“Women who drink more than five cups of coffee a day may be reducing their risk of one type of breast cancer, new research suggests.”

Hmm.. of course.. by reading more into the article you will find the following statement:

“However, a U.S. expert warns that the new finding about reduction in risk for ER-negative breast cancer could be due to chance.”

Seriously?? Chance?? Isn’t the whole point of a ‘study’ to obtain facts? I mean – I could state something like “eating carrots will make you fat” and if I do my study on a bunch of people whom I give carrots to and they eat everything else under the sun – pretty sure that’s not much of a study??

That’s similar to the article I read where they said that too much water can be bad for you.. ummm.. what? What are they trying to do? Get people NOT to drink water? Seriously?

Anyhow that’s my little evening rant, I now must go in search of mortgage information to find the best mortgage and best annuity rates out there as my mortgage is up for renewal soon and I’m contemplating my choices.

What would you say if I told you that you could get a full lunch meal, delivered anywhere downtown, and a huge menu to choose from.. for $5 taxes in? Seriously.. hell you can’t even get a cup of coffee for that anymore (at some locations.. sorry Starbucks).

Its’ true, and it’s almost to good to be so! RealMeals.ca has been going since 1998 – and I tell you – I can see why!

Real Meals is an Island company specializing in delivering delicious gourmet meals to the people of Charlottetown. We use fresh, locally grown produce and the finest ingredients to create delectable meals that you can heat in your oven or microwave.

Ok.. you can go to their website if you want to check it out.. but on both occasions which I’ve stayed in town for lunch for one reason or another.. the meals were delivered shortly after 9AM, and there was plenty to eat when it came to lunch time.

How does it work? Glad you asked! You have to order the day before prior to 5pm. But big deal.. plan ahead and save $$! You go to their website and order via the web page – and they also have daily specials and deals if you’re tired of thier pretty lengthy regular menu. They will deliver it the next morning.. pay them at the door.. (cash only I’m assuming)… I don’t believe you can do over-the-phone ordering (hell they’d need a mobile cell booster to keep up with the demand I would imagine) – so just go to the site and order.

I’ve had the Beef Pasta Casserole as well as the Lasagna with Salad and both were delicious and plentiful. Well worth the ridiculously low price of $5 delivery and taxes included! Anyhow, check them out..

Without further ado.. here’s the ultimate do it yourself food hack… the Big Mac!

The Burger Lab: Building a Better Big Mac (from seriouseats.com)

I’ve done some browsing and rounded up some posts which I plan on checking out and reading all with regards to the summer season:

Make Your Own Ice Cream Bars! from chow.com – great summertime treat!
Clean your Grill… – quick little howto from 5min.com
I’ve already posted a tip on how to repel mosquitos.. but here’s another one.. a bubble machine!

Blah, just got my insurance receipt in the mail and it looks like my premiums for auto are going up (I thought they went down as you got older???) – time to go shopping around for some insurance online perhaps at www.wholesaleinsurance.net or one of the big banks offering now.

The unfortunate downside of doing those things is that it makes you feel like you want to buy some new things for the outdoor space. For us, its’ an outside gazebo. We actually did end up purchasing a larger fire pit which is currently in pieces in the kitchen as I put it together – but the whole ‘outdoor living’ is really starting to intrique me. Damn you Canadian Tire!!

Have you been in there lately? They have this really great setup of a few gazebo’s complete with beautiful lawn furniture and and other ideas such as the outdoor bar, and even outdoor lighting (think living room ).

Anyhow lots of ideas running through my head and I don’t know if much will come of it – but does anyone else out there in Internet land have an outdoor living space that they can offer up some tips on? In exchange.. I offer you these great links to some cool articles hand picked by yours truly.

• 16 Tips for the PERFECT BURGER by kitchendaily.com
• Apply sunscreen properly (yeah I need to do this) by webmd
• Some Gardening Freebies just in time by my favorite Canadian Deals site simplyfrugal.ca

Talk soon peeps!

So.. it appears that Spring has finally arrived weather-wise and as much as I love the warmer weather, it depresses me somewhat to realize that I have to do a SHITLOAD of cleaning in and around the house. My lawn is as long as I can ever remember, there are winter clothes all of the place, a complete room of old urban clothes and stuff we don’t use and have to get rid of, the hockey gear needs to be packed away (but not too deep as some summer hockey may be in the works), and the golf clubs put out somewhere. Jeez do I ever need a garage.

Anyhow would like to post some cool links which I came across.. enjoy!

• Chow.com teaches us how to make our own veggie chips.. YUM!!
• This is very useful, apartmenttherapy.com is giving us the lowdown on buying plants that don’t die easily.. (Liz??)
• And how about this instructable on how to make your own homemade soft soap?

Some good reading there for sure..

