Going Domestic

Cross-Border Shopping

When I was at Superstore last Friday with Madeline, the woman in front of me was packing her groceries purchases into a canvas tote bag from Trader Joe's. A feeling of envy immediately washed over me. I want to shop there, too. At least once.  Really, one of the most unfair things about having the United States as a neighbour is that I hear about so many interesting-sounding places to shop that aren't available in Canada.

A Williams-Sonoma just opened up here in Calgary. There is a sign in the same mall with "Pottery Barn - Opening 2006" emblazoned on it. I have heard a rumour that Abercrombie and Fitch will be opening up a shop in Edmonton. I remember how long I waited for an Old Navy to open. Late 2002, I think.  I stepped into the Williams-Sonoma store this past Saturday. I anticipate having an item or two from there on my list this holiday season :)  I bought a jar of mole sauce for Chris - it's something we've never made at home.

The Kitchen's Crowded

Tonight I made my very first batch of zucchini loaf (well, I made the batter into muffins, actually). They're not bad at all. I used the recipe from the Cook's Illustrated baking cookbook, fully appreciating that the folks who worked there probably baked this zucchini loaf a hundred different ways in fifty different pans before settling on the final recipe. That's what I love about Cook's Illustrated ...

Two new foodie blogs have come to my attention: CityMama now has CityFood (where does she have time to do all of that and take care of two young kids?), and there's something Cook's Illustrated-esque about Cooking for Engineers. My friend Ada sent me the link to that site, and I'm intrigued. There's a recent post about making butter, which reminds me that the dude on Chef at Home was grating frozen butter into a fruit crisp topping on the episode that aired this evening. Must remember that.

Money Pit

No, that title does not refer to one of Canada's reputed buried treasure sites, but rather to our home (unfortunately).  All of that rain that southern Alberta has had brought the fact that we have a leaky roof on our house to our attention. We were finally able to get some folks over to assess the damage and the cost of repairing it this week, and the news isn't that great. In addition to water entering the house in one of the valleys, there are a number of other things that were done improperly when the roof was re-shingled by the previous homeowners, and when the addition was put in. We have to get some new shingles, new vents of various kinds, re-install the electricitiy mast, install an ice and water shield, and seal up all the joints. Bah. It's about $2000. I know that we probably would not be able to sell this house anytime soon unless we have the work done, but it's still kind of a bummer to have this unexpectedly creep up!

Memory Jog

I used to work in a part of Calgary known at Erlton, which is right by the Elbow River. About four blocks west of my former office, there are these divine red-brick luxury row-houses. Their backyards backed onto the river. Many times when Chris and I were searching for a home of our own, I wished that we had a spare half-million dollars so that we could live in one of those stately row-houses.

Those row-houses were evacuated last night due to the threat of flooding! We've had an astronomical amount of rain (which lead to us discovering that the house that we did by had a leaky roof! Bah!) and the rivers are breaching their banks. I now am quite happy that we don't live in those row-houses - how crazy was I a few years ago?

Where's a cow when you need one?

I was halfway into a batch of banana muffins (reportedly healthy as they're made with flax, bran, and whole wheat flour) when I discovered that I was completely out of milk and the recipe called for 3/4 cups of it! Bah! I thought about using powdered milk as a substitute, but I have never been 100% happy with powdered milk. The last time I used it was in instant pudding and it was pretty unpleasant. I had a large carton of plain yogurt in the fridge, though (Madeline eats it for lunch usually), so I used that instead. Texture-wise, the muffin batter seemed normal. The muffins still have another eight minutes in the oven, so we shall see how they turn out ...

Sure, those pineapples were grown in BC

Chris and I have been exploring farmer's markets in and around Calgary for about three seasons now, and one thing that we've always had questioned about was how much of the produce was actually grown on a local farm. Somehow seeing peaches or apples with their little number-code stickers on them made us suspicious!  Anyway, I was lying awake in bed yesterday and caught this story on farmer's markets on CBC Radio 1. It basically explained how registered markets deal with vendors bringing in wares from wholesalers instead of farms.  I was really pleased because it their website also posted this link which lists those markets that Alberta Agriculture has approved.