CaliPoutine

If I ate meat, I wouldnt touch it either. In fact, I don't even want to cook it( I refuse to cook veal, but there is no chance of that given the cost). I was willing to relent because it is so cheap. I'll call the coordinator and see what she says.

Ok, thanks. Hopefully, the store still has them when I go tomorrow.

Lamb shoulder's are an in store special for .99lb. What can I do with them?

Me too. I would have NEVER paid for that. I mean, really do they charge you for cold tap water? Why should you pay just because its HOT.

After a sleepless night, I ran uptown to the flooring store and yes, they confirmed they installed the wrong floor. There were two installations for people with my last name and I got the other person's floor. The installer came over a little later to install the right floor, but my cabinet installer was here and he couldnt reschedule. So, I had to live with the floor for a week until the CORRECT floor could go down( around the cabinets). I'm still really irritated about the whole thing!!

The floor was laid on Oct 17th. I left for the day and when I came home, I saw this..... All the construction workers( they were working on the addition) thought it looked great. Of course the flooring person did a wonderful job laying the floor, but. HE INSTALLED THE WRONG FLOOR!!!!!! This wasnt the floor I ordered.

here is a shot of the former pantry area. The walls were ripped down to make way for floor to ceiling pantry cabinets.

And here is the teardown...... OMG, this was a mess. The kitchen was lath and plaster and everything was torn down and then drywalled. The teardown started on Oct 9th. We set up a temporary kitchen in our living room, but we couldnt use the stove. We had a microwave, fridge and toaster oven. Thankfully, we were only without a functional kitchen for a bit over 2 weeks.

I moved into this house in Dec 02. I never liked this kitchen, but I made the best of it because we werent sure what we were going to do. We made the decision to stay in the house and renovate the kitchen instead of moving. We also added a large 24 x 24 room( will be our bedroom) and a deck. I'm going to post a few pics of the kitchen and then add a link to the album on facebook. I have way too many pics to post. We're still not finished as we ordered our backsplash last week. It should be in next week and then whenever the install can take place. The house is 100yrs old and I believe the kitchen was added some years after the house. The floors were linoleum and the counters were formica( I think). It was extremely unfunctional. The stove broke about a month before the teardown of the kitchen. We had to replace the element in the oven because I couldnt go that long without it. We hired a Kitchen Designer and about 2 months after that, I found Garden Web ( thanks to Jennifer Garner's Kitchen reno posted on Eg). I probably would have been able to do without the KD had I found GW first. Here we go, get ready for the pics. The color is blinding....... BEFORE. This was right before the tear-down.

My Harley is a wire-hair dachshund!! Dachshunds love food. Does Riley?

Your Thanksgiving dinner looked to die for.... I have a Harley dog too. I also made some doctored up stove top for the Seniors on Canadian Thanksgiving. They loved it!!

I didnt have any salad leftover. The chicken was a great deal. I bought it back in August and froze it. These thighs were .99lb. I had too many packages so I sold a package each to two different volunteers. I've made chicken this way, more times than I can count( although I usually use boneless skinless breasts). I did the flour, egg, seasoned bread crumb thing and shallow fried it in olive oil. They finished in the oven. They really loved these. This was basic. Pasta, sauce, ricotta, cottage cheese and mozzarella. I spent 11.49 for 1k of cheese. The ricotta was 3.49 for 425 grams and the cottage cheese was 2.99 for 1kg. I wish I would have bought more ricotta instead of the cheese. I didnt like seeing the large curds in the dish, but the seniors didnt mind. Desert was a doctored up cake mix( milk chocolate cherry from The Cake Mix Doctor) with vanilla ice cream. Bryer's on sale for 2.99 a half gallon. I also served Dempster's store bought garlic bread( cooked from frozen). Thanks Pam for the idea!! I'm still in shock that they liked it.

Last night's meal..... Get ready for it......... They FREAKING LOVED IT!! I was in absolute shock. One man told me " you redeemed yourself" from the roast last time. Hmmmm, I didnt like that comment, but I'm really glad they liked the meal. This just proves my point, the more convenience foods I use, the more they like it. This is the pasta/sauce I used. The pasta was 1.00 a box, the sauce was 2.00. I didnt use it all since I had a lot of cancellations. We ended up serving 32 ppl with 9 takeouts. I bought this Parm in the States because it was 1.00 a bag( 1.99 minus a .50 doubled coupon) The salad was 6 hearts of organic romaine( 1.99 for a package of 3), 2 lbs of maple leaf bacon (1.99lb) a bag of croutons( 1.79), the parm and the Renee's light ceasar dressing( 3.25)

As you all know, I live in the sticks. I havent been to Toronto in ages....( Must remedy that soon) If I want a good meal in Exeter, I must cook it.

