That’s quite cookie-like, yes?

Regardless, we move on to happy things on our hot list for this week:

• Michelle was recently introduced to the Sunday night dinner at Model Milk and was impressed. The cost — $35 a person — seems more than reasonable, considering the many appies, entrees and delicious desserts that come your way. (She swears she does think about things other than food. Sometimes.)
• Regular readers of the Toque Girls know that Chris never without her stash of dark chocolate. She recently discovered the New Tree Quinoa Flax Dark Chocolate Bar. It’s like a grown-up version of those chocolate rice-krispie treats.
• Michelle likes to fuel her workouts with Robyn’s music and was recently introduced to Body Talk Part 3; she already owned Parts 1 and 2 but had no idea about the third instalment! Thank you, G, for the intro. Michelle is loving the Call Your Girlfriend song and its dance-happy video.
• Sport Chek has a great sale on Nike and Adidas workout gear this weekend. Just in case you need a little boost to get out there this weekend.
• Chris and siblings surprised her mom with a Surprise Birthday Festival last weekend. The girls kicked it off with mani’s and blowouts at Butter Beauty Parlour Saturday morning. The stylists did an amazing job, especially when confronted with three crazy Frangou ‘fros.
• We’re so proud to be from Calgary lately. There’s something in the air here right now that makes it such an exciting city to call home. Chris Turner captures it in this fantastic piece in The Walrus.
• More on the Calgary front. To our friends from away, it’s the 100th anniversary of the Stampede this year so it’s a very good year for you to visit. Even Vogue magazine thinks so. Check out #18 on their list of things to do this summer.
• And more on the Stampede front: Paul Rogalski of Rouge, which made the S. Pellegrino World’s 100 Best Restaurants list in 2010, is throwing a pre-Stampede Rouge & White Garden Party on July 5, 2012 to raise awareness for the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. He was inspired to support their cause when he lost two people very close to him to Alzheimer’s last year. Tickets are $125 per person, and guests (who are invited to come dressed in Calgary’s colours, red and white) can expect a carnival chic theme and chef’s gourmet spin on midway food.
• Yet more on the Calgary AND Stampede front: Michelle’s piece on a road trip from Calgary through the Rockies is in the June issue of Chatelaine. There’s also a link to her roundup of 10 things to check out this Stampede.

 Have a great weekend!

~The Toque Girls

A few weeks ago, I took Michelle though my new springtime outdoor training workout. The next day, she emailed me this: “FYI: Though I love you dearly, my inner thighs are hating you.”

She meant it in the nicest way. So I’m sharing the workout with you, so your inner thighs can hate me, too.

For months, I’ve been working out with the Nike Training Club app. It’s a free mobile app that includes dozens of workouts developed by professional trainers. You choose your skill level, your workout goal (tone up? slim down? kill cardio?) and it’ll spit out a few workouts that fill the bill. As you do more workouts, you earn extra bonus workouts. (The first time I unlocked a “badge,” I hurrah-ed because I thought Nike was going to send me new gear or credit for new gear. When I discovered that I earned a stretch workout, I swore and tossed my phone on the floor.)

I used the app to do an indoor workout once a week all winter, using a set 45-minute advanced workout. This spring, I switched it up and took the workout outside. I bring 5- and 10-pound weights to the park outside my house. Instead of doing one of the set workouts, I do a series of 15-minute targeted workouts, usually for 60 or 75 minutes. Then, I wait outside for someone to help me carry the weights and my sore self back upstairs.

There you have it. Has anyone tried it? What do you think?

~Chris

I found this recipe thanks to Julie, she of the Peanut Butter Fingers blog, who always features overnight oats. If you’re not into oatmeal when it’s warm, this recipe likely won’t turn your crank. I’ve had a life-long love affair with oatmeal. Hot or cold, I’m sold.

Here’s how it works: mix the following ingredients in a bowl, cover them and let them sit overnight. In the morning, you’ll find a thick, chewy oatmeal awaiting you.

