Food Waste Friday, 7-29-11

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 


Here it goes for this week.

We had some "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" waste and some "I don't like it, but I don't want to tell you" waste.

Yogurt with a sell by date of June 2, 2011

The first thing to hit the trash this week was a container of yogurt that got shoved to the back of the refrigerator. It slowly aged almost two months past the sell by date on top with no one noticing. I did a little googling and found that yogurt is okay to keep two weeks past the sell by date, but two months is a little too long.

The next was some homemade hummus. My son, Theodore, has been experimenting with hummus recipes and the last one was okay, but not really a favortie of anyone. Since a lot of effort went into making it, we ate a little, but didn't have the heart to throw it away. However, we waited long enough, that the fuzzy mold took care of our problem.

Fuzzy hummus

Next week, we need to be eating potatoes, or you will be seeing unappetizing pictures of rotten potatoes. (Good thing they haven't figured out smell-o-gram pictures yet.) My goal is to spare all of you from that. Wish me luck!

A Second Look--July 27, 2011

We were on vacation last week, so the yard didn't get its usual inspection. It has not fared well in 90-100 degree weather we have been having with little rain. Large (1/2"-1") dry cracks are forming in the ground and most plants are brown and drooping. The deer have discovered the hostas and tomatoes by our patio. Even with all of that being said, there are a few hearty flowers that are managing to provide some color.

Note: There are two pictures of Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot). The first is a lacy white bloom and the second is similar with a dark spot in the middle of the bloom. This is the first time that I have noticed a dark spot and at first thought it was a bug--but it is part of the blossom. The legend has it that the flower was named after Queen Anne and the dark spot represents blood from a needle prick that happened while the Queen was making lace.

See what I found on a Second Look around the yard this week.

Day lily

I hope the deer enjoyed their hosta feast.

Black-eyed Susan

Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrot)

Queen Anne's lace with dark red bloom in middle

Downed branch from tulip poplar tree

Spike gay feather

Dry, cracking dirt

Road Trip, Day Nine, Home again

 We got an early start this morning and had a good drive home. We have the car unloaded and the washer going. Even though the cats had excellent care from Aunt Martha and Uncle Billy, they are fighting over lap space. 

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Road Trip--Day Eight, Animals, animals, animals

Today we ...
--Visited Toronto zoo-- heard interesting keeper talks about Amur tigers and Komodo dragons.
--Went through customs--reentered the states at Buffalo after being stuck for an hour in Canadian traffic.
--Got a head start on our trip home by driving to Olean, NY to spend the night--had a great a great steak dinner in this small town and enjoyed their squirrel art.

Take a look of some of the sights we saw today.

Butterfly

Pygmy hippos

Sneaks thought this sign didn't apply to him.

Ronald McSquirrel in Olean park.

Gorilla

Amur tiger

Santy Squirrel

Jellyfish

Sneaks should not have been teasing the Komodo dragon.

Road Trip--Day Seven, Downtown Toronto

Thank goodness, today was about 10 degrees F cooler than yesterday. I never thought that 90 degrees would feel good, but we functioned pretty well in it.

Ward and Wally got up early and took a hike in a local park. Theo and I stayed back and did some necessary laundry.

 

This part of the ROM is made of 5 interlocking structures.

Then we set off for Toronto. Traffic was still busy, so we explored neighborhood streets trying to find our way out of the stop and go traffic on the main highways. Our destination was the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), the largest museum of science and cultures in Canada. We only had time to explore a small portion of the museum, but we learned a few things:


--The Canadian flag with the maple leaf wasn't adopted until 1965.
--99 % of the species in the world are smaller than a bee.
--Summer camp groups are noisy.
--There are more red foxes in North America than there are dogs.
--Sneaks enjoyed the museum.

Sneaks swore that these quartz crystals were a hands-on exhibit.

After the museum, we explored more of downtown Toronto including the financial district, water front, and tourist areas. On first inspection, the city seems vibrant and diverse. In the tourist area, we visited the CN tower, a 1815' communications tower with elevators and observation decks. Until last year, this was the tallest tower in the world. On clear day, you can see Niagara Falls. It was not a clear day.

CN  Tower

Food Waste Friday, 7-22-11, Vacation

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 

Niagara Falls

Here it goes for this week.


We have been on vacation for a week now in the Niagara Falls and Toronto area. We have been doing pretty well with our food waste by utilizing our cooler. Instead of listing our waste (because we're not keeping track of it), I have a few observations.





--Tim Hortons--Why is it that everyone in my family has heard of this Canadian chain but me? They are like a Dunkin Donuts and located on every street corner. We have enjoyed their wares several times ourselves and like their breakfast sandwiches.

