Our Immense Turkey
Over this past weekend, my family and I celebrated our Second Thanksgiving since returning from the USA. If one was to ask me what my preferred Thanksgiving is, I’d pick the US version, it comes later in the year and kicks off the Christmas Season (well, it used to) at the right time. Snow is falling and fall is dissolving into Winter.
Thanksgiving in Canada is a practical and parochial affair, marking the end (or is it the middle) of the Harvest. Coming before the snow even starts to fall (it’s going to be in the 70s today and I was sweating out in the muggy morning today if ever there was an upside to Global Climate Problems it’s muggy Octobers), Canadian Thanksgiving is a celebration of the agricultural largesse of the country and the bounties that it provides. Rather than a celebration of gorged appetites and pre-Christmas shopping. No Black Friday here, you see.
Despite my preference for the American version, I dutifully invited my In-Laws over to the townhouse for a meal (My Sister in Law declined, in order to work) and we bought what we thought would be a decent sized, but still quite small Turkey. In the end our 27 dollar monster turned out to be far more than we could easily handle and provided us with the raw materials for at least a weeks worth of meals if we played our cards right.
Two legs for soup, dark meat too. Two immense halves of the breast for sandwiches and just sliced for meals. The remaining bulk turned into curry and soup meat. The Bones were boiled overnight to make a nice stock, along with the carcass of a Chicken cooked on Saturday. The remaining greasy bits were disposed of, I hate to do that and wished for a bigger stock pot to boil the remaning “meat” out of them. It would need to be strained, but I could have had three big soup pots out of the remaining bits alone, I’m sure.
We’re trying to wring all we can from our nearly 30-Dollar Turkey, but it’s just so much. I’m tempted to return to our old rule of buying the more expensive (but utilitarian) Breast Only Turkey. Which I’m sure makes the whole waste matter all the worse, but at least I don’t throw out the bits and pieces on my own, you know?
Are Turkey bits good for Composting? Should I compost meats? I don’t know, I should look into that.
However, this is not really about the Turkey that sits in my Fridge and soup pot today. I’m actually looking at a much bigger Turkey today.
Canada prospered for a while in the hands of the Tories, but even my cursory and shallow understanding of the position of the Canadian Dollar and it’s buying power has revealed that the “prosperous” Canadian economy is really only so when the Petrodollar is valuable. Which is what the Harper Government has led us into. The whole value of the Canadian Dollar is tied to the price of Oil, and as that price slides, so too do the prospects of Canadians in terms of buying power and position on World Markets. Canada lives and dies on it’s raw materials exports and the Harper Government has, for the most part let this slide in deference to the Thanksgiving Banquets to the south. Of course, Thanksgiving isn’t for another month and a bit in the US and it looks like this might be the leanest in years. Instead of gorging on our Resources, it may be that they are sipping them from a thousand cuts and another Harper government may allow the cheap death of Canada to continue. Our National Turkey indeed.
The Food Crises: Logic is not Required in Food Production
The company also said today that it would create a new position – chief food safety officer – among other measures it’s taking to restore consumer confidence in its brands.
Maple Leaf Foods Announces that they didn’t have an official in charge of caring for food safety until now. –September 17, 2008.
Food safety concerns are as old as fire-baked ham. Some societies had so much trouble with food safety that they placed cultural taboos on food that was difficult to handle safely in their enviornment (I’m looking at the middle east here). In the “modern and western” world food taboos run more towards comfort than cleanliness; Westerners don’t eat “pet” animals like Dogs or Hamsters; where some societies do. The actual safety of the food is expected to be sacrosanct, that food producers would act in their own best interests to ensure food cleanliness and safety. If there is any lesson to take from the BES and Listeria crises, it is that food producers don’t really take more than a passing interest in food safety that can’t be done for cheap and that the governments don’t take it any more seriously.
If there is any evidence of the latter it is the utter lack of head rolling at Maple Leaf foods due to massive fines. People have died due to the [in]action[s] of the company and yet I have not seen a negligent homicide or manslaughter charge appear in the news headlines. No Maple Leaf Food execs in handcuffs. No real outcome save the loss of money. The Federal Governmentappears to be so far in bed with industry that they simply can’t bring themselves to prosecute their friends, for fear of looking tough on corporations. This is the standard falacy of modern governments, corporations exists to simplify relations between governments and business, instead it seems to make Governments fear to act towards the same with the same strength as they would against another individual.
During a late-August conference call with members of the Prime Minister’s Office and Health Minister Tony Clement’s office, Ritz made quips about the potential political impact of the tragic outbreak traced to a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.
“This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts,” Ritz said.