Overnight Oats Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 2/3 cup large-flake oats
• 1/2 cup milk
• flax seed

You can mess with the proportions to make it thicker or lighter, depending on your preference. A comment on flavour: I’ve tried plain Greek yogurt but I wouldn’t recommend it. On its own, the result is bland, so I usually add some flavour, be it honey, cinnamon or a drop of vanilla. I’ve started adding a scoop of vanilla protein powder, which makes for a delicious protein boost.

Here’s what I’m using to make my overnight oats:

Here’s how they look when you mix them:

And here’s the final product, one sleep later:

I top my overnight oats with sliced strawberries and almonds. Breakfast of Toque Girls champions.

~Michelle

Everyday, a few people end up on this blog by way of a crazy search term that randomly pulls up our blog. (I wrote about it once before and our high proportion of pervy readers who search out terms like “naked sweaty girls” and “spread-eagle” — the latter a term we’ve only used with respect to skiing.)  With no further ado, here are some of the odder terms that have brought readers to the Toque Girls site lately. In cases of where searchers asked questions, I’ll try to answer them here. Sometimes, though, your questions are way out of my expertise.

• can you wear frye engineer boots without socks? (Don’t see why not. Your feet and your boots will probably stink though.)
• Lesbians wearing patriots jerseys. (A bizarre and very specific search term. We’re neither football fans or lesbians but but we’re an open-minded blog. We’re glad you found us. Here’s the very popular post that linked us to that search phase.)
  
• Sexy buns (Why thank you! But you were probably disappointed to find out we were talking about hair. )
• Naked girls in the ocean (Well, I have no idea why this person ended up here. We have no naked pictures of us in the ocean, nor have we ever been naked together in the ocean. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been naked in the ocean. Sounds cold. In any case, we appreciate the sentiment.)
• Grilled halloumi cheese. is it bad for u? (Depends on how you define bad. If you think that loaded with salt and fat is bad, then, indeed, bad it may be. But if you consider only from the vantage of your taste buds, squeaky cheese rocks.)
• Full glass of wine (I include this term because it’s one of our most popular recurring search terms. Apparently, we drink a lot. At least our glasses are always full and not empty.)
• landing craft assault (Beats the hell out of me why that person ended up here. I strongly suspect that other websites would have popped up before us.)
• tracy anderson+sore+cannot lift legs (Yes, that’s why we call her the Devil.)
• carrot flax seed muffins and healthy high-protein breakfast (Our most popular food posts. The latter is one of our top posts of all time but I prefer the carrot muffins.)
• toque with built in glasses (That’s just weird.)
• do girls like skinny ties (Yes. See explanation here)
• pm harper’s barber (I have no idea why someone who searched this would end up here. Nor do I know why anyone would search that.)
• Can you get in trouble drinking and skiing? (Yes. A Baileys in your morning coffee and beer at apres is perfectly harmless. Drunken skiing is stupid. Clearly, though, if you’re the person who typed in that search, you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer.)
• hiccups and cold sores (I don’t know but we did learn how to cure hiccups.)
• what are people wearing to cavalia? (This is an oft-recurring Google search that lands people at the Toque Girls. Apparently, it’s hard to know what to wear to a horse show. Michelle wore this.)
• burned gluteus (To whoever searched this, I hope you mean burned from exercise and not burned from fire.)
• Big fat girl gym (That’s lovely. Thank you.)
• old women working (Even better.)
  

~Chris (one of the old women with sexy buns who run this site)

Here were a few of the culinary highlights:

• The lobster guacamole at La Bodega. Big chunks of lobster meat on top of a massive bowl of guacamole. Yum.
• Bittersweet chocolate truffle cookies at Koko Patisserie. Dear God. These cookies are ridiculously delicious — possibly the best cookie I’ve ever had.
• The best fish tacos of my life at The Willow on Wascana, not to mention a delicious paella with steelhead trout and a fantastic Sauvignon Blanc by Merry Edwards. We tried a lot of great wine that night — separate blog post to come — and, at one point, had eight glasses of wine going between the two of us.
• A hefty power bar, made with peanut butter, seeds and some chocolate, from the 13th Avenue Food and Coffee House. I would live on these bars, if I lived in Regina.

