Food For Thought – Friday, December 4th

2009 December 4
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Food For Thought – Thursday, December 3rd

2009 December 3
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Food For Thought – Wednesday, December 2nd

2009 December 2
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Food For Thought – Tuesday, December 1st

2009 December 1
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Water Works

2009 November 30
by Sheryl Kirby

I hate my new Brita.

Okay, hate is a strong word. But I certainly don’t love the thing.

Like most people (well, sensible people) we eschew bottled water in favour of tap. But even though Toronto’s tap water is fine and safe, it often tastes a bit chemically. Thus, most people I know use a filtration system of some kind. For year’s we’ve had one of the ones that fits right onto the tap. Flip the little lever and voila! filtered water. Flip it back for regular water for washing dishes, etc.

The problem is that we live in a kind of shitty apartment complex where management tends to cheap out on things like fixtures. On one level I understand that; tenants have a habit of treating rental units badly, there’s no point in installing Moen taps in every unit when half of them will get trashed within a year. We’d buy and install our own better quality fixtures but I’m not putting money into someone else’s building, so unless I could take them with me when I eventually go, that isn’t happening.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that the on-tap filter was never especially practical, since the tap was kind of crappy and didn’t reach very far – rinsing out the sink was a pain, and we really needed on of those attachments that twisted and swivelled.

Recently I’ve had plumbers (like cockroaches only with saggy pants and bad cologne), and discovered after they had left one day that one of them had been fiddling with my water filter attachment, and had broken it. When we turned the tap on, water sprayed every which way.

Instead of replacing it we opted for the non-filtering swively tap thingie and a Brita.

Oh, but I don’t like the Brita.

To be fair, the water tastes better. The Brita filters out more gunk than the other thing did. But it… takes… so… long… to… fill. Gah!

And the capacity is less than the jug o’ water we used before, so every time we have a glass of water (which is 6 to 8 times a day for me), the Brita needs refilling. Also, the charcoal bits are getting loose in the upper reservoir. This doesn’t filter thorough into the jug itself, but the floaty bits weird me out – they look like dirt, which shouldn’t be in my water. And the thing doesn’t fit especially well onto the fridge shelf, but if I move the shelves, everything else won’t fit right.

Also, the swively tap thing makes a godawful noise – like someone jamming a cat into a paper shredder. So we also have to remember to fill the Brita before the other person’s gone to bed because the noise wakes us up (or rather Greg needs to remember to not fill it after I’ve gone to bed). It gets the corners of the sink clean now, but oh, the noise.

I know… I’m whining and complaining unnecessarily. At least I have fresh clean water to drink, right? Plenty of people around the world don’t. And sometimes helping the environment is a bit inconvenient.

But I’m never gonna love the thing.

Food For Thought – Monday, November 30th

2009 November 30
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Food For Thought – On Vacation

2009 November 23
by Sheryl Kirby

Hello good peoples,

I know some of you hit this site specifically to enjoy the daily round-up of weird and wonderful food-related links. And I appreciate your traffic. However, it being US Thanksgiving this week, most of my sources of links have all become obsessed with turkey.

I’m also having some personal issues (rushed a sick dog to the vet earlier today), and have some things going on over at TasteTO.

So, Food For Thought is on vacation for the rest of the week. It will return next Monday once the food sites can talk about something other than turkey and cranberry sauce.

I’ll try and come up with some original content posts in the meantime (I KNOW… what a novel idea!).

Cheers,
Sheryl

Food For Thought – Monday, November 23rd

2009 November 23
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

  • Ever feel like a meanie when you’re out walking the dog and stop for ice cream and can’t give the dog any because it will make them sick? Boutique quality ice cream for dogs could be coming to an ice cream shop near you if a NYC teen has any say in the matter.
  • A venison burger party is a great way for hunters to get in the spirit for the opening of hunting season. And also to make room in the ol’ freezer in the hopes of bagging something this year.
  • This holiday season, it might be an idea to leave Grandma’s antique china in the cabinet – unless you like lead in your cranberry sauce.
  • Or you could use those dishes for the picky eaters who demand special items and refuse to eat half of what you’ve cooked.
  • Are “girly-labelled” wines (labels with images of dresses, shoes, red lips, etc.) opening up the world of wine to women, or are they just insulting in the assumption that we’re all “Sex and the City” kind of gals?
  • If Obama wanted to put food and health front and centre – I supposed suggesting the same to Stephen Harper would be like spitting in the wind.
  • The kitchen utensil you didn’t know you needed – a scrudle. (I can’t help wondering if this lady moved her cockatiel into the kitchen just for the photo shoot so the bird could be in the newspaper too.)
  • A toast – to drinking. Another study (one that refutes the previous studies, so really, who the hell knows…) indicates that moderate and heavy drinkers receive some heart protection from the alcohol they consume. Note that the study does not address liver disease.
  • And if the booze doesn’t kill you, the smoking might – in NYC, despite a ban, the stank of cigarette smoke is wafting through bars and clubs again.

Food For Thought – Friday, November 20th

2009 November 20
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…

Food For Thought – Thursday, November 19th

2009 November 19
by Sheryl Kirby

Here’s some food for thought for today…