The junk in my trunk

It’s not much of a secret; I likes my junk food.

When it’s mealtime, we eat very well. But those other 12 or so waking hours a day can be a feeding free-for-all. For this reason, we don’t have ice-cream in the house. I’ve always told myself, if I’m willing to walk to and from the Elgin Mall, I can have a peanut-buster parfait. Of course, once I realized I only burn about 150 calories during the trip, I switched from the 730 cal. parfait to a 400 cal. medium hot fudge sundae. I figure the rest should be burned-off during our daily 3k power walk.

Another weakness is potato chips, which we reach for pretty regularly. Like cigarette smoking (the quitting of which was one of the toughest, most positive things I’ve done for myself) the best way to stop a habit, is not to start. Since we are well past that point, we’ve discovered an alternative to our evening chip craving; freshly popped corn.

As a treat during their summer visit with us, Soo and Scott, apart from teaching us the proper way of prepping our BBQ, showed us a few tricks for making perfectly popped corn;
The corn, salt and enough vegetable oil to moisten the pot and kernals, goes into the pot at the start. The heat is turned to medium and the lid is cocked. Once you hear the first “pop”, start the shaking. You know the rest.

Something I didn’t know; butter separates when heated because the water has evaporated. To keep your melted butter creamy, add a teaspoon or so of cool water at the start of the process.

As with any recipe, the better your ingredients are, the better the end result will be. Since popped corn involves, at the most, 4 ingredients, try to get the very best. One of our last Orchard Hill Farm pick-ups included some cobs of freshly harvested popping corn. As it was still “young”, we had to set the cobs aside for a few weeks to cure and recently we had our first taste of this season’s fresh popping corn, expertly popped as per Soo’s instructions, topped with creamy, melted butter. Of course, Soo and Scott aren't likely eating much popcorn; she's just joined the staff of Canadian Living Magazine and he, along with Simon Bower, has just opened Lucien Restaurant, Toronto's most elegant, new hot spot, so they're kinda busy!

I won’t say we don’t still eat chips, but at least once a week you’ll see Robin at the stove, shaking a pot. Of course, once in while you’ll also see me shaking my pot over to the Mall, on my way to the DQ.

And, speaking of our pals ...

Our great friend Joanne was one of a small group of Native Elders invited to meet the Dalai Lama in Toronto. There are great pics on Joanne's blog and you can see her grandson Zachaire receiving a blessing. Zach seems as joyful as His Holiness! Joanne's daughter Tammy was lucky to be taking the pictures and therefore was able to enjoy it all, first-hand. You can learn more about Joanne and her work on her website, Healing Works.

Joanne, Tammy and Zachaire travelled to St. Thomas in September so that we could meet Zach who was born not long after we moved.

While here, Tammy helped me not burn our dinner on our new BBQ, which I had never used. I had received a crash course the previous week from friends Soo and Scott who had also come for a visit (they were horrified that I thought I needed to douse the charcoal with fuel in order to start the fire), but my new skills had never been put to the test. I stacked the bits of cardboard, newspaper and briquettes as per my training and everything went ahead tickety-boo. Well, we did loose a few bits of sliced veg but I perfer to think of that as seasoning the flame.