Pookie

So far this blog has been very good for me. It prompted me to organize the cooks books so they are all on one shelf instead of scattered through the whole house. Here is the book case that all of the cook books are in, now. All fo this case except for half of the very top shelf is cookbooks and food writing books. I am a collector of vintage cookbooks as well as the old recipe phamplets that companies circulate with their food products. Here are a few of my favourites. This is the Boston Cooking School magazine - 1905 edition. There is all sorts of information in these magazines. How to hire appropriate maids, what to have them wear, how to instruct your butler and so on. I find them fascinating. My Mother found these for me. The 7Up one has suggestions for using it as a marinade as well as an ingredient in baking.

Thanks! That chair is one of their favourite places to hang out. It helps that they are both pretty lazy. As for Cat food Prefrence, Fang will eat what ever you put in front of him. We had a hard time when we first got him because we were trying to feed him Kitten food, while Pooks was on diet food. Fang would only eat what Pooks was eating. Now the both get Natural Choice - Conplete Care from Nutro. They seem to be doing well on it. Now for Breakfast - The Husband had to leave for work so I made us some quick Egg Sandwiches. It's way too hot to really cook and we only have A/C in the bedroom. It's ice cream and salads for the rest of the day. I made these with whole wheat muffins and a bit of "egg creations" - cheese and chive flavour. I don't usually use things like that, but I got a coupon for a free carton. (I often get free samples like that at work - I order a lot of food each month - approx 30,000$ Cdn a month of supplies) It was alright I guess, but real eggs are better.

Hello all! Thanks for the warm welcome. I have been reading here for a few years now, but have never been an extremely active poster. Like Randi said she and I met because of her last blog. It was reading about her life and experiences in Exeter that prompted me to join eGullet in the first place. (my mother was from Exeter, so we spent a lot of time there when I was young) So a little about me. I am the city portion of this blog. I live in London, Ontario. (pop. 350 000) London is located about halfway between Toronto and Windsor/Detroit. It is one of the larger cities in Ontario. I was born in Toronto and spent about 5 years in Oklahoma and Alabama with my parents. (where I aquired quite the accent and a taste for grits!) Then we moved here to London. The accent faded but the the love of grits remained. At 18 I moved back to Toronto to attend George Brown Cooking school. I got a 2 year diploma and My Husband, Darryl. We met our first day of School and have been together ever since. That was 10 years ago. We got married 3 years ago. I worked in Restaurants and catering and a cooking school as a teachers assistant for a few years before realizing that it wasnt for me. I went back to school and took the Food Service Supervisors graduate program. This enables me to work in Healthcare the the Dietary Dept. I have worked in Hospitals and Long Term Care ever since. I love my job. Unfortunatly my current job did not want me to post pictures of the kitchens or food. So I can't reveal any details. But I can tell you that I work in a nursing home here in London. It's a big one about 250 beds. I do all of the ordering and menu development as well as supervising our cooks and deitary aides. It challenging and fun, even though it means I start work at 6:00am. I take my breakfast and lunch to work every day with me, in am effort to save money. I will show those everyday, as well as my dinners with the Husband. I am also planning on checking out 6 different ice cream parlors and hitting the London Rib Festival on Friday. And the obligatory pets? That's Pookie on the left, and the Fang on the right. Pooks will eat anything you are, except for oranges and banana. Fang has no desire at all for Human food.

Red Lobsters ...have disappeared from Quebec... ← yeah--does anyone know what that is about? is it a icensing or franchising thing? Red Lobster used to be my (embarassing) guilty pleasure. ← Yep, they went bankrupt in Quebec a few years ago. Along with the Olive Garden in Ontario. The Husband (then just a boyfriend) was working at the Olive garden when they shut down. They were called in the morning for a mandatory all staff meeting and told that they would not be opening that day. But he did somehow end up with 7 weeks severance pay so he was not too unhappy.

ie: Medicaid SB (wonders how the food is in Canadian hospitals) ← It's just as awful in Canada. ← As I suspected. Because the ultimate payer (the government) is so far removed from the end user (the patient) a universal blandness is almost predictable. And, at least in this Country, any innovative or experimental programs would run the risk of incurring legal liability. SB ← We do our best, Really! But yes, money is the biggest factor in making the food choices. Plus we have the challenges of trying to predict how many patients we will have on any diet at any one time. With the speed that people are shuttled in and out of hospitals here we never can tell from one hour to the next how many low fat (for example) meals we will need. Once we have opened and used a portion of food we have to throw the rest out due to cross contamination issues. We also operate under the assumption that most people spend at most 2 or 3 days in hospital and as long as we can manage an adequate level of nutrition then they can go home. We do have the homeless problem reported above as well. Many come into the emergency room and threaten to kill them selves just to be admitted. This happens most when we get a large storm being forcast. And dont forget, hospitals have to keep foods appropriate for low fat, high fat, low fibre, high fibre, diabetic, peadiatric, puree, ground, vegetarian, vegan, high protein, low protein, liquid diets, high fluid, low fluid, clear fluid, full fluid clients as well as being able to provide allergen free meals at any time of day or night. Sure you can make better food. But we are doing our best. (and a hint - if you are in Hospital in Canada for an extended stay, ask to speak to a Food Service Supervisor - explain your situation and we can usually finagle you some better grub or at least a voucher for the cafeteria so your family can pick you up something that might suit your tastes better.)

