Monday just mucking about and sharing, and a trip to a Superstore. 24/7

IAnother bright sunny day in early Summer. In Interior British Columbia.

 Oh I know the longest day has gone but Summer here is later, and when it comes, very very hot. They don't get that til July August.

This weather is pleasant. We spend the day Pootling, which is what you can do when you are in good compassable society. Gary works from home on a Monday, so that's a double bonus.

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Anyway, we have breakfast including fresh blue berries, and a type of capsule coffee, whereby the machine Is bought and there are packets of capsules you can purchase of various flavours to make cappuccino type breakfast coffee.its quite nifty, and later in the day I see that amongst other things, these machines are available in a Supermarket. Note the berries are from California because their season is earlier,but the local ones will be better and bigger.

The other breakfast thing of note is a butter bell croc.

This is an inverted bell shaped dish with a lid that later doubles as a base plate to stand the butter bell on. Inside the bell part goes your butter, and when it's put away in a straight sided container a bit fatter in size than your average coffee mug, it is immersed in cold water.

It stays both fresh and spreadable.

Here is one, and hereis how it inverts.:the container has a couple of inches of water in it.

This is way more healthy than margarine, which we tend to use as it spreads better than hard butter from the fridge, but this way which is French means it can stay out and stay fresh. Another thing is that many households, including Sandra's, have a microwave over the stovetop where they work as an extractor fan. The base of the microwave is an extractor fan. I am fascinated by this, as it saves on space. It goes without saying that throughout my stay I am watching out for them in shops and houses w with extractor" and it seems they are a North American thing.e visit, including Victorias university flat, later this week I google them  " over the range microwave " and here is a designer's  (Susan Serra )article. . . In italics 

START OF ARTICLE BY A DESIGNER OF KITCHENS Google. . 

      (This is not Sandra and Gary's house.)

"It's funny...I looked through my project images, and I think I knew right away that I didn't have an image of a project I'd designed with an over-the-range microwave. I may have used this type of microwave a handful of times, possibly many, in builder projects I've done, but, I've always had a huge bias against them...and I bought one yesterday!

Let me just make it simple and do a pros and cons evaluation:

PROS

1. A space saving appliance. For an apartment-sized kitchen, it's no less than a God-send. 

(I honestly cannot think of another "pro" to the over-the-range microwave...geez.)

CONS

1. It is typically situated at an uncomfortable height. If one is short in height, or a child, it can be difficult to reach in and out.

2. Along with #1, of course, comes the possibility of danger, first, if the container becomes hot, and one is taking it out at this uncomfortable height, but also, if there are items cooking on the stove and one reaches for the microwave. Take care!

3. If the microwave cannot be ducted out, the fan is nearly useless, as it becomes a recirculating fan.

4. Most microwaves are approximately 12" deep, which only cover the rear two burners if the ducted fan is turned on.

5.  The typical 300 cfm fan capacity is a poor performer in terms of ventilating power.

6. Due to the height of the microwave, very tall pots pose a problem in cooking comfortably, including being able to see the contents of the pot.

 

I mentioned the reasons that I bought one of these in this post. It's definitely a love/hate thing, I'm sure, for many of us.  Image is from GE, which has a whole lot of choices in microwaves. Kelli, in a comment from the original post mentioned, asked, "What's the alternative?"

ALTERNATIVES

1. Do you REALLY use a microwave, do you really need one? A good question to ask, in general. 

2. Can you find any other space to build in a microwave? If built in, remember, you must have a trim kit for proper ventilation around the appliance.

3. Can you simply place the microwave (perhaps a small one) on the countertop?

4. Check out GE's Trivection range...not a microwave, but a speedy oven, with microwave technology inside.

5. Perhaps a microwave drawer? 

6. Are you rich? Buy a TurboChef.

 

Much of this discussion depends on if the kitchen is being designed from scratch, or, simply, as in my case, a space is open, and now that space will be filled again with this type of microwave. I can deal with this solution for now.. ." . . . END OF ARTICLE  

Oh well we  can't get them anyway. But on with the day . .

We have lunch  of soup, see here another stunning bit of photography, but you can see the view of the lake. across the lake there is a  Cassino andthe road runs the whole length of the lake to the North end.

I am taken on a tour of the house, the downstairs part is as big as the floor we live on, and Sandra's parents live there, for part of the time. For now they are away in Trail, where they have a lakeside residence to die for, it has a generator and they grow everything, and fishing is a boon. it may be the last summer they have there as its on the cards it could get sold, so everyone is planning to spend some summer there for old times sake.

Here's the answer o why people can store their Christmas decorations. There is a basement effect with heating systems, but there is so much storage. On top of that Sandra and Gary are into systems. So it's a great and functional basement, part but then. .  . 

 A great big recreational lounge with a log fire, TV , and then adjacent with doors to separate, a separate smaller .lounge. There is a separate kitchen area and a nice bedroom  all with access to their own verandah, replicating throne above and with all the same doors leading on to it. andras garden has been well developed and flows down the hill. It's quite separate and private, like an apartment or possibly a condo. I am learning about the difference in these labels.

We have a barbecued meal,of Halibut, with mushrooms and all sorts of vege.

And then we do what is a bit of a novelty for me. .  . We go to a Real Canadian Superstore to shop. We take those green boxes that my feet were stuck in when we squished into Sandra's car to escape from Banff. I am very excited about this, just the differences in how they do everything, supply everything. I take advantage of some salt water taffy, a type of sweet that some of the more privileged of you may get to taste. They are soft fruit flavoured but slightly chewy wrapped sweets. The biscuit aisle amused me for a disproportionate amount of time ,but we had already looked at every gadget,for the kitchen. Oh it's fascinating, and my maths is really benefitting as I am doing calculations and conversions in my head to spot the relative  differences in price. I am amazed to see that Canadians can not buy booze in a Supermarket, and in fact they are great wine makers but their wine is very pricey. And ours is pricey over there too. In fact we are in the wine growing region, but letus not digress as wine is not to be had here.

It's the range, and convenience of things, and the expensive and styly labelling.

One such l electric sign said chilled biscuit dough. So all you have to do is take a knife and slice up thicknesses of chocolate chappie and put hem in your oven and it looks like you baked.

Here is a photo of Mozzarella cheese, just mozzarella , and not expensive.

This is just Mozzarella  - slabs of it.and no more expensive.

On the other hand there were oddities like the frozen dessert section and there were frozen Yorkshire Puddings in with frozen desserts and puddings.  Aghh!

The cereals are different ,the deep freezers have different slants on the stock

We loaded up the green shopping boxes with stuff, including two little 'flat caps' for a baby boy, so I am ready for one sex when Ian and Jo produce.

 We shoot out into the night to view thesight of  Kelowna, all lit up at night from Know Mountain.

At home we linger and talk some more. I share about Barbershopping. The difference is these days if we want to point something out from home we just google a site. It is hard to coordinate time with New Zealand  to make viber calls home. We go to bed really late.

I am way behind in my blog but when it comes time to the end of the day I have been so busy living it ,writing about it isn't on the agenda.

Tomorrow it's the last day here and we head off South to the States and the Pacific North West. We will go and look at Vernon where the Pearson children grew up.