Do Not

Do not, wash your vintage purchases by hand. Just don't. The resulting water will ensue you never buy used goods ever again.

Lasagne with Chives and Eggs

I guess it's pretty evident I went grocery shopping today. For dinner I made lasagne, but not your plain old, church potluck lasagne, this one has Chinese chives, hard boiled eggs and mini veal meatballs. I found the recipe when I was on an Air Canada flight (never flying with them again, horrible serivice...), in thir En Route magazine, which is actually a pretty good publication. I added the chives to the recipe, not really enough for your daily serving of greens, but it's better than nothing.
MEATBALLS
10 oz ground veal
1 bunch chinese chives
2 eggs
1/4 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
SAUCE
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, germ removed, finely chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
16 cups puréed tomatoes, or Italian tomatoes diced and puréed in a blender salt and pepper (or finely chopped basil), to taste
OTHER INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan
6 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
12 oz firm mozzarella, grated
PREPARATION
1. In a saucepan, fry onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add tomato purée and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer gently.
2. Combine all the meatball ingredients. Form into balls the size of a small olive. (Elena makes this easier by rubbing her hands with olive oil beforehand.) Add meatballs to the sauce as you make them. Add salt. If you choose to replace the pepper with basil, add it after cooking. If not, add the pepper when you add salt. Let the sauce simmer very gently, covered, for 75 minutes. (Sauce and meatballs may be prepared two days in advance.)
3. Boil fresh noodles according to manufacturer’s instructions. If the noodles are homemade, cook for 20 seconds in boiling, salted water, not more than four at a time. When noodles are cooked, take them out and immerse them in a large bowl of ice water then pat dry on tea towels without letting them touch each other.
ASSEMBLING THE LASAGNE
1. Generously butter a 10 x 13–inch baking pan.
2. Pour in a little sauce, without meatballs, to cover the bottom.
3. Arrange noodles so that they overlap slightly. Spread one-sixth of the remaining sauce over them, distributing meatballs evenly.
4. Spread one-sixth of the chopped hard-boiled eggs, Parmesan and mozzarella over top.
5. Repeat until there are six layers of sauce and meatballs, eggs, Parmesan and mozzarella alternating with the noodles.
6. Finish with the tomato sauce, eggs, Parmesan and mozzarella.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling slightly. During cooking, use a fork to pull up the edges of the lasagne so sauce can rise to the surface. Make a few holes in the surface of the lasagne. Test doneness by sticking a knife into the lasagne. The blade should be very hot and the sauce should be bubbling up.

Bodacious cookies

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tried, chicken free. I've already had 6...
Don't be scared of the pecans, they are just there to add more of a mouth feel and nutty flavour, I chopped my really fine, almost powdered (better if you have a food processor, but I'm poor, so I spent 30 minutes chopping).

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
8 tablespoons/1 stick salted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups pecans, toasted and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 300F/150C.
Beat together sugars and butters until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.
Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.
I like it let it sit for an hour or so, just so the dough settles and the egg is absorbed. But, that step is up to you, depending on how in need of treats you are. Scoop onto oiled cookie pan Bake for 18 minutes.

Ps. This makes a lot of cookies, so you can half it if you're on a diet.

Rick Owens

Photo courtesy of Jakandjil.com.

Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the man you love and hold him tight
So happy together

Earth

My favourite element is earth. This is my design for the Montreal competition Telio, we were asked to submit sketches based on the four elements: earth, wind, water and fire.

On a separate note: I once made a vow to never eat low-fat yogurt, I mean, that stuff is just nasty, and besides, yogurt is not the thing that's making you fat. But, today at my grocery store, low-fat yogurt was on sale for 99c. Deal! So, I picked up a bucket of strawberry. When I came home and opened the lid, inside I found some liquid pink muck, not really the 4.5% Mediterranean stuff I was used to. I just have listened to my instinct. Don't buy low-fat yogurt.

Give in to your puritan impulse

Welcome to the Puritan Impulse.
I am a fashion design student at Ryerson University in Toronto. Follow me through the wonderful life of unemployement, filled with endless nights in the studio, cheap food and unfinished ideas.