Good morning! We trust everyone had a safe, enjoyable and socially distanced Easter long weekend! Any my, what amazing weather we had, too! The pink plum and cherry blossoms are in full swing here in Victoria and the sun has been shining brightly! But let's not get too excited because the forecast is calling for sub-zero temperatures this weekend. So best not put those seedlings in the garden just yet.
It's great when the subject of our little history lessopn has to do with food, although this week, one could argue that the item we're about to discuss is actually food. Today in 1930, a Canadian-born baker named James Alexander Dewar invented the Twinkie in Schiller Park, Illinois. Dewar was an employee of the Continental Baking Company when he realized that the machines which were used for injecting cream into strawberry shortcakes went unused when the berries were not in season. So he decided to fill some cakes with banana cream instead. When WWII broke out, bananas were rationed and the company was forced to switch to another flavour: vanilla. The name "twinkie" was conceived when Dewar saw a billboard for "Twinkle Toe Shoes" on a St. Louis billboard.
We mentioned holding off for awhile on planting outside but if you have a hankering for some fresh vegetables pick up some fresh BC Grown Living Lettuce! We have living Romaine, Butter or Spring Lettuces available that you can either leave out on the kitchen counter and continue to water or keep in the bag in your fridge. Fresh, crunchy, sweet and delicious greens that taste just like they were picked from the garden can be in your dinner salad today!
Consumers are becoming much more conscious of the choices that they make and how they can affext the environment, or degradation of it. For instance, plastic straws are frowned upon now and loads of people keep a reusable one in their purse, bag or glove box. Plastic bags have been largely replaced with reusable fabric bags. And plastic cutlery is becoming as equally avoided because they go straight into the landfill. That being said, we have a super convenient dining accessory kit available right now made entirely of bamboo! The Future is Bamboo Utensil Kit comes in a convenient and cute velcro-closing pouch and contains a bamboo knife, fork, spoon and straw (as well as a tiny brush for cleaning the straw). This renewable resource is used to make durable cutlery which can be washed and reused over and over with zero generated waste. They're vegan and cruelty-free certified, friendly on your wallet but best of all, they're good for the planet. Make a switch to your daily routine and ditch plastic once and for all!
If we're talking about items that are good for the earth, we'd better mention True Earth Eco Strips Disinfectant Multi-Surface Cleaner! This product is made from the same company that created those eco-friendly laundry detergent strips! It's way cool because the package contains 8 strips of which you drop one into your own spray bottle filled with hot water thus creating a disinfecting solution that kills 99% of bacteria, 99% of fungi and mold and 99% of viruses! You shake the bottle until the strip is disolved and you're good to go. All without creating any waste plastic. You only need one bottle which you can use over and over again. Oh and did we mention that it's Health Canada approved?
Keto-dieters listen up! Things just got real. Gone are the days of using a leaf of lettuce for your low-calorie, low-carb wrap. Folios Cheese Wraps are here in our Deli Department! What's that, now? What is a cheese wrap? Here's what the company website has to say: Folios Cheese Wraps, the first ever and #1 cheese wrap on the market! Folios are 100% all natural lightly baked sheets of cheese that are made from Parmesan or Cheddar cheese and are recipe-ready to crisp, wrap, roll or melt. Ideal as a keto-friendly, low-carb alternative for tortillas or bread, Folios is the better-for-you alternative you never knew you needed. We are committed to using the highest quality, nutritious ingredients that are free of additives, sugars and preservatives and with only 1g of carbs per serving! They're naturally lactose and gluten-free as well!
How does a fillet of salmon sound on the BBQ tonight? Yes, it'll probably make a sizzling sound but that's not what we mean. What we mean is, how appealing is grilling a fillet of salmon on the BBQ? Not just any fillet of salmon mind you. How about Aquastar Smoky Peppercorn Salmon? It's a side of marinated wild caught Alaskan chum salmon with garlic and cracked pepper! And it's a snap in either the BBQ or oven taking anywhere from 23-29 minutes depending on how you choose to cook it. The bag also has a see-through window on the back so you can have a peek before you buy it. We're working on getting this in individual portion packages as well!
We've talked about all things savoury thus far so let's switch over to the sweet stuff! Walkers has been making fine Scottish shortbread for eons and their popularity is evident by the amount that Pepper's sells. We go through A LOT of shortbread at this store. Not surprisingly, Walkers wants to get in on all that gluten-free action so they decided to make a cookie. Walkers Gluten-Free Biscuits come in Oat & Cranberry as well as Chocolate Chunk & Orange (this flavour will come up again soon...) They're certified gluten-free and vegetarian and yet still taste delicious because, hey, they're Walkers. Now you don't have to exclude anyone from your next tea party, although, with COVID numbers exploding, you probably shouldn't be having a tea party to begin with. But if you or your bubble peeps need gluten-free stuff, now you're all set!
Terry's Chocolate Oranges sell out every time we get them in stock. And why wouldn't they, since the taste of delicious milk chocolate and oranges makes an excellent flavour coupling. It only makes sense then that they finally started making Terry's Orange Chocolatey Confection in bar form. Well, they're more like several little round pieces of chocolate. Regardless, they're really, really good! You can get Terry's Orange Original or Terry's Orange Cookie Biscuit which is the same except that it has pieces of cookie mixed into the chocolate. We know it was just Easter and you've totally filled up on chocolate and couldn't possibly even think about eating any more but c'mon, it's only wafer thin.
We couldn't finish things up this week without mentioning something new to drink now, could we? Tonica Kombucha Tonic Blue Lemonade Supertonic has been in the store for awhile but we've just recently added Tonica Kombucha Tonic Pineapple Lemonade! How good does that sound (not this again...) It's the fresh taste of pineapple combined with the zingy tang of lemonade in raw, organic, enzyme-rich kombucha form! Yummy!
That'll do it for another week, folks. Please continue to do keep doing everything that you can to minimize your exposure to this stubborn virus. We're almost to the finish line so keep staying the course! And as always, our wish is for you to continue to take good care.
Pepper's Foods