chromedome

On a miserably hot and muggy summer day, when my kids were younger and everyone was cranky and prickly (no AC in our lives at that time) I decreed that dinner would be waffles and ice cream. That was a hit, and utterly changed the mood of the day (it didn't begin as celebratory, but ended that way). In that same house we had a functioning fireplace, so a periodic indulgence was an "indoor campfire" with our kids and their friends from the neighbourhood. They'd roast hot dogs and toast marshmallows over the fire, and tell ghost stories, and it was a grand time (before anyone asks, s'mores had not yet found their sticky way into Nova Scotia yet at that time...or at least I'd never seen or heard of them, which I guess is not necessarily the same thing).

Okay, this is an unusual one. The CFIA is warning that shredded pork skin sold to Asian (mostly Vietnamese) restaurants in the GTA has been identified as the source of an outbreak of salmonellosis. Details (such as they are) at the link. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-19/eng/1632105874340/1632105877230?utm_source=r_listserv

I stole a few minutes to get next year's garlic planted. As I've mentioned before, I grow a fairly common hardneck cultivar called "Music," much favored by commercial growers in this area for its hardiness, reliability and good yields. My father had selected for size for 12 or 15 years before he died, and I've kept up that tradition. The 48 cloves I selected for replanting weighed in at over 760g, which works out to an average of about 16g (1/2 oz, or thereabouts) per clove. Perfect for those recipes that call for only one or two cloves of garlic...

There are several threads on the forum where this one would fit, but after some thought I decided this one would be most appropriate. An article (with lots of images) from a book about bread, written by a commercial baker and for commercial bakers, and lavishly illustrated with photos. https://www.stainedpagenews.com/p/one-of-the-worlds-first-photobooks

Here's one for the Canadians in the group, or that portion of those elsewhere who can use a VPN well enough to view geo-blocked Canadian content (tip: the Opera web browser has a simple one built-in). Burger Baron is a low-budget Western Canadian chain, mostly operating out of run-down, decades-old premises. Yet it's a firm favorite on the Prairies, and has a dedicated following. I moved to Saskatchewan in my late teens, and it was a rare party that didn't feature a Burger Baron run at some point (I ate my first-ever Tater Tots at a BB in Regina...hadn't previously known they existed). The majority of Burger Barons are now owned by new Canadians from the Middle East, just as the Lebanese diaspora of the 70s came to dominate the pizza market here on the East Coast. It's a fascinating story, told here by the CBC. https://gem.cbc.ca/media/absolutely-canadian/s21e23?cmp=sch-the-last-baron

Silver Maple brand frozen, diced chicken is being recalled for listeria. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-17/eng/1631932682920/1631932689064?utm_source=r_listserv

What a shock, and what a blow to our community. Far too young...

Jongilpoom brand enoki mushrooms are being recalled for Listeria. Affects Alberta and BC, at this point. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-16/eng/1631848956953/1631848962398?utm_source=r_listserv

LOL That's why I had to look up the price of store-bought.

Since this discussion piqued my curiosity, I looked at my local supermarket (Sobeys) a couple of days ago. Regular price here is $1.50 a can (CDN), and Sobeys is seldom a price leader so they're likely cheaper elsewhere. IIRC they go on sale periodically for .99 or a bit less.

Cooked, diced chicken from Erie Meat Products is being recalled for listeria. National, or close enough as makes no never mind... https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-10/eng/1631325597388/1631325651927?utm_source=r_listserv

LOL That sounds like deliberate trolling...

I've grown it successfully from seeds purchased at the bulk-food store, so it's not out of the question. I got about 50 percent germination, which isn't great but I considered it acceptable in the context.

LOL That's exactly why my Vitamix gathers dust most of the year; if I can plausibly use my Cuise instead I invariably will.

A couple of updates. The listeria/bacon recall from my last post... https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-08/eng/1631145711147/1631145716968?utm_source=r_listserv ...and the salad kits from a couple of weeks ago. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-07/eng/1631068824642/1631068830568?utm_source=r_listserv

European Butcher brand bacon "chuncks" are being recalled in Ontario because of listeria. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-09-06/eng/1630984638146/1630984644387?utm_source=r_listserv

So where does "vache" come into the picture? Lacking a French parent I only have my middle-school memories to work from, but that's the word I was taught for "cow."

I'd quibble with "pork meat is pork." For me, pig meat is pork (or hog meat, as the case may be). I've never yet heard a kid squeal and point out a family of "porks." That being said, obviously we do refer to them as "porkers" as well, in the same sense that ranchers might speak of their herd as "beeves." But it's not the primary usage.

https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-ghost-crop-of-goa/

It's been a weird and challenging year in the garden for me, partly because of IRL drama that took me away from my beds but largely because of the weather. Parts of the province have already had their first frost warning of the year, and even here in the more moderate south we're getting overnight lows down into the single digits (that would be the 40s F, or high 30s). They're supposed to bounce back upward for the next few weeks, but it's just been that kind of year. The spring weather was more erratic than usual (which is a statement in itself), and twice I had newly-planted beds drowned by torrential rain. We've had very few hot and sunny days except for a few that hit unusually early (at the same time the heat dome was frying the West), and there's been a lot of cool, grey, wet weather. That's made it a banner year for slugs, which - combined with my frequent absences for family reasons - meant I've had entire beds of new plants devoured down to the root. Heat-loving plants have struggled all summer long...my spindly okra plants eventually gave up and died, and none of my pepper plants has yet reached a foot in height. My cucumbers are just now putting on a growth spurt and trying mightily to fruit before the cold kills them. The tomatoes are actually on schedule, which in my location means they're just beginning to give me my first few ripe fruit. The vines are smaller than usual this year but seem to be fruiting heavily enough, so that's actually a bright spot. I re-seeded most of my ravaged beds in July with quick-growing greens, so hopefully between now and the end of October I'll still get to fill my freezer with those. The chard, broccoli raab and especially kale are cold-tolerant and will produce until the community garden shuts down for the winter. My project for the winter will definitely include fabricating enough hoops to put protective row covers over my beds, because this is beyond irritating. In the longer term, once we've bought or built a place of our own, I'll be doing most of my growing in high tunnels and greenhouses. Gardening is ever so much simpler when you can exercise a modicum of control over the environment.

https://lithub.com/substantial-satisfying-hard-to-digest-how-apple-pie-is-like-america/

There are certainly better sparkling wines in cans. I don't personally know of any authentic French champagne in that format, though I have seen it sold (alongside canned wines) in single-serve bottles, with a straw attached. Coppola has a very decent blanc des blancs in a can, and I suppose I could have grabbed an image of that, but the one I chose seemed more appropriate to accompany Christmas Dinner In a Can.

Oh, that comes in its own separate can.