Product Review: Olliffe Butcher Shop Leslieville Bone-in Ribeye

While exploring a little bit of Leslieville this Sunday, we made the last minute decision to check out Olliffe Butcher Shop before catching our streetcar back west of the Don Valley. I went in and announced to the butcher that I never cook steak because all I have is a cast iron pan and no grill and stood there, challenging him to sell me on some meat. I told him that the biggest reason I don't even try is because I don't want to spend good money on meat that I can't cook to its full potential.

This guy was very charismatic and told us about a time when he thought that way. Then he said that ribeye was a great steak to cook in a pan and that a chef he once knew in a fancy-pants restaurant actually said a cast iron pan was the preferred method of cooking bone-in ribeye. He walked me through exactly how to cook it:

1. Heat a cast iron pan up for about 20 minutes on medium-high heat. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Sear the steak on both sides after the pan has heated up.

3. In a separate vessel, place the steak in the oven for 15-20 minutes per pound.

4. Cut the bone off to check how done it is and then let it rest for 10 minutes. 

I cooked my 1.8 pound bone-in ribeye for about 32 minutes and then cut the bone off. It was cooked about medium. I wish I had checked it earlier, but my initial fears that I had overcooked it were unfounded. The flavour was phenomenal and the texture was soft and wonderful. Nothing like any steak I've ever cooked at home before.

I paired the steak with seared zucchini and mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes. What a beautiful Sunday night dinner.
 

36 Weeks Pregnant!

Every day it gets harder to move. All I can think about is getting the baby out safely and finally getting to meet him or her! So I've been reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and drinking raspberry leaf tea.

This is the tea I've been using - mostly because it seems to be the only brand readily available in stores near me. It sells for $4.99 for a box of 20 at the Bulk Barn at Front and George. This is the lowest price I've seen, with The Big Carrot selling it for around $6 and even one store in the basement of the St. Lawrence Market selling it for $8. This price adds up when you consider the recommended dosage for third trimester is a litre a day (4 bags), so at the lowest price this tea is costing me $1/day.

It's become part of my nightly ritual to make the tea for the next day (because it's summer and there's no way I'm drinking hot tea).

Because the tea is used medicinally to strengthen and stimulate the uterus, it is steeped for at least 15 minutes with 1 bag per cup.

By the morning it's ready to drink. It tastes a lot like green tea. I actually really like the flavour and will likely keep it around after pregnancy for drinking occasionally. It's supposed to help with menstrual cramps as well.

I am so excited for Tuesday - I will be 37 weeks and the baby will be full term! I'm planning to start nightly reflections on the labour process and the birth at that point. I want to be able to visualize a calm and effective labour for the baby and I. Ina May Gaskin believes that a natural labour and birth has a lot to do with attitude and positive thinking and that's what I'm setting myself up for. I don't actually know any women personally who have had a natural childbirth so it's not culturally normal for me, though it is how I hope the labour and delivery will be. The stories of childbirth in Ina May's book have been very helpful to read as they repeat over and over different scenarios in which women are able to let their bodies do what they were built for and give birth. It's very inspiring and I am very much looking forward to my labour.

Product Review: Ella's Botanicals Lavender Bubblemania

Bubblemania

Ella's Botanicals has been one of my favourite Toronto companies for a few years. It all started when I became addicted to the chai latte soap...but that's another story. I thought it couldn't get better, but then Ella announced that she was refocusing her line because she had found that in order to continue with the large distribution channels she was working with, the quality had gone down from the original product. In a very bold move, she decided to get away from distributors and force retailers to buy directly from her. This raised the cost of the product, but also the quality of the ingredients. You can read more about this here.

I was looking for a bubble bath with no SLS and other nasties. Problem is, those nasties are what make soap foam. This bubble bath produces a soft, fine foam when you run it in the bath. I find I can get quite a few uses from this bottle, though I didn't exactly count last time. I'd say at least 10 adult baths, which is good considering it retails for $18 on the Ella's Botanicals website. If you follow the company on facebook or twitter though, you'll find there are regular sales. It is also a little less expensive where I got mine at the Big Carrot for around $15. It's from the baby line, so if you're using it for a baby (and it can be used as a body wash and shampoo as well) then it would probably last even longer. I do intend on using it with my baby, but let's not pretend the adults in this house don't like bubbles.

The scent is a pretty strong lavender smell that comes from using lavender essential oil. The only thing I would change about this product is that I would like to see an unscented version available. It's not going to foam up like the bubbles I had as a kid, but my baby won't know what Johnson and Johnson even is, so it likely won't matter.

