Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for October 29th

CKLU 96.7FM

6-8pm

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTY GOODNESS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!!

Tonight is our annual Halloween show!!!! In honour (and in tradition) we will subtitle tonight's show Dark, Scary, Frankensteiny, Sharp-Toothed and Haunted Bunny Radio....add adjectives as you see fit.

• Billy Bragg & Wilco -- Hoodoo Voodoo -- Mermaid Avenue
• Bon Iver -- Creature Fear -- For Emma, Forever Ago
• Calexico and Iron & Wine -- Dead Man's Will -- In the Reins
• The Clash -- City of the Dead -- From Here to Eternity
• The Damned -- Born to Kill -- Damned, Damned, Damned
• Ox -- Prom Queen -- Burnout *
• David Bowie -- We Are the Dead -- Diamond Dogs
• Elvis Costello -- Spooky Girlfriend -- When I Was Cruel
• Fembots -- Small Town Murder Scene -- Small Town Murder Scene *
• Gillian Welch -- The Devil Got a Hold of Me -- Hell Among the Yearlings
• Grandpaboy -- Vampires & Failures -- Dead Man Shake
• Jeff Buckley -- Witches Rave -- Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
• Jenny Lewis -- Jack Killed Mom -- Acid Tongue
• Jim Guthrie -- Evil Thoughts -- Morning Noon Night *
• Johnny Thunders -- Dead or Alive -- So Alone
• Kristen Hersh -- Your Ghost -- Hips and Makers
• Link Wray -- Jack the Ripper -- Rumble!
• Metric -- Monster Hospital -- Live It Out *
• The Rural Alberta Advantage -- Drain the Blood -- Hometowns *
• Mike Ness -- The Devil in Miss Jones -- Cheating at Solitaire
• Neil Young -- Vampire Blues -- On the Beach *
• The Ramones -- Pet Semetary -- Greatest Hits Live
• The Replacements -- Rock n Roll Ghost -- Don't Tell A Soul
• The Reverend Horton Heat -- The Devil's Chasing Me -- The Full Custom Gospel Sounds of...
• Rufus Wainwright -- In A Graveyard -- Poses *
• Sugarcubes -- Delicious Demon -- Life's Too Good
• Supersuckers -- Creepy Jackalope Eye -- The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World
• Teenage Fanclub -- Satan -- Bandwagonesque
• Uncle Tupelo -- Graveyard Shift -- No Depression
• The Wooden Sky -- My Old Ghosts -- If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone *
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Heads Will Roll -- It's Blitz!
• The Beach Boys -- Monster Mash -- Live in Concert (VINYL)

NOTES THIS WEEK:

• Man, is there anything better than live Clash???
• I think we can make a case for Prom Queens being scary....
• STMS is still my fave Fembots album despite everything else they've done;
• Gillian Welch could just headline Halloween in general with a voice like that -- spooky!!!!
• I bet if Jeff Buckley had lived, he'd be in one of those bands with Jack White right now;
• The Metric goes out to Mike who must only be bothered with things involving monsters;
• Who knew rural Alberta could be so friggin great????
• I recently acquired a mounted jackalope skull that now hangs proudly in my entryway;
• Steps to follow: 1. Go on the interweb. 2. Buy the Wooden Sky record. 3. Listen to it. 4. Be happy.
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs = ultimate knickers dance party music.
• The Monster Mash you ask? I play it because one must.

roast squash risotto with sage, chestnut and pancetta

God bless Jamie Oliver for bringing this risotto recipe into my life. I've said many times that risotto is one of my all-time favourite foods and this one just shot up into the top 5 best ones I've had! Bit labour intensive but man, it's so worth it. Click here for the recipe and you won't be sorry!

quilting bee hoodie

For this hoodie, I may even try to quilt. Swoon!

*via Modcloth*

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for October 22nd

CKLU 96.7FM

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTY GOODNESS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!!!!!

• Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir -- Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Fighting & Onions *
• Violent Femmes -- Faith -- The Blind Leading the Naked (VINYL)
• Old Man's Beard -- Tofino -- Old Man's Beard *
• Van Morrison -- Crazy Love -- Moondance
• Said the Whale -- B.C Orienteering -- Islands Disappear *
• Thurston Moore -- Honest James -- Trees Outside the Academy
• Talking Heads -- I'm Not in Love -- More Songs About Buildings & Food (VINYL)
• LCD Soundsystem -- Pilooski remix -- 45:33 Remixes
• Guided By Voices -- Chasing Heather Crazy -- Isolation Drills
• You Say Party! We Say Die! -- She's Spoken For - You Say Party! We Say Die! *
• The Monks -- Dear Jerry -- Bad Habits (VINYL)
• Ohbijou - Make It Gold -- Beacons *
• Pete Yorn -- EZ -- musicforthemorningafter
• Dead Man's Bones -- A Zombie For You -- Dead Man's Bones
• She & Him -- You Really Got A Hold On Me -- Volume One
• The Clash -- Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice) -- Sandinista! (VINYL)
• Cuff the Duke -- Need You -- Way Down Here *
• Po'Girl -- Things We Believe In -- Deer In The Night *
• Noisettes -- Wild Young Hearts -- Wild Young Hearts
• The Flaming Lips -- Convinced of the Hex -- Embryonic
• Dragonette -- Liar -- Fixin to Thrill
• Little Girls -- Youth Tunes -- Concepts *
• The Bellwoods Crew -- Staten Island Waltz -- Friends in Bellwoods 2 *
• Dan Mangan -- Pine for Cedars -- Nice, Nice, Very Nice *
• Immaculate Machine -- You Destoyer -- High on Jackson Hill *
• David Bowie -- Changes -- Rykodisc 20th Anniversary
• Sugar -- Changes -- Rykodisc 20th Anniversary

MUSICAL NOTES THIS WEEK:

• How can I not play a record by a band called Old Man's Beard?? Especially when they have a song called Tofino? When we were in Tofino Marc wore some old man's beard as a fake beard. Classic Marco...
• If the opening notes of "Crazy Love" don't make you want to take your pants right off then I worry about your loins and their ability to function properly;
• Thank god for the Said the Whale request cuz it gave me an excuse to play that record YET AGAIN!! So good!
• Something about the Thurston Moore opening instrumental part is so fitting to the snowy weather...
• Dear LCD Sounsystem: I'll have a knickers danceparty to the original 45:33 but it still won't get me to run. Break the news to Nike....
• I cannot get enough of Chasing Heather Crazy today;
• I want The Monks to live in my house and play music for me when I'm feeling down...
• This Pete Yorn record makes me blush. That is all I'm saying.
• Maybe if I keep saying it it'll happen sooner -- Volume Two from She & Him PLEASE!!
• Noisettes eh? You are fun I say...
• Dear Dan Mangan: I love that you used the word "chemise" in your song;
• Still, cannot get enough of Immaculate Machine's "You Destroyer." Somebody teach me this song on guitar...

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

These were my Tuesday night experiment in an attempt to clean out all my leftover Thanksgiving pumpkin (without resorting to our standard favourite turkey pumpkin chili). Thanks to my new favourite baking blog My Baking Addiction, I now have a new fave cookie!!

These glorious little clouds of pumpkin might be the cure for the fall blahs. They don't get crispy like some cookies -- they stay soft like little cakes. Out of the oven -- even better.

Try these cookies if you're looking for some hardcore rainy day comfort foods. But don't blame me when you don't have any left the next morning.

Click here for the recipe for these yummy things (and lurk around the blog for 100 other yummy ideas -- I know you'll likely see some of them here in the future!!)

*photo courtesy of Jamie!!*

weekend round-up

The weekend came and went with good food, the great outdoors and great movies.

Friday started with a massive pig-out at the cheesy yet super delicious Indian food buffet restaurant. Best idea ever courtesy of Dennis. Pretty much rolled ourselves home and straight into a glass of brandy.

