• The Perfect Omelette
    Recipes

    The Perfect Omelette

    Okay, the title is hyperbole – it’s a big claim to say that you can tell someone how to make the perfect omelette, and I’m still learning.  I suspect that it’s one of those things that you can work your whole life to perfect.  But this is as close to perfection as I’ve gotten it, and since I’ve reached new-to-me heights of omelette perfection, I thought I’d share. My go-to version is a fried onion and cheddar cheese omelette, but you can do any kind of fillings you like; the varieties are endless, and it’s very much about personal taste.  This one is my staple because I always have cooking…

  • NXNE Presents a sausage fest - Electric City Magazine
    Articles

    NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FEST

    From a piece I wrote for Electric City Magazine: “The Canadian music industry is a diverse, varied place, but you wouldn’t know it from the endless parade of white guys with guitars wanking across the festival stages and conference panels of the nation. Over the past month, NXNE have been releasing the lineup for their Portlands festival, and the list, while appearing more racially diverse with the most recent release, is still very dude-heavy. With three women-fronted bands and one genderqueer artist out of 16 total acts released so far, I have to ask: where the fuck are the women, NorthBy?”   Read the rest at Electric City Magazine.

  • 2014 - A new day!
    Articles,  Year-End Thoughts

    Not too shabby, 2014!

    Not a bad year, not an amazing year.  A good, solid year without major setbacks,  2014 has been pretty good to me.   The biggest achievement of my year, without a doubt, was achieving my long-held goal of paying off my student loans.  It happened in October.  After a decade of confusion, ((To this day, I’m not quite certain what my total amount loaned was – the system changed several times during my undergrad, leading to Federal and Provincial  loans all over the place.)) getting the run-around from various banks and student loan services, and low-paying contract work in Peterborough, I finally had the kind of dependable income that allowed me…

  • Canning and Preserving,  Recipes

    Spiced Pickled Beets

    There’s a restaurant in Peterborough called St. Veronus, where I was first introduced to the deliciousness of the spiced pickled beets.  Beets on their own, boiled and served with butter, are terrific, and pickled beets are fine, but spiced pickled beets are something else altogether.  My sister Sammi found this recipe a few years ago, and while it’s not exactly the same as the beets they serve at St. Veronus, I might believe that these beets are better. I think I’ve said before that I’m not a proponent of specialty gadgets and tools for cooking, but some things I do endorse.  A kitchen scale is excellent, and if you’re canning,…

  • Articles

    Lift up your heart and let out your voice: Peterborough Needs PCVS

    When I started high school in 1991, I was nervous and excited, like a lot of kids going into Grade 9.  Coming from a very small rural elementary school at the edge of the village of Keene, walking through the doors of this 160-year-old urban high school was like a dream.  One of 50 students accepted into the Integrated Arts Program that year, I knew only two other people at PCVS, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. Elementary school had been, for me, completely brutal.  Our family moved to the village when I was in kindergarten, and in a place where many families could trace their roots back…

  • Articles,  Year-End Thoughts

    Beauty On, 2012

    It’s become a tradition of sorts for me to write something here on December 31, a sort of summing-up and looking forward I would have scoffed at myself for doing a few years ago. But, as arbitrary as it is to do this on a particular date, it feels useful for me to say to myself ‘this is what I’ve accomplished, and this is what I hope to do now.’ This has easily been one of the busiest years of my life, and I’m thankful to have come through it with relative equanimity. A busy year at the museum meant that I’ve run more discrete events this year than I’ve…