Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Culture Crawl and Other Exhibitions
I look forward to seeing you all this Friday evening and weekend at the Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver, Canada where I will be exhibiting. Click on the image below to enlarge it.
Monday, November 15, 2010
UK Foods I Miss from Canada
Of course, when I am in Canada there are things I have gotten used to in UK that I miss. 
Tea every hour with cakes or something sweet when I am at my in-laws.
Good quality inexpensive chocolate.
A hot English breakfast. This one seems to be missing the toast.
Mince pies...usually 12 for a pound at Christmas.
Chip shops.
Apple sauce with dinner.
A good inexpensive Indian curry.
Revels. I suppose these are the UK version of Bridge Mixture...just a different mix of things.
Melon for a dinner starter.
Those big tins of chocolate for only £5 at Christmas.
Roasted vegetables.
All recipes by weight measure as opposed to volume scale. In one sense, it is a bit easier to always have a big scale sitting on your counter top.
I asked Nigel what he misses from the UK when he is in Canada and he said good yogurt, UK Cadbury's chocolate and Galaxy chocolate.
Tea every hour with cakes or something sweet when I am at my in-laws.
Good quality inexpensive chocolate.
A hot English breakfast. This one seems to be missing the toast.
Mince pies...usually 12 for a pound at Christmas.
Chip shops.
Apple sauce with dinner.
A good inexpensive Indian curry.
Revels. I suppose these are the UK version of Bridge Mixture...just a different mix of things.
Melon for a dinner starter.
Those big tins of chocolate for only £5 at Christmas.
Roasted vegetables.
All recipes by weight measure as opposed to volume scale. In one sense, it is a bit easier to always have a big scale sitting on your counter top.
I asked Nigel what he misses from the UK when he is in Canada and he said good yogurt, UK Cadbury's chocolate and Galaxy chocolate.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Canadian Food I Miss
With my upcoming trip to Canada I again spend time thinking of the foods I would like to eat while I am there and miss while in the UK.
Wendy's frosties.
Malted Milk was my favourite chocolate bar when I was a teenager.
Peanut butter. Although to be fair, after extensive research I finally found a very hard to find brand here that tastes like Adams Peanut Butter.
Bridge Mixture is one of my favourites!
I have found myself dreaming about these Canadian Cheezies.
A nice hot pancake breakfast with maple syrup.
Ketchup chips!
Inexpensive and delicious Mexican food.
Hickory Sticks.
Any sort of red licorice...Nibs, Twizzlers...
Frozen perogies from the supermarket. Thankfully I can make these again now that we have a kitchen.
Pumpkin pie. Sigh.
Again, anything peanut butter here doesn't exist.
Popcorn isn't that big here. Just a bowl of buttery salty popcorn is something I miss. Oh, and that popcorn with the sauces (Orville Redenbacher) and Smart Foods Cheddar Popcorn.
Black beans. I have on rare occassion found a bag of dried black beans and it says "imported from Canada".
And of course recipes using volume measurements. With this method one can use any cup.
Speaking of baking. There aren't really chocolate chips here either. Luckily, large slabs of good chocolate are cheap here and I just cut those up.
Wendy's frosties.
Malted Milk was my favourite chocolate bar when I was a teenager.
Peanut butter. Although to be fair, after extensive research I finally found a very hard to find brand here that tastes like Adams Peanut Butter.
Bridge Mixture is one of my favourites!
I have found myself dreaming about these Canadian Cheezies.
A nice hot pancake breakfast with maple syrup.
Ketchup chips!
Inexpensive and delicious Mexican food.
Hickory Sticks.
Any sort of red licorice...Nibs, Twizzlers...
Frozen perogies from the supermarket. Thankfully I can make these again now that we have a kitchen.
Pumpkin pie. Sigh.
Again, anything peanut butter here doesn't exist.
Popcorn isn't that big here. Just a bowl of buttery salty popcorn is something I miss. Oh, and that popcorn with the sauces (Orville Redenbacher) and Smart Foods Cheddar Popcorn.
Black beans. I have on rare occassion found a bag of dried black beans and it says "imported from Canada".
And of course recipes using volume measurements. With this method one can use any cup.
Speaking of baking. There aren't really chocolate chips here either. Luckily, large slabs of good chocolate are cheap here and I just cut those up.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Our Kitchen is Done!
