An Open Letter to Glucose

Dear Glucose: 

You are unnaturally clear, too sticky to believe, and hard to measure. I'm pretty sure you were responsible for my brownies sticking to the parchment paper today. I kind of hate you. I would much rather use honey or something. You suck.

-Lydia

Aurora Bistro Closes Its Doors

I received an email this morning letting me know that after more than five years on Main Street, Aurora Bistro has had to close down. I enjoyed two dinners there during the last two Dine Out Vancouver events, and was looking forward to next year's. It's too bad there won't be one.

I appreciate Chef Van Geest's dedication to local and sustainable food, and look forward to his next move. Until then, here are a couple of (fuzzy, dark) photos from Kelly's Flickr of part of our dinners.

Bulk savings await

Kelly and I bought a Costco membership yesterday. It may seem somewhat unnecessary, seeing as I have at least 3 friends with cards I can go with, one of whom lives with me, but we wanted that freedom of going any old time. And we didn't just get a membership, we got an executive membership. La dee da. We were pretty easy to persuade- it costs an extra $45 over the regular membership, but there's a 2% cash rebate, and if we don't spend enough to earn that $45 back, they will just give it to us anyway. What's to lose?

I was already a fan of the Costco savings, but Kelly hadn't been in a long time, and he was pretty excited. He even wanted to go down all the aisles I usually skip, the ones with candle holders and vacuum cleaners.

Between the two of us, we spent over $300. I wish I'd thought to take a photo of all our groceries on the kitchen table (Kelly came to my house first and we brought it all in), but since I didn't, you will just have to imagine the bountiful goodness. Of course, I don't have the storage space for flats of canned tomatoes and 4 kilo bags of organic sugar, but sometimes you just have to ignore the laws of physics in favour of a good deal.

You know it's a good day when Ruhlman emails you

Regular readers of my blog might have noticed that I'm a little obsessed with food writer Michael Ruhlman. So I was pretty stoked to check my email this morning and see that he had emailed me. 

It was just a one line email, in response to a comment I left on a blog post of his the night before. I'd said that a line at the end of the post, in which he said that food allergies are turning America into a nation of culinary sissies, was brilliant, and he emailed to say thanks, "worth a post in itself i think!" When I clicked over to his blog, there was a brand new post entitled "A Nation of Culinary Sissies" (105 comments and counting at this time.)

So, what do you think, did I inspire Ruhlman to expand on his thoughts? No, I don't think so either. But the email was pretty cool though. 

Remember to vote Saturday, Vancouver

Kelly may not give a damn about voting in this Saturday's civic election, but for me, the more voting, the merrier. Voting for a new park board etc. may not be quite as glamourous as voting for Barack Obama, but deal with it. It's voter apathy that gets jerks in office, and I would rather have a guy who owns an organic fruit juice company and takes public transit as my mayor, than a jerk who likes to throw money at the Olympics like it ain't no thang. Vote Gregor Robertson!

Kelly is his middle name

Kelly has another article in this week's Georgia Straight. It's on blogging. Here it is. 

In a marvelous confluence, he interviewed Everybody Likes Sandwiches. There's even a picture of her in the story. Fun!

Yes you did, America

From Flickr user idyllopus

I was going to write last week about how much I miss being able to just pop down to Seattle (no more days off with Kelly and our exchange rate is poor now anyway), but I think today is an even better time to talk about it. I am so very happy about the election results! (Except for those states that went hateful with the anti-gay laws. BAD SHOW THERE.) I wish my country could get so excited about an election that people just flocked into the street.

Anyway, if you have the means and the way to get to our neighbour to the south, tomorrow is a pretty good time to go. John Hodgman will be putting on a little show to promote his new book, and it only costs five dollars to go!

I am totally jealous of Seattle the rest of November, too. We have Dine Out Vancouver, they have Dine Around Seattle, and it's on this month. (Ours isn't til January, when we're all broke and overfed from Christmas.) Thirty restaurants are participating, offering 3 course meals for $30. So much more simple than our Dine Out with its price tiers and multitude of questionable restaurants. There's a lot of restaurants on Seattle's Dine Around I would love to try, but if I only had one choice, I'd go back to Dahlia Lounge, where Kelly proposed on my birthday. Yum coconut cream pie.

Finally, because I'm in such a good mood, let me recommend this cake I made the other night.


It's perfect for celebrations! It's Smitten Kitchen's Peanut Butter Cake. That's a sour cream chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and chocolate peanut butter ganache to you. If you're going to make it, let me tell you, it gets better with age. I liked it all right on Sunday, but on Tuesday night, in front of CNN, it was divine.

Taste memories

I could have made these turnovers any flavour, but I chose apple because I have a real taste memory for apple turnovers. They make me think of reading L.M. Montgomery as a child, in this case Emily of New Moon, because Emily's aunt slipped apple turnovers in her school lunch. When my mother took me to Hillside Mall in Victoria after I read that, I got an apple turnover at the bakery in their pre-renovation food court (which I remember as being market-like and full of twists and turns). I took it home and settled in with the turnover and the book, feeling distinctly old-timey as I savoured it. I might as well have been in front of the hearth on New Moon Farm. 

I also have a taste memory of eating my mother's chicken soup while reading Rainbow Valley, the seventh book in the Anne of Green Gables series, for the nth time while a Lucille Ball (whose name I thought was "Lucy La Ball") movie played on TV. I read while eating a lot as a child. I even took a book to restaurants and propped it in front of me while we waited for the food. 

Musings on bridal accessories

I'm considering wearing a little hat and birdcage veil for the wedding, and I'm not adverse to having some feathers on it. I quite like the offerings on this Etsy shop, House of Telsa, such as this number:


But it's not quite veily enough for me. Another example is this one from the aptly named birdcageveils.com:


It's closer in terms of retro appeal, but again, I think I want a bit more veil going on. At the same time, I don't actually want the veil to cover my face. No lower than my eyes. And I don't want any of the mini top hats that seem to be popular in this genre. If you have any hot leads, let me know!

In other wedding planning news, we seem to have tracked down our rings. I saw these in a shop in Victoria, and thought about them somewhat obsessively until a friend told me the name of the designer, Jeanine Payer. She makes really cool, unique jewelry engraved with snippets of poetry. I like these two:


The rings come in either a reasonably priced sterling silver or a crazy expensive 18 karat gold, so silver it is. I'm not too fussed, since I think it will go just fine with my white gold engagement ring, but Kelly has put some doubts in my mind. What do you think, can silver and white gold live in peace? Do you have any suggestions for non-traditional wedding bands?

Please don't let it get cancelled

We all know that the really good, smart TV shows like Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks get cancelled, while shows like Scrubs drag on to slow, painful deaths.

There's a new show that's only been on for two episodes, and it already seems to be in danger of cancellation. It's called Kath and Kim, and it's really good, I swear! MAYBE if NBC didn't put it up against Ugly Betty, it would fare better in the ratings. It's funny and smart and based on an Australian sitcom of the same name that I totally want to watch now. The last episode alone had 2 great lines- "I'm too busy being a trophy wife to work" and "FROSTING ORIENTATION! FOUR A.M.!", which I've been randomly yelling at people.

Kath and Kim is on Thursday nights at 8:30. Watch it and tell people how good it is, please.