3 Things I'm Loving - Summer Edition

It's been a gorgeous month of warm, picture perfect days.  I've been really digging a couple inexpensive purse essentials that I really want to share:

From left to right: 1. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock. Available in SPF 30-70 (88 mL) | 2. Smith's Rosebud Lip Balm (0.8 oz) | 3. Almay Liquid Eyeliner in Black (0.1 oz) |

1 | Neutrogena Dry-Touch Sunblock is my current fave for the face and limbs. The formula is lightweight and most importantly, non-greasy. While not quite matte, it layers well over day moisturizer without turning your face into a giant oil slick (t-zone included). The scent is reminiscient of the Neutrogena facewash line -  almost soapishly neutral. And the SPF 55 can make you feel positively invincible. $10 a pop from your local Shopper's Drug Mart.

2 | Smith's Rosebud Lip Balm was recommeneded by a make-up artist friend of mine who swears by it for all her clients (bshe does bridal, couture and magazine shoots). The balm has a light sheer pink tint and a subtle rose scent. Softens the lips, with a texture that isn't greasy. Super cute old-fashioned tin. Available at most Sephora's near the check out counter for about $8.

3 | Another drug-store favorite for a fraction of the cost of a department store brand is Almay's little tiny pot. Almay's liquid eyeliner works for my asian eyelids (read: oilier, prone to smudging colour). I put down a pencil line first and work over it with the liquid eyeliner so that the liquid eyeliner has something to cling to. Dries in about 45 seconds-1 minute. I've found it keeps a defined line for upwards to 8 hours. I grabbed the eyeliner pencil and liquid pot together for about $18 on sale.

What's in your summer bag? Any recommends?

Wishful

Make everything ok.

Eavesdropping leads to tasty balls

Around 3 pm, the officemates swivelled around and started to bond over snack cravings and dinner plans. One coworker mentioned she was making meatballs. We assumed spaghetti but no. It was BETTER than that. Something I'd never made before. A combination I'd never thought could work.

Hand-made pork meatballs simmered in a mushroom cream sauce, over rice.

It sounded good at 3 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

It damn well sounded awesome at 7 pm when I finished off some video editing at work and headed to the grocery store.

(It sounded terrible at 7:30 when I juggled a camera, a hot saucepan, and the wrong hand attempting  to illustrate the art of forming meatballs.)

(There is no art, you smoosh out a ball shape.)

(Ahem.)

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Foodporn time! Since I'd never tried this recipe before, I included my fails below for fun.

Did you know that meatballs are held together with an adhesive paste 1000x stronger and harder to scrape off once dry than any glue? Just mix a half cup of breadcrumbs with cream. Voila: cement for your mizing bowls, spoons and fingernails.

Another delicious binder for your balls are diced onions sauteed in butter until they carmelize down and turn into this melt-in-your mouth GOLD.

Rolling out balls with your non-dominant hand, with a hot pot of rice cooking at your back, an oiled pan before you and a slightly meat covered hand welding a slightly meat covered camera?

DON'T MIND IF I DO.

I think you're supposed to leave them alone to brown and rotate them carefully once each side is done?  I left the pan to take artsy onion shots and then came back to roll the entire mess. If they broke apart, well guess what? I only wanted the strongest meatballs anyway.

ACTION SHOT:

After rolling out and browning a couple, dump the cooled balls back in your saucepan and cover with...

Amurrica's favorite cream soup, aka cheater cream sauce!

And that's it! Simmer with mushroom soup until meatballs are no longer pink inside, and ladle over rice.

BEHOLD THE ARTSINESS OF ONION:

Thanks to coworker J for sharing her dinner plans with coworker S and enabling me to dick around in the kitchen.

DICK. BALLS. GET IT?

Potstickers

Mid January February marked the start of the Year of the Dragon. An exciting, tumultuous time in the lunar calendar. Depending on who you ask (and what year you were born in), it's either a time to get messy, be bold and make a leap of faith, or the year to huddle in and weather the money/fortune/relationship/career storm.

To celebrate (and because there is no easier food to freeze and eat all week long), I've been making batches of chinese dumplings - alone on a lazy evening; and with a gathering of high school buds during an inpromptu dumpling party. Whether its me-time or group fooding, dumplings are hella easy, fast and filling.

I make mine based off Asian Dumplings by author Andrea Nguyen. If you get the chance to thumb through it at the bookstore or library, don't forget to wipe the salivations on the gorgeous photographs. The book itself is the most comprehensive collection of dumpling recipes ever - covering pan-Asian, fusion, traditional, sweet, savoury....EVERYTHING.

This one is particularly good, only I added a lot more meat in the form of ground pork and shrimp.

(Fun fact: I am allergic to those briny, tiny sea walkers. But I bear the itching because shrimp is so damn good. And also, have you HAD dim sum? 99% shrimp there.)

Pictured: Delicious, itchy death.

The internet showed me several new ways to fold the dumplings into tasty origami food packages, but the simplest will be the crimped-fan.

You add a spoon of filling to the skin...

Fold it in half and press the skins together to seal...

And starting from the right, fold sections over, like you're making a mini paper fan.

You can power through ALOT.

Throw those suckers in a pan with water, then when they steam away, oil.

BAM: potstickers.

Whats more Canadian then snow?

My housemate got himself a round trip humanitarian/goodwill/volunteer half way around the world in Belize. To get eaten up by mosquitoes and build houses, I believe.

Rather than stew in the juices of my petty petty jealousy (he made chocolates! Drank beer on ancient ruins! Build goddamn houses for the good of mankind!), I went on an equally exotic trip: to Ottawa.

A place with mysterious ruins and symbols...

Fearsome, barely tamed beasts...

A topsy turvy world where little people roamed the land...

And folks walked on water.

We were hosted by my friend's parents, who live in their hand built cottage out in the country. Ate like kings, drank like fish. Broke several bones in the pelvic area from an impromptu sledding trip down a hill behind the town church. ("if it wasn't "WATCH OUT FOR THE PIPE" it was "WATCH OUT FOR THE TREES" or "DON'T GO OFF THE CLIFF!"). Skated a hard 4 km on a bumpy, frozen body of water. Dodged several fast moving (backward skating, show-offs) children.

Seriously. This weekend is the last of Winterlude. Do yourself a favour and pack up as many friends and pets as possible into a sedan, and head on down for skating on the Rideau Canal. The bearclaws and piping hot drinks are wicked awesome.

Weeekeeed ahhh-suhm.