Subj : Weekend tastes To : ALL From : JIM WELLER Date : Sun Sep 18 2022 20:33:00 At 17 months, Azlind already has some firmly established likes and dislikes. I am happy to report that he is not at all fond of McDonald's, soft drinks or candy. He does however love fruit, all kinds of fruit. Neekha does something with him that I used to do with her: try out a new fruit every week. His short and succinct review of Mickey Dee's, "Yuck! No!". He has developed a keen sense of humour too. He started calling Roslind "Grandma" because his mom did, so that must be her true name. This after she had trained him to call her "Gee Gee" (for Greatest Grandmother). She said to him, "Are you going to call me 'Grandma', 'GG' or what?" So he called her, "What" for the next two days with a cheeky little grin. Neekha and Azlind are gone but his snacks remain behind and I am grazing on them tonight. Things he has taught me: Tiny little black Zante Currant grapes are juicy and delicious. PC Pizza Penguin crackers are better than Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers because they're penguins and they taste like pizza. Some other treats he left behind for me: prickly pears, Cosmic Crisp apples and "BIG box blueberries". We had one night here recently where frost was predicted although the low temp turned out to be +1 C. We had either harvested or brought indoors a lot of perishable stuff the night before but left out the hardier ones. So tonight I pulled the last of the beets. The bulbs were still tiny but the greens abundant. I also grabbed the last of the Swiss Chard. So I boiled store bought beetroot, and then garnished them, with our own chopped greens, pepper and some fresh Greek oregano from a pot in our indoor living room windowsill garden. We'll have the kale and kolrabi soon, before the next real frost. The cauliflower didn't grow enough to develop heads but we'll harvest the leaves and cook them like collards. The Chinese Mid Autumn festival was last Saturday, September 10. Both Neekha and our latest house guest, great-niece Storm, had bought Moon Cakes and we are still nibbling on the leftovers. Recent cheese purchases, all at 50% off: Ziggy's Brie. Ziggy's Fantastic Foods was originally a chain of gourmet deli/specialty food shops in and around Toronto that made its way into some of the deli counters at Loblaws. Today it is nothing but a brand name label, like President's Choice, for some pretty good but sensibly priced cold cuts and cheese. Their Brie is not especially remarkable but it's half the price of the real thing imported from France and especially affordable if it's marked down on it sell by date (and therefore aged to the peak of perfection and runny goodness.) Siegfried (Ziggy) Leopold Wauro was a German-Canadian butcher and a born marketer. Some of Ziggy's old ads: One of the Great Reasons for Living in Toronto Gourmet products and service cost more, and people who don't want to pay my prices should shop at the supermarket. Ziggy's hot dog hasn't got what it takes to make a common hot dog ... cereal fillers. Millions have been made selling hot dogs with cereal fillers added, but Ziggy isn't clever enough to grasp that profit concept. Snowdonia cheese: very old, sharp Cheddar from Snowdon in north Wales. Most excellent. PC Herb & Garlic Halloom: A young, mild, semi-soft Mediterranean style cheese, that resists melting, which makes it ideal for frying and grilling. It's made in Canada with pasteurised cows' milk and is modelled after Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Halloumi where it's made from raw goat and sheep milk. But that's a PDO protected name so Loblaw's had to call it something else. It also tastes less sheepish so more in line with mainstream Canadian taste buds. Cheers Jim .... The adjective for metal is metallic but not iron which is ironic. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5 * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 www.doccyber.org bbs.docsplace.org (1:135/392) .