And when told about a new death from listeriosis on Prince Edward Island, the Minister said: “Please tell me it’s (Liberal MP) Wayne Easter.”
Gerry Ritz demonstrating the level of candor one expects from the Tories
Once again Jack Layton & his Crystal ball say’s “Not the kind of change Canadians were looking for”.
Of course layton is refering to the cabinet shuffle, So once again Jack has stated that he knows what we are thinking. Unfortantly for jack he was not able to read my mind, & that is not what iam thinking of him this very moment.(One word begins with A ends with E, or is it 2)
Viewed on CanadaAm can be seen at CTV.caPosted by: bryanr at August 15, 2007 1:30 PM
Gerry Ritz is typical of the type of Government Functionary that leads to these kinds of problems, more concerned with “sticking it” to the “lazy, welfare addicted” farmers than with actual governance. This kind of thinking is part of the cause of the current economic downturn that the whole world is experiencing and appears to be an outgrowth of the Business over Governance mentality that has become pervasive in the Conservative movement since the sixties.
However, I think that the statement that I opened with sums up the problem with poor government oversight, there wasn’t already a person or persons responsible for food safety at Maple Leaf foods and one would imagine that food safety should have been job number one for a food production plant.
Cold Beer for Friday
Cold Beer for Friday, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
Friday lunch time sometimes means that it is Beer o’clock (especially on hot days)
This was at the (great) walkers fish and chips on Wellington. I poured high to get the thick, frothy head on the beer. It was refreshing (on a hot day) but not a great partner for the fish.
I think I’ll stick to soda with the food and beer after work; speaking of which I snagged some Sleeman Clear for the long weekend. I actually found some craft/micro brew beer yesterday too. So my beer horizons have been significantly expanded.
Cheers!
A Nice plate of Fish and Chips
A Nice plate of Fish and Chips, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
Yes! A great lunch that wasn’t from “King’s”
Went to “Walker’s Fish and Chips” for lunch, had the Halibut and Chips.
The Fish was great, tasty and flavorful. The batter wasn’t all the taste, the fish was meaty and strong, a pleasure to eat. The Chips were also great, obviously real cut potato, soaked overnight to make sure that they are not too starchy. Great!
I didn’t care for the coleslaw, but I’m not a fan of the slaw anyway.
PLUS Beer on tap (not GOOD beer, but on TAP) and other beer selections on hand.
I can’t recommend Walker’s more.
Fries and a Reuben - Going Negative
Fries and a Reuben, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
When a political campaign takes to crapping all over the opposing camp, it’s termed “Going Negative” and when it is egregious and possibly slanderous, it’s “Ratfucking”
I’m not about to ratfuck the “Family Restaurant” on Wellington in London, but that is only because I might be forced to eat there again as part of the rodent coitus.
Let me start with the price, 8 bucks for frozen fries and a sandwich. Are you kidding me!?!?
The sandwich might cost about 3 bucks in materials if the meat and cheese are fancy. However, the cheese was “cheese food” - style swiss and the bread was barely rye. The meat was untenable and together with the lack of thousand island dressing made the whole sandwich part of the meal lackluster at best. I also burned my mouth due to the MOLTEN LAVA heat of the meat.
By the time I got to the frozen food product fries I wasn’t really able to enjoy them, due to my injured mouth and ended up just giving up on eating them. Which, if you know me is almost impossible for me to do.
For 8 bucks I expect to enjoy my food.
For 5 I can get a nice salad and the best Chicken Salad sandwich on earth at the King’s Cafe downtown london (near Galleria, next to the Brass Door). I recommend you avoid the “Family Restaurant” on Wellington, south of Grey Street North of Grand Avenue.
And that is Going Negative.
LifeStream
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Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Full Day over, stumped by a copy/paste error in the afternoon
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New blog post: For Rememberance Sake and SSH in the Future http://tinyurl.com/6g2zbm
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HTOP is the Shizz, that is all.
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New blog post: Racist of the Week: Sad Bastard BNP Member http://tinyurl.com/5kcsdt
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I had to use a MAN page to resolve a question and consult Kernel notes to verify something, truly this is a golden nerdy age.
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Good Morning, took ages to get going today, hopefully the flywheel is up to speed now.
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On the phone praying to the Insurance Gods and listening to the same 4 songs over and over again...and again
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On the phone praying to the Insurane Gods and listening to the same 4 songs over and over again...
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My Question is: Will Jello Biafra be okay with Obama "Not" walking to his inauguration? The constant threats hove got to considered.
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Tragic and Entertaining - Tradgetaining http://tinyurl.com/5l75gl
