(by Carolina Smart)

I am constantly  obsessing on stuff. My past obsessions have been Jelly Beans (I will go through phases where I have insane cravings for them, of course now that I wrote this I need to get Jelly Beans), Marilyn Monroe (I am constantly buying books about her), raisins (I will buy organic health mix snacks and spend an hour picking out the raisins.  I cannot stand them.  My mother made me sick of them, when I was a child.  Not to mention they look like dead flies).  I will hunt forever to find a specific piece of clothing, purse or shoes.  I once went to every bloody purse store in Toronto to find a specific purse.  (I still haven't found it)

So...what is my point you ask.  I am going to share my obsessions with you via on online obsession log.  You are all soooooooo lucky! Enjoy!!!

My Obsessions - 1930’s I am obsessed with the era of the 1930’s. This isn’t a new obsession, I’ve been obsessed since I was a child. I find something magical about that era. I’ve been revisiting all of this through movies. We are getting a free preview right now of Turner Classic Movies and the channel is chalk full of movies from the 1930’s.

I think one of the reasons I am obsessed with this era is due to the major changes that were happening. They were the depression year and pre WWII years. Women continued to show strength and resilience to the way of the man, taking charge in both the real world and the reel world. Continuing the attitudes that started in the 1920’s (one of my other favourite era’s), both personality, dress and socially. No longer following the rules, rather breaking them and continuing with great force into the the 1930’s. They weren’t called the dirty thirties for nothing.

Movies of the 1930s also had great progress, moving away from silent films and vaudeville to talkies, actors now had the freedom to show real emotion and take charge of their characters. Many of the industries all time best started out in the 1930’s

Movies: Hell’s Angels, 42nd Street, Boys Town, The Great Ziegfeld, Jezebelle, White Banners, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, All’s Quiet on the Western Front, Dracula, Frankenstein, A Farewell to Arms, All of the Marx Brothers movies, King Kong, Little Women, It Happened One Night, Of Human Bondage, Thin Man, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington .

Female Stars: Jean Arthur, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Scarlett O’Hara, Judy Garland, Marlena Dietrich, Helen Hayes, Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Fay Ray, Ginger Rogers, Fay Bainter.

Male Stars: The Marx Brothers, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Pat O’Brien, Carey Grant, Gary Cooper, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, William Powell, Wallace Beery, Maurice Chevalier, W.C. Fields, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Claude Raines, Jackie Cooper.

1930’s was also known for these inventions, changes or great moments (from Wikipedia.com):

Technology
Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including:

1931: Empire State Building is opened.
• the world's tallest building (for the next 40 years) was constructed, opening as the Empire State Building on May 1, 1931 in New York;
• on March 6, 1930, the first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye were sold in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA.
• Ub Iwerks produced the first Color Sound Cartoon in 1930, a Flip the Frog cartoon entitled: "Fiddlesticks";
• in 1930, Warner Brothers released the first All-Talking All-Color wide-screen movie, Song of the Flame; in 1930 alone, Warner Brothers released ten All- Color All-Talking feature movies in Technicolor and scores of shorts and features with color sequences;
• air mail service across the Atlantic Ocean began;
• radar was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 by Robert Watson-Watt in 1935;
• the first BBC television broadcast occurred;
• in 1930, the 3M company marketed Scotch Tape; and
• in 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first long-playing phonograph record.

Science

Pluto and its primary satellite Charon.
• Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann
• Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
• Pluto's inability to clear the neighbourhood around its orbit has led it to be reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
• British biochemoheliologist Arthur Tansley coins term "ecosystem"
• New and safer method for blood transfusions.

