MaryIsobel

If only all animals bound for our tables were raised as kindly as yours...

One of my daughters took great delight in saying to my other daughter's new boyfriend who was eating with us for the first time "we always have our guests say the blessing before we eat." Of course she waited until said boyfriend had lifted a fork to his mouth. (We never say a blessing before eating, it was just her twisted sense of humour.) She also liked to introduce herself as Guadalupe (which is not her name) and introduce my husband as "my Mom's son from her first marriage." Anything to make the new beau confused or uncomfortable!

Ketchup on scrambled doesn't offend me and I hope that my salsa (and cilantro if I have some) on scrambled isn't offputting to anyone.

And yours looks nice and light. Oatmeal bread is sometimes stodgy, but I love it all the same. I have a simple recipe that I can whip up quickly - makes 3 loaves and great toast: https://www.farmgirlfare.com/2006/11/oatmeal-toasting-bread-baking.html

I can buy free range eggs all over the neighbourhood for $5.00 Cdn per dozen. Lovely big eggs with deep orange yolks. One place I frequent usually throws in another dozen because she always has "too many eggs." A few of the neighbourhood places have started charging $6.00/dozen but most are holding at 5.00.

Oh my gosh - I can taste that, and it's delicious! Huge fan of oat bread.

The recipe cards are full 8.5"x11" sheets. I'll definitely hang onto them.

I signed up for a promo with Chef's Plate (apparently same parent company as Hello Fresh) as I thought it would be helpful for meal planning while I am somewhat out of comission. I can cook just fine for the most part, doing a lot of prep sitting down and in spurts and having help taking things on or off the stove or in or out of the oven. It's the shopping that is problematic. My husband is willing to go but doesn't "think on his feet" like I do when shopping, so we get some rather "unusual" substitutions which sometimes makae my planned meal impossible. Anyway, I ordered 3 meals for 4 people and it was 48.00 Cdn. They were fine at that price but I would not pay the normal price, which is twice that. All were recipes that I would make again and I did glean a great tip; when using ground turkey for meatballs, add chicken bouillon too ramp up the flavour. Being an experienced cook, I largely ignored their prep instructions, but they were a bit odd. For a Cajun Dirty Rice dish, they had you making the rice and once it was cooked, to start cooking the meat and veg which would be added. Obviously cooking the meat and veg WHILE the rice was cooking is a more streamlined approach.

I have never had frozen custard, I've never seen it for sale in these parts. I'll have to remedy that somehow. You had me a Ozark Turtle. My husband has given me a box of Turtles every Christmas since we met - that's a lot of turtles and I relished every one.

Something has been bothering me. Perhaps I was wrong to whine about hospital food. Even though I did use the word inedible, I suppose it really wasn't, it just wasn't up to my standards. When there are so many people who don't know where their next meal will come from, I guess I was just being persnickety. As I mentioned, there were 4 people in our room and one polished off her meals each time. Maybe that's the way she cooks at home. Given that my hospital stay, surgery and the ensuing physio did not and will not cost me a cent, I am feeling guilty about ridiculing the meals. However, I now have a great idea for a small gift for anyone facing a hospital stay (given they don't have any dietary restrictions.) A miniature pepper grinder, some salt, individual packets of butter, some hot sauce, hp sauce, soy sauce, ketchup...

Apparently. I was in a quad room and 3 of the 4 of us relied on outside food or went without.

