My Stash.

Sometimes it feels like I'm doing a "how to make junk food" blog.  I assure you, we are eating lots of healthy food too...  I think right now I'm just really interested in whether it's possible to make all the fun food.  This was never really touted as a health food diet, though it does tend to cut down on snacking if you have to make it yourself (and it doesn't last for 3 years on the counter being readily available like most junk food).

Husband and I agreed early on that we would do this regardless of the actual cost.  He said "some things are going to cost more and some things less, that's part of the experiment."  So, since I've been saving us money making food from scratch, I guess he won't mind that I've spent $45 on chocolate at the local organic store.  Good Grief!

 
And I didn't even get that much.  I wonder how big a pile of snickers bars you can get for $45.  Mainly I wanted baking chocolate.  I didn't REALLY need the $5 each fancy chocolate for eating, but I figured I'd try a few brands that are made with whole ingredients so that you, the reader can find the best one.  I'm a giver, what can I say. 

The thing that IMMEDIATELY annoyed me about the $9 semi-sweet baking chocolate was that it's not wrapped in convenient one ounce chunks.  It's all wrapped up together as 2-100g bars.  How am I supposed to follow a recipe with that?  it's not even the same weight as my other baking chocolate, so I can't go "ok, I'll just divide it into 8 equal pieces and it'll be fine".  Nope, I have to get the scale out I guess.  ANNOYING!  (As a side note, I googled the company and their website says you can also buy their fair trade chocolate at Safeway and Scoop and Weigh.  It may not include baking chocolate, but I'll check it out and see if it's cheaper there than at a specialty organic market.)

I have already come up with how to stretch this chocolate.  Baker's Brand unsweetened chocolate is also "additive free", and when mixing it into cakes, I can apparently add an additional Tbsp of sugar to make it more like semisweet.  That way, I can save the expensive baking chocolate for things like chocolate chunks in brownies.

The chocolate chips were kind of a whim...  I mainly needed the baking chocolate, since I could always cut it up and use it in place of chocolate chips...  but they had them, so I figured I'd try them. 

I already know I'm not going to use these for terribly much experimentation.  Just enough to occasionally get my chocolate fix.  It's too expensive.

My brother made a good point.  If I am trying to eat like our grandparents and great grandparents did (using available whole ingredients), for them, chocolate would also be very expensive, and therefore used infrequently.  I get that.  When you can't buy 2 Aero bars for $1, chocolate seems much more like something to hoard and savour.

Chips!

I like chips.  I really do.  Ketchup chips especially.  Unfortunately, they're not made by drying real ketchup onto potatoes, so they're out for the year.  I did however, find some varieties of chips that are just potatoes, oil and salt, so I figured I'd do a side-by-side comparison for you.

Veggie Chips:  These are the ones that taste as though they should be the most healthy. However, they had the most calories (250) for the portion size (all the chips are pictured with their recommended portion size). They did have one of the larger portion sizes, so that could account for it too.  They're more of a manufactured chip...  made from potato mash, and different veggies thrown in.  The taste is decent, but it's more like something I'd give to Girl.  They kind of dissolve in your mouth a bit.  I really didn't like the green ones, they had a somewhat unpleasant taste.  Overall, they were ok.  I'd eat them, but if I had the choice, I'd likely opt for something else.

Kettle Brand Salted:  I enjoyed these chips until I dumped the last of them from the bag and some oil spilled out into my bowl. That was a little weird.  They tasted really good, nice and crunchy and well salted, though their portion size was the smallest (at 225 calories).  I found them a bit greasy.  I don't like to be reminded that what I'm eating was swimming in a vat of oil, and my mom always told me that deep frying properly (at a hot enough temperature) means that it won't be greasy.  These were greasy.

Miss Vickie's Crinkle Cut Original:  My hands-down favourite.  They had a large portion size (at 225 calories).  They were what plain potato chips should be.  Well salted, crispy but not greasy, and really tasty. 

I think overall, they were all edible, but I think Miss Vickie's stood out because I didn't feel they NEEDED dip. 

I do miss the ketchup flavour though.

Party at the Homemaker's

Sometimes it's nice to be right. 

Husband sometimes liked to ask if I only throw parties so I could put the pictures on Facebook and get people to praise me.  That made me mad...  so I did what any good wife would do:  I threw a party for him.  I told him we were having a birthday party but kept the theme a secret.  I cooked in stealth and decorated while he was at work.  I even led him to believe the theme he guessed (Texas cowboy theme?!  really?) was correct without ever lying.  Silly boy.

Zut Alors!  It's Septemberfest!

Decorations:

Food:

Die Kinder

Us:

Girl, after having a sudden meltdown at the end of the night because she didn't like me wearing a wig.  (Peanut butter cookies solve everything!)

