Börek!

We haven't featured any food on this blog before but recently I shared a family recipe with a friend who owns a health-food store/cafe in Montreal. And since the food in this case is hand-made, the latest post in about a Börek making venture. Börek is the Turkish version of what many in Canada know as a spanakopita. All measurements are eye balled.


Phyllo pastry is layed down, all the ingredients are ready to go; couple of different kinds of cheese, onions and mushroom sauted in butter, finely chopped fresh herbs. Here we did a mixture of cilantro, dill, basil and for the cheese it was a mix of feta and old cheddar.


Sundried tomatoes... which are not in the traditional recipe...


And a mixture of egg, milk and sunflower oil...


Pack it all in there, brush it with lots of the egg-milk mixture and toss in the oven! And if you live in Montreal you can taste a börek at Essentiellement Sol, 3870 Rue Ontario, est. www.essentiellementsol.ca

June Feature : Serpil Erol

Our June feature presents Serpil Erol and her incredibly original, exquisitely crafted accessories. Her work brings a new breath to an age old medium, Enjoy!

"Born and raised in the wonderful city Istanbul, it took me a long while to persuade myself that what I love doing, since my childhood, which was anything and everything to do with hands, was actually something achievable. After high-school, I went to Ithaca College for my undergraduate degree, had to return to Turkey after a year. The struggle continued when I started working at various jobs, from a sales advisor in a well-known brand to cooking to finally being the first and only style advisor at Topshop. My true breakdown/self-discovery started when I quit my job as a style advisor, took some time off and traveled to Costa Rica to learn Spanish and re-discover myself, the journey which led me to where I am right now, finally doing what I've always dreamt of. I have recently been accepted to study accessory design at London College of Fashion and will continue to report from there:) And gladly, the journey continues..."

For more of Serpil's creations checkout www.serpilerol.etsy.com

May Feature: Amy Burkard

Starting this month we'll be featuring an artist/designer/maker each month on stuff we luff. Our regular blogs about our studio, visual inspirations and fellow creators will be more frequent as well. We can safely say we're thawing out from the winter in Montreal!

For our first feature : Felt Works by Amy Burkard
Amy lives and works in Kelwona BC, as a maker of ceramics and felt sculptures. I happen to know her from Vancouver and I recently saw the wonderful families of felt objects she's been creating. Full of character and color, here is a small selection:















Amy Says:
"Inspired by the magnificence and beauty of nature and my surroundings, I seek to capture the whimsical aspects and simplicity of natural forms. Creating with clay, wool and other materials derived from nature, I take pleasure in the tactile and sensual qualities of these mediums. My sculptural forms can be viewed to have a utilitarian and or aesthetic purpose." For more of her work you can go to her Etsy shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/amybgirl

Details from the studio

Some details from the studio...paper and ceramic experiments by maya...

for anamnesis

Anamnesis 2010 plans are coming soon, for a re-cap of what happened with the project in 08/09 check out http://www.mediaundefined.ca/anamnesis/

Dale Morningstar - Sleeping Under the Stars

Last year I did the opening titles for Dave Ullrich's short film about veteran Toronto music producer/engineer Dale Morningstar. Check out all 3 parts here on youtube and a bit of backstory here.

Dale has recorded albums with a diverse range of artists including Rock Plaza Central, Gord Downie and Godspeed You Black Emperor. The movie was filmed by Zunior.com founder Dave Ullrich, and uses a series of interviews to shine a light on one of Canada’s greatest underground music icons.

Turquoise

I find mold facsinating in general, sometimes the saturation of the colors you can grow in your kitchen are quite stunning. In this case the mold that grew in this mug is the exact color as the glaze.


More turquoise, of all places this is the corner of the ceiling of the control room of the main train station in Istanbul, Haydarpaşa. I didn't dick around with the color at all, it really is this amazing shade of blue-green. Actually, the whole room is this color but I was only allowed to take a picture of the ceiling, due to the nature of sensitive information displayed on the boards around the room; the location of all the trains in Turkey at the time of the visit.

Garilc Omen

To sprout things of here is the head of garlic I found yesterday in the kitchen. I take it as a good omen for the blog and it means that the kitchen is getting warmer (and so is Montreal!) I'll plant this sprouted garlic and report on it's growth in the coming months.