chromedome

I always have either WASA or Ryvita on hand. Currently it's Ryvita, because they were on sale. On the whole I prefer WASA.

That would actually make a fascinating compare-and-contrast, wouldn't it?

There's a national recall on some kinds of Little Gourmet Organic Bowls, which apparently contain wood. Not that a lot of us here have toddlers, but perhaps grandkids (or great-grands?) might be at risk. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-little-gourmet-organic-brand-mealtime-bowls-recalled-due-pieces-wood?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

LOL I'm the opposite, I seldom eat eggs for breakfast but "breakfast for dinner" is a frequent occurrence.

You know the market niche has become mainstream when... https://www.fastcompany.com/90987446/ooni-gozney-roccbox-solo-pi-home-pizza-oven

Got a couple, tonight. First an add-on/update to the cantaloupe recall (5 deaths to date in Canada, 3 in the US): https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/fresh-cut-cantaloupe-products-recalled-due-salmonella-0?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23 ...and Kopi Thyme sauces and soup bases (various Asian styles) for botulism. This one's Ontario and the Western provinces, but possibly were sold online and ended up in other provinces as well. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/kopi-thyme-brand-sauces-and-soup-bases-recalled-due-potential-presence-dangerous?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Which, yes, is sharp. For those who - like me - are clumsy or experience declining dexterity, it's definitely a pick-your-poison scenario. I personally found that I was more likely to cut myself on the can after using a side-cutter, so I abandoned it for a conventional can opener. Others (possibly/probably a majority?) have found otherwise. I will say that cans opened with a side-cutter make excellent biscuit cutters, etc. and are definitely preferable for steaming loaves of Boston brown bread.

Gotta make sure they weren't damaged in shipping, right?

Unsurprisingly I was not involved in the actual research, but my mental picture was of the charged coffee particles clinging together like clothes in a dryer (obviously, a dryer without a Bounce sheet). Dampness inhibits static charge, so it all seemed logical.

Well, we've got this month's enoki mushroom recall out of the way early. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/good-brand-enoki-mushroom-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

...and write a paper together. Okay, the chemist has actually done studies on the mechanics of espresso brewing in the past, but this time he looked into the savvy barista's habit of lightly spritzing the beans before grinding to see if he could validate a scientific reason for doing so. The experiments were successful, and the volcanologist took away some useful insights as well. First link is a layperson's explanation, second link is the underlying paper. https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/study-why-a-spritz-of-water-before-grinding-coffee-yields-less-waste-tastier-espresso/ https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(23)00568-4

...as one does.

I didn't remember to post it at the time, but on Friday I celebrated my birthday (in part) by cutting some fresh baby kale from my garden. Picking stuff in my garden is not something I've gotten to do very often in December, so there was a strong element of "because I can" involved.

Should you have taken a left turn at Albuquerque? (Seriously, if I'm ever in New Mexico I have to take a selfie doing exactly that...)

I've never seen anyone eat tourtiere with maple syrup, molasses, or cranberry preserves. I have seen a grandkid apply a splot of ketchup to one, and presumably she wasn't unique in doing so, but it's not something I've seen an adult do. The Acadian-descended friend who introduced me to tourtiere (to be clear, it's a Quebec thing not an Acadian thing) served hers with extra gravy, and that's usually the only sauce/condiment I use as well. I've had others but hers is the version I mostly adhere to (no specific recipe as such), with pork as the dominant meat, onions as the only veg and allspice as the dominant seasoning. There are as many variations as cooks, as is usually the case with traditional favorites.

I dunno... eggs and sausage is such a left-field combination...

We have a full-sized chest freezer in the kitchen, plus a full-sized upright, plus two smaller "apartment-sized" chest freezers, plus the drawer in our massive French-door refrigerator. All of which are stuffed. Plan is to pack one of the small chest freezers with rabbit, a second one with "overflow" garden veg and supermarket bargains, and the upright with the current "working quantities" of veg, frozen stock, container portions of prepared/made ahead foods, etc. That should free up a portion of the large chest freezer, and a shelf or two of the upright, for Christmas stuff.

Is it a reference to a movie which involves, among other things, a convertible filled with fish?

I expect it comes down to prioritization. I don't know about the US, but up here the coffee creamers and half-and-half vastly outsell heavy cream, to judge by the number of facings in the dairy case and my own observation of other customers coming and going while I await my turn. If there's a packaging shortage, dairies will absolutely give priority to the higher-selling product.

We've ordered our turkey from the local farmer (at a whopping 70-cent/lb premium over a plain old supermarket bird) and that's about it, except I've been to Costco for walnuts and for ground almonds. I need to reorganize the freezers before I start my cookie-making binge, so I'll have a place to put them.

That was a shock to me when I first moved to Alberta, and the egg yolks - even from a lot of farmer's market vendors - seemed weirdly pale. "Surely," I thought, "Eggs in Alberta can't all just be old?" The explanation I was given (if you're going to ask that kind of question, culinary school is a good place for it) was that chickens in Alberta are often fed on barley rather than corn, and that it results in paler yolks.