F-Arty Friday: Ed Burtynsky, Fellow Canadian and Fabulous photographer

Edward Burtynsky’s work is inspired by global industrial landscapes. Through his lens, the scars people leave on this planet somehow look beautiful.













Nickel tailings in Sudbury, Ontario.

Burtynsky’s website notes that “he links his early exposure to the sites and images of the General Motors plant in his hometown to the development of his photographic work. His imagery explores the intricate link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places.”

I’ve been a Burtynsky fan for years. I love the fact that his images not only astound me with their beauty, but inform me about the world. Through his art, I’ve learned about the politics behind the displacement of a million people during the flooding of the Yangtze river in China to create Three Gorges Dam.















I also learned about the dangerous work of the poorly paid workers in Bangladesh, who turn decommissioned oil tankers into scrap metal.














To me, the best art makes learning not only painless but fun.

Visit Burtynsky’s website to see what I mean. Better yet, rent Manufactured Landscapes, a fascinating documentary that follows the artist to China, where he studies the people, the factories and the stories behind Shanghai’s urban renewal.

*All photos from www.edwardburtynsky.com

Bite This! Sandy serves up a big slice of cake

While Yvonne is away, working on a film in the Great White North, Sandy has been cooking up a storm in her new kitchen and this weekend, she wiped up a meal fit for a king. But since there's no royalty lurking in her neighbourhood, she served up this meal to her guy and my lucky husband. The crowning glory on the menu, was our favorite Barefoot Contessa's scrumptious coconut cake. A cake that my husband described in a text as "bloody lovely".

Was I jealous, picking up this text, in the middle of an icy cold day on set? You better believe it! With frost bitten fingers, I banged out a quick text to Sandy, demanding a cake of my own, when I get back to Toronto!










If any of you want to impress your friends (and their family), here is the recipe:

Ingredients
• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

For the frosting:
• 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, then line them parchment paper. Grease them again and dust lightly with flour.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light yellow and fluffy. Crack the eggs into a small bowl. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl once during mixing. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. The mixture might look curdled; don't be concerned.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the 4 ounces of coconut with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and smooth the top with a knife. Bake in the center of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until the tops are browned and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack for 30 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extract on low speed. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until just smooth (don't whip!).

To assemble, place 1 layer on a flat serving plate, top side down, and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides. To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top with coconut and lightly press more coconut onto the sides. Serve at room temperature.

Bite This! Get Smashed

The most delicious way to prepare potatoes!! This works well with small new potatoes or fingerlings. If you are using bigger potatoes, make sure they are a variety that are good for roasting and cut in half (or thirds if the spuds are really big).

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees.

Chop a variety of fresh or dried herbs to taste (we like thyme and rosemary), and place in a small bowl. Add a generous tsp. of chopped garlic, fresh ground pepper, and about ½ tsp. smoked paprika (optional, but highly recommended). Mix ingredients together with a fork.

Scrub potatoes (leave skins on) and place in a pot of cold water with a generous pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes, until potatoes are par-cooked. Test by piercing a potato with a knife. It should go in with a little resistance (as opposed to just sliding in easily the way it would when the potatoes are fully cooked).

While potatoes are cooking, place a large cookie sheet with a good lip, in the oven to warm up.

Drain par-boiled potatoes well.

Remove hot cookie sheet (with an oven mitt!) and place several tablespoons of olive oil on the hot cookie sheet to coat.

Place thoroughly drained potatoes on the cookie sheet and using the bottom of a bottle, or a meat tenderizer, push down on each potato until they are just lightly smashed open. Pour another few tbsp. of olive oil over the smashed potatoes, sprinkle with the herb/garlic mixture and a little more sea salt, and bake in the oven until cooked, about 25 minutes.

Turn them throughout the cooking time, to allow all sides to brown evenly.

Remove potatoes from the oven and prepare yourself for the onslaught of compliments. Crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Mmm…Need we say more?

F-Arty Friday – Art and Love and Destiny with Christo and Jeanne-Claude

If you’ve ever wondered about fate, consider that artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born at the same hour on June 13, 1935, in different countries. They met twenty-three years later, when Christo was commissioned to do a portrait of Jeanne-Claude’s mother and the rest, as they say, is history.

The two artists lived together and worked jointly on many art projects until Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009. Their work challenges what many of us think of when we hear the word “art.” If that word conjures up images of old oil paintings hanging on stark gallery walls, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work will make you think again.

How about wrapping up a famous building in 100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of fabric?










Or how about decorating two valleys (one in California, and one in Ibaraki, Japan), with over 3,000 umbrellas, and getting almost 2,000 people to open them all at sunrise on the same day?


