Category — Chatter

Hello!  I’m back from a nice week-and-a-bit long holiday.  We stayed in Ottawa and spent our days cooking, sledding, snowball-throwing, skating and playing some serious amounts of lego and trains.  All three of us got to spend time doing some of our favourite things which felt like a real luxury.  I even had an afternoon out by myself for a bit of peace and quiet.  Lovely.

I did a lot of baking with Alden – we made cookies, cinnamon buns, biscotti, bread and apple crisp.  He’d be beyond upset if he missed out on some dough action.

He is a mini master in the kitchen.  He is always ready to help, whether it’s taste-testing the cookie dough or making sauces with his Dad.

The individual servings of apple crisp in the mini Le Creuset dishes made this simple recipe seem pretty special.  I splurged before Christmas on the Scandinavian-esque tea towel.  A little touch of Nordic-chic for the table.

We made gingerbread men from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  (We also did a modified version of their white chocolate and cranberry biscotti, but with chocolate chips and figs.  It was a hit in our house.)  Seriously, I love this cookbook.

The biscotti made our “tea time” a real occasion. I bought the boys a set of Ferrari espresso cups to use for snack time.  (The Ferrari on the cups looks very similar to Francesco from the Cars movie, so I *knew* they would be a hit.)  Alden loves them and he has made it clear that  I am not allowed to use these cups – they are strictly for the boys.  (I picked them up at Preston Hardware if you’re interested in getting a set.  They also have cappuccino sized cups.)

I treated myself to a new bike after Christmas and tarted it up with a big crocheted flower.  Hey, it’s my “social bike”.  While not food-related, I was pretty chuffed to have some new wheels.

The dish that I was looking forward to making most was a gravlax fish recipe.  It was a nice change from our usual fare of smoked salmon from the Whalesbone.  I picked up a couple of trout filets from Whalesbone and did a half recipe of this cure from Australian Gourmet Traveler.  It cured for 24 hours, but it could have done with less.  It ended up being a shade too salty and as you can see from the photo below, there were a few spots that were overdone and a bit chewy.

I could see this becoming a tradition.  The leftovers made for easy tapas-y lunches with bread and olives.  Or in the case below, caper berries!  They have all the flavour that you love about olives, but with no pit to remove.

I whipped together the cheese bread recipe from Artisan Breads Every Day.  We found it a little heavy on the onion, so I’ll tone that down next time or add some herbs to make it more savoury.  It went great with the fish.

We worked off some calories with a winter bike ride along Dow’s Lake. I’m not sure who loved being out and about more.

On New Year’s Eve, we spent the afternoon outside sledding at a local hill.  The husband roasted a duck and fried up some potatoes in the duck fat.  If you haven’t made potatoes using duck fat, get on that in 2012.  (You can get it at any good butcher.  Or just roast a duck and collect the drippings.)

I helped by assembling our collection of relishes and chutneys for the big meal.  The boy konked out mid-meal at the table leaving the remainder of the evening free for sipping Prosecco and enjoying a cheese plate.  We even watched a movie!  The second one we’ve seen in one week!  (In case you’re wondering, they were: Bill Cunningham New York and Our Idiot Brother.  I’d easily recommend watching both.)  We also watched the Dr. Who Christmas special, but I fell asleep halfway through.  It was overly sentimental.  I was looking forward to something a little sillier and light.

Dog-themed Prosecco – you can’t go wrong with a dog on the label.  Trust in the wiener dog.

Finally, for our New Year’s Day lunch, I whipped up a pretty basic risotto with some mushrooms and bacon.  We cracked open the new bottle of truffle oil and drizzled it on the top of our dishes.  It took the risotto from being tasty to beyond terrific.  Even Alden wanted in on the truffle action.

In 2012, I expect we’ll keep cooking, keep baking and keep trying to avoid stepping on lego in the middle of the night.  Easier said than done.

There’s a lot of activity shaking down in our neck of Ottawa these days and as much as I want to just focus on food writing and cooking, my inner community activist is being consumed by the completely foolish reconstruction plans of an arterial highway/main street not far from us.  Yes, highway and main street!  That’s Ottawa planning for you.

Sigh.

