And on that note, let’s get to our first item on this Things We Like Friday: comfy — and still sexy — underwear.

• We were recently introduced to Affinitas Intimates underwear. The salesgirl at SHE Apparel said the thongs are like Hanky Panky, only more affordable. You can pick up a package of three for $39.99. We’re loving the undies’  bright colours and are suckers for cute packaging, as per below.

• Betty Mitts from Preloved, a cool Toronto-based boutique that makes clothing from “reclaimed vintage fabrics.” Michelle picked up a pair of these adorable mitts the other day at Leo. Comfy, warm and cute — everything we look for in a pair of mitts!
• Whoa. Latest audio addiction: Some Nights album by New York band Fun. Michelle heard them on Q, bought the album earlier this week and can’t. stop. listening.
• Michelle just finished This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper and was reminded how much she enjoys Tropper’s writing. The first book of his that she checked out, How to Talk to a Widower, was excellent. She recommends his books any old time. (And thanks her friend, Mr. Bell, for getting her onto Tropper in the first place.)
• Chris will never go another winter without Aveda’s daily damage remedy. This leave-in conditioner leaves her hair soft and healthy.
• Calgary’s Shikiji restaurant has fantastic happy hour specials between 5 and 6 most evenings. 30% off rolls? Yes, please.
• Have you checked out Roots lately? Chris picked up this super comfy Juliette Tee. She’s going to wear it to the Oscars on Sunday.
• Also on the Oscars dress code, Nars lipstick in Manhunt. It’s the perfect red — bright without being glaring.

We hope you have a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the Oscars!

~The Toque Girls

I play a mean game of hide-n-seek, am uninhibited in kitchen dance-offs and believe that whatever nephews want, they shall have. That about covers my knowledge on the baby front.

But I do know when something is worth writing about. Gang, meet FunPod.

If you’re a parent, this invention is quite awesome. If you’re not a parent and you’re thinking WTF, just give it time.

FunPod was created by UK-based parents Kim and Sean Johnson for their daughter eight years ago. Quite popular in the UK, it’s  relatively unknown in Canada. My sister discovered it through a friend in the US.

FunPod is a protected stand for your toddler so they can stand at the edge of the kitchen counter. He or she can safely play alongside of you while you work in the kitchen. For verification, see cute, somewhat fuzzy nephew above playing the ever-popular “Upside Down Plastic Cups” game.

The FunPod is the first thing all my sister’s mom-friends comment on when they come into her kitchen and my sister loves this contraption. My nephew likes to be involved with everything so for a kid like him, it’s great.

The settings adjust as the child grows so that there’s no danger of them falling out. Here’s the view from the top as my nephew plopped down for hide-n-seek:

Currently, you can order the FunPod in Canada through here.

~Chris

Mary Sue is a Canadian dietitian whose cookbook, Flavour First, landed on my desk at the Calgary Herald when I was writing about health. I’ve put it to good use ever since. (You know the look of a well-used cookbook: some of its pages are falling out, many are stained.)

I love her recipes because they’re healthy, full of flavour and uncomplicated. And her butter chicken is no different. Though it looks like there are many ingredients and the recipe might be fussy, don’t worry — you probably have all of these spices already and the actual cooking process takes no time at all.

The finished product received solid thumbs up from everyone in my family. Success!

Just a ‘Bit o’ Butter’ Chicken

Chicken and Marinade:

• 2 pounds (1 kg) boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch (5 cm) pieces
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground turmeric
• 1 tsp (5 mL) ground cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp (5 mL) ground paprika
• 1 tsp (5 mL) ground coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 mL) ground cumin
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 tsp (10 mL) minced fresh ginger root
• 2 tsp (10 mL) minced garlic

~Michelle

Now, we’d love to come running over to your office with a wheelbarrow full of wine bottles and a corkscrew. Alas, our bosses do not allow us to do that kind of thing. Your boss probably wouldn’t relish the idea, either.