A less than graceful move on my part caused me to spend 7 days in the hospital. Got home this past Thursday. I was truly gob-smacked by how really awful the food was. The first three days I was in, I was waiting for surgery so was fasting every day until about 9 pm when I would be advised "sorry, no surgery today, but it should be tomorrow." At that point I would be allowed to eat and drink until midnight. Problem was by that time, my visitors had gone home, the meal trays had been delivered and the nurses would resort to scrounging up food which usually consisted of either arrowroot or digestive biscuits, sometimes cheese portions and unsalted saltines. Fortunately I didn't have much appetite, as I had been laying pretty much flat on my back, bed bound (fractured hip) but I have never enjoyed a digestive biscuit as much as I did on those evenings. When I finally had surgery, I eagerly anticipated my breakfast tray the next morning. I had no idea it was possible to make toast badly. Served in a wax paper envelope to trap all the condensation, dripping with margarine and barely warm, it was to me, practically inedible. This was accompanied by grape jelly and a scoop of scrambled eggs which held it's shape perfectly. No salt or pepper to be seen. Another day was similar breakfast but a warm hard boiled egg with chalky yolk. Pepper was provided, no salt. I then discovered that I was on a renal failure diet. I have no kidney issues but apparently being dehydrated can cause a spike in renal numbers. I was dehydrated because I had been fasting for 3 days! Got that sorted and thought the meals would improve. Nope. First non RF meal was a scoop of plain rice, dried out and crunchy on the bottom (and not in a good way) a huge portion of plain corn and six 1" dia meatballs that were probably 50% cereal in a sauce that seemed to be corn syrup with smoked paprika. I then decided that I would rely on my friends and family to bring me food. Unfortunately there was no way to not get served all 3 meals. They all went back untouched but for the orange juice at breakfast and the fresh fruit on the two days it was offered. Such a terrible waste. I didn't take many pictures, but here is one breakfast and the meatball dinner. Slightly off topic - but I have nothing but good things to sa about every single staff member from cleaners to doctors, that I encountered.

Thanks @Shelby. That was going to be my next question for @Norm Matthews. But I went to Costco and then had to take to my bed. Costco is exhausting but those noodles look great and are something that I have never made.

Are those homemade noodles too? They look scrumptious.

Thanks, I'll get my mojo back, this happens once in a while, a self imposed break I suppose...

Everything looks so delicious. I have defintely slid into a cooking funk. Husband, post surgery and long hospital stay has zero appetite and frankly I am getting tired of trying.Oddly enough today we were talking about camping and hot dogs came up and he lit up. So I guess we're having hot dogs tomorrow. Found top-split brioche buns and bought European weiners. We have sourkraut and I'll do carmelized onions. May be the best meal we've had in weeks.

Oh wow - thank you. My daughter lives in Surrey but I haven't explored it much. I'll check it out.

Lovely, thanks. Not aware of a Brit shop near me, but next time I visit Victoria I'm sure I can find them. Great memories. The great aunts also had those hard little animal shaped cookies that were iced in pink or white with non-pareils for special occasions. They probably tasted horrible, but any "store bought" cookies were such a novelty to us that they seemed like a luxury.

I haven't thought of Garibaldi biscuits for years. My great aunts always had them on hand for out after church visits for tea. They called them currant biscuits. Were these purchased in Canada?

My daughters are in their late 20's and are university educated. When I told them what actual Tupperware was and how there used to be parties to buy it at, they laughed convulsively about "what a wild night out - lets go buy some plastic containers - yee haw!" Cheeky brats. I have always called all the plastic containers tupperware and I have a tupperware drawer that they grew up with but they honestly did not know that Tupperware was a brand name.

I always do the same when attempting to use leftovers or clean out the freezer... "I just need to run and get XXX protein to use up this leftover XXX. Either that or I do a fridge and freezer clean out and make a huge batch of something of which the leftovers take up more room in the freezer than what I cleared out!

I bought a spiral ham once and never again. Like you say, dry edges and no ability to make "chunks." Ham is pretty easy to carve so I don't get the attraction.

We buy a similar shelf stable fondue. I add a little extra splash of wine when heating. It makes for a great camping meal using our old fondue pot and a can of Sterno. Very hoity toity for camping according to some of our friends but it is just as easy to make as Kraft dinner or hot dogs!

Well, if you're making eggs Benedict for 8 people on Christmas morning and they all choose to gather in the kitchen while you are trying to poach 16 eggs and toast English muffins, and kiss and hug and put coats away, every little bit helps.

I agree. Even the smell of their chicken makes me feel ill - it is so greasy! But I could eat a serving for 4 of their coleslaw no problem.