I’ve been putting together some items for Alden’s expanded “play kitchen 2011.”  Last year, the husband crafted a lovely tabletop cooktop for him out of spare Ikea shelves and now we’d like to build an oven and shelf unit for the cooktop to sit on.  My role was to find some new playfood to use.  As much as he’s loved all the crochet foods I made last year, I just didn’t have time to dedicate to crafting more food.  I relied on the internet and found some super cute Erzi and Haba playfood on the Baby Naturopathics website.

I really like the Haba felt noodles: fettucine, bow ties and ravioli.  They were sort of ridiculously priced for felt and my inner “crafty mom” is still feeling a bit guilty for not making my own.  If you are crafty, you could easily whip these up with some felt at home.  But alas, time was of the essence.

Some things, were just too amazing to resist.  The coffee beans in the little tin?  He is going to love putting those in the mini espresso maker for “coffee”.  The roast chicken with the removable legs?  I think he’s going to love roasting it up in his oven.

I looked at many play versions of coffee makers but they were so expensive!  The mini espresso maker is the perfect size and essential for the kid who likes playing with the “real” thing.

I also picked up some tea bags, sausages, fish filets, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and jam.

The clincher?  The mini chef hat.  I found this one at J.D. Adams in the Glebe (but they also have them at the Glebe Emporium).

I won’t lie, it’s been kind of a dream of ours to have a great lunch, sweets and coffee shop near our home. Ok, the dream is mostly my husband’s since he works from home and there’s only so many biscotti or polish donuts a person can eat before getting a little bored.

Pressed gourmet sandwich shop is slated to open on November 21 at 750 Gladstone Avenue (corner Gladstone and Arthur) and will feature:

• Fair trade coffee from Equator
• Lots of in-house cooking (and smoking!) and many local ingredients
• Vegan options
• Large space for live music
• Ample stroller parking
• “Kid’s menu” with Mac n’ Cheese, grilled cheese and all-natural hot dogs
• Lots of space to meet and gather
• Wifi

When we met last night, they were still working on sourcing their sweets and bread.  So far, they know it won’t be Art-is-in since they felt their business was too similar to their City Centre concept.  (My 2 personal cents: I don’t go to Art-is-in at the City Centre because it’s just not convenient to walk there from West Centretown, we don’t have a car to drive there and I haven’t bothered to figure out how to get there on a bike.  And I love their bread.  Ok.. rant over.)

Update: They’ve decided to go with ACE bakery ciabatta – it provides the right texture for the paninis.

They are planning to open early around 7:30 to catch morning commuters.  And will hopefully soon have their liquor licence for those after-work commuters and evening concerts.

Jeff, the owner, gave me a tour of the space last night.  Of all the cool things they were planning, the piece of equipment that really got Jeff talking the most was the smoker. I am convinced that by opening day, this machine will have moved into a prime viewing (and smelling) location.

He talked of brining and smoking pork belly, making brisket for chili and even smoking squash for vegetarian soups.  They’ll also be doing vegetable dishes like collard greens and braised red cabbage.  It’s great to see vegetables being featured.

They have done extensive renovations to turn the old fluorescent kebab shop into a cozy nook.  With the fluorescent lights gone, the walls and ceiling repainted and the addition of lovely wooden church pew seats from a local church, artwork, and ambient lighting – the space has really transformed into the kind of space to sit and relax.

While they may have had reservations about joining the Twitter thing, I have no doubt that they will find it teaming with local foodies waiting to retweet daily specials.

•  Pressed website
• Twitter
• Facebook

————
Update!  December 8, 2011

We’ve had several meals here now (with and without the small boy) – here are some of our favourites:

Latte

Panini with homemade pickled beans (totally delicious)

We eat a lot of meat at home, so it’s nice to have a break.  Their vegetarian chili is filling and perfect for winter.

—————————

Sending a child to school with food allergies is nerve wracking.  When we first enrolled at Kids and Company, we didn’t know the extent of our son’s allergies.  After his official diagnosis with a pediatric allergist, we had new forms to fill out, allergy management plans, Epipen instructions. Being new to the allergy world, the existence of “allergy management plans” from the school led me to believe that they understood how to manage allergies.  (Later, I would come to learn that this is actually a requirement from the Day Nurseries Act – article 36.1) At the time, the primary reason we chose Kids and Company was because they were the only centre accepting one-year olds within walking distance from our home.  The ability to walk to our daycare was essential since we do not own a car.  The centre appeared nice during the tour, we had heard they used Bekta for catering and it seemed like a wonderful match.

