Holdovers From Winter

Our housemates are gone on vacation for a month and a half. They said that we could use their backyard and grill. So far it's been kind of on the chilly side, but last Saturday we bundled up and managed the first barbeque of the year. Just grilled some burger patties. It's a good thing we did it when we did though, because yesterday and today it's been snowing! Enough that the ground has been carpeted.  

Last year we planted some flower bulbs in the front yard and earlier this month they started to emerge. Hopefully this doesn't kill them. Oh well, in our region we're advised to expect possible cold snaps until the May 24 weekend.

Speaking of holdovers from winter, you might remember how I've been keeping track of annual eggnog patterns. In recent years they've pushed it from being a Christmas-exclusive beverage into the Halloween season, justifying it by making the first batch "pumpkin spice". However, this past year for the first time they released it at Halloween in its traditional format, meaning that you can buy classic eggnog for about a quarter of the year!

It has been a slow process to normalize eggnog this far out of the Christmas season, but the other day I was in the grocery and something unprecedented occurred

Easter Eggnog!!

Completely detached from Christmas, celebrating a holiday in the spring!! To be fair, this was produced by Sheldon Creek Dairy, which I don't think is a major company, so I don't think this will popularize the phenomenon. Nevertheless, the fact that this is the first I've seen it sold at this time of year makes it feel like Sheldon Creek is committing a crime.

On the side of the bottle it says following:

"Most people think of Eggnog around the winter holidays. Here at Sheldon Creek Dairy, we wondered why Santa should have all the fun! This Eggnog is rich, velvety and smooth and is here just for a limited time. Easter, Eggs, Eggnog. Makes sense to us! Happy Easter from our Family and Bovine Beauties to you! From the den Haan Family"

It tasted okay.

Earlier this year my favourite lunch spot, Big John's Subs closed. That was annoying because even though we live near a number of restaurants, there was only one real option for take out lunch. Weird thing is, even though they took down the sign that says Big John's Subs, they left up the big sign saying "Fritou's Fried Chicken" which I've always known to be attached to their store. There's a Fritou's sign on the inside as well.

I've never known them to sell fried chicken. If you Google "Fritou's Fried Chicken" you'll see that the nearest location is in Toronto, and I looked this up before Big John's closed. This sub shop was over 70 years old, so did Big John's partner with Fritou at some point, or does the fried chicken sign predate the sub shop? Why is Big John powerless to take down the Fritou's sign, even after they took down everything else?

Good news is that just a short walk down the road we spotted a new sign, saying that Big John's is reopening! They never updated their website or Facebook page saying that they were changing location. Weak Internet presence.

Also, in the location they left, something else is opening. Lee-Anne saw some people working on it and asked what was being put in, and they said shawarma! This is good news for me, because shawarma is my favourite street food, and while you can find it in many locations across Kitchener, it just so happens that we live in a bit of a shawarma dry spot. If this new place is any good, once both locations open I probably won't bother with the slightly longer walk to pick up a sub.

I wonder if the new shawarma spot will keep the Fritou's Fried Chicken sign? I wonder if Big John's will put one up at their new location.