Halloween = Bah

Or so say the English, at least. I was really interested to read a story in last weekend's Globe (new link) about the growing popularity of Halloween in England over the past decade. It's a surprising phenomenon - certainly when I lived in England in the mid-1990s, Halloween was a non-event. In some schools, you might find kids having little Halloween parties in class, but that was about it. All the autumnal hijinks were reserved for Bonfire Night on November 5th.

It's all changing now though, it seems - and there's plenty of grumbling in Blighty about what is viewed as a distasteful, over-commercialised North American import. I did a little Googling out of interest and found that consumer spending on sweets, decorations and other Halloween-themed items has boomed over the past decade, since retailers figured out that plugging a new holiday to children (who in turn harass their parents to buy stuff) was a potential goldmine.

I don't think it would be such a great stretch for the English to celebrate Halloween - the holiday originates from their Irish and Scottish neighbours, after all. But it would be a great shame if the rise of Halloween in England meant the eclipse of traditional Guy Fawkes/bonfire celebrations. What a boring world this would be if everyone adopted the same practices.

Book Club

So I recently joined what looks to be a very cool book club. My friend C. has been a member for a number of years, and invited me to check it out. Not only is it an opportunity to read some great books (many of which I probably would never have picked up otherwise), but it's a much-needed chance to get out and meet new people. I went to my first meeting on Monday night. There were about eight very interesting women there, all professionals mainly drawn from law and academia. And one of them is the newly-elected MP for Halifax, which is pretty neat (said she's still hoping to attend meetings whenever she's home from Ottawa).

We spent about half the evening talking about this month's book, The Watsons by Jane Austen (which I enjoyed, surprisingly - I've never been a huge fan of Austen, but I might have to give her another try). The rest of the time we drank wine and debated what to read over the coming months. November's book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which I have to get stuck into fairly soon if I'm going to get it done in time. I'm slightly creeped-out by the prospect, but keeping an open mind....

The Omnivore's Hundred

My sister-in-law pointed me towards this blog today, with its listing of the Omnivore's Hundred (i.e. a list of 100 things every omnivore should try at least once). Cos I'm easily bored and distracted at this hour, I present my results here.

Things in bold I have tried. Any comments in parentheses are my own.

1. Venison (wild and farmed)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (blee)
5. Crocodile (though to be honest, it might have been alligator...)
6. Black pudding (dbl blee)
7. Cheese fondue (in a remote resto perched on a Swiss mountainside, no less)
8. Carp (meh...tastes like mud)
9. Borscht (of course - I have a Russian granny)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (like a salted rubber band)
12. Pho (lots of, in Vietnam)
13. PB&J sandwich (heh...how can you tell the author of this list did not grow up in North America?)
14. Aloo gobi (shockingly, I never tasted Indian food in my life until I moved to England)
15. Hot dog from a street cart (?! See no. 13)
16. Epoisses (Wikipedia says it is regarded as the "king of all cheeses" in France and has been banned from public transport because of its smell. Gotta git me some of that.)
17. Black truffle (in miniscule shavings)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (sure...blueberry plonk from Lunenburg County Winery is pretty ropey. So was the stuff my dad had a go at making, when I was a kid).
19. Steamed pork buns (think so...in a breakfast buffet in Hanoi)
20. Pistachio ice cream (yummy - very hard to find)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (thanks, Halifax Farmer's Market)
22. Fresh wild berries (oh yes, multiple varieties - I grew up in the country and they grew in the backyard)
23. Foie gras (lordy, but it tastes like sin)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (*stomach heaves at thought*)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (mmm...there's a jar in my fridge right now)
28. Oysters (blergh...they may be a local speciality, and beloved of gourmands...but I can't get over the snottiness factor)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (sounds very tasty though)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I dunno about the sourdough bowl thing - but I'm awarding myself half a point for the chowder)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (eurgh)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (half point for the cognac only!)
37. Clotted cream tea (aaaAAAHHHHHhhhh...food of the gods)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (erm, not since I was about 20...)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not if you paid me!!!)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (not a "take risks with my life" kinda gal, thanks)
47. Chicken tikka masala (I prefer korma, though)
48. Eel (ick)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Tim Horton's forever!)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (La Fin du Monde...merci, Quebec)
59. Poutine (MERCI BEAUCOUP!)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst (?!)
65. Durian (you can smell it everywhere in Vietnam)
66. Frogs’ legs (they really DO taste like chicken)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (a morsel...blecchhhh)
69. Fried plantain (in Venezuela - very nice!)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (never did work up the courage to try the latter, in France)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blinis
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (wtf?! not on your nelly)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail (escargot? yeah, super tasty)
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini (*smacks lips*)
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (aw hell yeah!)
85. Kobe beef (it's on my to-eat list...if I ever save up enough money)
86. Hare (*hangs head in shame*)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (nasturtiums, pansies, violets, rose petals...all very nice)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (lol)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (overrated...keep the lobsters simple!)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (er, no thanks...)

I got 58 out of 100. Not bad for someone who was a very picky kid, and would turn up her nose at just about everything.

Glaswegianish

I think maybe I need to buy the Glasvegas album. It's just out, apparently, and folk across the pond are all abuzz about it. I heard an interview with the band and some snippets of their music today on the Music Weekly podcast (again! thanx Guardian), and I found myself listening intently. Since this kind of instantaneous attraction to a particular band's music is a fairly rare occurrence for me, I take notice when it happens.