Catering woes

Shortly after enrolling, the centre’s catering company changed.   The new caterer was called Whole Green Kids.  In what will become a theme for this post, the new caterer seemed great.  They promised organic foods, quality meats, and an ability to cater to students with allergies.  It was like music to my ears. However, when presented with a release to sign that absolved Kids and Company of any responsibility over allergens in the catered food, I declined.  Warning bells went off in my mind.  We decided to pack our own lunches. And for good reason. A few months later, Whole Green Kids, was in the news for allegedly neglecting food safety standards and passing off food as organic and made from scratch when it was not the case.  Our trust in the catered food was shaken.  Even after a new caterer was brought in (and reviewed by parents) we still continued to pack lunches.

Let them eat eggs!  They need the omegas!

All parents were asked to review the new menu plans in May provided by the new caterer.  Even though we would not be using this service, I reviewed it faithfully.  I saw that there were two meals with egg-based dishes and asked if it was possible to rearrange the draft menu to serve eggs on the day that Alden didn’t attend school. (Eggs being one of our serious allergies.)  I made the mistake of adding in one of  our email conversations “I’m a bit nervous about his exposure to two egg-based meals on that day.” When the revised menu was circulated, the egg items were now spread over two days instead of one.  Neither of which was our “day off”. After this incident, I joined the Ottawa Anaphylaxis Support Group to ask for their advice on how to deal with the incident. Given the need to select a caterer immediately, the menu went ahead unchanged.  We sent Alden to school on “quiche day” and when I picked him up, his cheeks had broken out into two large red blotchy patches.  I knew right away that there was likely egg residue all over his classroom. Messages were left with the caterer to try and rearrange the menu (despite the fact that the caterer was in the same building and roughly 50 feet from the daycare), they suggested that Alden could eat at a separate table on egg-meal days if the menu could not be rearranged.  Eating alone was not part of our “strategy” nor do I think it’s an acceptable way to meet the Day Nurseries Act requirements. We ended up being successful in our request to serve egg dishes on our “day off”, but it took a lot of effort and disgruntled emails to come to that arrangement.

Eating alone

One of the “strategies” that we had asked for when it came to snacks and lunches, was that a caretaker be seated at the table.  Thanks to the centre’s webcam, I know that this was not always followed.  One day in July I logged on to see Alden seated at a separate table, alone.  And he sat there for a long long time.  No one talked to him, no one checked to see if he was ok.  (Again, screenshots saved for posterity.) The reason?  With new children transitioning into the room, there were not enough staff to deal with children not familiar with the routine.   Heartbreaking.  A not-quite-three year old eating alone is not an OK policy or attitude.

Birthday parties, popsicles and treats, oh my!

Being first time parents, we also didn’t realize the prevalence of the at-school birthday party.  Good grief, it was a revolving door of cupcakes.  The only advice given to parents was to not bring in items with nuts.  (Even without the allergy concern, the rampant cupcake treats seemed to counter the centre’s “philosophy” – I found it disturbing how often treats found their way into the classroom.) As newly inducted allergy parents, we understood that simply because a product isn’t called “Double Pecan Peanut Butter Cupcakes” that the item may not be nut-free.  (Most commercial bakeries cannot guarantee that their baked goods are not cross contaminated.  Homemade cupcakes are not any safer: ingredients purchased at bulk food stores are not considered safe, cocoa powder often has “may contain” warnings and the list goes on. When we raised our concerns and asked for a no-food rule, we were only able to negotiate with our centre to have parents give a 3-day notice if they planned to bring in food.  Parents “knew” to bring in nut-free items, but to our knowledge no one checked ingredients or asked if the goods were purchased at a nut-free bakery.  And often the “3-day notice” turned into the “day before notice.”  But it was better than nothing. For about a year, this solution worked fairly well with only a few incidents of surprise cupcakes.  And after significant lobbying, a food-free holiday party was arranged.  (No one seemed to mind. Even then, we still ended up at CHEO after Alden managed to get a small pompom wedged up his nose that required an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist to remove. Oh yeah, that.) When he moved from the toddler to the preschool room, the agreement no longer seemed to be in effect.

Surprise!  You get to be left out today!