But we do have a fun little rescue package for our blog readers, thanks to the folks at Winefest Calgary. They’ve kindly given us a pair of tickets to give away for their Saturday Afternoon Tasting Session. It’s a fun chance to sip and sample some fine treats from around the world (including one of our Canadian favourites, Dirty Laundry!). The tickets, which sell for $75, include wine sampling and hors d’oeuvres.

Yum. Yum.

The Saturday afternoon event is more intimate that the rest of the weekend events, giving you more face time with the exhibitors. In my experience, that usually means more food and larger pours.

The deets: The tickets are for the Saturday, February 25 from 2-5 p.m. When presented at the door, these tickets allow for complimentary access into Winefest. Tickets are not transferable to any other session. This is an adult-only event. All attendees must be 18 years or older.

Onto the fun part. You know the drill: to enter, leave a comment below. Keep your fingers crossed and we will select a winner at random on Thursday.

~Chris

Michelle (not Magnan) is our winner! Congrats, Michelle. We’ve sent you an email with the details on tickets.

Happy long weekend! Are you guys up to anything fun? Chris is off to Banff for a ski/stagette weekend, which is really the best kind of stagette. The bride flew all the way in from London, England! Michelle is heading to Edmonton for some family time and is looking forward to down time, too. Naps and reading the book she recently cracked — This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper — are huge priorities on her agenda.

Now, onto the things we think you should know about this week:

• Let’s kick things off with a giveaway! It’s not jewelry or cookbooks but it’s uber practical, especially at this time of year: one free copy of the newest edition of TurboTax, an online tax software. To enter our giveaway, please comment on today’s blog post and let us know how you plan on spending your tax return this year! We’ll announce the winner on Tuesday.
• National Geographic put together this list of the world’s best ski towns. Chris is going to ski at three of them in the next month! And she has a major sweetspot for number two on the list.
• C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shine in Bubblemint. Michelle received it as a gift from a friend on V-Day (thank you!) and is addicted. It smells fantastic and is glossy without being sticky.
• Nike Tech Tights. Finally, Chris found a good pair of full-length running tights.
• Chris’ brother-in-law made a hilarious Valentine’s card that features an animated Chris and her husband in 1980s workout gear. That led to the discovery of this very funny video. Watch it over and over again. It’ll make Friday go faster. (Thanks, Jen!)
• Until Sunday, Holt Renfrew is having an Estee Lauder special: spend more than $70 and receive a gift worth more than $190. This is the incentive Michelle needs to pick up the brand’s Resilience Lift Creme (which she’s written about in a previous Things We Like post).
• Winefest is in town next weekend! Watch the blog next week for a ticket giveaway. Bring on the vino.

We’re both taking Monday off to spend much-needed time with our families.  Chat with you Tuesday!

~The Toque Girls

Pure girlie happiness, that’s what. GLOSSYBOX, a new arrival on the Canadian beauty scene, is a service that delivers five samples of high-end cosmetic and beauty products to your doorstep, each and every month. The cost? $15 a month.

The Toque Girls love dabbling with new products — especially of the cosmetics and beauty variety — so this service is like a dream come true. The kind folks at GLOSSYBOX sent us each a box last week to check out. Here’s what we found inside:

This is what I did when I opened the GLOSSYBOX:

1. Jumped up and down, clapping my hands.

2. Slathered on some scented Oscar de la Renta body cream and a smooth moisturizing lipstick.

3. Opened, sniffed and dabbed everything else in the box, including the Essie Neo Whimsical nail polish, Prevage anti-aging cream and the Ahava hand lotion.

4. Looked in the mirror to see if I looked younger, firmer, better. Couldn’t notice a difference quite yet. But I sure smelled good.

I’m thinking this would make a great gift for someone who gets equally as excited to try new products. I’m also thinking this would make a great gift for someone else: me.

Head to the GLOSSYBOX site to learn more about it!

~Michelle

S. made me these supreme-O Indian chicken burgers for dinner last night. He pulled out all the stops — mango chutney and raita, all made from scratch.

Yep. I think I’ll keep him.