The whole night was really fun, and by the end of it, I think Husband realized what I try to tell people.  Doing parties is fun for me...  it's a thrill, a rush (You jump out of airplanes, I invite 50 people to my house and make sure they're all fed, entertained, amazed and happy when they leave), but I wouldn't do it if I didn't love the people around me!  It's a lot of hard work, but seeing people enjoying themselves and eat till they're ready to bust makes me happy. 

I think he ate his words...  somewhere between the Rouladin and the Perogies.

Suzie's Famous BBQ Sauce (since yesterday)

1 tsp butter (for sauteeing the garlic/onion)

2 cloves garlic, minced

half a small onion, diced finely, or 1Tbsp onion flakes

sautee together on low heat until onions are soft.

add:

1 cup ketchup

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp vinegar

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp liquid smoke

1 tsp tabasco

1 Tbsp molasses

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 Tbsp hot sauce

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

pepper to taste

Bring everything to a simmer and you're done!  If you don't like onion chunks in your BBQ sauce, I'd puree it, and then bring it back up to a simmer.  Husband doesn't mind, and I used onion flakes, so they weren't very big chunks. 

I was going for a hickory kind of sauce, and I didn't quite get it, but it's a tasty all-purpose BBQ sauce.  Have fun with it, if you like spicy sauce, add a canned chipotle, or some hot pepper flakes, if you like it sweet, throw in some canned pineapple or peaches and simmer them down.  The sky is kind of the limit with BBQ sauce. 

Taco Chips!

Candace, this one is for you!

Look what I had at lunch yesterday!  MMMMM.  Nachos!

My cousin Candace said she wouldn't be able to eat like this because she wouldn't get nachos.

No, I didn't make them, I bought them, and I had to cross the border to do it (to the US, not Mexico).  I found these at Target.  I haven't checked if they carry them here yet, but realistically, it's a matter of time.

Without reading the label, you'd have no idea these don't have any weird ingredients.  Which makes me wonder...  why do we need to put them into stuff at all?  I can understand when you're putting flavours and synthetic cheese on things, but for just plain old restaurant-style taco chips?  Maybe they last longer?  (I don't know why they'd need to last longer, these aren't going to last in this house past their date.)

It just goes to show...  you can eat junk without any junk in it too!

**Added note:  you can get them in Canada, but just BC, ON, AB, and QE according to their website.**

Ginger Ale... Part 4

By George!  I've got it!

I don't think I'm going to make any other changes.  This recipe worked the best! It was really fizzy (every so slightly too much, but not enough to get a ginger ale fountain, just some extra bubbles)

There were no unpleasant floaty bits to deal with, and it tasted really nice.  My mom said it wasn't really ginger ale, because ginger ale tastes like perfume and this tastes good.  Like lemony-ginger pop.  I quite like!

I'm planning on using the bottle to make punch for Husband's birthday party tomorrow, but then, once the bottle is empty...  I figure the SKY IS THE LIMIT!  what else can I make pop out of?  Green tea iced tea soda?  WHY NOT!?  Apple pie soda?  SURE! 

I have created a monster...  and I don't mean the drink.

Love and life and laughter

Tomorrow is Husband's birthday, and in a few weeks we reach our 9th wedding anniversary, so I tend to reflect at this time of year.  Like any couple, we have had ups and downs, but with a lot of love and labour, we have kept the downs to a minimum.  He is truly my best friend, my lover and my soulmate (and I know him well enough to know that I'm probably embarrassing him right now).

The last few years have marked big changes, changes in work, in life and location.  We decided together to expand our family, and Girl came into our lives.  From the moment I got pregnant, I knew that with everything in my power, the love I had for Girl would be added to our lives, not stripped from Husband.  Our relationship would be, always, my number one.  I knew my heart would expand to add another, but I would fight fiercely if that threatened my chosen love. 

There are some of you that may seem appalled by this, I'm sure.  Maybe you even think that I'm not giving enough love to Girl, because Husband will understand.  It's a choice I made and will defend. 

I grew up in a home where this type of love existed.  I knew there was nothing I, or anyone else, could do to get between my parents.  Until the day my dad died, (after 27 years of marriage) my parents were newlyweds.  They were so much in love with each other.  It didn't make me feel resentful, or less than, or neglected.  It made me feel secure.  There is no greater stress in a child's life than insecurity.  Home was that proverbial "safe place to land".  More than anything, I too want to give that to Girl.  It is the best gift we can possibly give her.  Security goes hand in hand with self-esteem, independence and strength.  She will learn care and compassion and integrity from the way Husband and I treat each other.  More than anything, she will learn to love... true, unending, passionate love.  I'm a big fan of that love, and I want her to feel that love too. I want her to find a man who will share that love with her.  It's a legacy I want to continue.

We will take these years and parent together, and someday it will be just us again, watching our children find their own loves and lives and families.  I pray that the years to come will be full of as many laughs and smiles and hugs as the ones that came before. 

Happy Birthday Husband!  I love you.