FauxPas

Oh, I see what you mean! You are quite limited in counterspace. I'll second @ElsieD and say how impressed I am with what you create in that kitchen! You must be pretty organized. In fact, your space does look pretty well organized. Do you love lots of other things about your house? Do you think about redoing your kitchen and giving yourself a bigger workspace?

It's here! You've probably already noticed that Thrify Foods is doing a Halibut'fest to celebrate the start of the season. They have some tail pieces (if you don't mind those) for a fairly reasonable $2.49/100 g. I keep meaning to go check them out to see if they have any nice fat ones! Fillets are usually nicer, of course.

We've still got quite a bit of sockeye salmon in our freezer thanks to our generous fisher neighbours. Most pieces are lovely thick fillets but one was slightly less, so decided to make salmon en croûte with some frozen puff pastry. Using up chicken thighs from the freezer, made a chicken mole with Tucson's Mano Y Metate mole dulce starter. I love this stuff, it's so well made, all the blends are awesome. Served with my fave Instant Pot Spanish Rice, beans and a salad.

Someone has probably mentioned this before, maybe even several people have! But I really like making a quick Spanish Rice in the Instant Pot (from Pressure Cooking Today). I'm afraid the colour is a bit 'off' in the photo, it looks a bit less orange than this. 😀

Please do! I bet it looks just as lovely! You did so much work but wow, you had such wonderful results. Anything you would have done differently? It helps to have lived in a house for a bit before planning renos, doesn't it? And obviously you are happy with many other details of your home and location, given that you have stayed there for almost 30 years. Is your plan to stay there as long as possible? We love our location but we couldn't really make this house exactly what we wanted, so we keep thinking of moving. I suspect any new place we buy will probably need its own kitchen renos, arggghh! 😮 😄

@chromedome, you have really created a lot of storage in a small-ish space. You are very organized! Do you plan to cut down on your kitchen stuff at all or will your future home have space for all? How far off is your timeline for your own home?

We need pictures!! 😄

@patti, fabulous new kitchen! Thanks for sharing!

I'd consider it if it were a bit closer to me, but I did enjoy perusing some of the images below the exhibition description. In particular, that Crown Roast of Frankfurters monstrosity (at the far right) made me scream a little bit, ha!

Amazon was my friend. They always seemed to have some, though maybe a bit pricey. But I didn't care, it lasted such a long time. And I shared. 🙂

I'd forgotten about that stamp! 😀 I was kind of amazed that we would get a Canadian item so wrong on a Canadian stamp. Sigh. And the NYT photo is definitely off! Even though I like a slightly thicker bottom layer than some folks, that is the WRONG ratio! I do like Nanaimo bars, but a little bit goes a long way. I made them two or three times a year when we were living in the US, though. It was a fun thing to bring to dinners and gatherings and I was surprised how many people raved about them and asked for the recipe. I'd joke and say, nope it's a national secret, before I would share. I know, I'm pretty lame! 😄

Yes! I also thought that one sounded interesting!

Also wanted to say that I want a Cocktail Bus here! 😃 And also meant to say that take-out options here have really been expanded, even at higher-end restaurants that probably rarely were asked for that option in previous years! But it's mostly for take-home, not a street food thing. Cities like Vancouver and Victoria did expand their street-food options a few years back, but the winters and the lack of tourism over this last year have hit those areas hard.

Here we are seeing more food trucks and an expansion of existing restaurants' patio spaces. Several restaurants have been able to apply for temporary seating areas in what used to be street parking for cars. Many restaurants have made their existing patios more weatherproof, with heaters, roofs and even outdoor dining pods (made from plastics?). It's not necessarily cold here compared to other parts of Canada, but it can be wet and windy on some winter days. There are many restrictions on operating food businesses here and I don't think the local governments would open things up to more competition for existing restaurants.

I guess my other question is whether anyone is concerned about the use of palm oil in dairy? There is nothing illegal about giving palm oil to cows, though little research has been done on how giving palmitic acids to given to dairy cows could compromise the health of both animals and humans. What we do know is that palm oil may increase certain heart disease risk factors in some people. The effects of palm oil production on the environment, health and lives of Indigenous people in different parts of the world are well documented and deeply concerning. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/opinion-buttergate-and-the-hard-truth-about-canadian-butter-1.5320211

Yes! Saw him play at several Cactus League Spring Training games in Tucson, also!

That is what I wanted and I did include a smilie emoji to soften my comment. 😀 But do you think this guy is completely off-base? He is some kind of food researcher. For food researcher Sylvain Charlebois, suspicion began last year when he noticed differences in comparing an organic stick of butter with a regular one. "Is it me or is #butter much harder now at room temperature?" Charlebois, the senior director of Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab, tweeted in December. While he says that more testing is needed, Charlebois, who dubbed the saga "buttergate," is convinced that an increased use in palmitic acid — a byproduct of palm oil that's commonly added to cow feed — is the most likely culprit. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/971018428/baffled-canadians-spread-reports-of-hard-butter

Welcome! I grew up in Maple Ridge.

Well, thanks for assuming that I'm a complete fool who just imagines things 🙂 ,but I think there has been a change. I noticed it some months back but thought it was because my husband was doing more of the grocery shopping and brought home a couple of brands I wouldn't have purchased. One was Walmart's Value brand and maybe it's good at times or to other people but I thought it was pretty awful. It seemed waxy, hard and with an off-taste. But I thought maybe it's just a not-great product. But I've tried Lactantia and Dairyland (as has the new poster here whose post isn't fully visible yet) and they are brands I used to think were pretty decent and now they act and taste different. They are similar to the Value Brand which, as I said, did not taste very good to me and had a weird texture. My husband hates me grocery shopping these days because I'm a real browser and spend too long in food stores during these pandemic times, but I'm going to try and get some other brands and some organic and see if I notice a difference. Which brands are you folks using? And I think you are mostly central or eastern Canada? Wonder if this varies in different provinces? I honestly don't know where some of the butter sold here is actually made, though maybe I should.

Has anyone else commented about this on eGullet? Several articles on how Canadian butter seems to have changed lately. It's harder, less melty. I agree. Not pleasant, it seems waxy or something and even the taste is a bit off. May be due to use of palm oil in feed. What do other Canadians think? Is this happening in other regions, other countries? Some say this isn't just happening in Canada. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56175784 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/article-is-your-butter-not-as-soft-as-it-used-to-be-the-pandemic-and-our-urge/

If you look under the Community Q & A section for that item, you can see further information on installation. Here's the photo and text from there. You really only need to attach the base part to the back of the cabinet. In this photo, you can see the screwholes at the back. The front ones are optional and in a snug spot, possibly not needed. The Easy Mount installation method includes a bracket that screws to the back of the cabinet with two screws (included). Two extra screws are included if the customer would like to add them to the front of the bracket base for additional support, but this is optional, not required.

Ooooh! I really like that one. It could work in a spot I have here in this house, too. Oh no, look what you've done. Hahahaha 😺

@Smithy, would something like this help with your spice storage issue in the RV? https://www.containerstore.com/s/kitchen/pantry-organizers/pull_down-spice-rack/12d?productId=11007766

They are labeled that way here, but I cook them quite differently. A thin chop gets a quick pan fry, a thick one is SV, followed by a quick sear. But I look for a pork shoulder steak whenever I make Filipino adobo, a fave of ours. It's usually braised for quite a while. I think that maybe pork shoulder is more often sold as a roast in some regions?

But at least we were pretty much in agreement! 😃