chromedome

The most recent one I've gotten was for salmonella in some Hello Fresh and Chef's Plate meal kits. Distribution is national, or nearly so...from the Maritimes to Manitoba. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2019-01-21/eng/1548130312229/1548130314953 I'll try to keep up on it, for the benefit of Canadian regulars here, but be warned in advance that "life stuff" and absentmindedness make me an unreliable correspondent.

Schools here in Atlantic Canada have a zero-peanut policy, so peanut-free snacks are a must regardless of your own child's allergy status. I expect it's the same in other provinces. Halloween candy is uniformly made in peanut-free facilities, presumably for similar reasons.

I got hooked on falafel in my native Halifax, which had a great influx of refugees during the Lebanese civil war of the 70s. I worked in a mall with a surprisingly good Lebanese place in the food court...it got to the point where the local indie paper retired the Best Falafel category of its annual "Best of Halifax" reader's poll, because it just went to this place every year without fail. I've made them occasionally, but not nearly often enough. On the upside, a pair of recently-arrived Syrian women have opened a cafe right in side the YMCA where my GF and I go 3-5 days/week, so I can get my "fix" there.

I find that mine frosts the *most* in summertime, because that's when the air is at its most humid. Kerrie's 8-year accumulation of ice roughly equals mine after 6 months.

My mom's War Cake recipe is very similar in style and technique, though hers has more sugar and less fat. Hers has more water and flour as well, so I expect this version makes a softer cake. I always liked the flavor of mom's (made it several times as a kid, just learning to bake) but found the texture to be somewhat chewy.

In practice, their emails seem to arrive late in the evening for whatever reason. But no, I don't specifically check before eating. I don't buy a lot of processed foods, or even prepared salads, so it's pretty seldom I have to actually check a product to see if it's been recalled.

I don't know if the equivalent US agency has an email mailing list, but I get updates from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency all the time. The subject line/header tells you what the recall is about (E. coli, salmonella, listeriosis, allergens, etc).

"Divided by a common language," as they say.

Cool. I use a Mason jar lifter for ceramic ramekins, but it's not as good with custard cups and their sloped sides.

Black cake is a tradition in Nova Scotia as well, probably because of the Caribbean rum/molasses connection. Someone, probably Peter the Eater IIRC, posted a recipe here once upon a time.

LOL Speaking as an older brother, "younger sibling" *is* a reason.

I spent the summer and autumn of '80 working the inshore fishery in Newfoundland with my father and my uncle. My uncle tried repeatedly to teach me the necessary handful of basic knots, and failed miserably. I think he thought I was deliberately screwing it up, in order to avoid responsibility, but in truth I was just as frustrated as he was. I was never any good at 3D puzzles, either, or anything in general that requires spatial perception (I bang my head a LOT).

I ate a lot of rabbit growing up, as well. My father snared them and occasionally potted one with his little .410 shotgun, and we also raised them occasionally. We mostly ate them as stew, though fried was not uncommon either. I could skin and gut one with my pocketknife by the time I was 7 (during those brief intervals between losing pocketknives, at least...).

I find the texture is improved the second day. I usually make mine up ahead, and reheat a portion each morning for breakfast. If I forget (which happens occasionally) I'll make 'em up but won't eat them day of. I'll have something else, and then have the new batch the next day when they're "right" in my estimation.

On a Daiso-related note, I don't know if you saw this on your local news: https://www.narcity.com/ca/on/toronto/news/japans-version-of-dollarama-just-opened-in-ontario-and-you-wont-be-able-to-resist-their-products

Something I tripped across the other day while working, and thought it might amuse some of you (and it's at least somewhat on topic...) https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325536

One of my former restaurants was in a rather nice little seaside in. I had a customer stay a week once, an elderly and curmudgeonly English gent (he clearly relished the curmudgeon role) who told me that he looked forward to each Canadian visit, in part, because it had become impossible to get a decent muffin back home. There's been a decade of enthusiasm for all things artisanal in the bread world since, so I doubt it's still true (if in fact it was, even then). It amused me, though, because he reminded me of a perpetually sour co-worker I'd once had. That co-worker was from New Zealand, and one of his recurring gripes was that it was impossible to get decent lamb in NZ because the good stuff all got exported.

I think part of the problem is that by a certain age, we've all been "compelled by circumstances" a time or two, and have an instinct to hedge against the eventuality. Also, of course, there's the question of upbringing. My parents both grew up in large and not-affluent families (in my father's case, in a remote part of northern Newfoundland where a bad gardening year could put you at serious risk of malnutrition), so the idea of wasting anything edible was always anathema in our household. It's something that's been hard for me to let go of, though working in foodservice will beat that out of you pretty quickly. I will say, having an instinctive aversion to food waste is not a bad thing in the person who runs the kitchen. Many's the prep cook who was threatened with dire (if unspecified) consequences should they offend my "East Coast frugality gene."

I'm sure all the pet people can relate...

For me it's less a feeling of "I've already eaten" than one of "I'm going to want something to eat eventually, but *not* what I've smelled for the last several hours while I prepped it." Back in December I made the staff Christmas meal for the supermarket where I teach cooking classes (and may I say, parenthetically, that prepping a lavish holiday meal for 150-170 people on the morning of, with no advance prep possible, no assistants and a rigid 5 hour time budget, is a non-trivial exercise even for a professional?) and they were all quite surprised when I was reluctant to join them at the end. I had a small serving of broccoli salad, and made the excuse that we were eating with family soon after...

Wow...even by the standards of my own family, that demonstrates a remarkable degree of talent.

Pretty much how I prioritize. Except I always plant a few potatoes, despite their year-round cheapness and availability, because I like new baby potatoes fresh from the garden (and those, of course, are also pricey by potato standards).

That'll be a lifelong memory. Well done, Auntie.

I used to occasionally do "millionaire fish & chips" at one of my restaurants...one piece halibut, one piece salmon, one lobster tail.

I'll second the recommendation of upgraded equipment, though I'm no chocolatier. If you can't do it all yourself your options are a piece of machinery or more staff...staff are cheaper up front but costlier in the long term, whereas machinery is the opposite (and doesn't need training, won't call in sick, won't leave once you've spent six months training it to do things the way you want, etc). When my parents had their bakery, my mother rolled the crust for tens of thousands of pies by hand (my father joked she could have arm-wrestled Popeye). When my cousin bought it from them, the first thing she brought in was a dough sheeter. She was able to make more pies than before, and (unlike my mom) didn't need to take muscle relaxants in order to sleep and avoid debilitating headaches. Different problem, but analogous.