Counting down to Montreal, Osheaga and maybe a Fab Gabs win?

Handed in one of the last drafts of my thesis on Monday. I am now ignoring all emails, especially ones from my reader. (insert smiley emoticon here)

I am now going to celebrate by gettin' the hell out of dodge, and packing my bags for Montreal! I get on a bus far too early Friday morning and hit the city around noon. I've got my list of restaurants and vintage shops ready to go, went to Bulk Barn this morning for snack and am doing some last minute laundry later today (Thursday). I'm hoping to clean my place up a bit before I go, give the dust a chance to settle while I'm gone!

I have, miraculously, managed to cook a bit in the last little while, inbetween thesising. One of my favorites is a recipe that my mom has made for years in the summer heat. Needs very little cooking and is mostly raw cold veggies, so perfect for this "feels like 40 degrees" crap that we've got going on in Toronto now. I'm sure there is actually a recipe for this at my parents place, I have the tendency to make it up according to what vegetables I have at the time.

Pasta Veggie Salad
(Makes a hell of a lot)

1 to 1 1/2 cups of lightly blanched broccoli florets
2-3 green onions, chopped
1 -2 roma tomatoes (depends how many you like)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
2-3 tablespoons of pesto
450g of rotini (aka half a bag of it when it was dry, whatever that works out to when it's cooked)

-Boil salted water to a rapid boil and lightly blanch the broccoli florets. Remove from water with slotted spoon and either rinse with cold water or place in a bowl surrounded by ice cubes. You may need to drain the florets again after five, ten minutes to get rid of any excess water that drains off of the broccoli.
-Cook pasta until al dente in same water as broccoli. Drain, rinse in cold water and place in bowl (or in a large tupperware, which is probably a better idea since this is going in the fridge anyway and will take days to eat, unless you're having a party of four to five people).
-Chop you veggies, mix with pasta and mix in the pesto.
-Refrigerate for a bit and enjoy!

I also threw a few a hotdogs in the pasta water to make a dinner version. I love hotdogs. I am not ashamed of that sentence.


Two random things: Friday was the going away party for one of my American friends and classmates since classes have ended and thesising are more or less done. This is a blurry picture of two of my other classmates, and Tipsy the Moose, the mascot of the evening. May she travel well into America.

Second side note: Fab Gabs of Etsy fame now has their own website! And they're doing a contest for a gift certificate! Fuck to the yeah! 

C'mooooonn, Mama needs some more vintage!

They're are also taunting me with a 30% off sale on a lot of the stuff in the Etsy shop. I missed a dress I would have gotten cheap, but there is still a beautiful 50s bed jacket that is now quite reasonable with shipping.... God I need a job.