We’ll always have house-panthers, and I just cannot face making “balanced and complete” homemade pet food for these insane little carnivores. Have you SEEN what they eat?! {{apparently, wild cats get their dietary fibre from whatever stomach contents the hapless herbivorous prey ate}} … I would also insist that it’s cooked. So no. Until the global economy collapses, I buy commercially-prepared dog and cat food. Dogs?! While I know these omnivores are somewhat easier to feed, I want to leave that nutritional balancing act to veterinarians & canine/feline dieticians.
1/2 and 1/2 cream really is the only way to enjoy coffee. And with turbinado sugar (unbleached sugar with a slightly higher molasses content). When we were driving around Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin (during our HolyShitWe’reRetiredLet’sGoOnARoadTripToSeeAndrew), I got a taste for the mysterious flavoured liquid coffee whiteners available at the state dairy aisles. I’m uncertain exactly WHAT was in those concoctions. Possibly a cow was waved over the bottle. They made road-coffee delicious!
As soon a spring rolls around here at our transition home, I’ll go outside and roast coffee. Freshly roasted beans are superior to stale, store-purchased sealed cans o’ coffee. However, until then I will buy sealed un-ground roasted beans from No Frills… Great Canadian Blend (its caffeine content is higher than the dark roast [due to the destructive nature of the Maillard reaction]). Here’s 2 images of some foul weather in my neighbourhood.
Fresh fruit is a luxury I’m lucky to afford. I avoid buying California-grown (or Peru?!) summer fruit… like grapes and strawberries… IN DECEMBER-JANUARY, for fcuk’s sakes. We still pick up bunches of bananas and oranges… knowing full well the cost of shipping is artificially low! Once the United States descends into anarchy and/or civil war, such tropic fruits will become unobtainium (too dangerous to transport across the country).
And weekly grocery shopping for THINGS. Now that we are living in the hinterlands, grocery shopping is a planned-event… with fuel & transportation costs being considered. While the weather (and climate) gets more extreme, we take our SNOWKAT. It is too risky taking the diminutive (and extremely fuel-efficient) ECHO to-and-fro to stores. Or hell, while we are living in Lion’s Head, we can WALK to the stores. Lion’s Head Foodland, please reopen!
our old home is getting a significant MAKEOVER!
Mr. Sean Morris is leading our suite’s sweet renovation.
His subcontractors, Clever Disposal, should be YOUR next demolition crew (call their head, Robin, for more information [Tel. 416-624-3837] and tell them I sent you). They were precise, accommodated our unorthodox requests, and left no mess. Those floors were sanded down after we removed the parquet flooring (for reuse [foot-paths] on our raised beds “at the farm”). The laundry room wall was cut out for repair. 1970s-era linoleum and bathroom subway tile? And the original kitchen? Gone.
Who will be making our new kitchen? Why Oshawa of course! We trucked on over to The Kitchen Studio and put our plans in front of Ms. Michelle Bailey (contact her at design@thekitchenstudio.ca and/or call them at (905) 438-1435). Michelle is one sharp and savvy designer (careful: she will take your questions and musing seriously… I was being a wag and walked over to the pastel-pink cupboards and mocked them… Ms. Bailey didn’t miss a beat and wryly outlined how MY portion of the kitchen can accommodate for these pastel colour scheme [after I toned down my man-i-tude, she outlined how that scheme was designed for a client in South Florida… or in the Caribbean]… Ms. Bailey, you were awesome!). The Kitchen Studio will be making our QUARTZ-countered creation… with installation. I am confident the new kitchen will work exceptionally well for the next owner.
As our North York home gets re-developed, I will share its TRANSFORMATION with (the royal) you.
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 