--Speaking of breakfast, the hotel we are staying in serves baked beans for breakfast. Not a bad idea, just something new to me.

--And speaking of new, we have also discovered poutine, another widespread Canadian dish. It is basically French fries and cheese curds covered in gravy with whatever else you want to throw in. Tasty, but a steady diet of it would be too much for me.

--Also, we visited the birthplace of Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo. And yes, they were good!

--Time to get ready for the day's adventures. Hope that it doesn't make it up to 102 degrees F like yesterday. The heat is putting a damper on some of our plans.

Note: See the rest of our vacation fun by reading my daily posts.

Road Trip--Day Six, Hot Castle

Too Hot!!

Today was going to be our first day to explore Toronto. We had a day planned with three different places to visit. However, Mother Nature got in the way with record breaking high temperatures.

Casa Loma

Our first stop was Casa Loma, an early 1900's castle built by Henry Pellatt. The 98 room castle and Pellatt's life were quite interesting, but the few fans that were blowing were not adequate to handle the building 100 degree heat of the day. By the time we finished the tour, we were drenched in sweat and cranky. We decided to cut our losses and head back to our air conditioned hotel in suburbs.


We may or may not make it to our other destinations tomorrow. It should be cooler, but still in the 90's.
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Other vacation tidbits:

--We continued our power plant theme with the Casa Loma visit. We learned Pellatt was the first to build a power plant at Niagara Falls, but because of Adam Beck's campaigning for free electricty, Pallett lost his plant to the state with no compensation for his investment. Later, Beck oversaw the building of another plant that bore his name. That was the one we visited a couple of days ago.

--Everything is very expensive in Canada especially food.

--Toronto traffic seems to be always busy. At 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, we were in stop and go rush hour traffic. Our hotel is in the suburbs, so this is something we have to deal with. However, the traffic is generally well behaved--except for the car that cut off the semi truck today on one of the side roads. We were then treated to several blocks of a lot of yelling and a lot of bad language. Toronto is known to be the polite city. I guess that is why we didn't see any guns come out.

--With hotels, you get what you pay for.

--Wally has almost finished reading a 1000 page book, and Theodore is having problems with his feet which is limiting his participation in some things.

--We have discovered the truely Canadian, Tim Hortons coffee and donut shop, and poutine--a dish of French fries, meat, and cheese curds covered with gravy. There are many variations and it is sold everywhere. Ward and the boys especially like it.

--No matter how organized we seem, or how well we pack, it looks like our things have exploded in our car or our room after we spend just a short amount of time in them.


--We love our GPS!


--A lot of people snore in our family.

Road Trip--Day Five, Tropical Paradise

Theodore is the guest blogger.

What happened today:
Breakfast at IHOP (incredibly expensive).
Visited Bird Kingdom (also includes lizards).
Went to an outlet mall (bought some shoes).
Drove to Toronto (was asleep for most of this).
Dinner at Kelsey's (good food within walking distance of the hotel).

Pictures from Bird Kingdom

Sneaks in a barrel

Two tortoises

Hernando the iguana

Star the macaque

Aggressive horn-bill

Early lunch

Road Trip--Day Four, Niagara- on- the- Lake

Today was a day for slowing down. There were no crowds that we were trying to beat, so we just went where our mood sent us. The first place we went was to Tim Horton's--Canada's popular answer to Dunkin' Donuts/Starbucks. We are beginning to understand its attraction as we have had breakfast there the last three mornings.

These are teaching gardens with staff in residence.

With nice full bellies, Ward and I went exploring and ended up at Niagara's Botanical Gardens. We really enjoyed the shade gardens, but rushed through the sun gardens as the temperatures were rising and sun was beating down on our necks. 

Generator floor at power plant

After lunch, Wally and Theo felt like they were ready for some exploring, so we ended up at the Canadian Adam Beck Power Station for a tour. They were eager to compare it the power station they had seen across the river in the US yesterday. The plants were practically mirror images of each other.





From this tour, we got a recommendation to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake (different town than Niagara Falls) for dinner. What a beautiful town. Flower beds everywhere that outshined what we had seen in the morning at the botanical gardens. Those along with quaint buildings made everywhere you looked like a picture postcard. Niagara-on-the-Lake was the favorite thing for everyone today. It fit perfectly with our mood of slowing down.

Downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake

Road Trip--Day Three, The Falls

Today was a day to get wet.

1. Got rained on early in the morning while we visited a park honoring the Navy Seabees.

2. Rode Maid of the Mist boat that took us to the base of both the US Falls and Canadian Falls.  Even though we were issued ponchos, we got wet. We didn't care because it was great!