Saturday there was some lovely morning lolling around and then out into the bush for another great hike with Marc and Sadie. It was such a gorgeous day and I've got a feeling that these days are few and far between from this point on. Saturday night was a surprise birthday party for our friend but alas, I found myself not really feeling up to the night at all so I opted for a quiet night in and Marc set out into the night to represent us both.

Sunday, more morning lolling!! But then out into the bush again and home in time to get all costumed up to do some filming! Our friend Ben, who makes these amazing short animated short films, is gathering some material for future projects and wanted some 16mm footage of Marc and I in 1930's garb acting the role of a couple on their wedding day. Even Sadie got in on the action and likely will steal the show from us. It was tons of fun and we got some great shots outside in the fall colours and even inside our place.

Sunday night we rewarded all our hard work with a trip out to see Where The Wild Things Are. This movie is brilliant regardless what any of the critics may be saying.

After the movie our friend Ben called it a "high concept kid's film not for kids" and I think he's exactly right. I can see why the studio hated it. It's certainly not what the movie-going public likes because mostly, the movie-going public is stupid and uncomplicated. Hence the continued success of movies like Big Momma's House. But what I don't understand is, why give the movie to someone like Spike Jonze if this isn't the end result you want??? And I'm sorry, if he's hand-picked by Maurice Sendak then you just have to shut your mouth.

Me, I thought this movie was breath-taking. It's stunning to watch and is like a perfect moving version of the book. It's sad and happy and fantastical and I fell in love with every character (but man, what a great job Max Records did with Max). Considering the book is only 10 sentences long, really you could have gone anywhere with the story to fill it in but it really seems like everything Spike and Dave Eggers did was exactly what went unsaid in the book. It's almost like from this point, the book and the movie can go hand in hand and how often do you get to say that about a movie version of a classic book?

This movie is what being 10 years old feels like: scary, unpredictable, uncontrollable, full of fantasy and love and also, overwhelming loneliness.

The very first scene in the movie -- this short crazy chaotic chase scene with Max -- is bang on and sets the tone perfectly.

And so much of the movie is done with actual puppets and not CGI which is crazy. So the scenes when Max is running with all the monsters and he's looking up at them with such wonder and even a bit of fear, you know a good chunk of that feeling's gotta be real.

And the soundtrack? Well I've been carrying on about it on Twitter for a couple of weeks now and have listened to it about a dozen times now. I cannot imagine a better score for this film. Karen O should perhaps rethink her Yeah Yeah Yeah's career and just do this full-time.

And yes I totally cried. At the end (and don't cry SPOILER cuz if you haven't read the book well shame on you) when the bull looks at Max and asks him if he'll say good things about them, my heart exploded and I got all teary. Then when Max is getting on the boat and Carol comes running I lost it completely. Although it was your standard teary goodbye scene, in a way it wasn't at all. It was just different enough to tug at your heart in a whole different way. The facial expressions on the monsters were perfection and when they started howling, I was done. A big weepy girly mess.

I have zero bad things to say about this movie except that no kid I know would enjoy it. But frankly, who cares? The movie's enough for me in every way.

wilco loves me baby

So we saw Wilco burn the house down at Massey Hall last week and just like last time we saw them, it was stellar. Here's why:

• everything you hear on the album you hear live. They leave nothing out;
• Nels Cline is just insanity personified. He's so good it's ridiculous;
• We had 5th row centre seats, the closest I've ever been at Massey Hall;
• The openers were Liam Finn and Eliza Jane and they blew me away;
• There was almost a fight between concert-goers in the same row as us. So uncivilized and yet so entertaining;
• Every note of every song just fills up every nook and cranny in that entire venue;
• Jeff Tweedy's vocals -- they're always so warm and close, even in a live show

A quick Youtube search resulted in a pile of videos taken from the show that I just must share

Here's how they opened the show. Yup, with the music from The Price Is Right. Excellent.

Here's Feist who showed up to do the duet on "You and I."

For "Jesus, Etc" they performed it as a full singalong. It was so sweet

The next night they did "California Stars" with Neil Finn. 100% bummed I missed a performance of one of my favourite songs ever.

