I can’t concentrate because about 2 hours ago I was asked (read: ordered) to let someone go this afternoon. She’s nice but useless and I understand why she needs to go but I thought it would be far nicer to do it in the new year… my boss feels that “he doesn’t want to pay someone for being useless!” and I don’t have much choice but to comply. This dismissal goes against what I know to be good HR practices – that terminations should happen in the middle of the week and away from annual events.
But this is his common business practice… make a decision and want to see action now! (I mean NOW!) These decisions are made regardless of the implications that this may have on the other staff in the office, the employees mental health and the general morale of the office.
Not only all that (wasn’t enough I know) but the prospect of being such an evil woman has my tummy churning in all the bad ways. I’m feeling overly warm and I can’t concentrate on work at all – I think tonight I’m going to need some serious anti-stress activities.
Update: Well it's done, I've switched some staff around and it's going to suck but I've made one staff member very happy... and I think she deserves that happiness. Now I'm off to the mall to bury this guilt in shopping and then something alcoholic shortly afterwards.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Roasted Beet Salad
Well the salad was a hit... next time I think I'll try putting the beets in a sealed Ziplock bag.
2 bunches fresh beets (with tops)
1 red onion
Olive oil
Dressing
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Sea Salt
Pepper
Caraway seed
Peel beets & slice into sticks, peel & slice onions lengthwise – toss with olive oil and roast in a 400 degree oven (about 45 minutes or onions are brown tipped).
Place Dressing ingredients in a blender and hit high speed for a couple of minutes. Add dressing to beets (at this point you can let it all sit for as little as an hour to 2 days).
Wash the beet tops, tear the leaves off to use as greenery (if you just bought regular beets you can use spinach) and create celery like sticks out of the stems.
Just before serving add the greens to the (room temperature) beets… mix up and sprinkle roasted pumpkin seeds on top if you wish.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Next time I’m making latkes…
Or anything other than what I made for our “Heritage Potluck”
When it was announced that we were supposed to bring a “dish that reflects our cultural heritage” I knew I had a ton of options… my family being what it was and my personal kitchen history being fairly prolific. I tried to think of something nice (preferably vegetarian), fairly easy to eat, yummy and that I’d be able to make enough for 20 people to have a taste. I had options from Ukrainian, German, Jewish & Scottish/Metis… while not all known for their gastronomic prowess there are some good solid options in each culture that can be shared successfully.
I was more than happy to contribute and thought about getting creative… however in the end I decided to go with a dish I’d already successfully prepared for guests (well the quilting girls). I decided to go with a Roasted Beet Salad (those Ukrainians sure love their beets, so do the Germans for that matter!) that I found in the fall Food and Drink magazine… it’s sweet, hearty and settles surprisingly light. I roasted the beets in advance and prepared it all last night, settled it into my reusable sopping bag in the fridge and focused the rest of my attention on finishing up some Christmas presents to send home to Winnipeg.
This morning when I actually remembered to grab my bag I was happy… the train wasn’t packed and I was happily reading the paper when I caught the whiff of rice wine vinegar – it took only a second for my brain to process that the scent was from my salad dressing. It took another couple of seconds to realize that must mean that I was leaking salad dressing… and indeed when I looked down there were what looked like little drops of blood on the floor of the train - the beet salad was attacking me!
I now have a red stripe on part of the butt on my winter coat (that’s light green and cream – of course), my reusable bag is stained a fetching shade of pink and sadly I became “that guy” because it looked like I dripped blood all the way from Spadina station to Queen… it looked like I had a head in a bag or at best was carrying a bunch of fresh steaks that I didn’t know how to wrap properly. I should have known better because the dish leaked a little on the way up to Collingwood, clearly I’m either dense or incredibly optimistic.
So if no one likes the salad I’m switching over to latkes for potlucks, they travel well and with a food processor are easy to make. If they do like the salad (and chances are they will) then I’m taking suggestions on how to prevent another massacre on the TTC.