3. Walked to the base of the Bridal Falls to Cave of the Winds. Got issued poncho and shoes but got very wet.  Didn't matter because we loved the roar, the spray, and  the rainbows.

4. Visited Power Vista visitors center for the NY Power Project. Still drying out while we learned that in the summer they divert 50% of the water from the Falls to make electricity. In the winter (non tourist season), they divert 75 % of the water away. It's hard to imagine what the Falls would look like with twice as much water roaring over them.

5. Visited old Fort Niagara, a fort built by the French in the early 1700's. Wish we were getting wet because the heat returned with a vengence.

6. Crossed the border into Canada to a new hotel. Felt good to get wet in the shower.

7. Sneaks stayed hidden most of the day because he didn't want to get wet. He only came out then and again usually getting in trouble when he did.

8. Tomorrow's plan is a mystery. The men of the family planned it while I was writing this.

Navy SeaBees mascot

Niagara Falls at last!

Maid of the Mist with our ineffective blue ponchos.

Theodore in special shoe to enter Cave of the Winds walk.

Sneaks got a little exuberant at the Power Vista center.

We thought we were hot, but this reenactor at Fort Niagara had heavy wool clothes on.

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Yesterday, your hint for today's activities was we hoped to find no floating barrels. This, of course, was in reference to all of the people who go over the Falls in a barrel. First person to survive this stunt was Annie Taylor in 1901. She was a school teacher looking for fame.

Road Trip--Day Two, Lockport

We spent the day in Lockport, NY, and it was a scorcher with temperatures in the 90's. Lockport is a town that sprang up in the 1820's during the building of the Erie Canal. There were a series of 10 locks built there with five going east and five going west. Two locks are still active today. We took a cruise through the locks, took another tour through the water tunnel associated with the old factories around the locks, visited a lock museum, and the visited the locks' Discovery Center. And then on our own, we watched from above as three boats went through the locks. Ward, Wally, and Theodore were very interested in all of the mechanics of the operation. I was mildly interested when I wasn't trying to avoid heat stroke.

For supper, we went to the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo where the original Buffalo Chicken Wings were made. Supposedly, before the invention of the Buffalo wings, wings were either thrown away or used only in soup. The wings were very good as well as everything else we had.

As it turns out, Sneaks is difficult to vacation with. He always seems to be wandering off somewhere he shouldn't be. It's that "nine lives" thing that has made him a little reckless. Nevertheless, we're all having a good time.

We all very hot and tired tonight. Wally and Theo have gone swimming to cool off and Ward and I have turned on the AC in our room. The plan for tomorrow is to avoid all floating barrels. We're hoping that there will be more built in chances to cool off than today.

The Erie Canal

We went on a 2 hour cruise through the locks and town on a double-decker boat.

Lock doors opening for our boat.

Sneaks trying to find out why he wasn't allowed in here. We had to lead him away.

Ward and the boys watching the locks work from above.

Dinnertime at the Anchor Bar

Yesterday, you may remember I gave a clue of what we were going to do today. It was a couple of lines from this song:

Low Bridge
By Thomas S. Allen
I've got a mule, her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo
Chorus:
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge cause we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal
Get up there Sal, we've passed that lock,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
And we'll make Rome before six o'clock
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
One more trip and back we'll go
Through the rain and sleet and snow
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

Road Trip--Day One

Wally loading the car this morning. With all of the room in the van, packing was easy.

You may remember a couple of months ago, we applied for our passports anticipating a trip to Niagara Falls.  Well, the time has come and we began our adventure today. Ward, the boys, and I started out this morning for our long drive to the Falls. The cats decided not to come because they don't like car rides--it reminds them too much of trips to the vet. So they offered their spot to Mr. Readcat, also known as Sneaks as he preferred to called.

Sneaks and Theodore passing time with computer games.

The drive went well. We are not ones to put the pedal to the metal, so our 7 hour drive took about 8 1/2 hours including several stops for food, bathrooms, gas, and driver changes. During the drive Sneaks spent his time watching Theodore play games on the computer and listening to Wally recount many episodes of Mythbusters.

Theodore pulling Sneaks away from the water's edge.

After we gladly checked into the hotel, we had Mexican for dinner and took a walk along the Niagara River. Sneaks was a little more adventuresome than we liked (I think it's because he has nine lives), but we all made it back to the hotel safe and sound.   Now we're looking forward to a good nights sleep before we set out tomorrow. We have a plan to see an old mule named Sal.  Let's see if we keep it.