Hello and welcome to the weekend! It’s a long one here with the Easter holiday. Lots of family time and chocolate is in store for us. It’s slowly getting back to double digit temperatures here. I planted some more hellebores and pansies, and they were looking a little shocked after a couple nights in the minus column. It’s still too cold to fully get out there and start Spring cleanup jobs, so I might tackle the organization of the main garden shed this weekend. Some critters got in there over the winter and had a bit of party with my paper yard waste bags and a few other things.

We also really need to clean up the BBQ and rehab the griddle of our Blackstone, so maybe we can get to that too. Hopefully all these warm weather jobs send a signal for some actual sunshine haha. 

After a bunch of requests, I shared my favourite prep-ahead salad these days to the blog this week. Linking it here in case you missed it. So much more veg-heavy recipes coming your way. Have a good one!

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. How to Have a Healthier Relationship With Your Phone
2. One big problem with how we rank countries by happiness
3. No, You Don’t Need to ‘Decant’ Your Groceries
4. How The Beauty Industry Is Embracing Pro-Aging As The New Anti-Aging
5. Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. Watching: 3 Body Problem
2. I really love Giada DeLaurentiis’s chill demeanor on Reels, like with this kale salad or her granola. I watched Everyday Italian a lot in my early twenties and still learn so much from her.
3. Garden inspo lately: @mariapaalmbacken, @gardenwithjonny & @englishcountrysides
4. Cowboy Carter obviously!!!
5. This meditation from Tara Brach

5 Questions:

1. Do you love your Boos cutting board and is it a lot of work to care for it?
   I love my Boos block and it’s so simple to look after! I use the Boos brand Mystery Oil and Board Cream to maintain. The Mystery Oil is for moisturizing the board and the Board Cream is to help repel moisture. I apply Mystery Oil once a week and Board Cream every 3 weeks or so. I usually try to apply both at night so that the product can sit overnight before I start chopping again.
2. I love your gardening updates. Do you plant much food or mostly “other” gardening?
   With this house, it’s been mostly flowers, containers, perennials and that sort of thing. At my old house, we did lots of vegetable gardening, but we haven’t carved out a space for it here yet. I’ve also learned that I enjoy the “other” type of gardening a lot more (likely my mom’s influence as she’s a pro with that stuff). We still plant herb pots and grow a bit of kale/lettuce, but that’s about it.
3. Favourite coffee? And coffee creamer?
   Could you please share the stevia that you like?
   Lots of questions about my morning coffee ritual! We usually buy our coffee locally from Black Sheep in Welland. The blonde roast has been our go-to lately. In my opinion, the best dairy-free coffee creamer (after seriously trying all of them) is Silk’s Half & Half. It’s rich, isn’t sweetened, doesn’t “chunk up” and it lightens coffee on the level of cream. You know how sometimes you can keep pouring non-dairy milk/creamer into a coffee and it just stays dark? Not with this one. And my fave stevia for coffee/hot drinks is the Vanilla Crème Sweet Drops by SweetLeaf.
4. Where do you source your photography backdrops?
   I have a few from Photo Surfaces by Madelene Farin that I use often as well as a marble surface from Crate & Barrel. I also have an excellent vintage wood bread board that I use in a lot of photos. Some of the vinyl backdrops that folks are making and selling on Etsy look so good. Like these? I’m tempted haha.
5. Best way to break a garlic bulb?
   I place the bulb on the cutting board with the top facing up. Then, using my palm I gently (but firmly!) press down on the top of the bulb and kind of rotate it. The individual cloves should fall away! Great YouTube here.