His mom made us these burgers years ago and we’ve talked about them ever since. Even though S. swears he hates Valentine’s Day, he hunted down this burger recipe and treated me to dinner.

We froze the leftover uncooked patties. We’ll save them for a Sunday evening after day of skiing. That’s perfectly fitting because the recipe comes from the world’s greatest ski hill restaurants, Fresh Tracks Cafe at Whitewater Ski Resort in Nelson, BC. Go, ski and then eat yourself silly.

If you don’t like to ski, you can just buy the cookbooks. No one will know the difference.

Indian Chicken Burgers

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground chicken
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Method

Place chicken, garlic, eggs, curry powder, garam masala, salt, pepper and bread crumbs into a large mixing bowl. Combine well. Shape into eight patties. They will feel stickier than regular burgers. (Note: They are CRAZY sticky!) Brush with vegetable oil and grill for 5-6 minutes per side. Serve on a fresh hamburger bun with chutney, raita, cucumber and tomato slices.

-Recipe from Whitewater Cooks, Pure, Simple and Real

~Chris

Chris and I were chatting the other day about Valentine’s Days of years gone by — and how some have been outstanding, some terrible, some funny.

There was the year I woke up to a phone call from my new boyfriend at the time, who didn’t even mention the day — nary a word — and asked if I could help him with some chores at his place. “Wear something for scrubbing and lifting,” he said. “Scrubbing and lifting?” I repeated. “Yes, scrubbing and lifting.”

“SCRUBBING AND LIFTING?!” Screamed my roommate from the next room. (Our walls were thin.)

Our opinion of this man was plummeting by the second.

When I showed up at his place, however, there was no scrubbing or lifting. It was all just a ploy to magnify the surprise of what he had planned. Am I a terrible person if I don’t go into the specifics? I will say that his surprise was thoughtful, simple, carefully planned and designed to make me a very happy girl. I realize this story is like giving you popcorn with no butter. Sorry about that.

Then there was the year that my newly single self and my newly single friend, Jen, decided to treat ourselves to a pasta dinner. Because clearly, there’s no better time for two single girls to indulge in big bowls of carby goodness than when they’re single on Valentine’s Day. We arrived at Il Giardino, excited for the pasta in our near future.

And then the waiter informed us that the set Valentine’s Day menu included no pasta. No pasta? No pasta. Not even a single noodle. You have never seen such disappointed girls. How can an Italian restaurant not serve any pasta on Valentine’s Day? It baffles me to this day.

Here we are in happier times. I can’t remember the occasion, but we’d probably just eaten spaghetti and meatballs or something.

I’m rambling, so time to call it quits. The whole point of this post is to wish you, our readers, a happy Valentine’s Day. We heart you and hope you enjoy the day, whether you’re flying solo or spending it with someone special.

And don’t agree to any scrubbing or lifting.

~Michelle

This post is coming to you by special request for a friend in need. A male friend asked me for a post on men’s clothing. Specifically, he wanted a rundown on the pieces of men’s clothing that girls love.

Naturally, Michelle and I consider ourselves experts on this topic, having reformed several sartorially-challenged boyfriends in our years. (You know who you are and you are welcome.) We called in a few other stylish specialists — Malwina Gudowska and Chris’ sisters (here and here) — for their opinions, too. Thus, we selected a broad-enough focus group to ensure that these rules are foolproof.

So, on this eve of the great date day of the year, take notes, dear boys. What you do with your clothes might help you accomplish what you want to do with girls’ clothes — assuming, that is, that you’re trying to get girls’ clothes on the floor.*

1. Good Jeans and a Good T-shirt

a. What are good jeans, you ask. It’s quite simple: jeans that fit. They’re not too long. They’re not baggy. The bum doesn’t sag. They don’t have patches nor goth-inspired embellishments. We generally prefer dark jeans but can fly with light or gray. Do not buy acid wash or “jeans that look like the fabric in baby jeans.” We prefer straight-leg and slim — not skinny — cut.

There is no place in our world for men who do not pull their pants above their bum. We shouldn’t even need to point that out.

