FauxPas

I've also done that! One store tends to train better, they call it 'bagging school'.

I have a love/hate thing with self-checkouts. It's really nice to go through a full-serve checkout when you have a smart and efficient cashier who bags things well but when you get someone who is poorly trained or just a bit thoughtless, you can end up with a bagging mess and damaged produce and soft/fragile goods. Some stores are better than others. There are times when I really prefer to bag my own groceries and it's usually easiest to do that at a self-checkout. If i have a long drive home or to wherever I'm staying, I really want frozen with frozen and easily broken items with soft produce. Put my bananas, tomatoes and avocadoes in with bread and buns please and not with cans. I try to bring extra bags so I can accommodate things ok and still distribute the weight. A good bagger makes me very happy. I hate to have to reorganize stuff as soon as I get to the car. Sometimes, even with a cashier, I start bagging my items as they are scanning just to make sure I get things the way I want them. Am I a PITA? 😄

We drove through Quartzsite (I think there is an 's' in there) once when we used to spend a lot of time in Arizona. We weren't RVers so that part of it didn't mean anything to us. We were just amazed at the crowds in the middle of nowhere. It didn't seem like a very attractive area to us. We have a friend who had an RV for a few years and was a bit of a rockhound and was interested in that part of it, but it was too busy for his liking. You have to enjoy being in a crowd to be there. But I can see that some people who live a certain RV lifestyle might enjoy it and might get some good info and equipment while there and enjoy the socializing, too.

No toast? 😮 😆

@Kim Shook, this is a possibility maybe? 😄 https://rictoday.6amcity.com/food/places-pre-order-thanksgiving-dinner-richmond-va

We measure water consumption up here in cubic metres. Your 400 gallons per month would be less than 2 cubic metres, I think. We used 7 cubic metres in October at our house and I think we are pretty careful with water usually. Mind you, we probably did a little bit of garden irrigation, but it wouldn't be much in October. Our summertime consumption was pretty high because we were trying to establish new shrubs/trees and lawn and a small veggie garden and it was a very dry summer and we have an irrigation system, etc. We think about capturing rain water during the winter but haven't done anything about it yet. But your consumption is really very moderate! Do you shower in the PrincessMobile all the time or do you have other options? Does PJ get bathed? Do you have a flush toilet or composting?

I'd say your MIL is a bit of a troll. She is absolutely making you feel like an outsider and you have every right to bitch/whine/complain. You and your daughter are lovely and willing to help, why would she turn that down except to keep some kind of control or exclusion? Weird. Why would she ask you to bring an appy when she had previously complained about food that preceded the meal? If I were you, I would find a way to ignore that summons to her dinner and do something else. My husband and I got out of one ill-intentioned invitation by volunteering to deliver meals on T-Day. But I know you already do enough of that kind of work. Can't you just say you might have come into contact with something contagious and find a way to have a nice dinner without having to cook a big meal yourself?

Not to Canada, however, which is where @ElsieDis currently located. Shipping costs are high these days and I understand that companies have to recover those costs but it makes some purchases prohibitively expensive. With Rancho Gordo, Canadian shoppers are limited to certain items also. https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans-canada Their shipping costs vary according to weight and postal code. For my location, shipping started at $34 US and I was able to put 6 packages (6 pounds) of beans in my cart before the shipping cost rose higher. Total cost was about $75 US at that point, which is over $100 in Canadian dollars. That's a lot for 6 pounds of beans! I have ordered from Rancho Gordo to ship to a Canadian friend as a gift. She loves beans and enjoyed them, but would never be willing to pay that much to buy them herself. RG has a nice selection of different varieties, though they are often sold out of some. RG gave beans a bit of a cool image, I think. Canada does grow a lot of beans though not as many varieties as RG supplies. @ElsieD, here is Ontario Bean Farmers info: https://ontariobeans.on.ca/types-of-beans/

Made this easy Chicken Taco Soup recipe for dinner last night and really enjoyed it. Used the last of my best chile powder in it, so must get more of that. Also used Rancho Gordo black beans and some homemade chicken stock. https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-taco-soup-248133 My husband didn't want any toppings while I put a bit of cheese on mine.

And the toques? 🙂

I would offer to order them and send them on to you but when I look up postal rates I see at least another $24 Cdn to do so. And that's with guessing the final box size, it could be more. And of course, the measuring cups themselves are about $40 Cdn from Amazon Canada. 😞 The final cost is pretty high.

We also bought a small prime rib roast as they were on sale for about half the usual price. Not nearly as photogenic as your plate, but here's mine. My husband likes the rarer bits and I often work on the better-cooked side bits. These are some of the last tomatoes from my plants.

I love all the links you have provided here, Kerry. What a wonderful tribute to Anna and your friendship! I'm going to have to go back and read (or re-read) your adventures. I'll always remember your Manitoulin visits, loved those posts so much. I'm so sorry that you have lost such a good friend and that eGullet has lost such a central figure, a bit of its heart. Hugs to you and to Anna's family. 💕

Thanks, I made a half-batch of this soup last night for dinner. 🙂 I never think to take pictures anymore, sorry. I used some Rancho Gordo Cassoulet beans and ham instead of bacon, as that's what I had available. It probably would have been more flavourful with bacon, but it was still good. I added some Kirkland No-salt seasoning blend and a tiny bit of hot sauce to give it a bit more depth.