War, peace and politics
• Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism
• Rise to power of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany.
• During the Spanish Civil War, a Republican soldier seeks cover on the Plaza de Toros in Teruel, east of Madrid.
• In the Soviet Union, agricultural collectivization and rapid industralization take place, and the Great Purge occurs, in which much of the Soviet political and military establishment is eliminated
• Almost all of Continental Europe moves to Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism
• Éamon de Valera introduces a new constitution for the Irish Free State, effectively ending its status as a British Dominion.
• Starts or continue the Estado Novo in Brazil and Portugal.
• Advent of the modern welfare state in New Zealand and Sweden.
• The Empire of Japan invades China as a precursor to Japanese invasions in Southeast Asia
• The Spanish Civil War
• Start of World War II in Asia and Europe

Economics
• Worldwide Great Depression

Literature and Art
• W. H. Auden publishes Poems.
• Zora Neale Hurston publishes Their Eyes Were Watching God.
• The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is set in this time frame.
• One of the pioneering hardboiled crime fictions, The Big Sleep written by Raymond Chandler, is both set and published in this time frame.
• In the art of film making, the Golden Age of Hollywood entered a whole decade, after the advent of talking pictures ("talkies") in 1927 and full-color films in 1930: more than 50 classic films were made in the 1930s:
• most notable were Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Dark Victory, of over 20 classics released in 1939;
• the soundtrack and photographic technology prompted many films to be made or re-made, such as the 1934 version of Cleopatra, using lush art deco sets which won an Academy Award (see films 1930-1939 in: Academy Award for Best Cinematography);
• the horror films (or monster movies) included many cult classics, such as Dracula (1931 film), Frankenstein, The Mummy, Jekyll/Hyde, King Kong (1933 film), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film), and other films about wax museums, vampires and zombies, leading to the 1941 film The Wolf Man (wolfman);
• recurring themes included: Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Tarzan, Charlie Chan, Alfred Hitchcock films, Our Gang, and the filming of "superheroes" such as The Phantom and Superman;
• hundreds of notable films were made in the 1930s (see: "1934 in film" or "1939 in film").

Popular Culture
Cover of the Flip the Frog Annual Comic Book from 1930.
• Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations
• "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S.
• First intercontinental commercial airline flights
• Height of the Art Deco movement in Europe and the US
• The film The Wizard of Oz immortalized tornadoes, songs (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), the characters, and "Toto" too.
• "Swing" music starts becoming popular (from 1935 onward). It gradually replaces the sweet form of Jazz that had been popular for the first half of the decade.

Prohibition ended in 1933

My New Obsession - October 16, 2006 - Vegan cookbooks and websites, those are my new obsessions.  Believe it or not there isn’t a tonne out there, or rather good ones.  It's sad as there should be more, many more, but the world just hasn't grasped the Vegan way of life.  If a Vegan was ruling the world there wouldn't be all of this war, famine or strife and if that Vegan was a woman... this would be the happiest planet in the system.

When you become Vegan it’s important that you understand why you are doing it and then after that, how to go about it.  I am sure that most would already have a general idea of what you can and can't eat, but the issue is how to make the things you can eat fun, interesting and tasty.  I'm a pretty good cook as it is, but I find myself reverting back to the same old same old and it get's boring.  When I turned Vegan I started to research via the internet for recipe databases, websites and blogs of those making a difference in the world of Vegan cooking.  

On my journey I came across some fantastic websites (see below for entire list), such as theppk.com (the post punk kitchen), govegan.net, and the vegan lunch box blog that has a recipe blog called schmooed food. There seems to be tonnes out there, but you have to filter through alot of crap. I have been bookmarking all the great ones.

I also noticed that women seem to dominate the Vegan cookbook genre, yeah us!  My three new hero's are Sarah Kramer of govegan.net and author or three fabulous books, How It All Vegan, The Garden Of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan, the other two are Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero of The Post Punk Kitchen.  Isa is also the author of Vegan With a Vengeance and co-author with Terry on Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (which I am on a notification list for when it arrives in Toronto).

Each week I am adding a new book to my collection.  Currently I have Vegan With a Vengeance and as soon as Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World when it lands in Toronto, The Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan.  I have a growing list of the others I want, at the top is How it all Vegan and will add to my collect as time goes on.  I think it is import with cooking and anything else you are doing to have reference.  Ok that was the computer geek coming out in me, I have tonnes of books for the programs I use 'as reference'. Trust me, they save me every time and so will these cookbooks.  I have already been trying out tonnes of recipes from the books I do have and plan to continue on.  I even have the non-vegan people in my household raving about the food I am making! I plan to convert them one by one.