That looks fantastic, even more alluring than the photo in Food & Wine. I have to ask though, did you make the recipe as written, and was it too sweet? The recipe above calls for 2 cups + 2 tbs sugar in the cake alone! ← I'm curious too, since I plan on making it for Robin's bday.

I use Minute Tapioca all the time when I make cherry pies with a crumb topping. I've never used it for pies with a pie crust topping. It always disolves and I wonder if thats because I leave it in the oven for over an hour. How long did your pie bake? I wonder if there was enough liquid as well?

Riley is very handsome. I'm the mom of two dachsunds and I know they can get very testy!! I've never seen a dachsund/cocker mix though, he's adorable. Keep up the good work!!

I think thats why I liked them so much. I love cake, don't love brownies. I think whipped the eggs with the sugar plus the levener made them crack on top. Mine did too, btw. They were yummy.

What about the popular ( In MN at least) Nut Goodie? I remember they used to be a lot bigger than they are now. I don't care how big they are, I just wish I could buy them in MI. If I want some, I have to mail order them!!

The same thing happened to me on Sunday. I soaked some Rancho Gordo Beans( Good Mother Stallard) overnight and they still took about 3 hrs to cook. I probably could have let them go another hour but my spouse wanted her burrito!! Now I wonder if its my water.

Thanks for the link Andi. I've been looking for parchment sheets myself. I'm sick of dealing with the rolls of parchment from the grocery store. I ordered 2 lots( 400 sheets) and I still only paid 8.95 for shipping. Btw, I had this sent to my address in MI, she doesnt ship to Canada.

I'd have to agree with Rock and Roller. If it were my gift card, I'd buy my signature scent( which is Opium) and some clothes. I'd skip the housewares dept, because I always think I could find X better/cheaper somewhere else.

I just made some stock ( will become matza ball soup) with some Kosher chicken I picked up at Loblaw's in London. I almost always get it on the last day of sale when they mark it 50% off. I know London has a Jewish population, but I never see anyone buying the Kosher chicken and almost everytime I go its marked down. Yay for me because I think Kosher chicken makes exceptional stock/soup.

Not in Ontario thats for sure. The cheapest I've seen turkey is 1.79lb and thats for Utility. When I'm shopping in Port Huron, I see many Canadians buying the cheap turkeys. I usually buy one or two and bring it back as well, but I won't do that for the Seniors. We're doing the turkey roasts (boneless) this year for their xmas meal again. 3.70lb frozen. Obviously, I don't know about Ontario, but in the States, frozen turkeys are almost always offered as some sort of draw to bring in customers during the holidays. Many stores say that if you buy $25-50 worth of groceries, for example, you get a turkey free. And my advice wasn't for the Thanksgiving dinner itself; but rather, to stick in the freezer to have cheap meat available for the next six months or so. I always buy at least two additional frozen turkeys while they're on sale. I do have the butchers cut them in half. I wrap the halves separately and put them in the freezer. I drag them out throughout the year, and cook them in various ways. Sometimes I just roast a half in the oven for a family dinner, and use the bones and leftovers to make meals such as Turkey al la King, turkey spaghetti, curries, turkey soup, etc. I can get a week's worth of meals from one of those halves. And then in the springtime when the weather turns warm I'll cook one out on our bbq grill, and serve it with a congealed cranberry-apple salad. But of course, if turkeys never go on sale in Ontario, that advice wouldn't be quite so helpful. ← It's a great idea if only they were cheap here. Right after Canadian Thanksgiving, they were .99lb. I called my boss to ask her if we should get them and freeze them for Xmas, and by the time I heard back from her, they were sold out. I'm very familar with the great sales on turkeys in the US because I'm orginally from California!! I was in Ann Arbor, MI for a few days this week and I could have brought 1 back with me, but I didnt have the room for myself and 1 wouldnt do it for the seniors. Per Canada Customs, only 1 turkey per person is allowed. Btw, poultry in general is very expensive in Canada. Whenever its on sale, I try to plan a menu around it. I'm using the boneless, skinless thighs I got for .99lb at the next meal.