For all you guitar nerds, here's the insane Nels Cline guitar solo in "Impossible Germany."

"You Are My Face"

"Casino Queen" as their encore.

Brilliant job on "Handshake Drugs."

In addition to a great show, they also had great merch. While, of course, I picked up a great tee for myself I also picked up this killer onesie for our huge Wilco fan pals who just happen to have a baby due this Christmas. For those unfamiliar with the new Wilco record, the line in the single is "Wilco loves you baby" hence the reason why this onesie kicks merch ass.

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for October 15th

CKLU 96.7FM

* denotes Canadian talent
italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTY GOODNESS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!

Tonight we played some highlights of the Oct.13th Wilco show at Massey Hall. Or at least, the highlights for me....

• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- Right Out of Your Hand -- Nocturama
• Rufus Wainwright -- Natasha -- Want One *
• Wilco -- You Never Know -- Wilco (the album)
• Yeasayer -- Tightrope -- Dark Was The Night
• Phoenix -- Lisztomania -- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• The Barmitzvah Brothers -- We Didn't Clap When This Man Played (and neither did that lady) -- Mr. Bones' Walk-in Closet *
• Vic Chestnutt -- Gravity of the Situation -- Is the Actor Happy?
• The Raveonettes -- Love Can Destroy Everything -- Chain Gang of Love
• The UnSettlers -- No No No Yes -- (weewerk) is 6! *
• Gomez -- Catch Me Up -- Split the Difference
• Wilco -- Jesus, Etc -- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
• Stars -- The First Five Times -- Set Yourself on Fire *
• The Premiums -- Modern Love -- Recognizer *
• Said the Whale -- A Cold Night Close to the End -- Islands Disappear *
• Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson -- I Am the Cosmos -- Break Up
• Hayden -- Roll Down that Wave -- Elk Lake Serenade *
• The Supersuckers & Amy Nelson -- The Least I Could Do -- Down to the Promised Land: 5 Years of Bloodshot Records
• The Balconies -- Smells Like Secrets -- The Balconies *
• Phantom Planet -- Making A Killing -- Phantom Planet
• The Heavy Blinkers -- In the Morning -- The Night & I Are Still So Young *
• Josh Rouse -- 1972 -- 1972
• Wilco -- A Shot in the Arm -- Summerteeth
• Cuff the Duke -- Another Day in Purgatory -- Way Down Here *
• Tracy Thorn & Jens Lekman -- Yeah! Oh, Yeah! -- Score: 20 Years of Merge Records
• The Swallows -- Not To Be In Love -- The Beauty of our Surroundings
• The High Dials -- Silas, Please Come Home -- A New Devotion *
• Andrew Vincent & The Pirates -- Martha -- I Love the Modern Way
• Constantines - National Hum -- Shine A Light *
• Amy Millan -- Run For Me -- Masters of the Burial *
• Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter -- Lonely Still -- Treats

Notes this week:

• Why is it that everytime I hear "Natasha" I get all swoony?
• When Wilco played "You Never Know" live they were joined onstage by Liam Finn -- so lovely!
• That Raveonettes song? How can you not sing along to every harmony?
• I say YES to the UnSettlers!!!
• When Wilco played "Jesus, Etc" they did it as a whole auditorium singalong from the edge of the stage. Sweetness!
• Said the Whale: this record is winning top spot for me lately...
• Dear Pete & Scarlett: Nice job on the Big Star....
• Speaking of Phantom Planet -- are you watching Jason Schwartzman's new show on HBO? So funny!
• Kudos to Cuff the Duke on a stellar new record -- way to pick it up!!
• Tracy and Jen's cover of the Magnetic Fields "Yeah! Oh,yeah!" is beyond wonderful. What's with all the great covers of M.F's stuff?
• "National Hum" might be one of the greatest album lead-off tracks ever
  

weekend round-up

Well this weekend was Thanksgiving for all us Canucks so really, the long weekend really feels like it was rolled up into one giant ball. There's no need to divide it up into days so in the spirit of Thanksgiving gluttony, here's what we did in one big giant ball.