Not wanting to let all my research go to waste, here are some handy links that all Vegan, new or established, people considering becoming a Vegan or those who want healthy diets need:

theppk.com
http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/
http://terryhope.blogspot.com/
govegan.net
sarahstourdiary.blogspot.com
http://www.veganporn.com/
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/recipes/slow-cooker-recipes.php
http://vegweb.com/
veg.ca
http://www.vegan-food.net/
http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2005/09/vegan-chocolate-walnut-muffins.html
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/
http://isachandra.livejournal.com/
http://vegkitchen.com/
http://www.vegcooking.com/

Nov 21, 2005 I haven't written a 'My Obsessions' in quite some time... which is odd because I obsess several times a day... What am I obessessing on right this second... tarts!!! I just saw a write up on a Toronto Bakery located on Roncesvalles Ave. called Queen of Tarts. She was featured on the Martha Stewart talk show a few months ago and seems to have become a city favourite since. I haven't been able to get to her shop yet, but A and I will in a few weeks... but since seeing the article I have become beyone obsessed with making my own.. I spent a good chunk of yesterday searching the web for recipes... I have a lot of baking ahead of me!!!

http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/quick.asp?q1=tarts&lnkid=65
http://www.cooksrecipes.com/pies/tart_recipes.html
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/find/browse/results?type=browse&att=33
http://www.joyofbaking.com/tarts.html
http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/Recipes/SiteSearchResults?searchtext=tarts&s=
search&Rpage=1&u1=search&u2=tarts&u3=none&start=1

mmmmmmmmm tarts.........

August 15, 2005

Pamper Me!

Every girl needs to be pampered. In all honesty we should be pampered daily! I am a bit of hypocrite saying this because I always put pampering myself at the bottom of my to do list, when it should actually be at the top. I have been saying I am going to get a pedicure for months now. I always had an excuse why I had to put it off. Then the Fabulous Rebecca gave Kat and I gift certificates to have pedicures done at O Sole http://www.osole.com/! Ever been there? What a wonderful experience! The rooms for the pedicures are enviting and very comfortable, they offer you a glass of wine and take their time pampering your feet! Serena was the Goddess to took care of us. She was absolutely amazing!!! I suggest that you call her up and book an appointment right now!

On the pampering kick, I have also become obsessed with shower gels! I have started a collection. Everything from Sultry Suds (www.sheshoppe.ca) the Body Shop http://www.thebodyshop.ca/, to Lush http://www.lushcanada.ca to the Fresh Blends from Shoppers Drug Mart http://www.shoppersdrugmart.com. I have so many now that I am running out of shelf space in my shower. Oh well! I will have to find space somewhere because I still have to visit places like Harvest Spa http://www.harvestspa.com/on the Danforth. They have a tonne of pampering things in there.

I am also back on my Nigella Lawson http://www.nigella.com kick. I have once again started reading her books from cover to cover! I have Nigella Bites and How to Be a Domestic Goddess. As soon as I make to a bookstore I plan on getting Feast, Forever Summer or How to Eat. I will probably get How to Eat next as it is her first book! I also checked to see when she would be on Foodtv.ca next and I don't see her in the line up any more. I heard she is starting her own talk show in England so maybe she won't be doing cooking shows anymore. Which is too bad, I love to listen to and what her cook. She makes food so appealing!!!

Robson Arms... Ever see it. It is this cute Canadian show, that reminds me a bit of the East Enders, complete with a couple of old bitties, a couple pot heads, a clepto, the sex addict and the bickering couple...

The Pop Shoppe - Remember the Pop Shoppe Pop. I do. It is one of my fondest memories of growing up. I remember piling into our old green volkwagen beatle and making the regular trip to the one located outside of Owen Sound. We were allowed to help fill up the red plastic container with the selection of our choice. What would it be this week? list them. After sadly closing there doors in about 20 years ago, the Pop Shoppe Pop is back and with a vengence. But you don't have to go to special Pop Shoppe Stores to get this retro soft drink. You can pretty much buy it anywhere! If you are in Toronto you can find them.... everywhere!!!

