Saturday night sillies and lemon coconut meltaways

Fact: I have four new gray hairs I've accumulated from the stress of my past week.

Auditions are tough.  If you're a dancer, singer, actor or performer, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's one thing to pursue a career in the arts but it's another thing to actually be successful in it.  You learn a lot from it, nevertheless.  The audition process can either go in your favour (very rare) or you can be left with a big fat NO (99% of the time).  You really build a thick skin and you have to tell yourself that it's not that you're bad at what you do (though it really seems like that at the time), it's just the personal preference of who you're auditioning for.  You could be too tall or too short, too thick or too thin.  You could have blonde hair and blue eyes and they'll be looking for someone with darker features.  These are all things you can't change about yourself so the only thing you can say to maintain optimism is that this wasn't the place you were meant to be.  Wouldn't you want to be somewhere where you can be appreciated for who you are anyways?

I have two auditions coming up this week, one of which I am lucky enough to travel to Oslo, Norway for!  I'm very excited because in what seems like less than a year, I've gone from having not been on a plane since I was thirteen, to having been on and off a plane four times.  I love travelling to new places and I love getting a feel for culture that is unlike what I am used to.  I also love Europe and am particularly fond of the Scandinavian countries, having been to Denmark earlier this year.  Oslo is neck and neck with Tokyo to be the world's most expensive cities (danger!!!!) but thankfully I'm only there for two days.

Joining me on my adventure is this one:

DAWGGG

Isabelle will be coming from Amsterdam and meeting me on Oslo.  We'll be going back to Toronto the same day but because I booked my flight after her, I wasn't able to get the same ticket as her without passing up on an extraordinary deal.  But fate is a funny thing.  My flight home leaves at 6:35 am (kill me now) and I have a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam (hey, at least it was cheap).  Isabelle leaves Oslo at 9:35 am and she has a layover in Amsterdam as well. It didn't even occur to me until yesterday as I was in line waiting to buy a lemon at Superfresh that there was a reason why I had to wait in the Amsterdam airport for 5 hours.  Lo and behold, we're flying on the same flight back to Toronto from Amsterdam and I could not be happier!  

So last night as we were booking a hostel in Oslo, we got distracted and made a delicious recipe I found on Pinterest for LEMON COCONUT MELTAWAYS from Addicted to Veggies. 

Here is some documentation of our baking:

This looked like we were cooking crystal meth.  Don't be alarmed. It's just sea salt.

The fact that there is an alligator sticker on this lemon makes me 99% suspicious.

Fun, fun and even more fun

Voila!

I must say, this was probably the most satisfying dessert I've had in a while.  Baking at the lowest temperature with the oven open a crack really does give it the crispy outer layer but instantaneous, melt-in-your-mouth bite.  We virtually ate the whole bowl that night.  Definitely will be repeating this recipe!  

And finally, a little film of the process and of us, just being goofballs.

Naturally, I put the alligator lemon sticker on my forehead. 

Pleasantly yours,

Bart

Ode to Oatmeal

I was lucky enough to have had this past week off and the first thing I bought was a big old bag of Bob's Red Mill oats.  I was inspired by all of these fancy bowls that I've been seeing on basically every single blog.  It made oatmeal into more than just breakfast.  It was art.  

My first attempt was pretty sloppy.  I learned that as delicious as cinnamon is, it's not very photogenic.  So I had to flip the banana slices over one by one to save the picture.  I take my oatmeal very seriously.                

  

oatmeal with vanilla, plain yogurt, almond butter, 

raspberries, banana, blueberries, walnuts,

coconut and cinnamon

I posted that picture on Instagram and I was embarrassed at how messy it looked but also kind of proud because I went to a lot of work, not just for the photo but for the meal too.  The picture got a whopping 122 likes.  Not even my adorable niece can get that many likes on Instagram.  Shamefully, I'll admit that this superficially motivated me to make more oatmeal throughout the week.  My next mission was the infamous carrot cake oatmeal.

 

oatmeal with shredded carrots, cinnamon, ginger, 

cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, raisins, muesli, blueberries, 

almond butter and coconut

WOW!  It was probably the best oatmeal I had ever had.  To be fair, I've never really gone this fancy with my oats, but still.  I would make carrot cake oatmeal more often if it weren't for the fact that shredding carrots hurts my hand and sometimes extra labour frustrates me.  I'm a lazy chef, what can I say?

oatmeal with banana, almond butter, dates, 

lucuma powder, cacao nibs and coconut

After this bowl, I discovered how tasty dates can be in the mix.  This was also my first time trying lucuma powder but I didn't really taste it much so for my next bowl I was a little more generous.

But oh no!  I ran out of oats!  Thankfully I had a questionably old box of steel cut oats in my cupboard!  I'm still alive so I guess they were okay after all.  Worth it.  This bowl was delicious.

steel cut oatmeal with vanilla, carob powder, lucuma powder, 

cinnamon, cacao nibs, dark chocolate squares, 

almond butter, muesli, raisins, dates and coconut

My mom always tells me that Dr. Oz says that a bowl of oatmeal in the morning makes you happier.  If I had a penny for every time she told me nutritional advice from Dr. Oz, I'd be much richer and shopping at Whole Foods on a daily occasion.  That being said, I agree with her on this one.  Oatmeal is fabulous.

Pleasantly yours,

Bart