December 16, 2012 – There is one little snack that we almost always pick up for any road trip home from the US. Nutter Butter cookies. Can’t get them in BC, that’s probably a good thing. But usually they are shaped like peanuts, I was surprised to open this package and see round ones. Strangely, that was a disappointment, the peanut shape is part of the package.

December 6, 2012 – After a somewhat frustrating day at work (have you ever known someone who just automatically does/says the opposite of what you or others do/say as a rule of thumb, even going so far as contradicting themselves repeatedly in the process just to stay on the other side of a debate?), a struggle controlling emotions all week, and another visit to the vet for the cat with a seemingly permanently lodged head ‘cold’, comfort food was in order.

I love that our local pub has a wonderful Chorizo Mac & Cheese on the menu.

Crappy photo, but …

November 7, 2012 – Peak Frean’s Fruit Cremes were my favourite cookies when I was younger. Yesterday there was a flu clinic at my workplace and I got my shot, and today there was a blood clinic. They weren’t taking blood, they were just promoting giving blood and they had a clinic for anyone to come in and get blood typed. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never given blood, and it’s even more embarrassing to admit that I had no idea what blood type I am. In high school we did our blood typing, but all I remember is …

October 31, 2012 – It’s Halloween, and I should have a pumpkin, but I don’t, so have some tomatoes instead. They’re all I’ve got.

It was a long day again. Out to the Allouette for a chum egg take, then back to the North Shore to visit a small community hatchery that I didn’t even know existed, and is just a few blocks from my home.

I thought I’d have a quiet evening at home, but then I called Telus to try and unlock two iPhones and that left me on the phone for almost three hours while we went …

October 26, 2012 – Have you ever noticed that when the weather starts to turn grey and dismal that sunniest of fruits shows up in the grocery stores? I love the season that brings the small, but flavour packed, mandarin oranges to the produce section.

Today I bought a new 15″ MacBook and the rest of the day was pretty much taken up with set up and file transfers. Then suddenly it was 11:30pm, no photo taken, and a panicky flurry to get a shot before the clock ticked over to midnight.

It was only after the fact that I …

October 4, 2012 – Just a snack at the end of the day. Some good cheese, some fabulous crackers, and a nice glass of wine. We picked up these crackers at the grocery store the other day when the product sample woman was giving tastes of hummus. The crackers she was serving it on were to die for, so we bought those and I came home and made my own hummus (the stuff is ridiculously easy to make so why buy it?).

But as good as the hummus is, these crackers needed something a little less overwhelming on top in …

Sept 8, 2012 – . . . wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. . . (Brian O’Driscoll).

That quote makes me laugh and takes me back to my first year CNC biology class with Conrad Jarosch. Loved that may, he was the most amazing prof I ever had. And it was he who taught me that a tomato ((Lycopersicon esculentum) was a fruit, a berry in fact!

August 30, 2012 – When you were a kid, did everything seem better with a cherry on top? Except that they were those sickly sweet maraschino cherries. But not so much in our house, because my grandparents had a fruit orchard, so we had the luxury of more fresh fruit than anyone could imagine all summer, and then all winter we had the luxury of home canned fruit.

But I will always prefer fresh BC cherries over any other fruit on this planet.

A cherry on top (figuratively of literally) just makes everything that much better, I think.

It doesn’t …

August 28, 2012 – I didn’t really discover how wonderful garlic was until I moved out. My grandmother wouldn’t allow it in the house, thus my father wasn’t a particularly big proponent of it either. So my mother didn’t cook with it either. Probably the only way garlic made it into our diet was via garlic salt on bread when we’d have spaghetti.

But oh, when I moved out, did I ever discover the virtues of the stinking rose. Garlic is a staple in our kitchen and very few dinner dishes don’t receive its attention. I just don’t understand how …

August 24, 2012 – We went out the the Black Bear for dinner, but there was an obnoxiously loud and drunk group on the patio that made things painful and impossible to have a conversation. So we finished our dinner and a beer and bolted. On the way back down from Lynn Valley I suggested a stop for gelato, looked for something close by and fond Brazza Gelato on Lonsdale.

On the left, Kirk has a cup with one scoop of Belgian chocolate and one scoop of Brazilian bikini (coffee, chocolate, and coconut). On the right, I had one scoop …

August 7, 2012 – In the summer I rarely want heavy food. I could easily go vegetarian, except I am too much of a carnivore at heart. But a fabulous salad and a good Granville Island Hefeweizen makes for a pleasant end to a productive day.

I’m on vacation from my main job, but I had a whack of university papers to mark to catch up on my other job as a sessional faculty for UBC. Why I don’t let it go is somewhat beyond me, I think I just like to give back to the system that gave so …

August 1, 2012 – The blueberries, like everything, were late this year, but the local crops are now plentiful and flavourful.

Blueberries with yogurt, blueberries in cereal, blueberries in spinach salad, blueberry salsa with salmon, a simple handful of blueberries all on their own…

Mmmmmm . . . . blueberries . . . .