I brought celery to work with me today. Work. Where I sit in a cube in a field of other cubes. A quiet field, where every person’s phone call is broadcast to all neighbouring ears.
I have never felt so self-conscious about eating my veggies. Every bite I take seems to reverberate across the whole floor. Which is of course making me laugh almost out loud, which makes it that much harder to chew, which means the whole thing just takes even longer.
Little things are funny. 🙂
I’ve had a couple of touch’n’go weekends lately. I get to
Saturday, wake up feeling groggy – have brunch, and then spend from
Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon trying (<-the “trying” might
be the problem) to feel productive/awake/normal.
This weekend, getting it together took until 6pm today. Poor CPwr
is feeling sickly, so that’s probably contributed to a general slowness
in our little apartment the past few days. But I did finally
emerge from lethargy land – and with a fury.
Now, I know I’m going to be outdone by my dearest, darling, uber-baker brother , even if slows him down with his sliced finger ;).
However, I don’t have to accept complete defeat. Over the last 2+ hours, I’ve whipped together Chocolate Toffee Squares, my signature Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti, and a banana bread for good measure. A Shortbread Stars & Bells icing party is planned for Friday. Exccceeellllent…..
I have several more cookie plans up my wiley sleeves. Some new recipes culled from current and back issues of Canadian Living’s Christmas editions – including Black and White Spiral cookies, and Earl Grey cookies, plus a few old favourites – Scotch Shortbread, and I may even brave the dreaded and delicious Peanut Butter Balls.
I had been feeling most unfestive, probably because my Christmas season always starts with lots of headaches and phone calls ‘negotiating’ sleeps and meals and visits between 3+ families.
But, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… soy nog and James Galway ahoy!
The fountain of wisdom that is CPwr used this to explain why he likes having me in the room with him, even when we’re not being particularly interactive (dirty or otherwise).
For instance, I’ve been sitting in the study with him, doing petit point and listening to music, while he does the Blender (3D art) tutorial. When he said that it’s because we like to be in herds, I had a very pleasant image of us as a couple of cows, chewing our cud, just hanging out in the corner of a field.
In other herding behaviour, I almost laughed out loud at a uniquely Toronto-brunch-scene phenomenon today. CPwr and I headed out for a late brunch – which meant that we were going to hit the second seating bump. If you don’t get to your restaurant of choice by absolutely no later than 10:30, it’s a crapshoot whether there will be seats left. Another seating opens up around 12 as the 10:30s turn over, but if you hit your timing right, you’ll never have to be those poor saps jammed in a clump at the door drooling on yourself as you watch other people laughing and enjoying YOUR pancakes [and dying a little inside when they order another round of coffee].
Anywho, we were trying to eat right at the peak of brunchers. Walked past the corner eatery – packed. Decided to keep walking and go past one place we were sure would be full on our way to another (just to check). As we walked past it, it was so full that it spit a group of 6 brunchers out onto the street – about to move on and try somewhere else. This is the uniquely Toronto-brunch-scene bit. We all brunch so often and at the same places, that we know where these guys are headed. The stink of desire for pancakes and french toast is thick in the air, and I suddenly become very aware that these people are no longer just fellow pedestrians – they are enemies in my quest for a seat and a menu. The sidewalk becomes a moving lineup – everyone heading east to the next possible feeding hole. CPwr and I are in the lead, but he sees a book he wants in a bookstore – There is No Window Shopping When You are in the Queue! 2 of the 6 pass us, but fortunately, being the long-legged beasts we are, we quickly outpace them – and back to the front of the line we go…
and…HaHA! Victory! I sip my coffee at you sir! Brunch, it’s not for the weak.
Recent Food: The most amazing rumball from St. Lawrence market; Braised Chicken (Ficken) Pie with Caramelized Onions Mushrooms and Chestnuts (see the Chestnut entry from the other day); A fantastic breakfast at Fresh of scrambled tofu, beans, toast, facon and french fries with an Americano on the side.
.. no, not tonight.
Got all inspired about dinner (probably because I got a drive home tonight and wasn’t tired from the commute+the day).
Went to the store, bought me some veggies. We had:
-potato salad with peas and celery (the good kind, that’s all mayo-y)
-corn on the cob
-fresh farmer’s bread
-warm asparagus salad with mushrooms and goat cheese
I bought watermelon for dessert. But instead we opted for the
leftover “Chocolate Mud Cake” from last night’s Bregman’s dinner.
Tasty-tastic.
So tasty that we almost didn’t notice our jackass ex-frat house
downstairs neighbours out on their balcony being all loud and
stupid. I’m calling the cops… I’ll do it. I’ve got
asparagus in my belly and attitude in my soul…
Okay, seriously. How can it be *this* hard to find something to eat?
I went to dominion today. To be fair, I could’ve bought one of the Yves veggie dishes (if i had wanted to go up to the 10th floor to heat up my meal). But I went instead in search of a non-microwaved healthy lunch food. Found a “garden salad” – Read: sick looking iceberg lettuce with some shaved cheddar cheese and three cherry tomatoes. Pass.
The “spinach salad” looked much more promising. But unfortunately it included “real bacon bits!”. Pass.
Finally decided on a pasta salad from their pasta bar, a raw veggie tray, and some sierra fruitn’nut mix for protein.