One day in August, I logged into the classroom’s webcam and saw popsicles being handed out.  I panicked and called the daycare.  What are in those popsicles?  Are they giving one to Alden?  Why didn’t anyone tell me? They assured me that Alden would not be given a popsicle.  This was a temporary relief, but the issue of being left out of a special food treat stung.  Apparently, a parent had brought in the popsicles in the morning.  The teacher asked the Director if they could be handed out.  The Director agreed.  Instead of waiting until the next day or calling us to ask our permission, they chose exclusion.  My blood boils every time I see the image (screenshot saved for posterity) of that afternoon. He didn’t complain, so no one seemed to mind.  When I picked him up that day, the first thing he told me was “my friends were all licking ice cream”.  Heartbreaking.

Communication failtures with the head office

I realized that my requests were biggest in scope than our local centre, I was asking that the company rethink their (unwritten) policy on celebrations in the classroom. The first email I sent to them, elicited a response.  They agreed that food-free celebrations were preferred given the rise of allergies. Shortly after this email, a note was sent to all parents to communicate that non-food celebrations were “encouraged”. Don’t be shocked, this email did not work to resolve the issue. The second time I contacted the head office, I sent photos of Alden being excluded and requested that if a food-free celebration is not possible, there should be a minimum requirement to purchase treats from a true nut-free bakery. My email was then forwarded to the local director to deal with.   There was no response from head office of Kids and Company. In the meantime, I wrote a short note to tuck into his classmates’ cubbies to let them know that there was a child was severe allergies in the class and to let the teacher know if they were planning on bringing special treats.  I also noted some local nut-free bakeries they could contact. The Director approached me after this and assured me that they would send a reminder out on this issue, but at the time, the email system was down.  The note was never sent.  

Autumn 2011

After so many disappointments: the loss of a favourite teacher, the introduction of computer stations to the classroom, the never-ending circle-time programming and bullying children had turned our happy toddler into someone who hated going to school and stopped talking during the day.  It was too much. I researched other centres and withdrew from Kids and Company as soon as I found a space.  I swallowed the two-months of fees for not giving advance notice of our departure.  I don’t regret a penny of it.

Footnote:I had almost forgotten about these related posts from last year about birthday and holiday parties. So many good memories.

• December 2010 – Ho ho ho holiday party
• December 2010 – Holiday party aftermath

This email arrived in my inbox today (note point #2 – ahem, it seems my push button issues are pushing someone’s buttons).  If you like to walk downtown and do it safely, please consider attending.  (Don’t forget to do your homework first.  Although, I am sure we can all think of many many more examples!)

Message is as follows:

Dear fellow pedestrians,

The City of Ottawa spends tens of millions of dollars a year on road building, but very little on dedicated pedestrian-specific projects. As announced earlier, I am hosting a meeting on pedestrian safety that will bring together pedestrian advocates, community representatives and residents who want to improve our city’s walking environment.

Diane Holmes’ “SIDEWALK SUMMIT”

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 7-9 pm

Ottawa City Hall, Colonel By Room (second floor near Lisgar St. entrance)

110 Laurier Avenue West

At the meeting we will discuss the disconnect between what is promised in official planning documents (such as the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan) and what is spent in City budgets. We will also break out into groups to share our experiences and concerns about walking in Ottawa, to develop a priority list of pedestrian problems that need to be solved, and plan ways to make that happen.

As you walk around town between now and November 8th, consider the following topics and if possible please bring a list of 5 examples in each category.

1. General problems that apply city-wide (e.g. not enough money spent on building, or maintaining pedestrian linkages and routes)
2. Location-specific chronic problems in any part of the city (e.g. the light at the end of my street takes a long time to change after I press the crosswalk button)
3. Degradations—where conditions have recently gotten worse (e.g. new vehicular-priority advance turn signals, barricades to convenient street crossings, or the pathway gate at Preston and Albert that was recently locked)

Please pass along this invitation to anyone you think would be interested in improving conditions for pedestrians.

Sincerely,

Diane Holmes
Councillor, Somerset Ward
(613) 580-2484
Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca
www.dianeholmes.ca

It was the first real week of fall and we managed to squeeze in a date night and we switched over into fall cooking mode.

Tuesday, September 27 – Tuesday date night at DiVino
We tried the 35@Divino for the first time this week. Three courses for $35 dollars. The feature region for that night’s dinner was Calabria (the “toe” of Italy). We splurged on the wine pairing too – which made for a pretty swishy Tuesday night out of the house.

