Foodie Best and Worst of 2017

Personal Accomplishment

2017 is coming to an end and wow, what a crappy year I have had. This time last year my kitchen ceiling was threatening to cave in due to a leaky roof and look! It still has not been fixed although the landlord finally did get us a new roof.

Also, nothing like spending $115 to take an online class called FoodSafe only to discover in the middle of learning about all sorts of horrific things about food and pests and seriously gross stuff…

Economic Failure

… to find out I can not sell food made in my own kitchen! Screw you FoodSafe! Thanks for being of absolutely no help to disabled people who can not work in a commercial kitchen. I thought I could finally make some money at home with my food but unless I go to farmers markets, I am not allowed to sell my food.

President’s Choice??? Where Are You?

If you have been wondering where my holiday President’s Choice product reviews are, you are not alone. I wrote every contact I had to find out about the traditional PC holiday party, the seasonable products… Nothing. Not a peep.

I was happy to see that they re-released their Maple & Bacon Popcorn (which I renamed My Personal Crack) which I picked up and inhaled. I wish I could tell you about their other products but I have no idea what they are, other than this sweet and heat one I saw while shopping. I bought the maple one instead. What a bummer. They usually actually put me into the Christmas spirit. Not this year.

Holiday Cooking Fails

I keep wanting to share my sweet potato casserole dish that I love making for Christmas every year but there is always one element that goes wrong. This year, it was two. First? I bought yams by accident! That is a first for me.

OK I could live with that but… Having those awesome PC Maple Marshmallows sadly, defeatedly smearing off the sides was just too sad. This was delicious but seriously!

I wanted to finally try Reg’s Mom’s Squash Puff recipe but this year decided to try using a Japanese squash and… Turns out I do not like Japanese squash. Next year, going for the traditional butternut.

Future Foodie Hope and 2017 Cooking Accomplishment

Despite my disappointment with PC at Christmas this year I decided to pick up a box of their new Ramen broth. A big accomplishment for me this year is I learned how to make my own ramen broth from scratch which was awesome but PC’s looks so good and cost less than $2 so… I will product test it on my own in the new year.

Artsy Foodie Win

On a crafting level… I learned how to make vessels on a potter’s wheel at the art studio! The one on the left and the right were made on the wheel and the one in the middle I learned how to make in a clay extruder’s class. Now I have three homemade vessels for some of my many salts. So cool!

Foodie Gifting Fail… This One Hurts!

Oh how happy I was to get the KitchenAid Glass Bowl for my mixer for my birthday. It was a true dream come true. Until!

I took it out of the dishwasher for the first time and the spout just slightly touched my granite counter top and cracked off! I could not believe it. It was such a slight tap, I was so shocked when I saw this giant chunk had come off. It was on the outer part of the spout so I kept using it but then…

What the hell caused that huge long crack in the bowl? Seriously! And after taking bloody FoodSafe I knew this was potential physical contamination and had to get rid of the beautiful bowl. I almost cried.

The Latest Catastrophe

I have successfully made the Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake a couple of times now and thought it was safe to make for a pre-New Year’s party and the centre did not set! It was absolutely mortifying and I was up all night obsessing about what could have gone wrong. Was it the parchment  paper I added to the top of it to avoid water from getting in? I wrote the authors of the cookbook for their sage advice but wow, how embarrassing.

Ending On A Positive Note

I am so glad I came up with my Foodie Bucket List. Just looking at it I can see that I taught myself how to make bagels, pastry cream to go with my Mille Crêpe Cake, polenta, caramel sauce, tempering chocolate, Pad Thai… It is nice to see all the things I DID accomplish this year.

Not only that my photographs on Google Maps have surpassed 3 MILLION hits! Now those are some serious numbers which totally rocks.

Considering I am in the middle of giving away and selling a ton of my possessions so we can fit into a tiny apartment in one of the most expensive cities that has a .7% vacancy rate, life is feeling a tad bleak. For me, 2017 was a horrible year and 2018 is looking even more terrifying but I am happy to share that I invested my Christmas money in renewing my site. I may end up living in our car but at least my online home is going to continue to exist online.

May 2018 be a good year for us all!