Had this on homemade pizza the other night.. yep.. was pretty damn impressed, and it made a LOT! Even better? Most of the ingredients are already in your cupboard I guarantee it! Vinegar? Garlic Powder? Evaporated Milk? C’mon.. you weren’t going to use that evaporated milk for any real baking were you?? I tried the first one (with the TON of sugar…) will use the 2nd one next time.. and no.. definitely not healthy for you..

Found at this site:

Donair Sauce
(adapted from King of Donair, on `Pizza Corner’, Halifax)

• 2/3 cup canned evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Stir canned milk, sugar and garlic powder until sugar is dissolved. Add vinegar and continue mixing. The quicker you add the vinegar and the less you mix (I usually give the spoon 3 or 4 turns around the bowl), the thicker the sauce will be. Let sauce sit for at least one hour in refrigerator before using. Eventually (hours to days later), the sauce may start to separate. DO NOT STIR IT. Simply skim the thick sauce off the top. It tastes fine, despite the appearance that all the vinegar has seeped out of it.

You should be able to get thick sauce simply by following the instructions in the top recipe. I can get mine a bit thicker than yogurt. Occasionally, I blow it and stir too much and the sauce gets thin again. If your sauce is not thick enough (I like spoons to stand up in it) follow the recipe below. It is my new favorite.

Alternate SUPER-THICK Sauce Recipe (confirmed to be excellent)

• 2/3 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

(Or for a 14oz tin of sweetened condensed milk, add 1/2 cup vinegar, and 1 tsp garlic powder)

Follow the same instructions as above, except that you really need to stir for a long time to get the condensed milk and vinegar mixed properly. Do not be alarmed. Stirring this recipe for a long time will not make it thin. Leave set for a few minutes and you will be able to turn the bowl upside down and none of it will pour out.

Please note, the amount of sauce provided in this recipe will likely last two servings at most (if used properly). I find that the sauce can be made in larger batches and survives an unnaturally long time in the fridge.

I didn’t realize however that No Frills was part of the Superstore but it makes perfect sense since we don’t have a Superstore in Stratford, but do have a Sobeys… and well, you know wherever there’s a Sobeys, the Superstore isn’t too far away!

I did find it interesting however that the stores seem to compete with one another on certain items.. take the following example from their website of this weeks’ flyer:

So how does this make sense? save more than $1 if you simply cross the bridge and shop at the store in God’s country… I mean.. Stratford.

It’s the same company, different store.. even their websites are almost identical (see below). I don’t know how many management jobs are being used to create these sales but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

I think instead of going through those damn flyers we get every week – I may just start making a grocery list and browsing through the flyers online to save time and money – here’s the list I have for the local ones (let me know if I miss any):

Atlantic Superstore
Sobeys
Co-op
No Frills

By the way.. one of the best laid out sites for the local flyer deals is Flyerland.ca – seems great to me, bookmarked!

While it’s pretty well known that you can great deals on all kinds of different things to make you look your best such as dress shirts, pants, shoes, even surfing clothes if that’s what you’re into down south.. what I didn’t realize was how much difference there was on produce and grocery items.

Perhaps it’s just the fact that I never went to a grocery store in the states.. but I thought it would be fun to list a few things that I noticed.

Strawberries.. here the small little basket we buy when they’re in season you can get for what.. $2.99 maybe on sale, $3.99 regular? There.. you can get a basket at least 4 times the size for $5… and I’m talking at LEAST 4 times the size.. could be 6 of those baskets worth. This is what I seen first, then I started noticing other things..

Watermelon, a full watermelon for $3.50.. I have no idea what they cost here.. but I know it’s a LOT more than that!

Corn on the cob – my Mom purchased 5 stalks for $1.00… even in season we’re lucky to get 6 for $2!

Tomatoes.. a basket of about 6 huge tomatoes for $2…. *sigh* I wish!

Potatos (go figure), Lettuce.. both $1 for a standard bag or bunch.. everything seemed to be $1 for things we pay $3+ here..

Now I know that they have to ship it here and blah blah blah.. but give me a break! We are getting RIPPED off.. I seriously got upset at the prices. How do people NOT eat healthy down there? It’s so inexpensive!!

They claim the factors for the increase are:

• Cost of sugar has increased 40%
• Cost of wheat has DOUBLED in the last year
• Wholesale coffee prices have DOUBLED in the last year

For you math addicts out there, at $1.72 for a timmies-a-day habit is going to cost you $48.16 a month if you had one every day, which is $577.92 a year. Or how about this… give up coffee when you’re at the age of 30 and save that $577.92 for 5 years, at 10% if you left it for 30 years.. you’d have $43,438.71. Or how about if you kept putting that $577.92 and that’s all you invested for 30 years.. at 10% a year how does $108,023.22 sound to you?

There are a lot of things that you could do with an extra $48 a month, the one that I just thought of recently was to install one of those smart home systems to monitor my house while I’m not around, or heck I could plunk it down on my phone bill, put that money towards a fill up of my car, enjoy a nice dinner out.. lots of things..

I’m glad I brew my own.. that’s all I’m going to say on that one.