While we debated the merits of the Italian ABBA-esque music playing on the speakers, we enjoyed our three courses. I still can’t believe that the husband’s pasta (strozzapreti?)was made in-house. It led to many questions about whether we needed to add a pasta extruder to our arsenal of kitchen gadgetry. (Although, after reading the description of this pasta on Wikipedia, it seems like it may be doable at home sans gadgets – all I need is a rolling pin and some deft hands to do the rolling.)

Sadly, pasta is one of those things that just can’t live up to a point and shoot camera in low light. Especially not handmade pasta. Cooked al dente, my minty pesto and the husband’s tomato and anchovy sauce were both simple yet extremely flavourful.
First course: bread stuffed with eggplant.  Mmm!

We read that Calabria was known for both its seafood and pork, so it came as no surprise that the third course choices were shrimp or pork loin. I was jealous that the husband got the parsnips. My favourite root vegetable!

Friday, September 30– Night out at Aroma Meze. No photo evidence!
After a stressful end of the work week and a bit of retail therapy, we settled in for some wine, wine, wine and a bit of food too. Aside from the existential question from our waiter at the beginning of the evening “do you know what you’re doing?” (I think so?) we were happy, full and a bit tipsy. The zucchini cakes (kolokithokeftedes), grilled smelts with chilli (marides) and lamb sausages with spanakopitakia were comforting and delicious. Loved the smelts! Wish I had taken a photo… I believe we had the 2008 Empelous Gis, Messinia, Peloponnese – Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon to drink.

Saturday, October 1 – Crackers!
Alden and I read Cherry the Pig in the morning. It’s a book about a pig who enters a pie making contest, but she overhears some hurtful mice saying how awful her pie is. At the end, she realizes that the mice like old hard cheesy biscuits, so she bakes them some. Then Alden decided he wanted to make “mouse biscuits”… so we baked crackers using the recipe on the Straight from the Farm blog.

Sunday, October 2 – homemade pasta and tomato soup
There’s only one thing you can make when you have homemade crackers in the house… and that is tomato soup. I tweaked this roasted tomato soup recipe to make it allergy-friendly. The chilly weather had me decked out in uggs and cableknit sweaters. Kinfolk style. Served with a side of smoked salmon for the boy makes it Gladstone style.

We cycled to the market to pick up a few items and ended up with overflowering bags of garlic, parsnips, turnips, plums and cranberries. Oh, and maple butter. Oh.my.god. The maple butter. After getting a sample from the Garland Sugar Shack, I couldn’t buy a jar fast enough. (Well, after asking if they used egg in the refining process… they don’t. Apparently that method is pretty out of fashion, but I still have to ask.) And there’s no dairy in it… despite the name.

After warming up with some hot chocolate, we got started on dinner. I made some pasta – inspired from our DiVino outing earlier in the week. My egg-free pastas are getting much better. And the husband whipped up a roast chicken.

For this round of pasta, I mixed half 00 flour and half durum semolina with a pinch of salt, olive oil and enough water to form a nice dough ball. I kneaded it until it was smooth and stretchy. It flew through the pasta machine like butter. The spaghetti making attachment got a good workout. Small people were impressed.

Sometimes I find myself getting a bit too ranty, so I thought I’d lighten things up and write about some things that I am loving right now. Now!

I have found so many good looking food blogs in the last few weeks, that I need to dedicate a full post just to my ever expanding blogroll. (Do they still call it a blogroll? It sounds so dated.)

My favourite sites generally seem to have a few things in common:  bright and clean photos, home gardens and an overall unfussiness about life.

For example, that new Kinfolk online magazine is undoubtedly beautiful – and you can tell that a talented group of professional designers and artists are running this thing. It’s put together.  But I’m having a hard time getting really excited about it. I don’t spend lazy summer days listening to music on records and the hazy photos are just so dreamy. And me?  Well, I have never been a dreamer.  It’s like the graduate student of food blogs: idealistic and somewhat detached from reality. I’m sorry.  But! If romantic and dreamy young adults are your style, you will love it.  It’s just that my “small gatherings” always involve weefolk and no tealights.   Gosh, I said I wouldn’t rant.

Now back to the good part! (Yes, total homage to the Captain Jack Sparrow song by the Lonely Islands featuring Michael Bolton… love it.)

