Beef and Black Bean Enchilada Bake recipe - Canadian Living

Haven't tried it yet, but I intend to.  Looks delish!
Beef and Black Bean Enchilada Bake recipe - Canadian Living

One Man's Trash...

I'm struck by an article I found in Canadian Interiors Magazine.

Upon first read, I was impressed by the ingenuity and sheer strength of intent that InterfaceFLOR demonstrates in the pursuit of recycling post consumer waste or in their words "trash-industrial sludge" into a building material that is functional, aesthetically pleasing and best of all, eco-friendly.  My read on the article was initially purely from a designers perspective, and I gave kudos to any company who could recycle waste to make it useful.

As mentioned in my recent column in The Auroran, most of today's consumers are at least moderately concerned about knowingly adding to the problems facing our community landfills, and to that end are generally supportive of any efforts to recycle and reuse any material possible. 

To InterfaceFLOR's credit, they appear to be making every effort to meet their mission of reaching "a zero environmental footprint by 2020."  Moreover, they are "...a great example of how ingeniously this refuse can be reinvented into something highly functional, deceptively luxurious and beautiful..."

What I find interesting and perhaps ironic about all efforts made to recycle and reuse post consumer goods is that we find ourselves in 2012 trying to clean up the environmental mess we've created by processing and sanitizing our waste, making it somehow palatable to our sensitive constitutions while many countries (third world or otherwise) are reusing, let's just call it what it is, garbage in ways that most first world countries cannot even imagine.  Around the world and indeed right here in our own backyard, there are communities of people living in it, building their shacks with it, putting their underpaid children to work on piles of it and dare I say, eating it if necessary.

Consider for a moment the often controversial 'dumpster divers.'  According to reports, it's a growing trend in the United States and has for many become an acceptable and economically feasible way to procure food, whether for reasons of necessity or just because the habit of dumping perfectly good food is unreasonable.  By all accounts 'dumpster diving' points a decidedly judgemental finger at our propensity to waste what many find to be food suitable for consumption.  Can you imagine if an educated, gainfully employed but habitual dumpster diver born and raised in our society finds the food we waste palatable, the impact that same "waste" might have in affecting the lives of those in our world who are less fortunate?    

What particularly fascinates me is the wide range of acceptability within communities and across borders regarding product and food quality.  Perhaps if we North American's would widen our quality tolerance for the food, goods and services we purchase, we would find our landfills a little less crowded.

For me, and probably for the movers and shakers at InterfaceFLOR, the phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure" has never been so telling.

Cheers!

Janice
          

February is the month of LOVE

It’s February, a month that celebrates l’amour! And hand-in-hand with all that is L-O-V-E is the all important ingredient of creating a space that will help spice up your love life.

What do you think when you hear the word sexy? I think of Matthew McConaghy, Will Smith and my husband of course, not always in that order.

But how do you live sexy without packing your things and moving with your besties to New York City? You can start by looking closer to home and checking out the surroundings in your bedroom — the place where you begin and end your day.

‘Sexifying’ Your Bedroom

Who’s kidding who? If done right, the bedroom can be an intrinsically über-sexy space. It’s relaxing, quiet and secretive, a ‘close-the-door-on-the-rat-race-and-noise’ kind of space.

These days ‘sexy’ is an attitude: it’s confident, intelligent and single minded. Most of all, it’s not contrived. Living sexy is a headspace that can be directly affected by your private surroundings. Best of all, it’s guided by individual preferences and moods.

How, then, do you create mood and sexify your space?  Think about the essentials that unconsciously affect your senses: touch, sights, sounds and scents.

Touch

Make your private surroundings relaxing and luxurious with materials that feel good to touch. Smooth leather headboards, warm fur throw pillows, soft silks, and not just good — but great — sheets. Go for the Egyptian cotton, 300 thread count or better.

Sights

Create a clean, uncluttered space strictly for adults. Banish the kids’ stuff and family photos to other rooms. (Keep a few of only you and your beloved, of course.)

Sounds

Spin some sexy tunes, some cool R&B or slow and sultry jazz. (Coincidently, this also helps drown out the screaming children on the other side of the door.) Don’t worry about feeling like a geek. Consider a special iPod speaker system in your bedroom or piping music throughout the house.

Scents

Lighting candles might sound clichéd, but give it a go. Try scents that remind you of your private time: vanilla, lavender, and — dare I say — chocolate. (I’m not sure if there are chocolate scented candles out there, but if there aren’t, well, someone needs to get on that!)

Sexy Room Styles

Is there just one style of sexy room? No way!

Sexy rooms are as individual as the people who occupy them. Have a look in your wardrobe. What do you wear that makes you feel sexy? Let the things you love in your closet guide you in choosing your room style. In fact, sexy can be masculine or feminine; urban or rustic.