[Two music-related blog posts in a row...blimey!]

Out of the Murky Depths...

Lots of bands these days stage comebacks - but some are more surprising than others. Yesterday, when catching up with some episodes of the Guardian's Music Weekly podcast, I nearly fell over when I heard that Shelleyan Orphan are back after sixteen years of wandering in the musical wilderness. Remember them? Unless you were a cultish devotee of Star Hits magazine in the 1980s, probably not. I always found them strangely intriguing...but then again, anything labelled as "Pre-Raphaelite pop" is bound to have that sort of effect on me.

Anyway, their new album "We Have Everything We Need" is out next week.

Preeeeezenting...Kitchen Designs!

A very exciting development last week in our kitchen renovation plans - we received some AutoCAD drawings of our new kitchen design, courtesy of one of the cabinetmakers we are considering for the job. Check 'em out below! (click on any picture to see an enlarged version)

1. A top-down view of the new space:Note the doorway at the centre bottom of the drawing - this is the doorway into our current mudroom/entryway. At the moment, there is a full wall just to the left of the doorway, dividing the space in two (present kitchen to the right, small pantry/study/whatever to the left). This is the main wall that we are knocking down, to enlarge the kitchen space. The heart of the new kitchen will be located where the pantry room is currently. Our existing kitchen space will house my desk, a sewing area, a broom closet, and a large peninsula.

2. Galley Kitchen - South Side Elevation:
We are going with white, painted-wood Shaker-style cabinets in the new kitchen. The tall cabinet to the right will be a pantry cupboard for food, with pullouts like this. It will be full-length, though, without the two lower drawers as shown above.

We'll be putting in a new window in this space - the current window is tall and narrow, and set below the height of where the new countertop will be. And speaking of windows, there's a mistake in the above drawing - they've drawn in a large clock on the wall at the right, but there's actually a window there.

I'm planning on getting this sink, and this faucet. We will retain the existing flooring, which is beautiful 2 ¼" red oak that is original to the house. I'm still deciding on the countertops, but I think we are going to go with a grey-green quartz (engineered stone) - it's beautiful and nearly indestructible, but damn it's expensive. As for the backsplash, I'm planning on glass mosaic tile, in shades of green - maybe like this.

3. Galley Kitchen - North Side Elevation:
There's a mistake in the above drawing - the fridge and the cabinet unit containing the wall oven and microwave will be switching places. Lots of money being sunk here on all-new stainless-steel appliances: this fridge, this induction cooktop, this chimney-style extractor hood, this microwave (which will be built-in above the ovens) and this double wall oven. Originally, we were going to get a single wall oven and maybe a warming drawer, but when we priced those two things together, we found a good double wall oven that cost less!

We're planning on having cabinet drawers, instead of regular cabinets with pull-outs - more efficient use of space, and easier to get at your stuff. Countertops and backsplash will be as above, with the backsplash tile laid all the way to the top of the chimney hood, where it meets the cabinetry.

4. Desk Area
This space is where our sink and dishwasher are currently located. The tall cabinet at left will be a broom closet, with space for the vacuum, cleaning supplies, etc. The desk will serve as my home office, mainly - though I envision using it for sewing projects as well.

I think I may put down a wood desktop here, just to save a bit of money as the quartz counters are so expensive. We'll be replacing the window in this area, as well, with something a bit larger and set lower - so you can see outside while sitting at the desk. As for the floor, we'll be tearing up the grey ceramic tiles that are currently there. We are replacing them with reclaimed red oak floorboards we bought from a local architectural salvage yard, which will be sanded and refinished to match the existing floors in the current pantry room and dining room (at least, I hope that will be the end result!).

5. Peninsula between kitchen and dining room
We're going to take down a section of wall currently separating the kitchen and dining room - the place that houses our ancient wall oven and microwave at the moment. This is a weird-shaped space, intersected by a brick chimney, so custom cabinets are the only option. The main feature of this space will be a peninsula, which will be built where the wall currently stands now (I'd have loved an island, but the room just isn't big enough for one).

Here's a view of the peninsula from the side:
There will be lots of open shelving, for cookbooks and whatever else we might want to display. Also, we'll have a TV here, on one of those swivel-arms, and hopefully a small set of speakers - which the intrepid A. can wire into the existing house sound system (all controlled wirelessly via iTunes on the computer in the basement, naturally!). I'm still looking for just the right pendant lamp to hang over this area - one in this style, probably.

Under the countertop, the peninsula itself will house all our various recycling bins - viz. the two doors you see in the foreground. And on both sides (not just the left, as shown in the drawing) there will be a small countertop overhang of about 8 inches, so we can have stools on either side if we want. I think this spot is going to be very well-used - lots of room to spread out paperwork, do food preparation, or whatever. As the current kitchen suffers from a serious lack of counter space, this will be fantastic. Plus, it provides somewhere that guests can sit and chat with the cook, as it also will serve as...the bar!
This final drawing shows the peninsula as seen from the dining room, as well as a view of the entire new space. The cabinetry you can see at the left of the picture will now change its configuration - the upper part will have glass doors and will serve as a liquor cabinet (freeing up valuable space in my dining room buffet/hutch). The lower part of that area will house a small, dual-zone wine fridge (the pic above has the wine fridge housed beneath the peninsula countertop - that will change).

Well, there you have it. It's a really exciting plan, I think. Whether it will look just the way I hoped when this massive project is done is another matter entirely, of course. But it's a great start.