More shelves, burgers, and roasted vegetables

We decided to stay put this weekend and get some projects done inside our house.

Without a basement, or a garage, or even a shed, and despite downsizing half of our stuff, we still have a dozen rubbermaids full of tools, camping equipment, hunting gear, and curling irons.

(Yes, I had a rubbermaid with curling irons and a hair dryer. No I don’t use them. But what if I needed them someday!)

So Saturday morning we took a few things to the dump, some cardboard, a couple things that were broken in the move, and on the way back into town we went to the lumber yard and bought some 2×4’s and some pine shelving.

Dad had made us a terrific shelf for our canned and dry goods, but we decided to go BIGGER and move Dad’s shelf to another room to house rubbermaid containers by our freezer, and build a new shelving unit, wall to wall, in the back little bedroom.

We are renting this house, so we can’t screw anything into the wall, so the goal was to make it thick, solid, and sturdy.

It went together quite quickly! I had assumed at some point, we’d realize a big miscalculation, and we’d have to back track, but we are old pros now! It’s perfect!

Here is our food supply moved in!

We’ve since stacked the food denser, while keeping it semi-organized into categories, so Jeff could get a few more rubbermaids on the bottom shelfs.

Some of this canned food has come with us from Nova Scotia. Lots of it actually. It is almost like an emergency supply now, since we don’t eat much canned stuff regularly. We’re well stocked with cans of corn and green beans. We have at least 10 boxes of whole wheat pasta, cans of kidney beans, salmon, those gross canned hams, and a few cases of canned and diced tomatoes (which are actually kind of handy).

I’m making more food from scratch again. I think one of the reasons is because my work desk is about 5 feet from the oven, so I can see it out of the corner of my eye all day, looming there, taunting me to put it to work.

I made a good soup this week, and a big crock of baked beans the week before. Jeff comes home for lunch, so it feels nice to have something ready for him to eat for lunch, other than just a sandwich.

The soup was so easy, I might keep making a pot or two a week. I had never successfully made soup from scratch, but I followed a recipe on the back of a bag of dry soup mix Jeff had, a mixture of small pasta, beans, and barley, and I just had to add an onion, a can of diced tomatoes, and some chicken broth. So easy!

I was telling my Dad yesterday, that I find our fresh fruit supply a little wanting here in the winter, but the vegetables are readily available. Here are some I roasted tonight to go with the moose steak Jeff prepared in the crock pot:

I chopped up half a yam, half a red onion, a red pepper, half a zucchini, a carrot, and a whole bag of discount $0.99 mushrooms from the general store, and put them in a bowl. I drizzled olive oil in, and added some granualar sea salt (ie. not ground), ground black pepper, thyme, and rosemary. Then I put them in the oven at 425°F. I gave it a stir at 20 minutes, and then gave it another 15 minutes.

SO delicious. If you haven’t tried roasting your vegetables, do it right now. RIGHT NOW I said! The zucchini is the biggest surprise. It tastes amazing.

Anyway, back to yesterday. After all that carpentry, we went out for a beer and dinner at the Downtown Hotel. I got their chicken burger. It is a delicious chicken breast with all the toppings. Didn’t make much headway with the fries. Add the glass of Yukon Gold, and I was full up to my collarbones.

Yukon Gold is so good, it is the only beer I drink now here. Supporting the local economy I guess 😉

Oh! Speaking of burgers, we tried these this week: Ruffles Flame Grilled Cheeseburger potato chips with the Harvey’s logo on the bag. We are at least a 3 day drive to the nearest Harvey’s burger joint (in Edmonton), but these have an uncanning taste of a Harvey’s burger. Only they aren’t burgers, they are chips, and that is weird, but I’m a sucker for weird. Two bags for $8 on sale (ya, food is pricey here, even junk food).

Looking foward, tomorrow I’m going to go learn how to curl. I expect to be a dismal failure, and will likely hurt myself, but assuming my injuries aren’t life threatening, Jeff and I will be curling in a recreational league here this winter. More soon!