Masculine - Think warm grey flannel, leather throw pillows, pinstripe upholstered armchairs, black lacquered furniture, and a sleek and slim wall mounted T.V.

Feminine – Loosen up with a touch of lace, cashmere throw pillows, mirrored furniture, jeweled lampshades, soft white sheers and comfy chaise lounges. Use lots of throw pillows for ultimate comfort!

Urban – Try a smooth black leather bench at the foot of a clean-lined bed (forget the bed skirt), chairs with cool chrome arms, stiletto legged bedside tables, black and white photographs in black frames and lamps with sleek drum shades. Mixtures of dark woods with light fabrics or leather are very Urban sexy!

Rustic – Unwind in antiqued leather, overstuffed down filled armchairs, soft silk duvets, open hearth wood burning fireplaces, warm woolen blankets and sepia- tone photographs.

Most important of all, make sure your bedroom reflects your sexy self. Décor that mirrors your personality and makes your private space relaxing and serene makes it sexy!

Cheers!  Janice

"The customer is always right." 

I can't remember the last time I heard this phrase used with any sort of weight behind it.  In this day of globalization, multinationals and the Occupy Movement, I think it's difficult to say that we actually even believe the statement anymore.

Being an entrepreneur who must be constantly in touch with my customers, I would suggest that from a small business person's perspective, the customer may not always be right, but they should always feel as though they're right and at least should be satisfied.  A tall order, indeed.

Common knowledge tells us that with the quick dispersement of information across the internet, on Twitter or Facebook pages, it is increasingly difficult for anyone providing a service to control the perceptions of their abilities and quality.  In a few keystrokes, a company's name, reputation and cumulative years of experience can be quickly, unilaterally and annonomously sullied.  Is the concept of fairness, once a belief secured with a handshake, now a long-lost business principle of a bygone era?

This blog:  http://custservicestories.blogspot.com/  has started me thinking.  Some great insights into the importance of understanding the customer service experience.  I'm going to have to ponder this matter for a while.  Even if you're not in customer service, we're all service providers to someone, our shareholders, our bosses, our families.  Certainly we are all customers to some degree.  The question for me is, are we losing hold of the concept of 'do unto others?' 

Cheers!

Janice  

Yumma.  As you can tell, I am no vegetarian!  Check this out.
Steak with Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients

4 (about 4 ounces each) well-trimmed beef tenderloin steaks (filet mignon), 3/4 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
1/4 teaspoon(s) ground black pepper
1 teaspoon(s) olive oil
1 (1/4 cup) large shallot, minced
1 package(s) (10 ounces) sliced white mushrooms
1 package(s) (4 ounces) assorted sliced wild mushrooms
1/4 cup(s) port wine

Directions
1.Sprinkle steaks on both sides with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Heat nonstick 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Add steaks and cook 8 to 10 minutes for medium-rare or until desired doneness, turning steaks over once. Transfer steaks to platter; keep warm.

2.To drippings in skillet, add oil and shallot, and cook 1 minute, stirring often. Add mushrooms and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and cook until liquid evaporates and mushroom mixture is golden, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add port and 1/4 cup water; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Spoon mushroom sauce over steaks.

http://ca.delish.com/recipefinder/steak-mushroom-sauce-2665

One Decorator’s Nightmare.

It’s a Saturday morning ritual in our home to pour over the newspaper flyers that land on our doorstep.  Somehow each time I think I will miraculously find that one great home décor deal which will make the weekend tradition worthwhile, or at least worth the messy black smudges on my fingertips. 

For me, browsing the flyer pages gets the home improvement juices flowing.  The notion that absolutely everything that is ‘wrong’ in our house must be fixed immediately or better yet yesterday, is overwhelming.

I’m certain my husband spends many Saturday afternoons avoiding direct eye contact with me as I purposefully roam from room to room surveying the state of affairs that is our home.  Suddenly the draperies in the dining room look tired, the kitchen could use repainting, and if we’re going to repaint, what about replacing some furniture?

The thought process I go through amazes me still today.  Having been an Interior Decorator for some 16 years now, I still catch myself falling back into pre-decorator thinking.  The notion that “I’ll buy something inexpensive to fix the problem for now” still lingers even though I know better.  Perhaps we can blame television shows (on which I am guilty of appearing) and shelter magazines which make it look easy, attainable and instantaneous, with images of all the beautiful things in other people’s homes.  If only the looks were only cheaper… okay, free.  Free would be good.    

I whip myself into a home-decorating frenzy that is only placated on Monday morning when I’m thrust into the world to take on the renovating challenges in my client’s homes.  Truthfully, I’m not trying to keep up with the Joneses.  I’m just trying to keep up with me!

So, what’s a person to do with too many home renovation ‘wants’ and not the budget with which to tackle it all?   

