FauxPas

Oh yes, oh yes! I am the type who buys two avocadoes when I only need one, just in case I get a bad one. Most of them turn out to be fairly decent, but a perfect one is cause for a touch of kitchen celebration. I am always a bit depressed when I peel the skin and see major blemishes. And I tend to like mine on the just-under-ripe side, so have also erred with ones that are still too green.

This is very true. Our local food bank does have a delivery service but it's mostly focused on people with mobility issues, not just those with transportation issues. There is bus service to the food bank, which is quite centrally located, but that could still be awkward.

That makes sense in some ways. We do also refer to elk meat or venison meat at times. The term 'tuna fish' makes sense to me because of time spent in Mexico and southern Arizona, where the Spanish term 'tuna' refers to the fruit of an edible cactus. So, if you want to differentiate, you add the 'fish' on to the end.

That sounds very useful! BC also has a Farmers' Market coupon program. Lower income, seniors and pregnant women can get a minimum of $21/week (in 2021, not sure what it will be this year) to spend at farmers' markets throughout the province. This is a bonus during the summer and Fall and is in addition to any other support received. I love it, because top-quality produce can be hard to find on a budget. We have a few excellent farmers' markets here and I shop them and the local farms and there is some great stuff growing here. Also, there are some downtown markets and more rural markets so accessibility shouldn't be too bad. The Food Banks also get donations of produce, dairy and bakery items but I love this market program because it lets people choose the items they most want, and not just produce. And I think it is available to people who may not want/need to make use of the Food Bank. It simply helps lower income or vulnerable populations access fresh produce. For comparison, my CSA program delivers about $30 worth of produce each week and it's a lot for two people at times.

Also, I should say this was a far cry from a disaster. It was a kerfuffle, but we worked it out, the out-of-town visitors were entertained and everyone was well-fed at the end of the day. And we absolutely had fun. 🙂

Exactly! I believe this also! 🙂

Another couple invited us over for Easter Sunday dinner last night. We were just heading out the door when I got a phone call and heard there might have to be a change of plans. My friend had carefully cut, stuffed, rolled and tied a lovely big pork loin roast and had prepared yams and potatoes for roasting. Everything was ready to go in the oven once we arrived and she set the oven to preheat. Then checked the oven a while later. It was cold. Done, like un-dinner. 🙂 There was no real option to dine at our house as we are still mid-kitchen-reno and we have no sink and no countertops and I have no idea where most of my cooking supplies and pots and pans are. They are all boxed in various places but the painters moved a lot of them around while they were doing the house last week. I know where the cat bowls and cat food are, the rest is a muddle. And of course we have no dishwasher. But her husband remembered a family member who lives in town was away for the weekend and realized we could probably drop in and use their house. That was all OK, so we all met over there and brought our various groceries in and got set up. Looking to make drinks and pour some rosé, I searched the freezer in vain for some ice. A few of us wanted ice. So, my husband drove back to our house (the closest one) where I had fortunately had the foresight to fill a few ice cube trays after the water line to the icemaker had been disconnected due to the renos. There weren't enough of us to justify buying a bag of ice, so he brought the trays from home. Tricky showing up at an unfamiliar house and making a meal in short order. We never did find the placemats, had to do a search party for the lightswitch for the dining area and the stove started smoking in a startling way soon after turning on. Turned out to be nothing too serious, fortunately. We excavated a couple of kitchen drawers to find a meat thermometer and soon we had pork roast and veggies ready to go. Some steamed broccoli and all was plated and it was delicious! The rosé was a good match, I was relieved. The carrot cake for dessert was decent. We all enjoyed it. It was fun! Tonight is a follow-up Easter dinner-light for my husband and I. No countertops, no sink (except for the bathrooms) and the whole house a bit of chaos still, so I opted for something super simple. One of these hams (see photo below), sliced for a steak and cooked in a frying pan. Packaged scalloped potatoes cooked in the CSO and some frozen peas in the microwave. I did think about getting asparagus, there is some lovely stuff in the stores, but we had a major wind/rain storm today and I just didn't have the energy to go out. Also, was a bit afraid of power failures as a nearby community had many outages but we seem ok so far. I have another bottle of that rosé but right now I'm opting for fairly stiff cocktails to start. Hope the power stays on and Happy Easter to all of you or whatever your celebration may be this weekend! 🙂

It's $350 US, that $450 price is in Canadian dollars, @ElsieD. And shipping is free in Canada, as long as you don't want express shipping. Does that change your mind at all? 🙂

Or at least wondering why there are NO kitty treats. 🙂

Update to this post. I did freeze several portions of this along with diced potatoes and some frozen peas/corn and it all came out really well. I did add a bit of pork gravy (from a powdered mix) to the meat and the potatoes. This was another good choice for us to pull out of the freezer while our kitchen was being torn-up/rebuilt. Really handy to have these on hand as they only needed a short while in the microwave and dinner was ready!

