White brands

In Spain, store brands/generics, are known as marcas blancas, or “white brands.” The packaging isn’t the stark black and white that this would suggest, and in general, what’s inside is just as good as the expensive stuff.

But not always, as I was reminded last week when I bought a box of white brand cereal. Cereal is one place I usually splash out for the name brand (the name being that of a certain Midwest Cereal Tycoon whose brother believed that eating corn flakes would keep people from being prone to sexual desires). But the store where I shop had inexplicably stopped carrying it, and I didn’t want to make a separate stop just for a box of cereal. Oh, I should have. The generic stuff inside was grim, grim, grim. Think Soviet version of American cereal. But since I, like my pal CF, am a Person Who Does Not Waste, I ate the whole box anyway. When I finally got into a box of the real deal, I nearly wept for joy.

The experience, combined with this morning’s pressing need to make a shopping list, got me wondering about just what percentage of my grocery spend is on store brands. As I looked in the fridge and cupboards to see what I needed, I noticed just how much of what I buy falls into the cheap-o category. Here’s a brief sampling (brief, because I’m guessing you may not be as interested in this as I am — if you are, feel free to ask me for the full breakdown): mineral water, table wine, milk, juice, yogurt, flan, cold cuts, spread-y cheese (like Boursin, only softer), toasted rolls, digestive biscuits, olives, pasta, lentils, popcorn, tuna, canned tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar…

As for name brands, they are few and far between, and they are there because nothing else tastes as good: mayo, pesto, marmalade, cereal (natch), mustard, rice (yes, it makes a difference), Wasa crisp…

I also found this interesting on a larger scale, because the trend among consumers in Spain is to buy more and more store brands. This is, of course, because of the ongoing crisis — sometimes the difference in price is huge (an example: store-brand plain Greek yogurt, 150 g: 90 cents; Danone plain Greek yogurt, 150 g: 1.70 euros) — and people need to stretch their budgets in ever more creative ways. As a result, some of the big brands, like the ones under Proctor and Gamble’s umbrella, are running ad campaigns aimed at convincing consumers to come back to the fold. I’d like to see the results and to know just how effective these are proving to be. My guess is that they’re not making much of a dent. People are just too worried about the economy right now to splash out an extra euro or two on a long list of staples.

The trend is note-worthy, too, because Spanish consumers have long tended to prefer name brands. When you consider that there have been a number of food scandals here — the rape-seed oil tragedy being the most serious, although later investigation has shown that it probably wasn’t due to contaminated oil at all — buying name brands wasn’t just a guarantee of food tasting good, it was a guarantee of not poisoning yourself and your family.

Where do you fall on the spectrum? Mostly name brands? Mostly store brands? Or somewhere in between? I hope you’ll join the discussion in the comments. I’m off to do the shopping.

 

Pumped up

Minor ponderings… or wool gathering…

Though supposedly deep in work, I just wandered off in the weeds to contemplate the difference between British and American English. What led me there? I got an email from a British shoe site advertising “court shoes,” what in the States we would call “pumps.” And I wondered if it might be considered rude to call them pumps in the UK, the way a Yank can get herself into trouble if she asks a British friend which pants she out to wear to a social occasion. “Court shoes” put me in mind of footwear for judicial appearances, or perhaps a quick set of tennis, but not — being a lower-case republican — to wear to see the Queen.

As G. B. Shaw said, we are “two peoples separated by a common language.”

Good news and bad news

The good news: it’s now warm enough to go without socks and tights, silvery-white legs and all.

The bad news: because it’s now warm enough to go without socks and tights, it’s also time to start regular leg de-furring. (Yeah, I know I don’t have to, but I’m kinda wooly for a rubiatonta, and it’s my preference.)

All stocked up

Well, hello there! I’m just back from my annual undies-and-vitamin-buying excursion to the Homeland, and it dawned on me that the blog has been gathering dust for a month… yikes!

The real purpose of my journey was to spend time with GrammyRubi and The Big Blonde Dog while MamaRubi and El Bigotes hied themselves off to warmer climes for the post-winter thaw. It’s fun to spend time with Gram, as you can imagine, and Mr. Pants came along for a few days, too.

We introduced him to the concept of brunch, and he nicely provided us with a giant tortilla española and contraband ham. I contributed the “tablescape” (yergh) and coffee cake and fruit salad that I bought all by myself!

Grammy and the Red-Headed Monkey Boy are ready to dive in!

Then we sat out on the front stoop and enjoyed a little sunshine before RHMB and his parents went off to his soccer game. It was a lovely day!

Dos rubias y un rubio al sol.

