chromedome

There's an alternate explanation...

That's a very nice size for eating as baby carrots. If your climate is mild you can basically leave carrots in place over winter (a couple of inches of mulch can help) and then they'll resume growing in the spring for a nice, early crop. Gotta harvest them early, though: they're biennials, so if you leave them they'll go to seed and the roots won't be any good for eating.

My only subscription is The Mother Earth News; I carried on my father's subscription that he'd started in the early 70s after he passed away. Most issues have a few recipes, and LOT about growing your own food (and occasionally, brewing wine/beer/kombucha etc) so I guess it counts.

I would say the issue is with your apartment freezer, because I freeze lots of bananas and that doesn't happen. I'm not a huge smoothie-drinker, but I have found that freezing the bananas does two things. One, as you've said, is that it chills the smoothie without the necessity of ice. The other, a personal observation, is that room-temp bananas tend to make the mixture frothier and airier while frozen bananas do not. I find frothiness to be undesirable - your mileage, as always, may vary - so when I *do* make a smoothie, the bananas (if I use 'em) are invariably frozen.

We took the grandkids (2 and 5) for NYE so their parents could have a bit of downtime and relax and celebrate a bit in their own right. So...no going out for us, but I wouldn't exactly call it "low key." Things mellowed a lot after the little guy dozed off. The 5 yo was determined to see in the New Year with us, so we put on The Neverending Story and sat together on the couch with a tray of nibblies (Boursin, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, cold garlic shrimp, crackers, sliced ciabatta). A glass of wine for my GF, local microbrew for me, apple juice for the granddaughter. ...and my 2021 began with an enthusiastic serenade on drums and recorder, delivered by the 2yo. I wasn't quite caffeinated enough to enjoy it in the correct spirit, but at least managed to pay lip service (as one does, when grandparenting).

I lived in Vancouver back in the 80s, mostly on the east side (Commercial Dr area), and my sister still lives there. Lots of good memories.

Yup. Sometimes I want greens that cook up soft, sometimes I want greens that retain some chew. I like 'em all.

When my boy was around a year old we had to make sure he was strapped into his stroller before we entered the supermarket, otherwise he'd bolt for the broccoli, grab a handful, and start chewing.

I've always been ambivalent about it, because - at least for the dozen or so brands I've tried over the years - I find it always has a strong and distinctive metallic taste, unless it is carefully caramelized before I use it. Everyone's palate is different, of course.

Also it's pre-gelatinized so once you've hit the correct degree of thickness in your gravy or sauce, it's ready to serve (no need to cook out the raw-flour taste). I'll often use AP flour and a roux to make my gravy, then add the Robin Hood at the end if it seems a bit thin.

...and fries. Though as the author points out, there are perfectly authentic, regional versions of tourtiere that do include potatoes. So it's not as much of a stretch as it might sound at first blush.

Yeah...a tourtiere with poutine in it. As the writer observes mildly, "...I am not convinced that it is gastronomically pleasing." https://theconversation.com/poutine-in-a-pie-would-you-eat-a-tourtine-this-holiday-season-152422

The only listings I can find are for Europe, though - in fairness - we have plenty of regulars on that continent who might have an interest.

Yup. And back in the day, here in Canada, we had this famous case (recently the subject of a film starring Christopher Walken as Schmeiser).

From The Guardian today... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/28/seed-saving-movement-calls-for-seeds-to-be-publicly-owned?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

Pretty much the same for me, as I believe I've mentioned here in the past: not a huge fan, and my parents outright disliked turkey, so I didn't grow up with it. I make it for others, basically, and because if I'm the one doing the bird I know that a) it won't be overcooked; and b) it'll be food safe. I like it better as leftovers, truthfully. In bygone years my usual thing was to buy one while they were on sale for cheap at the holidays and then break it down. I could easily coax a dozen meals for my family of four out of a single small- to mid-sized turkey, all of them more interesting than the plain ol' roasted bird (to my taste, I hasten to add).

The batch I make is big enough for several meals for two. I scoop them from the water onto a sheet pan that has been sprayed, but otherwise use no oil. I just let them cool, then freeze them on the sheet, and vacuum-pack the frozen spaetzle into individual portions for later meals. I would expect that if they're cooled quickly under running water, then drained and turned out onto a pan, that would work just fine in a to-go scenario.

I have an 80s-vintage Vitamix, the old-school kind with the stainless-steel jar. It sounds like a piece of construction equipment. I use it primarily for breaking up ice, because "blendering" isn't a big part of my life other than pureeing soup (and I have an immersion blender for that).

I follow Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn on Twitter, though I don't visit often. There's a thread today following this article on Slate, about Google's algorithm for displaying recipe search results (and its deleterious effects)... https://slate.com/technology/2020/12/why-googles-recipe-results-are-meaningless.html

I've contemplated those Vitamix soup recipes more than a few times, but just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. The thought of listening to that beast bellowing away on my countertop for more than a few seconds at a time deters me.

My only food-related gift this year was a cheapie Starfrit french-fry cutter from the parents-in-law. I will make a point of using it so I can tell them I have, but usually I just cut my fries by hand. Truthfully, I dread getting kitchen gadgets for the holidays. There just aren't that many I actually covet, and on the whole I'd rather choose those for myself. In fairness to the in-laws, mind you, I have gotten a lot of use out of the dehydrator they got me a couple of years ago.

I'm playing a bit with indoor gardening right now, more or less just to scratch the itch while I wait for spring to roll around again. In my current rental solar is just not a possibility, and I also don't have a lot of natural light (our windows face N and NW). So this means artificial lighting, but with frugality top-of-mind. At present I have a mixture of broad-spectrum bulb-style grow lights from the building supplies store. They're okay for starting seeds and suchlike, but aren't really cutting it for full-sized plants. I'm looking at probably picking up a few Sun Blaster LEDs from my local garden-supplies store, the kind that are a drop-in replacement for their fluorescent tubes. I think those will do what we need. I have at present one tomato plant that's just begun to blossom, plus some beans in a large-ish planter (they're only a couple of weeks old, but growing well) and a couple of windowsill planters with lettuces and lettuce-adjacent greenery (ie, a package of "mesclun mix" seeds). I also have a hanging planter with nasturtiums, to go into the window of my GF's office for aesthetic purposes and also because I like nasturtiums as a salad ingredient. Still early days for everything except the tomato, which I planted as the outdoor gardening season was coming to a close. In the longer term I see indoor growing as something I'll do more of. My GF and I hope to build out a "forever home" in Nova Scotia's relatively mild Annapolis Valley a few years from now, and gardening is a big part of the picture for me. Unfortunately the reality is that I'll be in my 60s by the time it happens and will need to plan around declining mobility, potential illnesses and suchlike. So I intend to borrow the notion of purpose-built interior growing spaces from the "Earthship" builders, though I'll implement it in a way that makes sense in my own climate (which, of course, is the opposite of their hot and arid conditions). That opens up the prospect not just of more reliable growing conditions, but potentially growing things that otherwise would be out of the question. I know of at least one farm family in that part of the province who grow enough indoor figs for their own use, for example, and also a limited quantity to sell at the farmer's market (and supposedly they're now playing with citrus as well). Aside from the culinary value of the indoor growing, and the mental-health/physical fitness aspects of gardening as an activity, my cold-loathing GF is also looking forward to having a warm and sunny space where she can bask and be surrounded by green and growing things. Sounds to me like a sure-fire fix for SAD.