Makes me think of the many meals we have eaten enroute. Some were a lot of fun! But I just had a reminder of the odd road trip return at the start of the pandemic. We had no travelling kitchen so it was always a mix of things. One year I had grown an amazing little garden in AZ and we ate some lovely raw veggies on the way back. But in Spring 2020, it was a bit bizarro. We had no idea what would be open. I boiled eggs, packed some veggies and leftover ham, etc. I think I had some tomatoes that I had grown in containers. Our first night at the motel. And a whole bunch of Lysol wiping, hahaha. Though I have to say this mango/hibiscus stuff does smell good. I still have a container of that and my cleaning lady found it and went crazy and said why were you hiding this away? 🙂

Don't raw potatoes sometimes turn black when frozen? But there's also a textural thing, I think. They can become mushy after thawing. I only freeze cooked ones, but not even sure why that is. I think I was just told not to freeze raw sometime in the past.

I know people here and in other parts of the world who rarely use the fan. I think it's partly because most floor plans are quite open these days and encourage socializing near the kitchen and some fans can be loud enough to affect conversation.

I know what you are saying, and i don't entirely disagree. But if I had kids, I'd be a bit worried about those numbers on asthma, etc.

Another story on this. They quote the Stanford study discussed previously but also add some other research. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/gas-stoves-air-pollution-1.6394514

I always use tap water here in BC because we have soft water. In our Arizona house, due to the hard water, I used filtered water (we had a under-counter filtration system). I definitely don't empty the water tank after each use! I do empty and rinse it out if it's been sitting for a bit, but it's almost always got some water in it.

Some real progress already! This is the main kitchen, the other two floor to ceiling pantries are to the left and they are still looking pretty rough, but the main boxes there are in place. I'll have room for a 36" wide fridge and taller than my last one (thankfully). A couple of people are trying to sell me on a counter-depth fridge. I like the idea, but the reality is that they just don't seem to have much capacity. I've only started looking for a replacement fridge (and we don't have to rush). @weinoo had a nice solution in his kitchen to accommodate a deeper fridge and make it look good, but I don't feel I can do the same thing here. In our last house, the fridge was situated in a corner next to a partial wall and I was able to get a 33" wide but extra-deep fridge (with 26 cu ft capacity, I think!) that looked good there, but here it's different. I am going to shop counter-depth for a bit, but not sure I want to go that way. I can't afford super-expensive, so I need something solid and with decent capacity. I don't know that I want a 36" wide fridge that only has 20 cu ft space in it. Is that the best I can expect? Or maybe it works better, because fewer items are hidden behind other ones? Maybe a 20 cu ft counter depth FEELS larger? Looking for experience and suggestions!

We watched the first episode last night and it was pretty good. I have no problems with Sarah L at all, I thought she did a great job. What did anyone else think?

Here we go... 🙂

@gfweb, do you watch Last Chance Kitchen? Can you give @Shelbyany advice on how to watch it in the US?

Yes, many of them are. What alumni will be involved in Top Chef season 19? According to Bravo, the rotating guest judges for Top Chef 19 include: —Nyesha Arrington (season 9) —Dawn Burrell (season 18 runner-up) —Kelsey Barnard Clark (season 16 winner) —Adrienne Cheatham (season 15 runner-up) —Tiffany Derry (season 7, season 8 finalist) —Joe Flamm (season 15 winner) —Gregory Gourdet (season 12 runner-up, season 17 finalist) —Hung Huynh (season 3 winner) —Stephanie Izard (season 4 winner) —Melissa King (season 12 finalist, season 17 winner) —Kristen Kish (season 10 winner) —Edward Lee (season 9) —Maria Mazon (season 18) —Shota Nakajima (season 18 runner-up) —Nini Nguyen (seasons 15 and 16) —Kwame Onwuachi (season 13, season 15 Last Chance Kitchen competitor) —Sheldon Simeon (season 10 finalist, season 14 finalist) —Brooke Williamson (season 10 runner-up, season 14 winner) —Claudette Zepeda (season 15) What famous chefs will make appearances in Top Chef season 19? In addition to the alumni panel, Top Chef: Houston will feature a variety of pop-in appearances from famous chefs. That includes Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Carlotta Flores, Bricia Lopez, Eric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson and Alexander Smalls. Hunter Lewis, Editor-in-Chief of Food and Wine Magazine, joins the judges for the final challenge.

Not on here yet, but looking forward to it in an hour or so! Sounds interesting. 🙂

Mostly previous contestants but also joined by some other chefs from time to time, it seems. https://parade.com/1326230/mikebloom/top-chef-season-19/ or here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef:_Houston

I don't think I have to log in or anything, but maybe it knows that Bravo is part of my cable package? Not sure. Try clicking on an episode and see if you can watch it. 🙂 Since I'm in Canada, things are a bit different for me. Maybe someone else in the US can add to the info.

I watch it online. https://www.bravotv.com/last-chance-kitchen