. Go crazy and fill it up!!! Start with the marshmallows first because as they melt they get gooey and hold everything else inside.

Ready for cooking.

Once done the stuffing, form a “little handbag” around the banana, crimping the top. Keep it loose on the top so the foil is not touching the stuffing, forming a “carry handle” on either end with the foil.

Why not add some dark chocolate and almonds to your ingredient list for a less sweet choice.

Place the entire package in the coals of the fire. Some fire pits have grates on top so you could place them on top of the grate. Wait about 5 minutes and carefully lift the package out by one of the “carry handles” with an oven mitt or tongs. Open up the foil along the crimped top area and see if the marshmallows and chocolate have melted. Depending on the coals and where you placed it, another 5 minutes may be needed. Don’t over cook or burn, or the chocolate will get bitter. The banana will get soft and become wonderfully sweet when it is cooked. The foil does not get hot but the insides do, so be careful when handing to children.

Cinnamon is a nice extra too!

Some great variations to the Dreamboat are cinnamon, almonds, and cocoa powder. Let your imagination run wild! I usually try to eat clean so I just treat myself to a couple of pieces of really dark chocolate and some almond slices in mine and it is fabulous.

By Lydia Bouchard- SC’s Montreal Reporter.

A single zucchini flower.

What’s more elegant, summery and sexy than the art of cooking flowers? This fantastic recipe as given to me by a charming little man at my dear Marché Jean Talon in Montréal. (Precisely at “Birri “, a cultivator who specialize in flowers, herbs, garlic etc.) Here’s the menu du jour, while it is still in season. I made them for friends at the oh so famous **apéro time… Here is how to make them:

Bright Zucchini Flowers.

Beignets à la fleur de courgette  (Zucchini flower donuts)

• 12 zucchini flowers
• 250 ml (1 cup) flour
• 250 ml (1 cup) water, milk or beer…you taste!!
• 1 egg
• Salt, pepper
• 60 ml (about a 1/4cup) grated Parmesan. (Can be replaced with an old cheddar)
• 15 ml (1 tablespoon) basil or parsley chopped.
• Oil for frying purpose (Canola or peanut)

Wash the flowers delicately and dry them thoroughly. (The pistil is edible but for less bitterness take it out.) Mix all ingredients with a wisk until its well mixed. Dip the flowers in mixture holding the tail end of the flower. Fry in very hot oil, a couple of flowers at the time. When both side are golden, place them on absorbent paper.

There are a thousand ways of stuffing the flowers. Here are a couple suggestions:

The pistil.

Farce au Prosciutto

• Gruyère strips thinly sliced. (One for every flower)
• 1 leaf of basil per flower.
• 1 slice of prosciutto per flower
• 1 beaten egg
• Oil to fry.

Roll the cheese and basil in the prosciutto. Place the roll in the center of the flower. Dip the flower in a beaten egg to fry it.

Dipping into batter.

Variante: Farce au fromage

• 1 small onion or 2 French shallots-chopped.
• 1 diced zucchini
• Creamy goat cheese or ricotta (1 teaspoon per flower)
• Dash of Salt and pepper
• 1 beaten egg
• Oil for frying.

In a pan, cook onions and zucchinis until they are golden. Add salt and pepper. Mix the cooked vegetables with cheese and insert a little ball of the mixture in the flower. Dip in the beaten egg to fry. (Or you could dip it in the Zucchini flower donuts mixture at the top of the page.)

Bon appétit!

My three year-old son calls them  “sourris vertes” (Green mice). Sounds strange but it comes from a French children’s song about a green mouse that you catch and dip in oil…kinda strange, I know…But it cracks him up and it makes him eat them!!

Au revoir for now, until next time.

Madame Lydia

**Apero is my favourite time of day. When you’ve worked hard and deserve a little break before a late diner with a glass of Pastis or Rose. Every one stops by after work just for a couple blissful hours before going back to their evening plans! To me, apéro is a wonderful way of letting the day go, touching base with friends and family without necessarily serving a big diner every day.

Guest writer Diana Coatsworth in London.

We are thrilled to have guest writer Diana Coatsworth’s first post today! Diana shares her favorite places to visit while in London England with SC readers. You can read the interview with Diana that was showcased on Suitably Cool when we first launched. http://www.suitablycool.com/blog/?p=95 We look forward to future posts from the super creative Diana, who has her finger on the pulse of everything cool, everywhere. (Actually, she is usually the one making it!)  Scroll down for her photo essay! Thanks Di!

Diana is a full time artist in Toronto who sticks with the motto “Be creative everyday”.  By trade Diana is an actor, dancer and singer in the film and theatre world as well as designer and sewer for her independent handbag company FlyBall Bags. www.flyballbags.etsy.com Other interests are cooking, tennis, running, vintage collecting, overall bargain hunting, movie nights, bike riding and traveling as much as possible

Here’s some pics from some favorite spots I visited while  in London. I’ve broken it down to 3 main elements: Shopping, Sight seeing and Theatre/Shows. But let’s start with getting around!

Bright London Tube

It all starts with an unlimited use underground pass so we can zip all over the place. Even the subways stations look beautiful!

Look out!

We’re above ground!   Here’s a helpful hint for tourists like me not used to driving on the opposite side of the road.

TAXI!!!!

Take a classic black cab or a double decker bus.

Mad Hatter.

Shopping!! I hit the markets mostly for the handmade goods, but there are great deals in the shops too… I bought this cute hat in Primark on Oxford St.  It was a zoo in there!

Camden

Vintage. Vintage. Vintage.

Camden Market, Portobello Road and Spitalfields were my favorite markets!  I scored big time!

Titles under the trees.

You have gotta love a library under the trees.

Lovely design.

I fell in love with this display in a shoe shop.  Gauzy-cotton shorts and pants as lampshades. Simple and effective!

Oh the possibilities!

Of course no vaca would be complete without checking out a good old-fashioned thrift shop. Nothing fancy, but good scores.

London lights up at night.

Sight Seeing! My favorite of all the sights was walking along the south bank at night.  It’s so romantic. Every bridge is lit up in bold colours.  It’s very peaceful but also has a great energy.  Here’s the magnificent Tower Bridge

Changing of the guard.

Here is the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. It’s quite cool. There is stunning architecture everywhere!

Saatchi Galery

We went to the Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery. Here’s a piece from the Saatchi that made me laugh.  I hope my closets don’t turn into this!

The Globe Theatre.

Shows! We saw a show a night!!  No pictures allowed inside these incredible theatres though. We went to the The Globe where Shakespeare’s works were performed and we could snap away after the show was done. It was such a beautiful open- air theatre!  We saw Helen by Euripides.  We got a seat on the 2^nd balcony, but the orchestra was filled with 700 standing patrons at 5 pounds each.  Not bad if you can handle it!

Buffy Saint Marie in Cambridge.

The reason I came to London is because Kevan performed 2 shows with Buffy Saint Marie.  Here he is playing to 9000 people at the Cambridge Folk Festival!  (He’s the drummer.)

Happily exhausted!

All that running around…  it’s time to take a break

Our Montreal correspondent Lydia Bouchard.

I am thrilled to announce our first Suitably Cool correspondent: Montreal’s Lydia Bouchard. She joins the team today with her first fan- tastic post on bringing back the fan!  I was fortunate to get to know Lydia while working together over the course of a year and a half. We shared project ideas and inspirations, made our way through Anna Karenina and The Elegance of the Hedgehog together, and discussed easy ways to find time in our daily lives for creativity and art. Lydia inspires with her energy, talent, personal style, elegance, grace and joie de vivre. Welcome aboard Lydia! You can read Lydia’s first post below.