Now I’m eating the pasta, which I can only describe as SBB (salty beyond belief), with chewy noodles. And the whole thing is WET with oil. I mean actually dripping.
I’m only half way through and I’m giving up. Yuck. Geez. I mean, people eat this stuff as food. Good god…
Lunchtime for office workers makes baby jesus cry.
So… in my ongoing efforts to eat well, I bought Greens+.
For the uninitiated – Greens+ is a powdered mix of greenery you dissolve in juice or water “for when your diet, just isn’t enough”. It is of course crazy expensive, weighing in at $35/jar of powder.
Oh yes, and it tastes like poo.
1-3 teaspoons a day, preferrably on an empty stomach (so you won’t throw up that much?). Sigh. But I think it’s actually a good solution. And until I find a way to cook kale so that I can swallow it *and* keep it down, Greens+ is the life for me.
I promised this explanation a while ago – better late than never…
This is why I eat organic whenever I can, and why I have a problem with genetically modified foods. Genetically modified foods are food crops modified in a lab at the molecular level to enhance desireable traits, such as resistance to pesticides.
Here are the two most common arguments I’ve seen in favour of GM foods (tell me if I’m missing another biggie):
1) GM foods lead to higher crop yields
2) GM foods can prevent deaths from malnutrition
Here’s the other side:
1) Sometimes – not always. Some GM crops lead to higher yields – at best temporarily (see ‘Biodiversity’ below). Others are actually producing less than conventional varieties. This has led to class-action suits by some farmers against biotech companies for misrepresenting their product.
2) Biotech/GM companies spend a lot of time hyping up the idea that there isn’t enough food to go around on this planet – so clearly we need to increase food production.
False. Most countries suffering from malnutrition are acutally exporting their food away – to us, “developed” nations. Why? Because they are heavily in debt. For instance, Brazil sells 85% of their grain and beans for livestock feed in North America, Europe and Asia.
Bankers, such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American Development Bank, “won’t fund anti-hunger initiatives [in these countries] linked to agrarian or economic reforms that encourage production for the domestic market. That might upset the prospects of earning foreign currency to pay off debt.” (NOW Magazine, April 1-7 2004) Most food shortages aren’t related to food production ability, but to political and social causes.
Besides which, most of the traits biotechnology companies are breeding into foods have nothing to do with increased nutritional value. These are companies and they are trying to turn a profit. Developments are heavily concentrated on GM development for processed foods and livestock feed -> products almost exclusively consumed by wealthier countries.
Other key points:
Economics: Organic food is much more expensive, right? Only because you’re paying the actual cost. In 1988, taxpayers paid nearly $74 billion in federal subsidies for conventional foods. Other hidden costs: pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean up, and environmental damage. (GEO)
Energy: ‘Modern’ farms (not-organic) use more petroleum than any other single industry – 12% of the US’s total energy supply. “More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest all the crops in the US.”(GEO)
Chemical and Carcinogens: “Now the EPA considers that 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% insecticides are carcinogenic.” Tasty. (GEO)
Package Deal: GM crops are often sold as a package – you buy the crop, and you buy the (expensive) pesticide it’s bred to be resistant to. For example, this holds farmers hostage to buy Monsanto crops with Monsanto pesticides.
Biodiversity: What happens when you plant just one kind of potato? It’s arrogant, ignorant and irresponsible to have absolute faith in our technology – especially when it’s so unproven. Besides the vulnerability of the ‘one key-one lock’ pesticide-to-crop design, planting large crops of just one kind of crop year after year destroys the soil. “While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts.” (GEO)
The Environment: Pesticides, those that the genetically engineered crops are bred to be compatible with, contaminate ground water. We don’t even know for sure the extent of the impact on our ecosystems. But what we know isn’t good. Farms don’t operate in a bubble – they leak pesticides down to the ground water, crop pollen blows away with the wind, and insecticides can’t discriminate what ‘pests’ they’ll wipe out. One side-effect of this unfortunate lack of bubble-farming is “Gene transfer to non-target species”. This is a really good one. Crop plants engineered to resist herbicides can cross-breed with the weeds the herbicides are designed to kill. Then these “superweeds” are herbicide tolerant as well. (GM Foods For and Against) The suggested solution? Create buffer zones around GM crops of 6 to 30 metres or more, or make GM plants sterile, or plant non-GM crops around the GM crops and use those crops as a decoy for insect pests to destroy. We would of course not be able to harvest those ‘decoy crops’. Yes, that all makes perfect sense. Obviously a much more efficient system.
Taste: Buy an organic orange and a “regular” orange. Come back, and tell me whatcha think…
Took advantage of my pretty metropass to go out and get Juice for Life for lunch today. Call in the order. Jump on the subway for a couple of stops there and back.
Then the good part. Where I sit down in my cube with my Magic Tofu Sandwich, side of fries and Miso Gravy (
Those not familiar with Juice for Life may not know about Miso Gravy. It is ambrosia. Its sweet scent caused three co-workers to come into my cube nose-a’sniffin’ saying “that smells fantastic! what are you eating?” (naturally I reply by offering them a fry and a dip)
Vegetarians are sneaky. They tenderize you with their tasty vittles and then spring a way of life on you…