A Foodie Day and a Grueling Day

Beloved GayBoy (THANK YOU!!!!!!!) spent about 8.5-9 hours helping me today, in driving shit around from place to place to place. I'll have to post a photo of this fabulous antique I picked up of Mom's, but I'm going to sell it because, as beautiful as it is, my being a city-dweller means I'm unlikely to ever have the kind of space needed for a piece like this, which is more indulgent than it is pragmatic. Beautiful though. I hope I sell it to a good home. :)

Thing about living in the city is, your furniture needs to be practical and compact. A 7' tall by 3.5 feet wide hall stand that is only used for hats, scarves, and umbrellas... when you're a party of one in a one-bedroom apartment? Yeah. Not useful. Plus, holds four hats, maybe the same in scarves, and maybe 6 pairs of gloves, and will hold maybe eight umbrellas. I don't think my friends own eight umbrellas combined (we're Vancouverites! rain doesn't scare us!) and I have about eight hats, so, I'm pretty much shit out of luck already.

The woman who's had it for the last twelve years broke the cardinal rule of antique ownership: She neglected the wood. You must, must, must oil up your wood. Love it! Dote on it! Not always, just once a year or so. I've sprayed it with almond oil twice in six hours and it's already making a wild difference.

Anyhow.

I am suffering the worst headache I've had in months. God. I can't believe I've stayed in a good mood most of the day. Worst headache in MONTHS.

We drove boxes all over town and to reward ourselves, we hit up two of the best foodie haunts in the city, the Gourmet Warehouse and Bosa's Big Fucking Location Italian Importers.

The biggest culinary find of the day? Cuisine Perel's Spicy Pecan Vinegar. $8.99 for I dunno how much, at least 500 mill.

I've just mixed up my own batch of Herbes de Provence dijon mustard, which, when paired with this fucking AWESOME Spicy Pecan vinegar and walnut oil should be a world-class dressing.

I just had a hit of the vinegar from the bottle and it's among the best I've ever tried. Fucking great. Apparently all the vinegars from this company are out of this world. I plan to try their Key Lime vinegar sometime, and there were one or two it hurts too much to try and recall right now. Perhaps the Blood Orange one as well. I've tried blood orange juice in a dressing and wasn't wowed, but maybe it's because it didn't have enough acidity, and as a vinegar proper, that problem should be remedied.

I also happily discovered bocconcini PEARLS at Bosa's. I've had cherry bocconcini before, which I thought were just a little too large for salads, but these pearls are a third the size of the cherries, so I'm just thrilled!

This will be a wonderful week for salads! I'll buy a Nestor's roasted chicken and shred it up for a tasty salad experience. Time to hit up a good greens store on the way home Monday.

Bosa's also sells mild Italian sausage meat for $9.92 a kilo, so I picked up 300 grams to make meatballs for this bean recipe I've invented. I'll post it when I'm through. Great really mellow Italian bean recipe with tomatoes, peppers, caramelized onions, Italian sausage meatballs, and a little chopped basil. Yum! And cheap as hell, and not your standard beans recipe. I've made it a few times and always liked it, but when I served it to friends before the holidays when their computer-fixing chores went long, I was surprised how much they enjoyed it. A twist on comfort food.

I'm five minutes from pizza and wine, which I hope my Tylenol combines nicely will to murder my headache. The edge is coming off it. Love the codeine, man. I take painkillers very infrequently, but tonight merits it. God bless pharmaceuticals. Pain SUCKS.

And I cannot wait to try my new salad dressing tomorrow. (Hey, 9 degrees and sunny tomorrow! BIKE RIDE! WOO! Followed by good cooking. That's my Sunday. Rest and preparing food for a healthy week of eating. And the first bike ride of the year.)

(It's a half-hour later, I forgot to publish, and my headache's down by 50% already. Thank god! This is manageable. Yay for me.)

ADDENDUM: Another great culinary find! Destined for panini greatness, this product of Macedonia is by "Mediterranean Gourmet" brand and it's "Ajvar" -- a roasted vegetable spread. It's only got five ingredients: roasted peppers, eggplant, sunflower oil, salt, and onions. It's awesome! Comes in mild and hot, so I've got mild. Will be great on paninis, I imagine. $5.49 for 720 mill! Steal, dude. Cheaper than mayo, and think of the health factor in comparison. Three tablespoons of this is 65 calories with 5.6 grams of fat (none of that is saturated or trans, so... low in cholesterol), so it's certainly not guilt-free, but a panini can handle light on the toppings.

Also, scored proscuitto ends at half-price. Oh-ho! :) FOODIE DAYS ROCK. Tomorrow I cycle today off. :) (Plus, a lot of activity today, so, not too terrible, this food-finding thing!)