a peek inside the fishbowl

Back in March, I posted some handy info that was shared with me by the Ontario Ministry of Finance. In a nutshell, they’ve developed some handy resources to help us figure out whether we’re getting money back this year. (You can read that post right here.)

Did you know that last year almost 60 per cent of Ontarians who filed a tax return, put money back into their pockets by tapping into the available tax credits and benefits?

• Ontario Senior Homeowners’ Property Tax Grant helped nearly 500,000 seniors pay their property taxes. The Ontario Trillium Benefit provided about $2.4 billion to more than 4 million low- to moderate-income families and single people, including seniors.
• Ontario Child Benefit helps low-income families get up to $1,378 a year for a child under 18.
• Ontario Trillium Benefit combines the Ontario Sales Tax Credit, which provides sales tax relief of up to $296 per year; the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, which provides property tax relief of up to $1,165 per year; and the Northern Ontario Energy Credit, which provides relief for energy costs of up to $227 per year.

Even if you’re on social assistance or don’t have any income to report, filing a tax return could help you and your family get money back.

If you need help filing your return, do-it-yourself tax software programs are readily available and easy to follow, providing step-by-step instructions on completing your return. If you need further assistance, you can visit one of the many free tax preparation clinics across Ontario.

Sidebar: it is totally worth mentioning that Mark did my mom’s taxes on his iPhone this year. Isn’t that amazing? (Well, it wasn’t quite so exciting at the time because her laptop was doing something weird, but hey, it was very cool to be able to do it online and on a mobile device!)

The deadline to file your income tax return is April 30, however, because it falls on a Sunday this year, the deadline has been extended until Monday, May 1, 2017.

** This blog post is supported in part by the Ontario Ministry of Finance. We haven’t filed our taxes yet, but we’re totally on it and will be submitting by the end of this month. :)

So I’m not ENTIRELY done with the food photos. Today, for example, I wanted to talk about yogurt, which I started making myself because we eat it for breakfast almost every day:

I’ve been making homemade yogurt since February and I wanted to post an update in case anyone out there is inclined to try making their own yogurt.

Observation #1: It seems crazy to make your own yogurt. When I mention it to anyone I cringe a little bit, mostly on the inside. I can’t help myself. Making your own yogurt seems like such a hippy dippy thing to do, doesn’t it? But then I chastise myself for thinking that way. SO WHAT, I say. And who gets to decide what’s hippy and what’s dippy?

Observation #2: Making your own yogurt it is a lot easier than it sounds. You’re essentially warming milk, that’s it! The challenging part is keeping that mixture at the right temperature for 4-6 hours afterward. My oven has a convection heating setting and a digital display, which helps. So when I’m making yogurt I just let it sit in the closed oven with the light on. Every hour or so I turn the oven on until it reaches 110F and then turn it back off. This seems to work. Would my end results be different if I had a yogurt maker? It’s possible, but I am doing just fine without one for the time being.

Observation #3: Almost all commercial yogurts add other ingredients to give their brand a thicker consistency, including gelatin, corn starch, and milk solids. I don’t know about you, but I just want yogurt, plain old yogurt with some bacteria thrown in.

How do you like your yogurt? Yogurt can be as thin as milk and thicker than sour cream. Since I eat my yogurt almost as a milk substitute for breakfast (see photo above), I don’t actually want superthick yogurt. So what I’ve been making is fine by me. In the last few batches I have skimmed some of the liquid off the top. I could strain it too, but I don’t want to bother. Apparently, if I heat the milk for a bit longer it will result in a thicker yogurt. I might try this next time, just to see what happens.

Observation #4: It pays to experiment! I’ve made yogurt with a starter (bought at Rainbow Foods) and with actual yogurt. The stuff I made with the starter is tangier. The batch I made with yogurt tasted sweeter. Maybe it’s because I used Saugeen Country brand organic yogurt, which I bought at Farmboy. It is probably my favourite commercial brand at the moment. Funny thing, it’s a bit on the thinner side too, just like the stuff I make myself.

Observation #5: It’s very easy to turn plain yogurt into flavoured yogurt. Just add diced fruit, a spoonful of jam, or a bit of honey. It also makes a great base for a smoothie.

Observation #6: I have decided to embrace my inner hippie. ;)

I was at the office the other day when someone asked me about my Daily Lunches project. I found myself babbling, trying to explain its end and I realized I haven’t thought or written anything about it.

In June 2012 I started taking photos of my lunch every day, no matter what. I took photos at home, at work, at conferences, on holiday, in meetings, with friends and family, in restaurants, at hot dog stands, parking lots, you name it.

Some photos were pretty, and some were not. Some meals were yummy, and some were not. Some had recipes attached to them; many were just things I threw together. But they all meant something.

Although some people probably saw this project as proof of modern narcissism or a project that is too boring to contemplate, I saw it as an art project that I lived every day. I didn’t, however, pretend that this was some high-level, magazine-worthy food photography. It was what it was… just plain real. My goal was to show a tiny sliver of a person’s life, of my life, and I think I did that. I look at the collection of photos now and I wonder what they reveal about me.

What does people’s choice of food reveal about themselves?  This was something I touched upon in original post on the topic, but it touched a nerve for some. No one likes to be judged, that’s for sure, but honestly, I think if you ate ravioli out of a can for lunch every day there has to be a reason behind it. It may not be fair to guess what it is, but there has to be one. Right?

Related to this: I love to look at photo essays of what people eat around the world, don’t you? Here’s one from Time magazine. What do those photos say about the people who eat those meals? Is it fair to draw some conclusions?

I quit my Daily Lunches project on December 31, 2016. I was having a low moment – and it’s hard to be creative during times like those – and I just realized it’s done. I was done.

Strangely, I miss my daily lunches. I can’t pinpoint exactly why. I looked at the collection while I was writing this and realized I’d documented a lot of stuff there, beyond the bare bones of what I ate for lunch that day: what I was doing, where I went, who was with me, what I like to eat. Maybe it’s only relevant to me, though. I am ok with that.

I am feeling a bit down the end of this project at the moment. I suppose this up/down/done cycle is a lot like what I went through with Artist Trading Cards. I was crazy about making and trading them for years… until I wasn’t. I once tried forcing a return, but it felt wrong. I missed making those tiny little pieces of art, planning them, trading them, waiting for the mailman to come. That period was incredibly creative, satisfying, and fun. I felt RICH. My cup overfloweth. But, but, but, it couldn’t last. I have learned that it’s ok when creative projects come to their natural end. But it still makes me feel lonesome, even abandoned, in a way. You know what I mean? It’s as if someone closed a window in front of me and said: Sorry, you can’t look out that window anymore. Your time here, with this view, is over. There is a sense of sadness and yearning. I want to look out that window! I will miss the view! What I need to do, obviously, is find a new window. The question is, what will I see when I find it?