To top off my adventures, we attended a “Saskatchewan Garage Party” on Saturday night. Check out the decor!

The hosts provided paint and paint brushes for people to leave their marks on the white walls. My friend painted the following on my behalf, to which I gave a thumbs up.

Thanks for the fun times, Regina.

~Michelle

Hello, Friday! Don’t you love short weeks? Chris is eager for her first weekend home since Easter (when she had food poisoning so it didn’t really count). She is going to go see a movie, sleep too much and celebrate her Mom’s birthday on Sunday. (Happy day to you, Mom!) Michelle is going to be exploring Regina. Weyburn was not kind to her on Thursday — it was cold, cold, cold — but she’s hoping the sun comes out to play this weekend.

Our top things that you ought to know about this week:

• It’s Market Collective weekend here in Calgary. If you’ve never been, go. One of Chris’ favourite local photographers, Amy Victoria Wakefield (whose incredible work is shown above) is often there.
• Chris discovered the marvelously drinkable Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir this week. Should you ever walk into a glass wall, it sure soothes the ego. It’s also good just for ordinary people who can spot the difference between a door and a wall.
• Also discovered on the same day as the glass wall/Chris’ face incident: Dipped Chocolate Peanut Mojo Bars. These new bars from Cliff are a combo of sweet and salty. Any Canucks going to US can bring back a few bars for the Toque Girls, please and thank you.
• Looking for a good read? Check out Emma Forrest’s Your Voice in My Head. It’s too good to leave for one of our regular book posts. (Lainey‘s been raving about this book for more than a year. We’re lagging behind here.)
• She won’t vouch for it just yet, but Michelle has started to read Fifty Shades of Grey. After reading a few stories about the much-hyped book (like this story and this response), she decided to see what all the fuss is about. Have you read this? Thoughts?
• Chris was on a quick tour of Aritzia last week and saw a display of lingerie. She gasped, grabbed a salesgirl by the arm and said, “What’s this? Is this for real?” Yes, yes, it is, she said. Aritzia has launched a line of silk lingerie by Wilfred, called Under Wilfred lingerie. These silk shorts are sexy.
• Speaking of lingerie, friends tell us that Gap has a fantastic collection of affordable bralettes and such. Michelle may pick up this one next time she’s in the store.
• Awwww. This NY Times story about a little boy who asked to touch President Obama’s hair is so sweet.
• And we’re sure you’ve all seen this already, but if not, how great is the Harvard baseball team ‘covering’ the song Call Me Maybe? Too funny.
• Last but not least, we have a winner in the George’s Cream giveaway! Congrats, Gerald. We’ll be in touch later today.

Have a great weekend!

~The Toque Girls

On Tuesday night, Chris was in San Diego and I was in Calgary, making my way to the Bon Iver show with my friend, Anna. All was good in the world. Then, this all happened:

• The Will Call girl couldn’t find my name. There was, however, a Michael Magnan on the list. Weird, as I know very few Magnans. Michael, whoever you are, what’s up?
• Eventually, she found my name on the list — for the WEDNESDAY night show. I bought the tickets while sitting on my friend Beth’s couch in Toronto and obviously wasn’t paying attention to the details. I didn’t even know there was a second show. Fail, Michelle. Huge fail.
• Disappointed and humiliated, we walked away from the crowds of hipsters, who were judging the two losers who showed up for the wrong night. (I may be projecting a bit here.)
• As we were walking away, I received this text message from Christina: “So embarrassing — I just walked into a glass wall in front of a bunch of people. The noise was huge!! A true thwack!!” I asked if she was okay. She said yes — just the ego was harmed.
• Anna and I migrated to Brava for nourishment.
• I received a $65 parking ticket. Chris came down with a raging case of the hiccups.
• We all gave up on Tuesday night.

This is us at Mac Hall before walking away in defeat. You may recognize Anna’s expression; it is remarkably similar to when we were forced to walk back to our hotel from the Rehab pool party in Las Vegas last June. I have pasted it below for your viewing pleasure.

