new website coming: joeyarmstrong.ca

i am so excited to announce that i have my own official photography website. kind of. it is still currently being developed (slowly. so slowly), but you can check it out here:

joeyarmstrong.ca

i will be sure to inform you when it is fully functional and not just a page that tells you that i'm not quite there yet.

also, if you haven't noticed, i just put up a new header for this blog. i had another idea to stencil out 'my food obsessions' and use flour to form the letters. but when i was mostly done with that idea, and photographing it on the kitchen table, my sister walks in and informs me that it doesn't look like flour, it looks like i'm cutting another substance on my kitchen table. a white, powdery substance. i love how naive i am sometimes. :)


p.s. i've been eating lots of sandwiches lately. i bought a sourdough loaf from a bread affair, (can get it at whole foods or meinhardt in vancouver) and it makes AMAZING sandwich bread. or just amazing bread for eating plain with butter. the sandwich above is made up of: fried zucchini, sauteed mushrooms, mayo, wholegrain mustard, lettuce.

another great sandwich is with meatballs, pickles and mushrooms with wholegrain mustard. yummy. anyone have any great or unusual sandwich fillings they like to use?

jamie's food revolution: broccoli and pesto pasta

i used my first recipe out of the jamie oliver book i got for my birthday: jamie's food revolution

the recipe: broccoli and pesto tagliatelle. except i used fresh fettucine from a local italian deli, not tagliatelle. i recommend fresh pasta: tastes better, cooks quicker.

the recipe calls for pesto. we had some in our freezer that we made up in the summer, but if you don't have any pesto on hand, you can follow jamie's pest recipe here.

what you need:
- 1 large potato or a few small ones
- 1 head of broccoli
- fresh basil
- 1 lb pasta (jamie calls for dried tagliatelle)
- 1/4 cup + pesto (i used a bit more than 1/3 cup)
- 3 ounces roughly of parmesan cheese - freshly grated


what to do:
- wash & peel potato(s); shave thinly using either a peeler or the back of your grater that has that one blade you never know what to use for (until now. potatoes)
- cut the broccoli florets off; peel the stalk, then slice up thinly
- pick off your basil leaves, rinse, chop up roughly
- bring to boil a large pot of salted water, add your pasta & broccoli stalks
- 2 minutes before pasta is cooked (see your pasta instructions), add potato slices and rest of the broccoli
- once pasta is cooked, drain everything, and keep some of the cooking water aside. return pasta etc to pot
- add to pot half of the basil leaves, pesto, and half the parmesan
- stir it up, adding some of the cooking water to thin it up if the sauce is thick
- taste it and add more seasoning (pesto or salt & pepper) to taste
- serve with fresh basil and parmesan on top

enjoy!

40 homemade gift ideas

it's that time of year again: christmas time. don't know about you, but my budget is tight this year, which means... homemade gifts! it also means that i am a couple months behind on planning, but there's still 2.5 weeks left to figure something out. :) those of you expecting gifts from me, keep your expectations low so i can exceed them.

want that homemade gift to say 'i made this with SO MUCH LOVE and lots of thought' and not also say 'it took me 2 minutes to put this together'? make something from the kitchen, and package it in style:

like this peppermint hot fudge sauce, a gift idea from the kitchn's 40 homemade gifts guide (photo also from the kitchn)

birthday dinner (part 2 of my birthday)

part 2 of my birthday:

birthday dinner cooking

birthday wine, birthday bread, birthday flowers

birthday dinner (fish, yummy roasted veggies, bread)

birthday cupcakes

birthday fun?

birthday jamie oliver :) (my first ever jamie oliver book. SO excited)

birthday camera bag (from here )

birthday aftermath

part 2 of my birthday day was just as lovely as part 1. i am very blessed. now i have a whole year to give back all the love i've received this year. maybe jamie oliver can help me. :)

little surprises

so far, my birthday has been full of little surprises:

i walked into my room last night and there was a beautiful painting on my bed. one that i'd been wanting to buy for a while from andrea armstrong. i stood there for a couple minutes in a state of pleasant shock. i went to thank her (she was half asleep already),

then back in my room i realised there was also a box of truffles sitting on my desk. my 2nd favorite kind. (for some reasons whole foods isn't carrying my first favorite kind anymore. the caramel truffles of that brand)

i woke up this morning to a beautiful loaf of bread on the kitchen counter. it happened to be from my favorite bakery - a bread affair.

we made french toast with it. mmm....


a few hours later and i find my favorite kind of chips just lying on my bed with a food magazine.

i walk into the kitchen this afternoon and find a small chocolate mousse cake, dying to be eaten.

and to top it all off, my boyfriend came by with a bouquet of flowers and a poem.

it's been a lovely birthday so far.