Happy Monday! It's a long weekend here where I live so I'm recovering from a relaxing day at the lake. Sounds like a hard life, right? ;) For those of you having to work today, hope the day goes by quickly!

Aside from lipsticks, my favorite beauty product to play around with is blush. It's a product that can be hit or miss, and I have a hit to share with you today. theBalm recently released their Instain Blush, which they describe to be a long wearing, staining powder blush.

First of all, the packaging is just so cute. Mimicking the layout of a magazine, the package itself is palm-sized, armed with a mirror and  encased in a sturdy cardboard material. Each different shade in the product range features a different "cover girl" on the front, so it's easy to distinguish one colour from the next

The product itself is finely millled, meaning it's buttery soft and velvety to the touch. The blush is quite pigmented, so a little amount does go a long way. Using a brush for application, the blush is easily blendable, and happens to build up quite nicely if you like heavier colour. Toile, the shade I have above, is a strawberry pink shade that would look great on all skintones. It is quite similar to Benefit's Bella Bamba, minus the glitter. Applied with a light hand, it has a natural pink flush tone to it, which is why I like it so much. In terms of wear, it did stay on my skin for up to 8 hours, but it did definitely fade a bit throughout the day. Pretty good in my books, if you ask me!

So where can you pick up this blush? Nail Polish Canada (NPC) recently started carrying the Instain line, and has all six shades available for purchase. At $22, it's a pretty good price for 25.5g worth of product! For a limited time, NPC has free shipping on all orders, so pick one up now if you're interested! Also, they're holding a contest to win $75 worth of products from theBalm, so click here to check out the contest and enter. Good luck!

*Disclaimer: this post contains a sample provided by PR for consideration of a review

The ever growing food scene has brought us some great local gems this summer, and in just over a week, another restaurant will be opening up in Edmonton.

The first restaurant of its kind, Plow & Harvest redefines the art of comfort food by combining a fresh-casual approach with a unique chef-crafted menu. With a focus on sourcing and promoting local ingredients, Plow & Harvest supports local and regional producers by serving delicious, enticing, one-of-a-kind menu offerings built on handcrafted techniques and artisanal products. From the signature BBQ Bison Meatloaf Plate, to the Mac-N-Cheese with Bacon Breadcrumbs to the Heritage Roast Turkey Club, the menu offers timeless favourites updated with modern flair and served a casual, friendly environment.

With easy access for shoppers, area businesses, and commuters on the way home mat the end of the workday, Plow & Harvest promises to offer a truly unique concept in dining, including locally-sourced comfort foods, craft beer and wines. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options are also available.


Restaurants with descriptions like these always get me excited. The idea of supporting local producers and preparing local food is great and I've been so happy to see many of our local restaurants supporting Alberta's producers. Now, lucky for you, I have a double guest pass to give away to one reader for a sneak peak tasting at Plow & Harvest (10041 170 Street) on August 13th from 5-8PM. You'll get to preview the restaurant before it opens to the public on August 16th!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS
To enter, simply leave me your email address in the giveaway widget below. Please make sure you leave a valid email address, as this is how I will be contacting you.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES
To gain additional entries:
1. Follow Little Miss Andrea via Google Friend Connect --->
2. Follow me via Twitter (@littlmissandrea)
3. Tweet about the giveaway, making sure to tag @plowharvest and @littlmissandrea

This giveaway is open to everyone able to attend the tasting on August 13th. All entrants must be 18+ years of age or have guardian permission to enter. You have until August 8th to enter, and the winner selected by random and be contacted via email. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As I had mentioned in an earlier Manicure Monday post, I recently participated in a cooking contest at this year's Taste of Edmonton festival. A few months back, the organizers for Taste of Edmonton sent out a message about their Black Box Challenge, similar to 'Chopped' on the Food Network where you're given a box of 5-6 ingredients, and your challenge is to make a dish to showcase all the ingredients together. Fun, right? Well, not so much when you're a food blogger like me who reviews restaurants and hardly cooks at home!

Just kidding. I was pretty intrigued by the contest, and instantly found myself on a team with my friends Lesley and Addie. We would be facing two other teams of three participants, and we weren't sure whether to be excited or nervous heading up to the day of the competition. We knew who the competition was, and saw that they had done a lot of practicing, and seemed pretty confident in their skills, determined to win the challenge. Us on the other hand? Our schedules were so hectic that we hardly had any chances to get together and have a sense of what our team would be like until two days before the challenge, where we had the opportunity to cook a dish together. At least we were given the hint that the items in the box would be focused on local products and current food trends. Fingers crossed and relatively confident, we showed up on Sunday morning ready to cook!

Once all the teams were settled in and the judges took their seats, the mystery ingredients were revealed to us: gochujang sauce, duck fat, eggs, potatoes, kale, and yak. When I heard that yak was in the basket, I'm not going to lie, my heart rate increased a bit! My initial thoughts: "Aren't those the animals that help people climb Mount Everest? What are they doing in Alberta?" But I was confident in our team and knew we would be able to pull something off. One of the emcee's, Courtney Theriault, came over to talk to us to ask about our strategy. And to tell you the truth, we didn't have a strategy except to work off of each other's strengths. Lesley is great with proteins, Addie is an expert on starches and marinades, whereas I like to think I have a good handle on making salads and plating dishes. We walked in as the E-lemon-ators in our yellow shirts, ready to take on and take out the competition!

What we wanted to do was keep it simple. How could we put a dish together using the six ingredients, highlighting each one on its own, but have them combine cohesively as a unit? And it struck us instantly. We were going to do our own version of a poutine. We marinated the yak in a mix of gochujang sauce, fresh lemon juice and diced onions, searing and cooking it in a pan until medium rare. With the potatoes, we sliced them up and deep fried them into fries using the duck fat, topping them with crisped up kale and parmesan cheese slices from the on-site pantry. After slicing up the yak, we plated it on top of the potatoes, topping it all off with a sunny egg. The finishing touch? We deglazed the pan used to cook the yak to make our version of a quick gravy to drizzle on top. Mmmm.

Having only one hour to prep and put our dish together was definitely stressful in the heat of the moment, but looking back on the experience, I don't regret it and would compete with my two teammates again in a heartbeat! Although we didn't bring home the prize (rumour has it we came in second by 1 point!) the experience itself was worth it for me.


Deconstructed Yak Poutine
So all I have left to say is THANK YOU to everyone that came out to support my team on the day of the competition. I was honestly shocked by the number of people that came to the event just to cheer our team on, and I will never forget the day. Your support means the world to me (and my team!) and I appreciate each and every one of you that took time out of your day to stop by the event. Thanks to the team at Taste of Edmonton for putting together and hosting the competition, and to all the sponsors that made the event possible. If given the opportunity.. you'll see me again next year with Lesley and Addie fighting for the title!