I always have a granola bar or two in my purse. I can't count the number of times we have gotten distracted by a museum or art gallery and realise a few hours down the road that we are really hungry!! Once I get to that state of HUNGRY! I am incapable of making a descision or choosing a restaurant. A granola bar gets the blood sugars back to a point where I am rational again. Plus they last forever and are cheaper than Powerbars. (more money for those museums)

Ranch. I hate Ranch Dressing and it really seems to be everywhere! It's just so gloppy and bland and yech! And I have no problem with Mayo so it's not the whiteness of it. But Eeeeee! We were offered Ranch to go with our wings last night at the pub, NONONONONO! Blue Cheese!

The London Rib fest is actually the beginning of August. the 3rd to the 7th. There is also the Fiesta Italiana at the Market from the 11th to the 13th of August here in London too. Another fun food thing (but not strictly food) Is the giant fish fry put on in Owen Sound the September long weekend. All the fresh caught, freshwater salmon you can eat!

Whoo Hoo! Another reason to go visit! Glad you enjoyed it. I'm just lucky I caught the show, Otherwise I would never have known.

YOu might also want to check this out: Daily Planet ( Canadian science show) did a section on Alinea as well. You can watch it on their website. It's in the video archives for April 18th, in case my link doenst work. Click here! http://www.exn.ca/dailyplanet/view.asp?date=4/18/2006

We made it there. I bought a few things, 1 bagel( just so so), a few rhugela and an onion board. I liked everything but the bagel. We went across the street to What a Bagel and I got 6. Once again just so/so. ← Yeah, the bagels were just ordinary. I guess I will just have to go to NY. OR to Montreal because I love those bagels. I always bring back dozens!!

Not Hedgehogs. Not spiky enough. Maybe some form of rattish thing?

Erm? Why exactly would this be illegal? I have made several home baked and decorated cakes and taken them to public venues. No hall, restaurant or other wedding location has ever objected. It's a cake, not steak tartare.

OH MY GOD! I think that is probably the worst thing in the thread! Pink Margarine! PINK!!! MARGARINE!!!! Gah.

I certainly do lots of canning when I get the chance. But like someone said above, there are only two of us so sometimes it doesnt make a lot of sense. I bought a book on Small-batch preserving a few years ago so that I could "put up" some stuff and not end upwith 20 jars in the pantry. Most of the recipes make one or two jars at the moment. Last year I did some jams, marmelade, grape jelly from some wild grapes, pickles, tomato sauce, red pepper jelly and cherries. Mom used to do hundreds and hundres of jars of pears from our tree. Got us through a lot of lean weeks when fresh fruit was really expensive and the wallet was thin. She still does some stuff, I have some mustard beans in the fridge from her. I know Calipoutine and I are planning on getting together this summer to do up a few batches of jams and hopefully pickles too. (

Hot cross buns, scrambled eggs, thick cut bacon, fruit cup with kiwi and blood oranges and a skim milk cappuchino. Yum.

I tried to eat bugs once but just couldnt do it. It was at the Montreal Botanical gardens, they were having a tasting. I had meal worm banana cake, cricket sushi and some kind of Ant nacho. I Choked it down, but it came close to coming back up. The only thing I ate and couldnt beleive I actually liked were chicken feet. I thought I would hate them.

Salami, Procuitto, pancetta, Summer sausage, chinese sausages, beef jerky, lop yuk, pepperettes, pepperoni....... You name it. Basically any type of cured meat with lots of salt and fat. (I have been known to polish off a 1/2lb of deli sliced salami at a sitting.)

I tried this last night. No explosions and it tastes great! I do wonder if I left it for too long though because it's really thick. I may have to get out the mixer and give it a good whip tonight with a little milk to thin it down to a more pourable state. I have to admit to being nervous though. I spent the whole time it was in the kitchen in the furthest part of the house!

We are very lucky as our theatre is both right across the road from our house and is located above both the 24 hour Grocery store and the bulk food store. I have taken my dessert to go from dinner and enjoyed it during the movie after.

White Nectarines. We were in Paris when they were in season and I think we just about ate our weight in them. I have tried a few times here but it's just not the same. So no more North American white nectarines for me.

An old Canadian Living basic cookbook that I got as a present for my 16th birthday. I was soooo very pissed off to get a cookbook when my friends were getting cars and CD players and jewelry, but I love it now and use it all the time.

Holy Crap! Homemade Chocolate! Where did you get your grinder? (wonders if she can persuade the husband on that one.)

I think the wierdest thing I have in the freezer is culture for cheesemaking. Not weird at all by these standards!

We ahve the advantage of being on the 8th floor so we can put stuff on the balcony without worrying about critters. That is as long as we remember to shut the door and the cats don't get out. Growing up we used the carport and backyard as a big fridge. I do remember running out there once with a pot of caramel that I forgot about and dumping it in the snow. That was fun. We forgot some leftovers from dinner in the car a few nights ago. It was nice to know that they were nice and cold the whole time!