I didn’t even get to see the show last night, because I was en route to Saskatchewan. Sigh.

Here’s hoping the rest of the week is smoother in Toque Girl land.

~Michelle

We’ve a fun treat for Toque Girls readers today! We’re giving away a local favourite, George’s Special Dry Skin Cream and George’s Light.

If you’re not from Calgary, I’ll explain. Calgary is a city completely devoid of humidity. While that’s great for hair, it’s a freaking war zone for skin. Everyone here complains about dry skin all year long.

Enter George. Pharmacist George Doherty created George’s Special Dry Skin Cream in his kitchen using his wife’s cake mixer over 15 years ago. He began to sell it in small batches at his pharmacy. Word got out and he started getting requests from people throughout Calgary. The cream  got its name after a Calgary dermatologist wrote George’s Cream on a prescription pad and sent the patient to the pharmacy to receive the cream.

When I moved to Calgary, I kept hearing about this cream. I bought it and now use it all year long. It’s perfect for anyone with dry or sensitive skin, and is fragrance and additive free (that’s really important to me!).

We have a George’s gift bag which includes George’s Special Dry Skin Cream (450 g jar & 30 ml tube) and George’s Light Special Moisturizing Lotion (360 ml bottle and 30 ml tube), valued at $35. To enter, leave a comment below and either like the George’s Cream on Facebook  OR follow George (@Georges_Cream) on Twitter. We’ll announce the winner on Friday.

Good luck!

~Chris

Me, though, I spent just as much time watching the instructor, Jen, as I did the screen. She’s incredibly fit and a great instructor with loads of positive energy. As a result, we were all smiles, even when the ride got hard and sweaty.

If you’re interested in checking it out — which we recommend! — Peloton offers you the first class free. After that, a single drop-in class will run you $20 or you can buy passes or memberships. Check out the costs here.

A colleague of mine was in the class and suggested we take an “after” shot of the two of us to show how sweaty we were. I think not. We wouldn’t do that to you, readers. We were gross. Which is how we love to look after a cardio workout because that means it was solid. So, kudos to you, Peloton Cycling. We’ll be back for more.

~Michelle

Before the weekend hits, let’s chat about things we like, we love, we adore.

During a Toque Girls workout date on Wednesday night, Chris commented that she liked Michelle’s workout top and was surprised to hear it’s from the Victoria’s Secret Sport line. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. Lots of cute gear for reasonable prices. Michelle has her eye on this outfit. She’d also like to order the abs:

Here are other things on our list:

• Zinda shoes deserve a shout-out. Michelle bought a pair at Gravity Pope earlier this year and has worn them day in and day out — and they still look fantastic. They’re really comfy, too. (Chris loves them, too, and wore them to a wedding last weekend!)
• We’re digging the patio weather so far this spring. Thank you to Avenue Magazine for this great write-up of the new patios in Mission and along 17th Avenue.
• Chris was at a gorgeous wedding in Balls Falls, Ontario, last week. Here are the first photos. Congrats again, Kristine and Peter!!
• We checked out a new spin gym on Wednesday night — post to come on Tuesday! — and met some lovely girls from Lululemon. We got chatting about workouts and they shared this fun news: Lulu is starting a Saturday morning running group and anyone can join. It actually starts tomorrow! If you’re interested, head to the 4th St. SW location at 9:30 a.m. and be prepared to get your run on. All levels are welcome.
• Roots sweats are the most comfortable pants (if, indeed, sweats are pants) on earth. Anyone who grew up in Canada in the 80s knows this. Get ‘em for 25% off this weekend at Roots online.
• Chris saw the one-man show, Playing With Fire: The Theo Fleury Story, last night. It is astonishing! Only a few days are left in the run so go now. We’ve heard the Saturday afternoon show has plenty of seats available. (Theo Fleury was Chris’ favourite hockey player all the years he was with the Flames. In Grade 8, one of the boys in her class got her an autographed photo from Mr. Fleury, which she still has.)