Or adorning New York’s Central park with 7,503 saffron fabric panels, mounted on saffron colored poles, to represent the gates for the park that were planned, but never installed?

This is art you can experience, on a large scale—for free!

According to the artists’ website:

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's works are entire environments, whether they are urban or rural. The artists temporarily use one part of the environment. In doing so, we see and perceive the whole environment with new eyes and a new consciousness. The effect is astounding. To be in the presence of one of these artworks is to have your reality rocked. You see things you have never seen before. You also get to see the fabric manifest things that cannot usually be seen, like the wind blowing, or the sun reflecting in ways it had not before.
The effect lasts longer than the actual work of art. Years after every physical trace has been removed and the materials recycled, original visitors can still see and feel them in their minds when they return to the sites of the artworks.

There is no other way to describe that the feeling of that effect other than to say it is magical.

Each projects took years to come to fruition, because of permits and environmental impact studies. In fact, it took 24 years to get the permit for the Wrapped Reichstag!

The artists paid for their projects with their own money (earned from selling Christo’s work to collectors, dealers, museums and galleries), because they wanted total freedom over their ideas, devoid of any input or restrictions from others.

Today, Christo continues to work on a project the couple planned together, called Over The River. ) If he secures permits, he plans to suspend 5.9 miles of fabric panels high above a forty-two mile stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado. He hopes to exhibit Over The River for two weeks in August, 2014.

If you’re interested in learning more about this latest installation, or getting involved, visit http://www.christojeanneclaude.net.

***All photos from www.christojeanneclaude.net

Bite This! Two ways to get dressed without the help of a bottle

Salad dressing is one of the easiest things a person can make, and yet many of us don’t even think about making our own, and turn instead, to the vast array of bottled dressings available at the grocery stores. But these dressings, while tasty, often contain more preservatives than natural ingredients.

So the next time you’re looking for something yummy and healthy to coat your greens, why not make your own dressing? Both of these dressings are so easy and delicious, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with store bought!

BALSAMIC DRESSING:

Ingredients:
¼ cup good olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (fig balsamic is particularly nice)
2 tbsp sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 – 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
I tsp. mustard (we like a grainy Dijon)
¼ tsp. dried herbs, like thyme, oregano or basil - *optional

Whisk all ingredients together thoroughly and toss over greens to coat by tablespoon to coat. Makes enough for several salads.

Refrigerate what you don’t use in a covered container, like an old jam jar, for up to one week.


LEMON TAHINI DRESSING:

Ingredients:
2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
5 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 - 1/2 cup tahini
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Place all ingredients in a blender (or hand blend) and puree for 1 minute at high speed.

This dressing is amazing on salads, but also it makes a great topper for cooked veggies and you can even use this to coat chicken or fish before baking.

Keeps in the refrigerator for one week in a covered container.

Quiz Part 2 — What’s your LOVE, INC. specialty: Matchmaking, Mediation or Revenge?

In Love, Inc. Kali is the resident expert on matchmaking and relationship start-up. She’s a thrill-of-the-chase kind of girl, and the only thing she likes as much as flirting with a new guy, is setting someone else up. If you need help finding a good match, or attracting someone you already know, Kali's your girl.

Do you have what it takes to be a matchmaker?

a) Does it stress you out when the dryer eats one of your socks, destroying the pair?

b) Are you disgusted by people who fail to recognize flirting a valuable life skill?

c) Do you consider Valentine’s Day a national holiday and start planning for it in October?

d) Can you usually predict which of your friends’ relationships will last?

e) Do you want Cupid’s job?

Answer Key:

If you answered “yes” to three or more of the above, you’re a matcher in the making.

Matchmakers need to have a lot of confidence, even a hint of arrogance, to convince people they know what’s best in the romance department. Matchmakers get their buzz by taking two seemingly random pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and watching them click them together. Matchers believe a couple is greater than the sum of its parts. Making a match is magical—when it works. When it doesn’t, watch out. People take a bad set-up so personally!

Matchmaking used to be well-respected, and still is in some cultures, but many see it as meddling. It takes a string of bad relationships or a long stint withering in the desert of singledom to inspire an appreciation for a good matchmaker. Online dating is all well and good, but computer formulae can’t bring wisdom, knowledge, experience, and intuition into the equation.
Once you’re on top of your game, you’ll be everyone’s favorite bridesmaid. But in the early days, subtlety is a matchmaker’s best friend. Bring your unsuspecting victims together at an event, introduce them, and fade into the background. If it works out, you’ll get half the credit. If it doesn’t, you’ll get all of the blame. It’s all in a day’s work.

Speaking of work, your natural people skills, powers of perception, and endless optimism will serve you well in any career. You’ll shine in corporate headhunting or as the host of any reality show about dating.