My entire long life I’ve been eating this delicious soup. And it’s never changed.
Talk about comfort food.
I was surprised to learn it’s made by Campbells. (The label does not mention that, either.)
Seems it’s not widely available in the USA. Too bad.
You can order it from Amazon.
I don’t need much.
But I need Twinings Earl Grey tea. Every day.
Cost of this tea varies a great deal. (As does coffee.) If you put the same tea in a smaller box, or a foil wrapper, expect to pay double or triple.
The best retail value in my town is buying 100 tea bags. I get them at Superstore.
Safeway, Co-op and other grocery chains charge far more. How can they get away with this?
People in Calgary are too “fat”. Too affluent. They’d rather pay $3 more in an empty Safeway than crowded Superstore.
If you want the free market to work, you should support retailers that give you the best value.
Superstore also has no loyalty card program. As you know, loyalty cards are dead to me.
Disclosure: I do shop at Safeway for bagels. The Superstore bakery department is pitiful.
The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.
The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation. …
photo – A Locavore’s Night Out
Runners-up for the 2007 Word of the Year include:
aging in place: the process of growing older while living in one’s own residence, instead of having to move to a new home or community
bacn: email notifications, such as news alerts and social networking updates, that are considered more desirable than unwanted “spam” (coined at PodCamp Pittsburgh in Aug. 2007 and popularized in the blogging community)
cloudware: online applications, such as webmail, powered by massive data storage facilities, also called “cloud servers”
colony collapse disorder: a still-unexplained phenomenon resulting in the widespread disappearance of honeybees from beehives, first observed in late 2006
cougar: an older woman who romantically pursues younger men (Call me, Demi, please.)
MRAP vehicle: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, designed to protect troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
mumblecore: an independent film movement featuring low-budget production, non-professional actors, and largely improvised dialogue
previvor: a person who has not been diagnosed with a form of cancer but has survived a genetic predisposition for cancer
social graph: the network of one’s friends and connections on social websites such as Facebook and Myspace
tase (or taze): to stun with a Taser (popularized by a Sep. 2007 incident in which a University of Florida student was filmed being stunned by a Taser at a public forum)
upcycling: the transformation of waste materials into something more useful or valuable
One of the city fathers of Mazatlán, Mexico was German immigrant Jorge Claussen.
Indeed, my favourite walk in town is Paseo Claussen which he had blasted beneath icebox hill near the old town centre.
Jorge did much for this city, but today is best remembered for Pacifico Beer. It’s a workingman’s brew (i.e. burro urine) but I’ve always liked it.
You will not be surprised to learn there are a number of monuments in his memory including this one:
… this homage to the Pacifico Beer Factory. This monument was unveiled on March 14, 2000, the hundredth anniversary of the day the brewery first began producing Pacifico beer.
The Pacifico brewery was founded by three German immigrants, Germán Evers, Emilio Philippi and Jorge Claussen. … The monument itself, which was designed by brewery workers, is a huge copper cooking vat capable of holding 24,000 liters (6336 gallons) of beer.
Farewell Mazatlán.
Valentino’s
I fly to Spokane today.
I posted my distaste for the corn industry after hearing about the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Corn is killing us.
Now in Super Size Me tradition is this movie:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Treehugger – Opening Today in Theaters: King Corn )
The (ever humble) artist formerly known as Rockin’ Ronnie is in print once again.
It has a planked salmon recipe from me, as well as some great salmon recipes from actual BC chefs.
link via BC wild salmon recipes – on Ron’s business blog
I was just introduced to Cold Stone.
This is the way ice cream should be prepared!
You get to choose the exact ingredients you wish.
… Cold Stone’s name comes from the frozen granite stone used to mix candy, nuts, or other toppings into various flavors of ice creams.
… Almost 1400 franchises are now in operation. Cold Stone Creamery is now the 6th best-selling brand of ice cream in the U.S. and now operates stores in South Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico and Taiwan (since june 2007). The company was also named the 11th fastest-growing franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine in January 2006. …
Its current competitors in the field of premium ice cream (ice cream defined as having more than 12 percent butterfat) include Carvel Ice Cream started in 1934, MaggieMoo’s (opened in 1989) and Marble Slab Creamery (opened in 1983).
All ice cream creations are offered in three sizes: “Like It” (5 oz), “Love It” (8 oz), and “Gotta Have It” (12 oz). There is also a kids’ size (3 oz). …
My favourite “glop” (something like Pad Thai, don’t ask) ingredient disappeared off the grocery shelf some years ago. That was Kraft Horseradish Mayonnaise.
Happily, I’ve just been introduced to the President’s Choice version. Yum, yum! (My eyes are watering.)
Every time you think you are out, they haul you back in.
Canadian barbecue champ Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuck goes for hardwood and concedes that he is using trees and producing greenhouse gases but advocates:Buy a Prius. Take the bus, Do anything you can to help preserve your right to cook outdoors. We were not born with an SUV steering wheel in our hands, but I think that one of the primordial, defining characteristics of mankind is to cook over fire.
Careful Ron. I heard the Greens have death squads.
If you thought The King of All Barbeque had retired from competition, … you are right.
But on a hot summer day, even an old King’s thoughts turn to his best grill.
… There it is, glistening on the plate as it throws off the classic aroma of seared fat, mesquite smoke and charred spices. Atop the steaming slab sits a slowly liquefying daub of Gorgonzola butter. The dark mass of the steak is framed nicely by slices of ripe red tomato, a few spears of grilled asparagus and a handful of roasted nugget potatoes, all drizzled with fruity olive oil, spritzed with fresh lemon juice and dusted with a sparkling skiff of Malden salt.
That bite. That first bite! Sawn from a corner of the steak with the serrated edge of my knife, the freshly exposed surface shines with juice as I draw the slice to my mouth. Its warm red core is silky on my tongue, and the crusty, chewy outer layers give my teeth the most meaningful assignment in their lives.
I liberate another shiny slice from the beautiful hunk and ceremoniously drag it through the mixture of juice, savory butter and olive oil that has pooled on the plate. The next forkful includes a tangy chunk of tomato; the next, a creamy bite of potato. Then a lemony, palate-refreshing bite of asparagus.
Oh, yes, almost forgot the wine. A big, jammy Shiraz of course. A slug of that, and then back to the motherlode of a steak, which looms on the plate, its edge now jagged like a mine face, waiting to be carved away. …
Ron has the cover story this month on our local food news magazine. Read the entire article: For Your Approval: A juicy article about steak
Or go light your own grill.
Rick McCharles 