Product Review: Dyson Digital Slim Multi Floor Vacuum DC 35

A good vacuum is a must-have for anyone with pets and floors. But vacuums aren't that useful if you'll never use them. This is why I got a cordless vacuum from Dyson. I got it a few months ago and I use it almost every day. I love how easy it is and that when you mount the base on the wall, as soon as you dock the vacuum, you're charging it.

My DC 35 mounted in the kitchen

It has about 15 minutes of charge while on normal suction or 6 on max. I've only reached the end of a charge once in my 650 square foot condo. I use it on hardwood floors and it works wonderfully. It is not very good at picking up bigger things like cat kibbles, but it is amazing how well it picks up fur.

I got mine from Futureshop for $349 plus tax. I happened to pick mine up when they were giving away the cordless toolkit for free with purchase (normally $109). The other accessories have come in really handy for vacuuming furniture, but I wouldn't say they're necessary.

Image from futureshop.ca

Overall I am very impressed with this product. I can't speak to the longevity, but for now I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has a small space to vacuum frequently.

Fitting a baby into a 650 square foot condo

There is no nursery when you live in a small space. People are obsessed with nurseries. Honestly, what is even the point when what it really means is you're creating a space away from the rest of the house where you and your baby have to spend time apart from the family? Of course there is always the option of getting this space ready only to never use it.

The extent of our nursery aka corner of our bedroom.

We have a den that is currently empty, but it's at the other end of the unit and I can't imagine sending my baby all the way over there where the sunlight doesn't ever make an appearance. I love that the space is there for later so that we can adapt to the growing needs of our family, but I don't intend on using it for a baby space for as long as possible, hopefully even a couple of years. Considering a wall and a door will cost you an extra $600 or so a month in this city, a den is as close as our child will get to a bedroom for the foreseeable future. Talk about a change from where I grew up in a 4 bedroom house!

I try to keep perspective on space though. If you're going to live downtown in a city, you're not going to have a lot of space for stuff. That just means you have to choose your possessions more carefully and make a regular habit of purging. This makes thrift stores all the more inviting. After all, stuff is transitory in our lives. Easy come, easy go. Once our baby stops using something we have bought or were given, it will be passed on to someone else who can use it. And sorry, future child, most of your crafts will probably have pictures taken of them instead of hoarding them in the basement which we do not have.

Green Baby

One of the ideas for this blog is to create inspiration for ways to incorporate low impact solutions without being overwhelmed. I do plan to cloth diaper, but I have a stash of disposables to start. After all, if I expect myself to perfectly be able to use cloth diapers on an infant when I've never even changed a diaper, aren't I a little crazy? No new mom needs that pressure. I try to live as green as possible but I draw the line when it causes me a great amount of stress. I am one person trying to use less, this does not make me perfect.

When we are stressed, we tend to revert to what we know, and I grew up with a typical north american diet and attitude. This makes Kraft Dinner comforting to me, and that will probably never stop. My goal is to make myself get used to more sustainable foods, products, and practices over time so that they go from making a stressful situation worse to calming my mind with routine during stressful times. My ultimate goal is to raise my child with more of these sustainable and healthy habits so that as they grow up, their default behaviours are less destructive to their bodies and the planet.

So I occasionally will use a lip product that has lead and parabins in it, but most of my makeup collection is free from those kind of chemicals. It's okay to not be perfect, it just means you're human.

Welcome to Old Town

First off, let me start by saying I think the 'Old Town' neighbourhood label seems to be a kind of BIA marketing thing. That being said, it seems to have been needed because where I live doesn't appear to be quite a part of any of the surrounding neighbourhoods like St. Lawrence, Moss Park, or Corktown. Old Town basically encompasses Front to Queen, Parliament to Church. The St. Lawrence BIA has created a community website that outlines the premise of Old Town as a neighbourhood and tourist destination.

If I were to take a guess at the demographics, I would see a lot of young professionals living in the condos that line King Street, Adelaide, and Richmond. But you can't forget the family housing that exists just to the south of Front Street along the Esplanade. A lot of those seem to be co-housing facilities and probably represent the highest concentration of cooperative housing, in the truest sense, in Canada. By this I mean housing that is a mix of incomes, not necessarily subsidized, where people genuinely want to have a sense of community and work with rather than alongside their neighbours. I was surprised to find that the building my husband and I moved in to has a very friendly and community-oriented attitude. What a nice change from living north of Toronto! They even have a facebook group where people communicate with each other daily.

So even though most people don't move into a 650 square foot condo downtown less than 2 months before they have their first child, that is what we did and this is the journey. I feel confident in my neighbourhood and proud to bring a new person into the world here.