Instagram Silliness, Vol. 3

This week I took a few days off and I must admit, as much as I love blogging, it felt good to take it slow and stay off the computer. Last night Janine Falcon from BeautyGeeks tweeted, "Laptop I just can't quit you!!" She's not the only one! It is hard. Although I didn't write any new entries I did peak at Twitter a few times, I just could not resist!

Yes, I'm a laptop/iPad/iPhone addict!

*Le Sigh*

Here is a bit of my week in Instagram...

I finally got my hands on a small size of Caudalie Huile Divine. Here I was waiting for the Sun to come out! The Hydrangeas where coming along nicely and I'll take more pictures when they are in full bloom.

Silliness at the Dollar store, Catherine tried on this lovely bracelet. A few meters away, I found this throwback to my childhood, Yardley's English Lavender soap and that came home with me.

New at the drugstore, Lise Watier Tartantastique Fall 2013 makeup collection and Marcelle's new blush and powders. The new packaging is quite nice and reminds me of Givenchy.

Finally we got some Vanilla Syrup! Ice coffee, café au lait, Yum! This week I prepared some Parmesan Chicken with a Black Olives & Vegetable Rice. With the lemon, it was perfect!

Now this made me gasp! In a small mall in our area we there's this store called Aquatropicale which specialises in fish tanks. In their front window they have this beautiful spotted ray and every time we walk by, my daughter and I stop to admire it. Bran new, this sign, feed the ray for $3.00. Really??? At least put her in a nicer setting!

About my addiction, better that than television don't you agree? :D

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Instagram Silliness, Vol. 2

Talk about a hot week! I believe we've hit 40° Celsius with the humidity factor every single day! I can only say that I thank the gods of coolness for the invention of Air Conditioning!

By the way, the humidity factor or humidex which refers to the temperature felt is a Canadian invention!!! Yay! In other words, even if the temperature is 36° as shown on the picture below, high humidity, low winds etc can actually make us feel like like it's 42° degrees. After a rain/thunderstorm, the temperature can go down just a few degrees but if the humidity breaks then we can really feel the difference. In a way, it's the counterpart of the windchill factor. Now that was an American invention.

See, I knew I'd find an other opportunity to talk about the weather! :D

Since I don't sleep well these days, my morning café au lait is a must!

Wednesday was the hottest day of the summer, as you can see it reached 36° but the humidex got to 42°!!!

Thermal water in the fridge, more than appreciated when getting inside, away from the heat.

Dior Cake Mascara. Yes, I still have this and wish they would bring it back!

Julius thinks he's a goat and Fifi is ready for her belly rub!

On the right, BBQ chicken, lemon couscous with spicy tomato & mango salsa. 

Left, tomato sandwich. I've had a few this week and can't wait for the fresh summer tomatoes to arrive.

Since that salsa was soooo good, I thought I would give you the recipe. It's very basic and you can modify it as will, to your taste.

Spicy Tomato & Mango Salsa:

1 big tomato, seeded and chopped

2 mangoes (I had the Ataulfo variety)

1/2 cup of finely sliced red onions (do put them in water a few minutes to remove the sulfur smell)

A nice bunch of flat leaf parsley finely shopped (you could use fresh coriander as well)

A good spoonful of Harissa or Sambal Oelek (both are spicy pepper paste) or to taste

A pinch of salt

The juice of half a lemon or more if you like your salsa a little on the acidic side

Enough extra virgin olive oil to make everyone happy!

Switching parsley for coriander just remember to use a little less since it's more fragrant, has a more distinctive taste. If you make this in advance, do not put it in the fridge! It would simply kill the taste. I made it about 30 minutes ahead and it was perfect. If it's not too hot in your house you could prepare up to an hour in advance but omit the salt, olive oil and lemon juice just add those when ready to serve.

Let me know if you decide to try it. :)

Instagram Silliness, Vol 1

Recently, to my daughter's despair, I've started to get into using my iPhone for picture taking a little more. Sometimes they are specifically for a post and sometimes they are for Instagram. Catherine goes nuts when I start snapping pictures at the drugstore and goes almost ballistic when I do that at the grocery store!

Well Sweetness, too bad, I ain't gonna stop! In fact, I'm just getting started! :)