Our kitchen is now done minus some painting.
The units all go in.
I love the 4 drawers and the wall cabinets.
The awkward cupboard that is put in to balance out the big beam is fitted with 4 shelves so that it can be used for spices.
We choose a hand made looking brick tile in "cottage cream". Above the white grout still has to go in. We like the definition so much of the shadow between the tiles that we opt for a darker grout.
Here is the finished grout which should also be a bit easier to keep clean.
Then our cooker and fridge are fitted into place and the cardboard is removed from the floor boards. WOW!
We really do love the look of the kitchen.
The cooker has an old Victorian/Edwardian look to it. It has 3 ovens: a broiler, regular oven and roaster.
We move in our dishes and pots and pans. The trick is to get all our plates, bowls and glasses in the glass cabinet. If you remember, a lot of the cupboards are occupied with the boiler, water softener, washing machine, dishwasher...and maybe water filter at that point.
I love cooking on this. It is a gas top and electric ovens.
Our retro fridge came fitted with a European fridge plug to our surprise, not a UK one. We called the company and found that because we ordered a rare left hinge fridge they were still accidentally being shipped with the wrong plug.
Here is the kitchen view from the fridge. Our washing machine is in the kitchen as they are in the UK. We have a laundry line outside and indoor drying racks for the winter. To the right of that is the integrated dishwasher (looking like a cupboard). You can get integrated anything including fridge, freezer, and washing machine.
It is quite a light area at the end of the kitchen with the skylights.
Bliss.
Our floor really matches the counter tops.
And our chandelier (this is the one that Nigel chose second hand) looks great. (my choice will go in the living room).
I fill the cupboard up with spices and the deep back bits on the right have the refills stuffed into them.
The hidden cupboards to the left of the fake chimney hold all the cookbooks.
One of our favourite features is our large Belfast sink that we scrounged from a property that it was being ripped out of. Bill our kitchen fitter/ joiner made this unit especially for us.
It may look small in the photo, but that is a very large sink.
The view from the French doors.
We love it. Next the stove surround feature will be painted and the walls will be green. After that the only thing left in this room is the ceiling rose and the fire place/ pot bellied stove installation.
The units all go in.
I love the 4 drawers and the wall cabinets.
The awkward cupboard that is put in to balance out the big beam is fitted with 4 shelves so that it can be used for spices.
We choose a hand made looking brick tile in "cottage cream". Above the white grout still has to go in. We like the definition so much of the shadow between the tiles that we opt for a darker grout.
Here is the finished grout which should also be a bit easier to keep clean.
Then our cooker and fridge are fitted into place and the cardboard is removed from the floor boards. WOW!
We really do love the look of the kitchen.
The cooker has an old Victorian/Edwardian look to it. It has 3 ovens: a broiler, regular oven and roaster.
We move in our dishes and pots and pans. The trick is to get all our plates, bowls and glasses in the glass cabinet. If you remember, a lot of the cupboards are occupied with the boiler, water softener, washing machine, dishwasher...and maybe water filter at that point.
I love cooking on this. It is a gas top and electric ovens.
Our retro fridge came fitted with a European fridge plug to our surprise, not a UK one. We called the company and found that because we ordered a rare left hinge fridge they were still accidentally being shipped with the wrong plug.
Here is the kitchen view from the fridge. Our washing machine is in the kitchen as they are in the UK. We have a laundry line outside and indoor drying racks for the winter. To the right of that is the integrated dishwasher (looking like a cupboard). You can get integrated anything including fridge, freezer, and washing machine.
It is quite a light area at the end of the kitchen with the skylights.
Bliss.
Our floor really matches the counter tops.
And our chandelier (this is the one that Nigel chose second hand) looks great. (my choice will go in the living room).
I fill the cupboard up with spices and the deep back bits on the right have the refills stuffed into them.
The hidden cupboards to the left of the fake chimney hold all the cookbooks.
One of our favourite features is our large Belfast sink that we scrounged from a property that it was being ripped out of. Bill our kitchen fitter/ joiner made this unit especially for us.
It may look small in the photo, but that is a very large sink.
The view from the French doors.
We love it. Next the stove surround feature will be painted and the walls will be green. After that the only thing left in this room is the ceiling rose and the fire place/ pot bellied stove installation.