Buying salt

When we were still living in corporate accommodation in The City (London's financial district), we had a kitchenette in our unit, so we tried to eat in as much as possible. Of course, that required buying groceries and, when you're starting from scratch, you have to purchase every single staple item as it's required. There's nothing worse than being right in the thick of a recipe and realising that you don't have any cumin. Don't take your pantry for granted. Everyone, go give your pantry a grateful and approving look. I'll wait here.

We don't cook with heaps of salt, but we still use it, so it went onto the grocery list one morning. I didn't think it would be so difficult. Our closest grocery store happened to be attached to our corporate flat, so I scoured the meagre aisles hunting down salt. Given that I was still so new at visiting British grocery stores, I took my time - many of the brands I am used to just don't exist here, or if they do, they've been repackaged for the UK market. Tricksy, tricksy products.

Upon finding the herbs and spices, I thought, "Well, here we go; salt, I'm coming to find you!" But I didn't find the salt. Undeterred, I thought I might have better luck with the baking supplies. I rounded the corner and found everything but salt. I gave up and left. We cooked without salt for a few more days. Not one to handle my defeats well (and also obstinately stubborn when it comes to asking a shop clerk for assistance), I returned to the site of my previous defeat and gave the store such a thorough once-over that I'm sure the security guards had me pegged as a shoplifter waiting to happen. I was rewarded by finding the salt tucked away at the end of an aisle, near a support pole, practically obstructed from the desperate eyes of salt-seekers. I can only assume it is the one remaining survival technique employed by salt.

Apparently wanting to buy a small amount of salt is next to impossible. I might as well have asked for six different varieties of sugar, individually packaged in one cup portions, because that would have been possible. Small amounts of salt, however, are out of the question, unless you're going to cruise all the fast food joints in the area lifting salt packets from the condiment stands. Maybe it was like this in Canada too and I just didn't notice because we'd had our box of salt for so long, it became a member of the family, only without a birthday.

On the plus side, my massive bottle of salt cost me 39p (that's $0.62 Canadian). 750g. Nearly a full kilo, for less than the cost of a chocolate bar. I simply do not understand, but I do know that we'll have salt for years and years. I'll be handing this salt down to my children and telling them fanciful stories about how I had to leave the house and go to a store to buy this salt with actual money (apparently I'm assuming that by the time I get around to actually making use of my reproductive system we'll have grown beyond a paper-based currency. Stop crying, mom.).

And because photos are fun, here's my salt beside a reasonable sized salt shaker:

See? Free running, even. Whew, that's my conscience cleared that the salt wasn't kept in captivity.

Mehab. It's a real thing, I swear

Where have I been?! I basically just went through mehab. I'm not pointing fingers, but let's be honest, somewhere along the line I should have been given some pointers on how to grow up (guidance counsellors and parents, I'm looking at you). Since I didn't get the pointers, or wasn't listening or something, I have gone to mehab instead. It's kinda like rehab, only instead of correcting my behaviours where drugs/alcohol/whatever other vice are concerned, I took the time to learn all kinds of great new habits that I probably should have already picked up as an adult.

There, since I've made up mehab, I've also just made up the first step in the mehab treatment process: admit you are an adult. I'm already rocking this recovery plan. That I invented. Shut up.

So what did my mehab involve? Well, I could say I disconnected a little bit...but if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or anywhere else online, you know that's sort of a fib. So basically, other than blogging, I was still around. But the blogging part was on my mind....I just wasn't in a place where I could produce output, you know? I spent a lot of time absorbing information and thinking about all sorts of things related to who I've become and what I would rather be (and what I do actually like about who I am). And I also covered some basics like learning how to walk again (thank you, amazing physiotherapist who is kicking my ass and correcting two years of injury issues) and how to eat again.

The eating thing is actually a huge one for me. There's this blogger, Danielle, over at Sometimes Sweet and back in the beginning of February she challenged her readers to eat clean. She also added the part about dropped sugar as it related to her, but since I have a sordid saccharine history, I included that in my plan too. This challenge coincided with moving into our flat and having almost nothing in our cupboards as well as me having all the time in the world, so it was the perfect way to embrace a new pattern of eating. And so we did. I've gone from a sugar-heavy diet of "I thought I ate really well" to turning my back on sugar and really embracing food changes that are more meaningful and beneficial for my body. To say that this has been a huge change is probably an understatement.

I've had serious improvements in my body, skin and moods and in the most recent two weeks, it has shown dramatically. We've had guests for a while now and my routines are off, which means my choices are bad and my diet has suffered. The hiccups are so evident and I'm hating how difficult it is to make better choices when my life is disrupted, so that's something I need to work toward overcoming. I truly believe spending more time in picking up recipes that I love and can make easily will make a difference on that front. Thankfully I've been exposed to so many amazing blogs and clean eating resources, so recipes are plentiful.