Faster and faster

Hello, chickens! My apologies for the disappearing act — there’s lots going on here, workwise, and not nearly as much fun as I’d like…

I’ve now been doing my 5:2 Modified Alternate Day Fasting Regime for two weeks, and I’m astonished at how much easier every fast day has been since the first. I have decided that Mondays and Thursdays will be my fast days, and so far, I’ve stuck to the same basic menu, since it’s easier for me. I’ll get fancy eventually, I’m sure.

More details on how it works — you do not fast on consecutive days, by the way. On fast days, I have about 250 calories for breakfast (an omelet with a tiny bit of grated cheese, a piece of Wasa crisp, and a cup of tea w/ 1 tsp of milk) and another 250 for dinner (grilled fish, cream of vegie soup, and mixed salad or steamed vegies, with a tangerine for dessert). In the 12 hours between breakfast and dinner, I drink a LOT of water, herb tea, and low-salt vegetable bouillon. Since I’ve got fairly low blood pressure, the salt from the bouillon keeps me from getting too woozy.

In fact, I find that I feel quite sharp on fast days. I fade a little in the late afternoon, but that’s easily remedied with a green tea. I’m able to work, run errands, go to meetings — and nobody could be more surprised than me! Another surprising side effect is that my achy joints (a side effect of years of ulcerative colitis) are much better. It’s as if I’d turned the clock back ten years. I’m also sleeping better.

On “feed” days, I find that my cravings are pretty much gone, and my “full button” seems to be set lower. I don’t pay much attention to calories, but I’m eating less overall, because I just don’t have room!

The non-weight-loss effects of 5:2 MADF are probably more interesting to me than the weight-loss. (You know I’m perfectly happy to be the size/shape I am, as long as I’m healthy and active.) One of them is the above-mentioned reduction in joint inflammation; others are improved memory, and lower risks for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. These last three are due to reductions in insulin-like growth factor, which in turn reduces cell-proliferation rates. While there aren’t a lot of human studies out there, the ones that have been published are very promising. I’m looking forward to seeing what my blood work looks like when I go for my annual checkup in May.

I’ll update you on my progress in a month or so. Let me know if you’ve got any more questions in the comments.

 

Just the one

Because I’ve been feeling the desire to shed the extra tummy floof I acquire over the winter, and because I know that I’m not going to stick to a diet that requires long stretches of calorie-counting, etc. (I just won’t), I was interested to read about The Fast Diet. This type of eating plan is also known as a 5:2 diet, in that two non-sequential days out of five, you have a modified fast (5oo calories for women; 600 for men).

I’ve had plenty of experience with fasting, as it’s part of the prep process for my regular colonoscopy. It didn’t seem daunting to go one-day-at-a-time without eating, and the science behind the plan is solid. I downloaded the e-book from Barnes and Noble, and started reading. I enlisted a couple of my Sunday Lunch Club friends to be fasting buddies.

As I write this, I’m in the middle of my first Fast Day. I am not going to dissemble: despite having had a good breakfast and drinking liters of water, I feel like crap — trembly-shaky, massive headache, constantly growling stomach, and a level of flakiness unprecedented even for someone whose nom de plume is Rubiatonta. I am glad that I decided to start on a day when I don’t have to meet a deadline, because I’d miss it by a mile.

But I’m also hopeful. If this works — and I believe it will — I’ll be able to stick with it indefinitely. After all, it’s only one day at a time.

Argh

Many of you will be familiar with the aphorism that the definition of madness is doing the same thing time and again while expecting different results. I would like to amend that slightly to create a knitter’s version: the definition of madness is knowing that you aren’t getting gauge on a project where gauge matters, and carrying on anyway.

Sigh.

The beautiful Suvi Simola “Baby Cables…” pullover was going along nicely, with the body nearly finished, when I decided I’d measure it. I didn’t have a very good idea of how big it actually was because I haven’t been able to get my hands on a circular needle with a long — 80 cm — cable, despite having visited four different knitting shops. (This in the capital of a developed nation. And my friends here wonder at my willingness to mail order craft supplies from the U.K.!) The result was that I knew I had a ton of stitches, but they were so bunched up that I couldn’t really tell how big around the beast was.

So I measure it and discover that it’s 130 cm at the bust. My bust, if you’ll pardon the sharing moment, is 110 cm. Room for company!

It took me about half an hour to frog the sweater that had probably taken 20 hours to make, up to that point. The yarn is neatly wound into balls and back in my work bag. I don’t have the next smaller size needle. I don’t have time or the mental energy to do the rounds of all the knitting stores in Madrid just to not be able to buy one.

I think I need to have a lie-down. Someone please pass the smelling salts.

 

Out of my rut

This winter has just gone on and on, hasn’t it? It’s been unusually cold here in Madrid, and some parts of the country have seen quantities of snow to rival what I grew up with. It feels like I’ve been wearing the same sweaters for about six months!