The Guerrilla Gardeners I had just finished a vet appointment for my doggie Buddy. I was hot and tired and so was she. I just wanted to get to the subway and get home. Normally it's a 10-minute walk with my dog stopping every 3 feet to pee. Tonight it took me much longer. When I reached the corner of Church and Isabella to my disbelief and utter surprise, I saw a garden. Normally this wouldn't be considered unusual, as there are plenty of beautiful gardens in that neighbourhood. What was strange was this garden was planted on the outside of the fence of an apartment building. As I approached it I saw a sign that said 'Water Me'. When I got right in front of the garden I noticed the sign also said 'Compliments of the Guerrilla Gardeners'.

Who are these Guerrilla Gardeners? I was able to find their web site (http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm) These guys/gals are amazing. They are trying to make this city a more beautiful place! It's about time and amazing that we can associate the work guerrilla with the word gardeners! But they are much more than that, they advocates who are trying to keep this city from becoming a commercialized monstrosity. They are trying to get the public spaces back for the public!!!

They also need the rest of the city to pitch in to make this work! Sign up for their newsletter (http://www.publicspace.ca/newsletter.htm); donate time, money or if you have a web site tell your mailing lists about them! Our city needs more people willing to do what it takes to keep us unique and keep our public spaces for us!

Friday, July 8, 2005- Today I had the best lunch EVER! I am not sure why I haven't eaten in this Cafe before. It is cozy and cute and smells amazing. But for some reason I have never went in. I think the main problem was the place was always packed. Somehow I timed it right today and was finally able to get in the door at Wanda's Pie In The Sky. http://www.wandaspieinthesky.com/. Damn, am I glad I did. I had a goat cheese open face sandwich (with walnuts and pesto) and the best... No, THE MOST AMAZING Blueberry pie EVER!!! But the bonus, this is a vegetarian restaurant!!! Whoo Hoo...

Not only was this the cutest, cosiest little cafe I ever been in, the ladies and gents who worked there actually seemed to like their jobs. How could I tell, my server smiled a lot! Not just any smile, but a real honest to goodness smile! I also just discovered that Wanda gives baking classes. I love making pies and actually thought I was pretty good at it, but after today I may need to sign up for some lessons.

Seriously, check it out, it is located at 7-A Yorkville Avenue. Also check out their ultra cute web site! http://www.wandaspieinthesky.com/ I am going back and when I do I am taking friends.

Here are some of my other favourite places that serve Vegetarian Fare!!!

Future Bakery (info and link here)- I am seriously addicted to the mash potatoes and mushroom gravy. That's right mushroom gravy. Even us Vegheads can enjoy one of the most popular comfort foods. Every time I am at Bloor/Brunswick area of the city I go in and have my standard Mash Potatoes and Mushroom Gravy and the best Vegetarian Lasagne on the planet. My friends think I am NUTS! I even had it in the middle of our first official heat wave of the year...

By The Way Cafe (put link here)- This cute little cafe is also located on Bloor near Brunswick. They boast some of the best vegetarian fare in the city... So far I haven't been able to challenge that quote!

The Magic Oven (put link here) - Who doesn't love pizza? Really find me someone, bet you can't! Though not a vegetarian pizzeria it is definitely health conscious. You can get a yeast free crust if you can't indulge in the regular kind of crust. Yummiest pizza in the city! Oh and they deliver and have two locations!

Cool picture sent by a reader of the building that inspired Charles Addams!

Quote from reader - "Hey i stumbled upon your site and just wanted to let you know that Charles Addams is said to have drawn alot of inspiration for the Addams Family Mansion from the facade of College Hall at the University of Pennsylvania where he attended and graduated. I just visited their campus recently and can assure you of similarities. I've attached photos showing the hall. The file named "collegehall depicts it the best in my opinion." Keep up the good site."

More My Obsessions

Even More My Obsessions