I feel so decadent

I slept in until 08:20 this morning. Right now the coffee is percolating, my toast is waiting to be toasted, and I have some dishes left over to do before I can start on my cooking.

I appear to have done something to my back, for the first time in my life. I suspect it was the lifting of the heavy stuff at IKEA on Tuesday, and further lifting of heavy things yesterday while I was schlepping stuff out to the back shed. I have taken painkillers, and with any luck they will kick in soon. I am displeased, especially as having lower back pain makes me feel old. I'm not thirty yet, dagnabbit! I refuse to need Robaxacet or whatever! *grump*

Today I am planning two soups, chili, and spaghetti sauce (my mother's recipe this time). I don't know if I'll have time for all of them, but I'm going to start with the chili and one soup, and see what happens.

:::ETA:::

Oops. Just spent half an hour on the phone with BorderCrossing, so now I'm running a little later than I anticipated. Ah well. Half an hour well spent. :) This week has apparently not been a great one at her school, and next week is their end-of-term, so craziness is about to ensue.

I think I may have to go to the store again today to pick up some more Tupperware and freezer bags, which I'm told are much better for the whole space-saving aspect of cooking food in bulk. I have made a mental note to buy only the good-quality freezer bags, to ensure no spillage, too. I wonder if freezer bags are re-usable, if washed and dried properly? I shall have to experiment...

This afternoon there will be putting away of books and such as well. Also, I have to iron my shirts for work. Bleah.

Petition to keep The Gazette in Montreal

As many of you know, my friend sultrysong works for the Montreal Gazette, my local English-language paper. The owners of the Gazette are trying to engineer outsourcing in order to facilitate layoffs in Montreal. Here's the union's take on it. I'd like to encourage you to take a minute to sign the petition too, please, especially if you're a local or even a Canadian. :)


To: Canwest Inc.

Montreal Gazette employees are fighting to preserve a vibrant English-language daily newspaper produced in Montreal to serve Montrealers.

The Gazette’s owners, Winnipeg-based Canwest Inc., are moving more and more of The Gazette’s editorial and customer-service operations out of the province of Quebec in violation of the employees’ collective agreements. Now, in contract negotiations, Canwest is demanding the removal of impediments to outsource any remaining work outside of Quebec in order to facilitate lay offs in Montreal.

These moves threaten to diminish Canada’s diversity of voices, whittle down local input and stifle The Gazette’s vital role of covering local news and reflecting Montrealers’ values, concerns and culture. The Gazette has been a proud Montreal institution since 1778 and its readers deserve better than Canwest’s plans to further downsize, centralize and outsource to maximize profits.

The newspaper is operated by Canwest, however it is the public that will ultimately decide whether it will tolerate a “local” newspaper produced elsewhere. Gazette staff are appealing to the Montreal community to tell Canwest to keep the “Montreal” in the Montreal Gazette.

Go here to sign the petition.

Local Vegetarians: help!

I need a source for TVP that's not six thousand miles away from me!

Anyone know of a place that's either in the Verdun-LaSalle-Ville Émard region, or else near downtown/Westmount/NDG? NDG is as far out as I'm willing to travel for my non-meat protein options.

Since BorderCrossing is a vegetarian, I'm trying to move my diet in a vegetarian-friendly direction, the better to accommodate her when she comes over to eat here. Turns out she's not a huge fan of chili and other bean-related dishes, but I figure that I can always try to do something else creative with TVP. Yay experimentation! ;)

Also, I am disappointed in the local selection of tofu. It all seems to be the type that's got a really grainy texture, which makes it sub-optimal for making smoothies (my primary use for tofu). I don't like feeling as though I've added half a cup of sand to my smoothies. :P My Loblaws used to have this nifty tofu-in-a-box which was nice and smooth, but they appear to not have it anymore.

In other news, I am wearing one of my polar fleece sweaters today, and feeling very toasty in it indeed. I still haven't figured out how to alter the dratted thermostat in this place. The thing says it's 19 degrees, but I am skeptical. It sure doesn't *feel* like 19 degrees in here, and on top of that 19 degrees is usually higher than I like it, so mnyeh.

My chili is in the crockpot, and in a few moments I'm going to do more dishes (funny how cooking produces a TON of dish-washing) and then start on the squash soup. With any luck, the soup will be ready just in time for me to start the muffins I forgot that I wanted to make. Once the floor guys make an appearance, I'm going to dart out to buy freezer bags and Tupperware, and then come back in time to make borscht and possibly spaghetti sauce. At this rate, the spaghetti sauce may have to wait until the weekend, because I'm rapidly running out of time. I may also have to pick up some more cans of tomatoes, because I just went through a whackload of them, and I'm back to pre-shopping levels of canned tomatoes (although I was very good and used the older cans, doing a proper pantry-rotating thing in order to ensure that all my food remains good to eat).

I am super excited about getting my chest freezer next week. Whee!

To the pain!

There was a battle to the death with my acorn squash. It was a close contest, but I won. Sheesh.

The floor guys were half an hour late. I am unimpressed, but at least things are getting done.

I am going to tackle muffins next. I think I won't have time to go out and get Tupperware, but on the plus side for the moment I have enough for what I've made. It's only if I make borscht that I'm going to be in trouble, so the borscht is going on the back burner for now (pun totally intended), and I'm going to make muffins. Apple muffins. Yum. If I can find the recipe, that is.

Until such time as I get my recipe binder in order, I have been slowly copying the recipes I like into an online recipe book at http://wegottaeat.com/. The format is nice and easy, although it's still in beta form in many places, and has a couple of annoying quirks (I can't go back and add words at the beginning of an entry, for instance, and sometimes it leaves spaces where I don't want them), but overall is serving its purpose as a repository until I get myself organized.

I also can't really leave right now, since I appear to have misplaced Gretzky outdoors somewhere. She likes to ramble a fair distance, and I haven't seen her in several hours. God help me if I ever have children. Anyway, while I am trying not to worry about her, I also don't want to leave home until such time as I have her back inside.