I like this quotation on their site:
“Food is family, family is life, life is everything.” George Calombaris

LittleNest.Ca

Tea and bread and polenta (YUM!) with goats cheese and mushrooms and spinach and poached eggs oh my! You can see the little bowls of homemade jam in the back – they were so good! I spread the goat cheese on my bread with some fig jam and it was heavenly :)

TP… for totally posh. hehehe

That same evening, I ended up in Richmond in some empty warehouse behind Ikea… to eat Japanese food! Let’s just say you don’t go there for the ambience! lol.

It’s basically three of these trailers parked next to each other. They sell ramen, cones, giant takoyaki and each trailer has a specialty kitchen. (Sean approves!)

At the ramen place you choose your soup base, and then three other items (it also comes with seaweed, green onions, cabbage, and bean sprouts).

It’s not especially cheap (about $8 per bowl) but there’s something novel about ordering your dinner from a truck… lol.

Speaking of Japanese food, I’m off to have some for dinner now!

Sayōnara! :D

The Vancouver Rainy Day edition features a felt cloud and rain drop on Bitty Boog’s back. As those who live in Vancouver know, it rains a lot and this is Boog’s favoured outfit for our city.

Available here: smeeta’s Etsy shop

I got busy today and prepped my little signs for my table. I got the frames from Ikea… I think they were only $3 or so for a 3 pack. C’est mignon, oui?

Baked a large batch of lemon sour cream cupcakes (to be frosted). This is a fantabulous recipe which I found here at All Recipes. I don’t generally make the frosting like they say, instead I just do a simple glaze of icing sugar and lemon juice. Also I add about just under 1/4 cup lemon juice to the batter for a more lemony flava. The brown crispy parts are the best while the insides stay nice and moist. They might not be much to look at, but they are SO good. I bring them to work and they get totally devoured every time!

Finished up a couple of bags today too…

The lining is such a cute little pattern with bumblebees, clovers, and strawberries! I got this fabric during my trip to Japan last year… personally imported! lol ;)

I think I’m going to pass out now… have been up since 6:30am and now it’s 2:30am. AI YAH! There’s just not enough time in the day. :P

And so, here we have the food pr0ns:

We started off with made-in-house bread and butta. mm.

then we chose the sweet onion soup – it was delish… and very light. I assume it had been whisked or something like that. I dunno, I can’t cook. :)

And for our second starter we got smoked salmon tempura on a bed of something. hahaa. so descriptive. anyhow, it was very tasty. can’t go wrong with smoked salmon or deep fried!

this wasn’t part of the Dine-Out menu, but since they were on special, we had to get some. And dizzam, are we ever glad we did! Each oyster is different… the one that stood out the most was the small looking one on the right called “kuushi”. They were $3.75 each.

Tagliatelle with truffle sauce and local mushrooms. Oh. so. good! The noodles were perfectly cooked and kind of light in texture… like an egg noodle crossed with ‘yee mein’ if you know what that is. :)

Lamb shank – the meat fell off the bone. enough said.

I’m not a huge dessert person… and I found these ones not *fantastic*

this 1st one here is coconut genois (fancy word for sponge cake?) and pineapple.

And this one is grapefruit with basmati rice custard and raaspberry marshmallow ice cream.

and the verdict? Well, it looks like Sean seems to approve! :D Glad we tried it out at such a great deal and it was over-all very tasty. The atmosphere was nice too – classy yet unpretentious. If you get the chance you should definitely take advantage of the great menus being offered during Dine Out.

here’s the link to the West menu in case you’re interested: http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/dining/dineout.details.php?id=988

HAPPY EATING!

illustration by The Beautiful Project

Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair is kicking off the 4th annual Spring show with 55 local, handmade vendors and a DIY table hosted by Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge to make your own crafts.

Got Craft?
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
10:00am to 5:00pm
Royal Canadian Legion – 2205 Commercial Drive (at E. 6th Ave)
Admission $2.00 (kids 10 and under are free)

Did I mention there will be swag bags? The first 30 people through the door will receive a handmade tote bag filled with goodies from all of our vendors! Here are some sneak peeks from hudsonny, Owl + Pussycat, telly designs, kove handmade and Bliss in a teacup.