Because it’s also Sale! season, the temptation is to go spend a load of cash on something, anything, to break up the monotony. This is not a good reason to shop for anything more expensive than a lip-balm, in my opinion, so what’s a bored Rubi to do?

I’ve had fun shopping in my closet, looking for new ways to wear the pieces I’ve already got. That’s how I discovered that I do in fact like wearing button-front blouses, provided they’re under a v-neck sweater, á la Lisa. I tried wearing a big pile of necklaces, as Tish suggested, but they don’t really work with my bosomy self. But I do like wearing a big pile of bracelets, and a scarf plus necklace looks very chic. And Pseu has helped me add a new scarf tie to the mix. So things are looking up in the sartorial department.

I’m mixing it up in other ways, too. In the last couple of weeks I’ve:

• Moved my work “space” to the dining room table (temporarily). Sitting up straight helps concentration, apparently.
• Joined a group called Internations to meet new people and go to events I wouldn’t otherwise.
• Pushed my bedtime back a bit, which means I can get up earlier and get more work done before lunch.

These are little bits of novelty that feel good.

Of course, one can also find oneself in a cooking rut. I think it’s even easier for this to happen when cooking for a single person — it’s often hard to summon the enthusiasm. But I’ve had a recent breakthrough here, too.

I always keep a few staples in the freezer so I can throw a quick meal together — pisto Manchego with a fried egg, empanadillas, and the vegies that are used for a revuelto de trigueros y ajitos. (That’s scrambled eggs with asper-grass and green garlic shoots. Plus little shrimp. Very delicious.) The other day, it occurred to me that they’d be mighty tasty with pasta. So I boiled up some high-fiber penne, added the frozen vegies and shrimp and heated them thoroughly, then tossed the lot with pesto. It. Was. GOOD. If I do say so myself.

See what I mean?

What are you doing to keep life interesting without breaking the bank? Please share in the comments.

February FOs – part 1

I’ve been deep in the knitting weeds the last few weeks, which has cut into my blogging time in a big way — but there are finally some results to show for all the effort, with more to come.

First up, a present for a friend whose birthday is at the very beginning of the month. She has kept a pair of fair isle mittens I made for her birthday some 25 years ago in very, very good condition. I thought she was was due something new!

The floppy beret is Cassidy’s Cap, from Chic Knits — a very easy, very pretty pattern for worsted weight. The mitts are One Cable Mitts, from Blue Sky Alpacas, an absolute whiz-bang of a pattern that takes all of four hours to finish. Here’s a close-up of the mitts, modeled on my paw.

The yarn is Wool of the Andes (Knit Picks) in a kettle-dyed colorway called Wine Tasting. There is a metric ton of this in my stash — alas, the kettle-dyed type has been discontinued by the company, though they still have plain colors and tweeds. It’s a great yarn — a real workhorse, and excellent value.

Making the mitts and the hat gave me a good idea of how the yarn will knit up for the sweater I want to make out of it — should be a bit less stripy, of course — but making small items rather than dinky 4×4 swatches helps in project planning.

I think I have a hit on my hands!

Nighties or Jimjams?

A little while back, in a bold move against the kiddification of nightware, Lisa of Privilege shared sources for grown-up flannel pajamas. I support her efforts on behalf of all pj wearing women (or wimmins, as WendyB would say).

The thing is, I’d much rather sleep in a nightgown. I don’t love getting a bed-wedgie. I’ve always thrashed around at night, and find that I do so even more now that I’m developing my own tropical climate zone. I prefer feeling unconstrained — which is also behind my preference for a duvet-only bed linen scenario. (It always leaves me feeling a little sorry for the housekeeping staff when I completely untuck the neatly made bed in a hotel. Can’t stand feeling like my feet are trapped!) And I have well-honed standards for my sleepwear.

In summer, I like a sleeveless, loose woven cotton gown along the lines of this one, from La Cera at Serene Comfort.

In winter, I’m looking for a long gown, with long sleeves. I was gifted this exceptionally pretty one for Xmas. It’s by Eileen West, also at Serene Comfort.

Garnet Hill used to be my first stop for any nightgown, summer or winter. I have two of their Asian-wrap style gowns, which are real warhorses, with short sleeves for warmer weather. But for reasons I can’t quite fathom, this season, they didn’t offer the Asian-wrap gowns with long sleeves. (Given that they’re based in New Hampshire, I find this especially puzzling, but maybe their market research knows something I don’t know.) They do have some lovely sleeveless gowns on the site right now, if you live in warmer climes or don’t mind sleeping with uncovered arms.

So, dear readers, to retune that time-honored presidential campaign question, nighties or jimjams? And do you have a secret source for seasonally-appropriate nightgowns? Please share!