Many homeowners struggle with the concept of “having it all, NOW.”  Not biting off more than we can chew seems to be lost on today’s consumer (I’m guilty as charged).  To conquer this, I approach my work - and encourage my clients to follow my lead - with a plan first and completing the room as a secondary priority.  Too often people try to spread their budgets (large or small) over as much space as they think possible.  With a finite number of dollars to spend, they try to redecorate the entire house. 

I am an ardent proponent of tailoring your timelines to meet your budget requirements.  When planning how to spend your decorating dollars, you must ask yourself, “Does my budget realistically allow me to purchase all the items for my home at once?”  A browse around a quality furniture store will quickly give you the answer.

My motto is “Do it once and do it right.”  I regularly suggest that clients take money allocated to designing two rooms and consider spending it only on one.  This will allow you to purchase the best quality items that you can afford while beginning to make long term investments for your home.  This approach coupled with purchasing classic styles will ensure that your money is not wasted on items which need to be disposed of five years down the road because they are already in poor condition…with a home that’s finished for now… not finished for years to come.

Moreover, consumers are probably just as concerned as I am about unwittingly adding to the problem of our community landfills.  Until relatively recently, little consideration has been given to the disposability of modern consumer goods.  When I think about the number of mere cell phones I have thrown out over the years, I shudder to think about how the waste management problem is compounded by the frequent disposal of much larger furniture items bought because people wanted ‘the-look-for-less’.

Purchasing quality Canadian goods and home furnishings is not a thing of the past.  Doing so will help boost our economy while improving the condition of the world we’re leaving our children.  Your home is likely the biggest investment you’ll ever make.  Shouldn’t the things you fill it with reflect its value?

Janice xo

Restoring and Repurposing

As a professional interior decorator, I am constantly on the hunt for new and fabulous finds for my clients. I regularly help them replace unwanted items in their homes with the latest-and-greatest decor trends available in what seems to be an ever expanding home fashions industry.
Typically on a renovation site I am presented with the question of what to do with the materials removed during the demolition process. In the course of doing business, our company has made many trips to the local dump to dispose of unwanted materials. Recently, some on our crew carefully removed and chose to reuse some cabinets from a site which were destined for the dump but where in perfect condition. Though this may sound elementary to some, I was thrilled to see the materials were not going to waste and were in fact being put to good use elsewhere, and I was even happier to know that there were people who saw the intrinsic value in these items. It made me begin to question my own role in the cycle of wastefulness, one that went far beyond the extent of my personal recycling and composting habits at home.
Since that experience, I have begun to ask myself some tough questions: Does my role as a decorator unnecessarily overshadow my role as a member of the larger society who should be making more of an effort to protect the environment and avoid needlessly adding to landfills? Do I as a professional have a greater opportunity and responsibility to be lending a helping hand to those in our community who are in need and simply want to build a home of which they can be proud?
So, I turn the tables on myself to see what I am made of, and I look to the wonderful charitable organization Habitat for Humanity to help me consider what impact I can make by learning to creatively “re-purpose” old building materials and household items; to help with looking away from the home decor trends laid out like an all-you-can-eat-buffet by the industry around me and towards setting my own trends which will ensure that I avoid unnecessarily contributing to the growing wastefulness problem. I cannot vow to be perfect in this endeavour, but I do vow to do my best.
If like many, you’ve already heard of Habitat for Humanity, here’s what you may already know:
· Habitat consists of over 35,000 volunteers and 72 affiliate organizations from coast to coast.
· Habitat Canada is a member of Habitat for Humanity International which is now building a new home for a needy family every 21 minutes.
· Habitat for Humanity Canada is a national, non-profit organization working for a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live.
· Habitat’s mission is to mobilize volunteers and community partners in building affordable housing and promoting homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
If like me, this is where your knowledge about this organization ended, here’s what you’ve been missing:
· Habitat for Humanity has building supply stores open to the public which accept and resell quality new and used building materials.
· In addition to building materials, some of the Habitat ReStores carry items like furniture, appliances, fabric, lighting, window coverings and other household items.
· The sales made at Habitat for Humanity Re Stores generate funds to support Habitat’s building programs – the dollars you spend in the store help ensure that new homes will be built for those in need in your local communities.
· When you purchase something from a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, you reduce the amount of used materials that are headed for overflowing landfills
I have challenged myself in my own life and where possible in my professional life, to make a habit of regularly visiting the Habitat ReStore to search out useful building materials that when purchased, will be reused and not dumped into an already crowded landfill while simultaneously ensuring my money goes to a worthwhile organization, and equally importantly – will save me money!
I hope you will accept my challenge to drop by your local ReStore and to discover this untapped resource in your local community, and I encourage you to visit www.habitat.ca and click on ReStore to find a store near you!