When it was announced that we were supposed to bring a “dish that reflects our cultural heritage” I knew I had a ton of options… my family being what it was and my personal kitchen history being fairly prolific. I tried to think of something nice (preferably vegetarian), fairly easy to eat, yummy and that I’d be able to make enough for 20 people to have a taste. I had options from Ukrainian, German, Jewish & Scottish/Metis… while not all known for their gastronomic prowess there are some good solid options in each culture that can be shared successfully.
I was more than happy to contribute and thought about getting creative… however in the end I decided to go with a dish I’d already successfully prepared for guests (well the quilting girls). I decided to go with a Roasted Beet Salad (those Ukrainians sure love their beets, so do the Germans for that matter!) that I found in the fall Food and Drink magazine… it’s sweet, hearty and settles surprisingly light. I roasted the beets in advance and prepared it all last night, settled it into my reusable sopping bag in the fridge and focused the rest of my attention on finishing up some Christmas presents to send home to Winnipeg.
This morning when I actually remembered to grab my bag I was happy… the train wasn’t packed and I was happily reading the paper when I caught the whiff of rice wine vinegar – it took only a second for my brain to process that the scent was from my salad dressing. It took another couple of seconds to realize that must mean that I was leaking salad dressing… and indeed when I looked down there were what looked like little drops of blood on the floor of the train - the beet salad was attacking me!
I now have a red stripe on part of the butt on my winter coat (that’s light green and cream – of course), my reusable bag is stained a fetching shade of pink and sadly I became “that guy” because it looked like I dripped blood all the way from Spadina station to Queen… it looked like I had a head in a bag or at best was carrying a bunch of fresh steaks that I didn’t know how to wrap properly. I should have known better because the dish leaked a little on the way up to Collingwood, clearly I’m either dense or incredibly optimistic.
So if no one likes the salad I’m switching over to latkes for potlucks, they travel well and with a food processor are easy to make. If they do like the salad (and chances are they will) then I’m taking suggestions on how to prevent another massacre on the TTC.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Cadillac Fairview – Bah Humbug
So as I was waiting in line to buy a Cadillac Fairview giftcard for a departing employee (how the heck am I supposed to know what she wants?) - I was thinking “hey this maybe this is the answer to Christmas this year!” I can’t stand Christmas shopping in general and anything that makes it better makes me happy… so this could have been a great option.
Then I bought the card, and it all changed! First there’s a “service charge” of $1.50 which is not cool. Then when you read the “terms and conditions” you find out that after 15 months (yes just over a year) they start charging a $2.00 “account maintenance fee” every month PLUS tax. It will be “deducted from the outstanding balance” – to be honest outstanding balance screams debt owing in my mind. It can’t be replaced or reloaded so it’s essentially a piece of crap… I would have returned it but I’m pretty sure the departing employee can use it shortly.
Instead I’ve decided on something else this year for Christmas… maybe not totally cheap but hopefully exactly what everyone on my list will like - CanadaHelps.org online charitable contributions I can give each person an amount that they can donate to the registered charity of their choice – sweet! Philanthropic and personalized… I love it entirely. Plus no more crap presents to find and ship!
Then I bought the card, and it all changed! First there’s a “service charge” of $1.50 which is not cool. Then when you read the “terms and conditions” you find out that after 15 months (yes just over a year) they start charging a $2.00 “account maintenance fee” every month PLUS tax. It will be “deducted from the outstanding balance” – to be honest outstanding balance screams debt owing in my mind. It can’t be replaced or reloaded so it’s essentially a piece of crap… I would have returned it but I’m pretty sure the departing employee can use it shortly.
Instead I’ve decided on something else this year for Christmas… maybe not totally cheap but hopefully exactly what everyone on my list will like - CanadaHelps.org online charitable contributions I can give each person an amount that they can donate to the registered charity of their choice – sweet! Philanthropic and personalized… I love it entirely. Plus no more crap presents to find and ship!
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