Here’s a rundown of some new reads and why I think you’ll dig them:

The Yellow House: Washington, DC
They’re young, they garden, they cook and makes good looking drinks. Their photos are bright and sunny. And their rhubarb and prosecco recipe is totally in my bookmarks.

Le sauce: Toronto, ON
A former magazine director with an eye for style who loves using seasonal produce, cooking from scratch, telling great stories and finding great dishes? I think I want to be her friend.

Nest: Alberta
A gardening couple with awesome web skills, homey photos and interesting recipes for canning. Again. Hello friends!

Art + Lemons: Massachusetts
Mom, vegetarian, whole foods cook and taker of seriously great photos.

Joy the Baker featuring Tracy from Shutterbean podcast.
Shut it. Whatevs. It’s totes fun. I like these gals. Most def. And sometimes they even talk about food. It’s true! (And sometimes my husband listens too! Your second male listener!)

And last, but certainly not least…

James Ramsden: London, England
Fantastic writer.  Humourous.  Unpretentious.  English English.  Hoster of supperclubs, published author and seemingly an all around nice chap who tries not “to spank out a half-arsed account of the week’s non-happenings littered with typo’s speling mistaikes and pour grammer, because my reader will get nothing from it“  (His words and grammar – I told you, funny!).

This is a recap of how one flippant comment about food allergies turned me off the Ottawa Citizen. Well, as much as someone who doesn’t buy their paper can be turned off. Here it goes.

Yesterday morning, I checked my email and Twitter for messages and scanned my RSS feeds in Google Reader. There was a new post in Ron Eade’s Omnivore’s Ottawa about a new burger joint opening in the city.  I clicked to read it.

(Now, normally I’d throw up a link to the post, but because I think they’re getting a wee bit desperate to “stir the pot” and gain visitors, I’d prefer not to send more traffic their way. If you do a Google search for Ron Eade, you’ll find his blog in the number one spot.  The post is about the new Five Guys Burger joint.)

There is a point midway through the post where they talk about how the restaurant uses peanut oil and serves shell peanuts. Ron questions their decision and the owners respond that they post warnings at their cash and that it’s just not a good choice for a peanut allergic person.

And that’s where the article should have moved on. But, Ron casually tossed his own flip comment into the mix that didn’t sit well with me.

“Everything we use is fresh, never frozen. There are no freezers in our stores. The burgers are all hand-formed patties and the fries are fresh-cut every morning, then fried in peanut oil.”

Peanut oil? Isn’t that risky for folks with allergies?

“We put signs on the register saying we use peanut oil, and we offer free peanuts while they wait. So the point is, if you have a peanut allergy then this is not the place for you,” Koeppel says.

(Kinda refreshing to not see political correctness carried to extreme for once.)

Really? Was that last bit necessary to the story? No.  Has the chain faced any backlash about their decision to use peanut oil?  Who knows??  All I know is that it’s not a place we’ll ever go to.  End of story.  Immediately, I tweeted my opinion:

After an hour, I decided that I should leave a proper comment on the post. I entered my name and web address into the comment form. (No hiding behind anonymous comments.) His comments are moderated, so nothing showed up right away.

My original comment went something like, “Kinda refreshing to not see journalistic standards carried to extreme for once.  No need for food allergy remarks, just the facts, please!”

At noon, I checked back to see if my zinger had been posted. It had not, but two other readers’ comments have gone live. Now, I will admit, my comment did contain a wallop of sarcasm.  However, it was still on topic and contained all my contact information. I thought it should pass the criteria set out for comments.  Clearly, it didn’t. So, by this point, three hours have passed and I have gone from miffed to irritated to “DING DING game on”.

In ten minutes, I typed up an email and had my husband forward it to a couple of the online editors. (Personal mail is blocked at my office.) The message trickled down to the section editor, Wendy Warburton , who wrote:

Hi Lana:
Thank you for taking the time to write about your concerts about Ron’s blog post regarding food allergies. I know that, as a family dealing with food allergies, this is a sensitive issue for you.

As a blogger and food writer, Ron has pretty free rein to write it “as he sees it,” which in this case he has done. While his comment is controversial, I have no problem with it appearing in his blog.
However, I agree that your comments also deserved to be posted, and Ron has now added them to the posting.
Best regards
Wendy

(I decided it was ok to post their correspondence since my email to them ended up published in the comments section. Standards!)

