Love List

A few things I am really enjoying these days...

1. CBC Radio 2: What's that? AMANDA? Is that YOU? Yes, I'll admit. I'm not usually one to push or promote the CBC. I'm just not a fan of government run media in general. It's the principal of it. I mean, you can dislike Fox News' Bill O'Reilly all you want, but at least you can sleep at night knowing your taxes aren't paying his salary. But, I digress.

I am a big fan of top 40 hits. I like the catchy beats and hooks and like to sing a long. So my usual radio station of choice was Calgary's Vibe 98.5 (now Virgin 98.5). Recently though, I've had it. Just because I like a song, doesn't mean I want to hear it 8 times a day. So I searched for something new and stumbled across some classical music on CBC Radio 2 'Tempo', and loved it. There is this whole underworld of people out there who love classical music, and actually know stuff about it. Fascinating. Then, I discovered 'Shift' and 'Drive', the later hosted by one of my favourite Canadian musicians, Rich Terfry aka Buck 65. Just yesterday I heard 'Girl' by the Beatles, then Katie Lang's version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', then 'California' by Led Zepplin, then an acoustic version of Alanis Morissette's 'Ironic', all in a row. Commercial free. Seriously. Awesome. I have to swallow my pride (and principles) while I enjoy the government run radio tunes that fill a niche market that apparently I may be a part of. GULP.

2. Organics Delivered: With Warren on a real health bender these days we decided to try this new service called 'Organics Delivered'. I'll be honest, it was the 'delivered' part that attracted me more that the organic part. But while in Maui I was a bit disillusioned when I bought a mango at the Maui Safeway, and the sticker said it was from ECUADOR. So we decided to give local, organic produce a shot. And did I mention it's delivered?

Now before you run out and give it a try, a few warnings. Although you can set preferences, you don't actually order specific produce items. The bin comes to your door with a variety of stuff and you don't know what will be included until you receive it. It's like Christmas morning every two weeks! If you live with picky eaters who may not enjoy things like Swiss Chard or Beets, this probably isn't for you. And you have to like salad because each delivery usually includes several varieties of lettuce. And, it's not all local. They say they do their best to include as much local produce as possible, but a large amount still comes from the states. But so far, we're enjoying the deliveries, and the way it forces us to consume more vegetables :-)

3. This brings me to the next love item, Produce Savers. They work. The key is to remember to store your produce in them.

4. 5 Ingredient Slow Cooker Cook Book: This is a recipe book I accidentally stole because it was hidden by Rhys' carseat purchased at Superstore. I love my slow cooker, and this cookbook is great because, as the title says, each recipe has only 5 ingredients. And they're all 'normal' ingredients, stuff I usually buy already. I'm predicting to use it a lot more once I'm back to work.

5. "All Out Of "Pad: This is an impulse purchase I nabbed at Chapters, and I love it! It's always on the fridge, and as soon as we run out of something I tick off the box and voila! An instant shopping list whenever I'm heading to the grocery store. The best part? Warren has FINALLY caught on and now he ticks things off too :-)