In any case, Danielle, some woman in the United States, whom I've never met (and likely never will), changed my life. The internet is powerful ya'll!

egg and feta kale bake - my favourite clean eating meal from Running to the Kitchen

And now I'm going to spend some of my Easter afternoon lying on the couch in a puddle of technicolour snot-filled tissues moaning to the internet about how I hate getting sick. Cheers!

Exhausted

I fully intended to come home from flat hunting and bash out a fun little entry, but oh wow, I'm exhausted!

Instead, here are photos from the first week...

Lunch/dinner at EAT. Every time I've been back since they've not had this pie on the menu. It was soooo scrummy, I wish it would show up again!

Miles Kane at the O2

Cyclamen in a window box....seriously, it's that mild!* 

*James would like me to point out that these are probably bred and grown in the UK and are therefore a hardier variety than we find in the tropical plant section at most home and garden stores in Canada....blah blah blah, kill the sense of wonderment.....blah blah economist...

Yup, we went to St. Pancras to see the 35' LEGO Christmas tree.

James' new place of employment. Looks quite posh, no?

Books in the window at the pub in Sarratt

James was very pleased with pub lunch and look at that Yorkshire pudding!

More photos to come..now that I look at them, this is really just food and a few random shots. Promise I'll put something more comprehensive together!

Top Five Tuesday: Food II

Since I went on last week about the five British foods I'm excited to get snacking on, I thought it only fair to make mention of the Canadian/North American fare I'm going to longingly miss....though I'm sure my waistline won't.

1. Poutine. I don't care what I come across there in terms of post-bar alcohol sop-ups, poutine is the tops. I don't eat all that much of it here, but I'm sure I'm still eating more an a normal, healthy body should.

2. Candy. Ok, again, I have to believe I will find suitable replacements for most of the candy I adore, but I know, from working in the industry, that certain items just won't be available. I'm going to try to refrain from begging care packages of mint cookie malt balls, but I can't be certain I'll survive without them.

3. Christmas dinner. I love my new family and appreciate their traditions and British-y customs, but I have to say, Christmas dinner at my house is my favourite meal of the year (a close second being Thanksgiving....which is nearly the same). British Christmas will not include my aunt's sticks or the perogies and kapusta. Or the endless cosmos. Heaven help me if there's a goose involved instead of a turkey. I've had Christmas pudding...it's about as appealing as wet socks. I think, beyond all other foods, Christmas dinner will be my "woe is me" pinnacle.

4. Art-Is-In bread...or really anything Kevin makes, for that matter. This bakery is, far and away, one of my happiest of happy places. The product is amazing. All of it. Every single thing. I don't think a week goes by where I don't eat at least two things from here, if not more. And the energy and excitement pouring out of Kevin is awe-inspiring. He's so talented and I'm going to miss seeing what he comes up with in the next few years. He's the mad genius of the high end food world and I'm very fortunate to have gotten to know him just a teeny bit.

5. Barbecue. To be truthful, I don't know how much barbecue there is in the UK, and I'm sure there's plenty, but I can't imagine we're going to own a grill. Given that the majority of our meals are grilled once the snow melts, I'm going to find it very challenging if we don't have a BBQ. There's a particular steak spice that I'll actually be packing a jar of, just to ensure we have some in London.

So there we go, a Top Five Tuesday on food I'll miss.

Top Five Tuesday: Food Edition

I thought it might be fun to keep a little running list of the Top Five topics related to the move. Some completely ridiculous and some totally conceivable. Like this one, for instance, this one is entirely reasonable: the Top Five Foods I'm Looking Forward to Eating More of in England!

1. Clotted Cream: this stuff is incredible and we will buy it from time to time, but it's imported, not so fresh and expensive. I can't wait to get my hands on some fresh clotted cream!!

2. Fish and Chips: self explanatory....I love fish and chips! The one portion I ate during my only other trip to London was not enough. I can't wait to hunt down a killer fish and chips.

3. British Sweets: ok, this is sorta cheating since I have access to a pretty awesome selection through my job right now, but there's so much more to British sweets that I'm looking forward to exploring and revisiting. Is it wrong that I want to position us geographically near a local confectionery so that I can keep my fix close at hand? Yeah...I might have a problem...

4. Curry: prior to meeting James, I didn't eat curry. I had a host of other culinary experiences, but curry never made it onto my radar. In fact, I didn't like curry for a long time after we met and I didn't have the heart to tell his kind, good looking man who kept making me dinner....so it happens that I learned to like curry. It's a good thing too, from what James tells me....he makes it seem as though that's all we'll be eating, but I suspect that's just wishful thinking on his part. For my part, I'm just eager for a few new curry experiences.

5. Monster Munch: if our friend Helen is to be believed, this is ambrosia for British people. I'll hold off on judging this one until I've sampled a few flavours, but let's just say, expectations are pretty high given all the praise and glory Helen has been heaping on this for years. I'll keep you posted.

So yeah, there we go....a Top Five Tuesday theme! Yay!