FauxPas

Oooooh, I like it! Very similar to mine, but yours has a higher tone. Mine has a slightly deeper rumble. I love these types of openers!!!! 🙂

You could save a video to YouTube and then share the link to that. I'd like to see if your can opener is very different from mine! 🙂

My friend brought out some of her nutcracker collection. She has over 200 of them, not sure of exact number. She didn't put them all out, just a few of her favourites, hahahaha And I didn't even photograph the ones on the mantle or on the tables by the Xmas tree. The big ones must be close to 90 cm / 3 feet tall.

Made my first batch of fermented sauerkraut. Cabbage with a good bit of carrot gives it a hint of orange. it's really quite good and it was very easy, not sure why it took me so long to try this! I would like to do fermented hot sauce this Fall.

I'm not @rotutsbut the Instant Pot Duo 3 qt is $49.99 right now on Amazon (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I think that's a pretty good price, isn't it?

Also, various types of schnitzel. Or something like Chicken Marsala?

Similar to @blue_dolphin's suggestion, I've done cubed steak and potatoes in a skillet before. Here's a recipe, though I don't know if you need one and this one seems a bit fussy. I sometimes just use a bit of Hy's seasoning mix for the meat. But the garlic butter addition might be nice. https://carlsbadcravings.com/steak-and-potatoes/#wprm-recipe-container-33664

Another long-time eGulleter gone. Sad. ☹️

I have been using this style of can opener for years. I'm a southpaw and the usual manual can opener is a real pain for me, so I have used an electric can opener for many years. I used to have one of the countertop ones but I hated looking at it on the counter so tried one of the smaller battery-operated ones and fell in love. 🙂 The current one has listed for at least a few years and the previous one lasted 10 years or so? Maybe I just got lucky? I do find some of them go through batteries faster than you would expect. I can't remember how long I've had the current batteries in, but I'm thinking I probably have to replace them at least once a year. But my memory on that is fuzzy, to be honest. I don't really think about it as we always have extra batteries and I consider an electric can opener a necessity in my life pretty much. I hope yours lasts a long time!

Some local stores used to do this! I just loved it. A chain of stores mostly here on Vancouver Island had this feature. ( @MaryIsobelwill know Thrifty Foods as does @Ann_T and despite its name it tended to have slightly higher prices but it also had a great meat and produce department, a pretty good bakery and quite a bit of specialty or ethnic items). Unfortunately, it's been bought out by a national chain and it's not the same. But it used to allow you to create and save a list from the fairly lengthy online flyer and then you would pick the store and it would arrange your items by aisle and you could print that off or save it and take it to the store. Each store was a different size and arranged differently, so it was pretty cool. When I lived in Victoria I would shop at any one of several of their locations depending on where I was working that day and it was so nice to know which aisle had the different items without having to hunt them down. You could add other (non-flyer) grocery items to your list but I don't think it could sort those by aisle. Anyway, they got bought out and now you can print/save your list but it doesn't allow for shopping by aisle anymore. 😠 And they don't have the same range of products anymore either. 😠 And they don't contribute to local charities or community events the same way at all. 😠 A female friend of mine in Victoria loved those stores so much that when I told her they had been bought out by the big Sobey's chain, she broke down in tears. I'm sure there are other stores that allow for shopping by aisle. Canadian Tire and Home Depot give precise aisle and bin locations for products, but I don't know if they do a shopping list arranged that way. But those are different types of items, too.

@Shelby I'm pretty boring with portable savory stuff, like doing a play on a McD ham and egg or sausage and egg. My husband prefers just sausage and cheese and I used to make my own sausage patties. There are always mini-quiche or frittatas cooked in muffin tins but you probably already did that or thought of it. I like the idea of this savory muffin with sausage and apple, but it may not appeal to your guys. I'm not sure I would use the spinach. https://www.momables.com/cheddar-apple-sausage-jumbo-muffins/

I should eat more crab than I do, given where we live, but it's not really a big thing for my husband. We can get fresh here but I have used some frozen over the years. It's usually just the legs though, not the whole crab. Your photo looks like whole crabs. When I did legs, I just steamed them for about 5 - 6 minutes or so. But if you have a whole frozen crab, you might want to quickly thaw first and then cook 2 or 3 times longer. I did a quick search and it looks like cooking time suggestions vary quite a bit. You want the meat warmed through but not left too long. Frozen crab will almost always be pre-cooked so you are really only heating, not cooking the meat. I also see our local store has a suggestion for foil-BBQed crab: https://www.thriftyfoods.com/recipes/recipes/foil-barbecued-dungeness-crab If you don't want to commit to a whole crab, maybe ask if they have legs only and just buy one or two to try? They can still be fairly pricey but I think they are worth it now and then. I like to dip them in a simple melted butter-lemon mix.

That's a surprise to all the crabs and crab fishers along the British Columbia coast in Canada. 🙂 https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/profiles-profils/dungeness-crab-crabe-dormeur-eng.html

Like @MaryIsobelI don't think I've seen it in Canadian stores. We used to see the Bob's Red Mill cornbread mix, but I haven't noticed it in awhile. You could use of the copycat recipes for the Jiffy Corn Muffin mix and then add the extra cans of corn and sour cream and eggs from the recipe that @Smithyshared. Not quite as convenient, of course. 🙂 Copycat recipe like this one, for example: https://fountainavenuekitchen.com/homemade-jiffy-corn-muffin-mix/#blog-recipe

@Smithy, I thought of you when I saw Kitchenaid's Cordless system. I am not really familiar with this group of products but it seems you can run a number of small appliances - chopper, blender, grinder, mixer - from the same small rechargeable battery. You can buy one or more of the products, they all run on the same battery. I don't know if the prices seem reasonable to you or not, but thought I would share as they seem to have some Black Friday specials. https://www.kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/cordless.html

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? 🙂