We had to spend several nights in an apartment hotel in Victoria, BC this past week. We had a fairly comfortable suite with a kitchen and wanted some take-out and decided to try White Spot's Thanksgiving special for two. It was well packaged and easily reheated and really quite good. (White Spot is a classic Vancouver (and BC) chain of restaurants.) As we had no big plans for this weekend, it was kind of fun to have an early T-Day dinner that someone else made. 🙂 Dinner included sliced turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, veggies, and a mini pumpkin pie. Maybe not quite as good as what I make myself, but a decent meal. I was impressed that the veggies had been lightly precooked so they were just about perfect after reheating. Here is a photo from White Spot's Facebook page:

I think the plastic wrap is to prevent a rubbery skin forming on the surface, as sometimes happens with custards. I saw some mention of foaming when using recipes with egg whites as well as yolks but this recipe is yolk only. It does look like a separation, I wonder if it's something to do with the temperature of the curd before adding the butter? @Kim Shook, does the foam taste buttery? Or like any individual ingredient? Edited to add: Found this in one of the recipe's comments: beeGirl3July 8, 2012 rated 4 of 5 stars This recipe isn't spot on. I doubled the recipe because 4 lemons gave me over 2/3 of a cup juice and I had over 10 yolks from an angel food cake. I was afraid to get the bowl real hot because it says to turn the burner to "low" after a "simmer", I heated for over 15 min and had no clue if it was thick enough. I went ahead and put in containers and it began to SEPARATE. It wasn't thick enough!!! i didn't let it get warm enough to thicken. I did some research and decided to try reheating half the batch and went on to do it all and yum : IF IT'S TOO THIN, REHEAT IT OVER SIMMERING WATER WHISKING LIKE CRAZY UNTIL IT'S LIKE PUDDING. I did this even after I had added the butter and the consistency was way better, like a pudding. Good flavor.

Wow! You must have started with a LOT of books if this is after a major cull. 😄 We have moved quite a few times over the years and each time I get rid of a bunch of books, but they still manage to start accumulating with each new address. Nothing like your collection though! 🙂

I think you should consider Vancouver Island! 🙂 I don't have a picture of the dinner we had last night, but it was basically this recipe for Black Bean & Squash Chili. I used a Carnival squash and red pepper from a local farm along with Cherimoya chili powder that I order from a little place in New Mexico. And Rancho Gordo beans. The spicy chili really brought out the sweetness of the squash. I didn't care about being vegan so used some of my frozen chicken stock. Gratuitous photo of another local farm's squash/onion/garlic offerings. I did buy a different sale squash here, but I just love checking out their barn decor when they open things up for their Autumn/Hallowe'en displays. Their prices have gone a bit crazy, but some of the stuff is more reasonable.

Still picking the odd strawberry from my plants, a pear from a friend's tree and some Danish blue. Shorter days make me feel a bit blue, but I do love the colour in the trees, the crisp mornings but warm afternoons, etc.

I just love everything about your home - the warmth and charm of the wood, the decor and the food! Surprised that neither of the real cats did a photo-bomb, though. 🙂

This made me laugh out loud. 🙂

I never got around to actually making it, but I was going to try tomato marmalade as someone I knew raved about it - can't remember who now of course. 🙂 There's a recipe at US National Center for Home Food Preservation. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/tomato_marmalade.html I also have a recipe in one of my small-batch preserving books (by Ellie Topp & Margaret Howard) (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) which uses about 2.5 lbs (5 cups) of coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes, 2 oranges and 1 lemon (halved, seeded and finely chopped in blender or food processor) and 4 cups of sugar. All boiled until it forms a gel (about an hour), stirred frequently. Makes about 6 cups and can be processed for 10 mins to preserve in jars. A variation uses 3 Tbsp of finely chopped peeled ginger and is recommended as an accompaniment to chicken, pork or fish. Not sure if that appeals to you, though, @blue_dolphin 🙂

Maybe these are stupid questions but these purple beans turn green when cooked, right? Do they stay purple when lacto-fermented? 🙂

Is that deep-fried? That would make it closer to a what is called a chimichanga (at least in Arizona) than a regular burrito/burro. I've never seen three (or even two) meats combined. Often the cooking style of the meat is defining - carne seca or carne asada, for example. it's not just meat wrapped in a tortilla - how the meat is prepared, what is added to it before wrapping and what sides/sauces are served alongside are all important elements. Edited to add: Here's a video on El Charro Cafe in Tucson where they claim to have invented the chimichanga. 🙂 They make carne seca by drying the beef in the sun.

I have everbearing strawberries in my little garden and just like the local commercial growers, they produce in June and early July and then a second crop in August-September. They just take a brief rest in between. It's not that unusual here to see the second crop extend into early October. I still have blossoms on my plants as well as ripe fruit.