To any boys who like Chris’ little sister, Sarah is expressly forbidden to date boys who can’t pull their jeans above their arse. That’s a longtime edict from the big sisters. All big sisters worldwide should issue a similar commandment.

b. Now onto the T-shirt. We’ve a certain weakness for gray and white T-shirts. All the better if said shirts are made with very soft fabric that looks slightly loved. It says, “this is a secure, cozy shoulder you can rest your head on.” Sadly, these shirts are more expensive than your bread-and-butter 3-for-1 pack.

Three of our experts vote for the V-neck t-shirt but “shallow” v-neck. Leave the cleavage to us.

2. Dark brown dress shoes and a pair of sneakers

Malwina put it best: “Nothing clunky, no big, square toes.” I add that some browns look luxurious, others look like something else that’s brown. Go for the former.

On the sneaker front, stay away from crazy. That’s also generally a good rule for dating.

3. Anything gray

It’s the magic colour. Women lose all willpower. Ryan Gosling has learned this and therein lies his power.

4. Cardigans

Maybe it’s a grandpa complex. Perhaps we just like men in clothing that we can steal somewhere down the line. In either case, cardigans are an aphrodisiac. Every man should know that.

5. A well-fitting suit

For heaven’s sakes, buy suits that fit. They should trace the body outline perfectly — not tight like a sausage casing, nor baggy like a sweat suit. Somewhere in between. Michelle has a thing for navy suits with a white shirt. Chris is more of a gray suit kind of girl. Sarah likes skinny ties.

6. Ball caps

Again, stick with the basics, stay away from the crazy and you’re golden.

7. Some randoms

• We all like military jackets except when we are wearing our own military jacket. Then, yours isn’t cool anymore.
• Maybe it’s the Canadian coming out in us but we’ve a collective thing for plaid shirts. Malwina likes vintage plaid better than brand new plaid.
• Cozy hoodies got several mentions. The allure here probably comes from a reworking of the cardigan principle.
• We had two votes for a good denim shirt. When it’s good, it’s very very good. When it’s not, it’s dreadful. Wearer beware.
  

Hope that helps! (Check out our post on scents for men, too!)

~Chris

*So awkward as our moms and grandmas read this. Mom, Michelle wrote that part.

Moving on from donuts…

How are you all? We’re pretty happy it’s Friday. Aside from working out and reading magazines, Michelle has a whole lotta nothing planned this weekend and Chris will be on a mountain, skiing up a storm.

Now, on to our happy list!

• Anna’s blog post about Calgary’s Smalltown DJs and their Best of 2011 tunes, because, aside from the good music, it brought Michelle back to their excellent girls’ trip.
• Speaking of music, we’re thrilled to see the Braids nominated for two Junos: New Group and Alternative Album. We saw this amazing Calgary group last March (remember Chris’s post about the outfit?) and loved the show. Dan Mangan, someone we listen to frequently, is also nominated for a handful of awards. Here’s a random tidbit for you: every time Michelle looks at his name, her brain cells work extra hard. Her dad’s name is Dan Magnan. Dan Mangan. Dan Magnan. Smoke coming out ears.
• Chris discovered Kaia’s delicious buckwheat granola at Nutter’s in Canmore recently. The cherry pie flavour is dangerously addictive.
• Know what else is dangerously addictive? The breakfast panini at Kawa Espresso Bar. Yowza. Without Avenue Diner’s Ultimate Fried Egg Sandwich to feast on, we’re turning to Kawa’s panini.
• We usually just yank on a toque. But if you want a more fashionable look, here are seven ways to wear a toque (or a beanie for you Americans!), courtesy of Refinery 29.
• We like the sounds of this: Aritzia is having a huge sale  — about 50 to 70 percent off — on its fall and winter clothing.
• Yes! Can someone make this for Chris on Valentine’s Day? (Or any day.)
• Holt Renfrew’s spring 2012 shoe guide arrived with Chris’ morning paper this week. So many wants. If no one makes her French toast for Valentine’s Day, will someone please buy her Lanvin shoes?

Have an excellent weekend!

~The Toque Girls