Now “as I see it”, the opinions in the blog may be Ron’s own, but increasingly he is crafting his words to be more ‘controversial’ in an effort to rile up the readership on behalf of his employer. More hits to his blog, more traffic, more ad revenue for the paper. With print becoming obsolete, one can assume that there is a strong desire to get readers to their digital content. By any means necessary. This was clearly demonstrated in Wendy’s comment above.

During the afternoon I was busy working, but checked my mail when I returned home to find a couple of emails from Ron to let me know that my comment was posted.

1:54pm
I have been asked to approve your comment. Please re-post.
Ron

Without access to my personal mail from work, I missed this email. Instead, forty minutes later, my entire letter was then posted as my “comment”. Ok then.

2:39pm
I have cut & pasted your comment from the letter.
Ron

I checked the post. My original comment was missing in content managementland, but my entire email to his editors had been posted.

Dear editors,

I’m happy that Ron Eade covered the use of peanuts and peanut oil in his latest blog post about a new burger chain coming to the Ottawa area.  That information is very useful to us as a family dealing with a life threatening peanut allergy.

However, the snide comment provided in parentheses from Ron regarding the use of peanuts in an era of increasing peanut allergies was inappropriate and reinforces the common belief that it is ok to make accommodations for other disabilities and medical conditions… as long as it’s not a food allergy.

It is not Ron’s place to comment on what accommodations are needed for food allergies persons as the severity and precautions needed differ from individual to individual.

It is clear that as a food editor, Ron does not have much experience with food allergies.  I encourage you to assign him with the task of eating out in Ottawa or doing a grocery flyer round-up from the perspective of a food allergic individual.

It would certainly be a more engaging and useful article to readers than snide comments regarding a medical condition that is out of one’s control.

Do I still think his flippant remark perpetuates the common belief that food allergic people are nuisances? Yes.

Do I think the comment was unnecessary in an otherwise informative post? Yes.

Do I think the Citizen could stand a bit of head bashing? Yes.

Am I trying to have a war on peanuts?  No.  Last time I checked, they weren’t illegal.  We just can’t eat them.

So, there we have it in a nutshell.  (Zing!)  From the tone of Ron’s emails, I suspect he didn’t appreciate being told to post a reader’s comments.  If he was hoping to irk me by posting my letter, it didn’t work.  I’m happy the whole thing is up there.  Next time, I’ll write more.  Hopefully, enough of his manfeathers got ruffled and he’ll consider his words more carefully when being flippant about health issues.

And Ron, I’m serious about my comments.  Why not try to write something about food allergies or feature some allergy-friendly products in your grocery reviews?  You have a public voice, use it for something productive!

I read a lot of food blogs, cookbooks, newspaper columns and I’ve been seeing some trends in terms of language, ingredients and recipes that are starting to drive me right over the edge.  I present to you, my list of Top 10 most annoying food words.

1. Umami.  Can’t place the flavour or reason why you like a dish… it’s the umami!  It’s magic.
2. Unctuous.  Over and improperly used.  Often used in place of “rich and savoury”.  Hey, throw in an ‘umami’ and you’re on your way to aliteration city.
3. Sliders.  UGH sliders!  An oyster is a slider as it can literally slide down your throat.  A small hamburger?  You need to chew that.  I see that word, I picture mascerated burger meat oozing down a throat.  Not appealing.
4. Mouthfeel.  It’s a chef-y way to talk about the texture of food.  It just sounds wrong.  Like ‘moist’.
5. Nomnomnom.  Unless you are, in fact, Cookie Monster or are writing a food review on LOLcats.
6. EVOO.  Does anyone still use this?
7. Flavour profile.  A clear sign I’ve been watching too much Top Chef.
8. [term]-ivore: You know it, locavore, meatavore, herbivore, annoyivore
9. Family style.  Eating as a family has become trendy.
10. Haricot vert.  It’s a GREEN BEAN.  For pete’s sake..  it’s a green bean.  Carottes!  Chou-fleur! Les pommes!  Oh la la!

Three wheeling with veg

We made our first deliveries of veg over the weekend courtesy of my three-wheeled vegetable delivery man.  His tricycle trunk was overflowing with baby bok choy and snow peas.  Good news neighbours, the tomatoes are coming along and we’ll soon have some zucchini and broccoli!  Herbs, as always, are plentiful.  Delivery hours can be arranged around outings to the splash park.