** Also, there’s a FANTABULOUS prize of a YUDU screen-printer package to be won! All you have to do is take photos of the Got Craft posters around the city and post them to the Got Craft Flickr group for a chance to win. Check out this link for more info:  http://blog.gotcraft.com/2010/04/contest-win-yudu.php

Here’s one of mine featuring Boog the Bad Ninja!

Hope to see you soon! :)

Be back soon… whatever “soon” means. :)

But at least I can use this time at home to blog! Lol. My dad went out to dimsum and I turned down going with him because I didn’t think I would have fun swallowing my food. :( Wah. They’re bringing back some congee for me though… hurrah I guess!

Anyhoo, a bunch of us from the Vancouver Indie Crafters group met up on the weekend for coffee and cake, a post-Christmas gift exchange and lots of chatter. It was a great turn out and I’m so glad to have met up with all the new faces and the already familiar ones.

Here’s a quick lil peek at the craftiness of everyone who attended (sorry if I missed anyone!)

Amanda from ebb and flo. I was the lucky recipient of Amanda’s gift in the exchange (second year in a row now! ;) ) and I received a beaatifully made silver crochet bracelet with pearls and sky blue accents! Lovely! :)

.

Kris from A Cagey Bee.

Sandy of Firefly Notes

Angie of Jewelled Peach Designs

Leanne of t0fugurl

Jennifer of Jennifer Conway

Alexis of Phiber Smith Designs

Heather of Left Winged Mama (Jen, I borrowed the pic from your blog -  I hope you don’t mind!)

Lynn of By Lynn Krestel

Jayme of Trashbaggs (this is Lynns’ daughter – I love to see that creativity runs in the family!)

Marlene of Quotes and Notes

Melanie of A Farmers Daughter

And I *think* that’s it… I’m so sorry if I missed someone!
It was a nice time to just chat and share our crafty resources and just to get out with a lovely bunch of ladies and relax. If you’re in the Vancouver area and want to join us next time just give me a shout and I’ll let you know when it’s happening.

Cheerio!
Rita

Kelly loves the holidays because: I love presents, both giving and receiving! Holidays always cheer me up, love the festive decorations!!

Ryan loves the holidays because: I love sucking on candy canes until they are dangerously sharp. Oh, and family. Not to mention meditating on the best Gift of all… the reason for Easter.

And I love the holidays because: There are so many reasons! I love that we get to celebrate the faith, hope, and joy symbolized by the birth of Christ. I love the effort that people make to reunite with family and loved ones to enjoy the holidays together. I love the excitement in the air as people bustle around the city shopping and spending time with friends sipping on warm drinks between toasty mittened hands. And of course, the FOOD. mmm…. fooooooooooodddd….So, in short, everything you all like too. :)

Thanks again for participating! I will be contacting the winners via email to send them their prizes.

Keep in touch to hear about other random things and giveaways. ;)

xoxo,

Ritasmeeta

psst. here’s a random and completely silly video from last Christmas…

I love the holidays and I’d like to share some holiday-cheer with you.  I will draw TWO names on Thursday, December 3rd  at 9pm PST for Mr. Jerry brooches. International participants welcome!

Leave a comment with the following for a chance to win (each is worth one entry and you can do all of them if you want)
1: Tell me why or what you love about the holidays
2: Blog about the upcoming Got Craft Fair or Lilli’Q fair (see below) and include the link to your blog in your comment
3: Link your favourite handmade holiday item  (e.g. stockings, ornaments, cards etc)

If you’re in the Vancouver area, don’t forget to come out to the Got Craft show on December 6th! I’ll be there with bells on. Well, maybe not bells, but I’ll be all cheery and stuff.

Also, I’ll be participating in Lilli’Q Cafe’s first Christmas event! Lilli’Q is a family friendly space that features a children’s play area, lots of comfy couches, a stroller parking area inside, as well as a space on the 2nd floor for activities such as mom and tot classes. Come on down! :)

Cheers and good luck!