We ate, ate, and ate some more, saw tons of family both new and old, we made pumpkin pie from scratch complete with tiny individual pastry maple leaves, made this chocolate almond silk pie, took 4 very long and very hot showers, took some great naps, took a beautiful 2 hour hike in the bush with Marc and Sadie in the middle of all the beautiful fall colours, dug out Bottle Rocket for a rainy morning viewing, drank buckets of great coffee and another lovely glass of brandy, and basically lolled around relishing in how full I was.

God love the Thanksgiving long weekend!!

welcome home

Yes please!!

*Follow the Lea Doormat*

ginger button sweater

If this isn't just the most perfect fall cardigan for leafy walks in the bush well then I just don't know what is.

*via Modcloth - rapidly becoming my most favourite website to visit daily*

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for October 8th

CKLU 96.7FM

6-8pm

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTY GOODNESS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!

• The Gruesomes -- Thanks for Nothing -- Hey! *
• The Jam -- Mr. Clean -- All Mod Cons
• Johnny Thunders -- So Alone -- So Alone
• Two Hours Traffic -- Weightless One -- Territory *
• Dan Auerbach -- I Want Some More -- Keep It Hid
• The Hidden Cameras -- Kingdom Come -- Origin: Orphan *
• Justin Vernon & Aaron Dessner -- Big Red Machine -- Dark Was The Night
• The Paper Cranes -- Chivalry's Dead -- Chivalry's Dead *
• Monsters of Folk -- Say Please -- Monsters of Folk
• Amelia Curran -- Tiny Glass Houses -- Hunter, Hunter *
• Neko Case -- Bowling Green -- The Virginian
• Said The Whale -- Out on the Shield -- Islands Disappear *
• Littlejoy -- Don't Watch Me Dancing -- Littlejoy
• Dead Man's Bones -- My Baby -- Dead Man's Bones
• Thao -- Swimming Pools -- Paste Music Sampler 40
• The Wooden Sky -- Oh My God (It Still Means a Lot to Me) -- If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone *
• Cuff the Duke -- It's All A Blur -- Way Down Here *
• Shotgun Jimmie -- Waist Deep in the Water -- Still Jimmie *
• Florence & the Machine -- Kiss With A Fist -- Lungs
• You Say Party! We Say Die! -- Dark Days -- You Say Party! We Say Die! *
• Zeus -- I Know -- Sounds Like Zeus *
• John Doe & The Sadies -- Are The Good Times Really Over For Good -- Country Club
• Young Galaxy -- Oh Sister -- Invisible Republic *
• Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson -- I Don't Know What To Do -- Break Up
• Amy Millan -- I Will Follow You Into the Dark -- Masters of the Burial *
• Wilco -- You and I -- Wilco (the album)
• The Danks -- What We're Doing -- Are You Afraid of the Danks? *
• Black Lips -- Bad Kids -- (500) Days of Summer OSR
• The Antlers -- Wake -- Hospice

Notes this week:

• Oh it's been too long since I've listened to this Dan Auerbach record....
• I wonder what the Hidden Cameras listen to for fun? Perhaps themselves?
• Justin Vernon & Aaron Dessner should put out a record together - I need more than a couple songs!!!
• Oh yeah, the above boys otherwise known as Bon Iver and 1/2 of The National;
• Monsters of Folk is definitely going on my fave records of 2009 list, it may even be at the top;
• It's impossible for me to listen to Amelia Curran's voice without getting all tight in the throat. Man, that voice...
• I still love Neko's The Virginian just as much as all of her stuff;
• Said the Whale "This record's great!!!"
• They talk about Littlejoy in the movie Whip It;
• The fact that Ryan Gosling used a fun childrens choir all over his Dead Man's Bones record makes me love him even more. Well....love.....or maybe dirty filthy lust is a better qualifier for my feelings towards Ryan Gosling...
• I'm still mad I had to miss the Wooden Sky show. I like this record bunches and bunches!!
• Kudos to Pete and Scarlett for making a really decent record - is the starlet curse broken? Frankly I'm just happy Pete's doing anything really;
• I will follow you into the dark. Is there a greater declaration of love?
• Wilco!! Next week!!! 5th row!!!!

big band dress

Somebody get me some high-heeled maryjane's and point me in the direction of fleet week!

