You know the ones.. “Hello Sir, this is MICHAEL and I’m calling you for the air duct cleaning service”. You know all the replies people give… “Yes, clean all my ducks. I have 12 of them. They are a bit fowl”, “FUCK YOU DON’T EVER CALL ME AGAIN YOU ASSHOLE”, and of course my personal favorite “Sure thing, come tomorrow! I’m at 6 Tettenhall Road, Etobicoke”. If you Google that address you’ll see why it’s funny – at least it is for me. Any thought of inconveniencing the residents of that home is something I feel warm and fuzzy about.

About a year ago I wrote my initial post shortly after I’d signed up to be an UberEats delivery “driver”, but instead of using a bike or car, I did it on foot. Walking. It’s a much lesser known way and I can tell you the past year has been a whirlwind of learning how challenging of a gig this really is. I’m going to try and remain fairly diplomatic in fear of retribution from Uber – which should tell you all you need to know right out of the gate.

Where I left off was after my second night out delivering. I was in pretty good spirits realizing I could make a couple bucks on the side just for walking around the city dropping off relatively crappy takeout food to people while burning calories. My views now are… well.. far different. As it stands today, I’m up to 1700 deliveries since late September 2020. I stopped somewhere in early May 2021 save for a few days afterwards where the weather wasn’t all that warm. I decided slugging a food delivery bag around town in the heat & humidity just wasn’t for me. As the weather got colder in October of this year, I’ve been back out getting my steps.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way.

People have been stuffing peppers for as long as peppers have probably been around in their current form. Every country has their riff on it, some of them are vegetarian, while most of them contain some form of minced or ground meat. There’s a million different ways to make them, so be sure to experiment.

This is a bit of a twist on the classic North American stuffed peppers you may be used to – like mom used to make. I like to play around a bit with the spices, and think for any stuffed pepper to be interesting, it’s got to have a little kick to it. At the end of the day, you’re the boss, but don’t be afraid to experiment a bit. Remember, less is more so it’s always easier to add a bit more spice than have to try and cover it up. you can continually adjust as needed along the way.

If you’re feeling this, leave a comment with what you did for spices and I’ll give it a go on the next round.

I’ve been making my own pickles for the better part of the past 5 years, playing around with various recipes, sometimes with terrible results. However, what’s always hit a home run has been my spicy garlic dills. Some of my friends swear by them, and honestly – they’re a snap to make.

Here’s the basics. I’d strongly suggest making at least 6 jars worth, possibly 9, and up to 12 at the same time if possible. This recipe pulls off 8 jars, but there’s usually a bit of leftover brine. Your mile may vary depending on size of jars.

Once completed, be sure to let them sit on the shelf for no less than a month before opening. For best results, be sure to cool your jar in the fridge for 8 hours prior to opening (ideally overnight) to give them a bit more crunch. Happy pickling!

Thanks to the fine people over at Dell Canada for the (relatively) free meal tonight. Part of their marketing since COVID has been to do various “join in at home!” type things and this time around it’s a cooking class. They send you everything you need (well, almost in my case) and you follow along with some semi-famous chef. I’m sure there’s a lot of product placement and hyping of their latest technologies along the way, but I really don’t know.

The problem is, this thing is tomorrow night and I’ve got other more pressing commitments. So, I decided to make it tonight. The thing is, the recipe card they sent was horrific. It didn’t list amounts, and the method was horribly basic. I improvised a tad. Here’s what I came up with.

It’s an easy dish that anyone should be able to make with relatively little equipment, although I’ll suggest a cast iron skillet will be massive help over your usual frying pan. Seriously. Go get a cast iron skillet. If you take care of it (hell, even if you don’t), it’ll last forever. Or, better yet – see if your grandparents will leave you theirs in the will. It’s the second best gift a person can get from Grandma besides a lot of love & encouragement in the form of rock candy.

I’d already eaten tonight and figured I’d prep this for my lunch and dinner tomorrow, but seeing as I usually don’t have a ton of time (nor motivation) around 1 in the afternoon while working, I got to work tonight.