I love this dress!!!

the fantastic mr.fox

Oh man, I'm so excited for this movie!! Wes Anderson makes a killer foray into the world of animation with this flick and even in a short trailer is able to totally catch my undivided attention. This movie is stunning!! The cast is amazing (hello Jarvis Cocker -- yay!!!)!!! I want it to be playing right now. It looks like something right out of those 1950's "American Wildlife" textbooks. And shot on a Nikon D3 to boot!

statement necklace

It's all about the statement necklace this fall and these are some of my favourites lately. The ones making it hard not to hit the "add to cart" button



What's the Story necklace

Art Nouveau necklace

Golden Laurels necklace

Margherita of Savoy necklace

In Full Bloom necklace

Metalsmith necklace

Heirloom flora necklace
Galaxy ribbon and chain necklace

Antique gold manor necklace

Bubble necklace

dogs vs waterslide

So this people kept coming home to soaking wet patio furniture and thought the neighbourhood kids were waiting for them to leave and then using the pool. They grabbed a camera and here's what they discovered...

cat translation

Thanks to my friend Miss Gomm for showing me this and making me laugh right out loud.

whip it

Had a girly night out tonight with gal pal Liana and we went to see Whip It. While I enjoyed this movie, I suspect I enjoyed it more for the derby than the actual movie. The actual movie is pretty much your standard underdog sports story with a lead character that seemed written to be over-the-top awkward. I found myself waiting for the "story" parts of the movie to be over so they could get back to the roller derby parts. I also found myself re-doing the soundtrack for this movie in my head. While it was still better than most of the mainstream movies out there, you'd think a movie like this would just be aching for a killer soundtrack jammed with all the great chick anthems and it just wasn't. There was even a Radiohead ballad off of Pablo Honey for goodness' sake. Ahh well......not every soundtrack can be like (500) Days of Summer I guess. All in all still an enjoyable movie with a great performance by adorable Kristen Wiig and a terrifying performance by Juliette Lewis. Honestly, that girl looks like something out of your worst nightmare.

So, run of the mill story with great derby in between. And oh the derby........the derby is so good. In theory, if we had roller derby in my town I'd slap on some skates and some fishnets so fast it'd make your head spin. You could call me Patsy Crime.

office wedding

Obviously there are a ton of promos out there for the upcoming Jim and Pam wedding. After seeing this one though, it's official. I'm 100% going to cry during that episode. Jim's speech?? Killer adorable. And all the flashbacks in this promo -- Jim's face when he tells Pam he loves her and she turns him down?? My heart just curls right up and dies!!

Eeeep!! It's going to be so great!!

weekend round-up

The weekend you ask? Strange. Very, very strange.

Started innocently enough with a quiet Friday night at home with a movie and a fire. Watched Bobby finally as we somehow missed it completely the first time around. Great film, great cast -- learned a lot about something I really didn't know that much about. Even though Lindsay Lohan was in it.

Saturday met the Dogs=Awesome group for a dog play in the rain. God bless the one person who actually showed up ;). Ah well, gotta walk the dog anyway right? Ran some rainy errands and took a fruitful trip to the liquor store. I've decided I want to try drinking brandy so I wanted to chat with someone who actually knows something about good brandy. With all the fires we've been making at home, it just doesn't seem complete without a giant snifter of brandy. At least, that's what I'm thinking. It could go over like a lead balloon but we'll give it a try. Got home and made up a giant slow-cooker FULL of coconut chicken and vegetable curry. Honestly, I never love my slow cooker more than I do when it's cold out. As promised on Twitter, here's the recipe:

3 potatoes, chopped

some zucchini (but don't put in until about the last hour or else they will just disintegrate)

some tomatoes (optional, I opted IN!)

1 medium onion, sliced up

a good handful of carrots sliced

2 cloves of garlic minced

5-6 chicken breasts

Sauce:

1 14oz can coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

curry powder to personal taste - I ended up with about 3 tsps

cumin - about 1 tsp

garam masala - 1 tsp

tumeric - 1 tsp

paprika - like 1/2 tsp

Hot pepper sauce or red pepper flakes or an actual hot pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

For right at the end:

1 package frozen peas, thawed

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Place the potatoes, onion, and carrots in the bottom of the slow cooker and throw some olive oil in. Scatter the minced garlic over the carrots. The slow-cooker should be about half full.

Brown the chicken in some oil in a skillet and put aside.

Prepare the sauce by whisking the coconut milk, chicken broth, curry powder and hot sauce until smooth. Whisk in salt and pepper.

Put half the chicken on top of the veggies, pour half the sauce, put down the rest of the chicken and pour the rest of the sauce over top. Cook on high for about an hour then turn down to low and cook for another 4-5 hours. Don't touch it, don't take the lid off, don't stir it. In the last hour or so you can toss in the zucchini. In the last 30 mins, add the peas and in the 15 minutes add the yogurt. Serve it up on some yummy rice with naan bread.

Ended the night at the Townehouse and a great show by Zeus, one of our new fave bands over at Hot Bunny Radio. Great band, strange crowd...

Sunday began with another dog party before it started to pour rain. Then this is where it started getting strange. Driving home from the dog park, we pass by our neighbour's house and see his dog Rookie lying down in the grass in front. In the pouring rain. Strange right? Right. We turn around in the laneway and go back to confirm our fear -- the poor dog is, in fact, dead. We decide that we should ring the doorbell on the off chance our neighbour, an elderly man who lives with his ever more elderly mother, does not know poor Rookie's fate. When he answers the door sobbing uncontrollably we realize he does know. Mid-summer this neighbour lost his ancient family cat and then his OTHER old dog so losing Rookie just put him over the edge. So now, Marc and I are tearing up seeing his heartbreaking state. He says he's going to leave him there but we tell him no, we'll help him move him out of the rain and into the back of his truck so he can take him to be cremated at the vet in the morning. Rookie was actually 3/4 wolf so he was huge. Huge and beautiful. Imagine a cream coloured huskie the size of a Great Dane, very solitary and very wolf-like. The kind of dog that, if you met him at night, you'd be wary but in reality he didn't have a mean bone in his body. We roll him onto a plank of wood, our neighbour crying the whole time and stroking the dog's face. We get him into the back of the truck and our poor neighbour proceeds to fall apart, weeping over his poor dog who, we guess, must have had a heart attack on the lawn. It was just heartbreaking. Now there's 3 of us crying in the pouring rain over this poor dog. I can't imagine how lonely he feels now, losing all of his pets and only having his 95 year old mother to keep him company. Ugh.....it was just the worst and I couldn't shake the feeling all afternoon. Strangely, moving his body into the truck was the first time I ever actually got to touch Rookie because he was so solitary. Poor guy,,,

Thankfully we had a lovely dinner invite from some friends to help us shake off the sad turn of the afternoon. Last year Marc bought a bottle of Sagrantino and he and our restauranteur friend Mark (owner and sommelier at Ristorante Verdicchios) have been planning to drink it together forever. Well we finally got our schedules linked and we got together for an amazing dinner with Mark and his wife Laura and their gorgeous son Alessandro and some wild boar stew that Marc had marinating in a full bottle of red wine since Saturday morning. It. Was. Insanity in a bowl served over polenta. Delicious. Marc and Mark took it upon themselves to rev up their Sunday night and I ended up putting us in a cab, taking us home, and tending to an essentially passed out Marc. Basically he was where I was last weekend. And Marc is SO rarely like this that it was a great source of amusement for me. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

See what I mean? Strange, strange weekend for me on all fronts....

sesame street meets mad men

Man, Sesame Street is awesome. Is it wrong for a grown woman to watch it?