#5 Family Life

Hello Annie.

Hello.

Very nice of you to allow me to visit you in your kitchen.

Thank you for coming.

We will hear the voices of your children in the background from time to time. Now, some of our learners are curious to know what Canadian families do; how do they live at home? Now, one subject that`s come up is food. Do you like to cook at home?

I love to cook at home.

And what kind of food do you cook?

I like to cook many different things.

Would you cook dinner every night? So you start from original ingredients?

Most of the time, yes. Sometimes, because we`re a family of 5, maybe once or twice a week we`ll order pizza or something for delivery if we have a busy day with kids and school and work.

And that`s quite common?

Very common. I think the more people work and the busier their lives are, maybe they will order in food, you know maybe once a week.

What kinds of ingredients ; what kinds of meat, vegetables, spices do you like to work with?

Well, most nights we have some sort of meat. So we will eat maybe chicken or pork or beef. Sometimes we barbeque it outside or we put it in the oven. And then we usually have salad and in the salad which we put many types of things: different kinds of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes. What else?

Different kinds of lettuce? Like arugula?

Butter lettuce, mixes like mesclun, is a type you see in the grocery store.

Now I know a lot of people who aren`t familiar with salad dressing will buy the ready-mixed salad dressing. Do you use that or do you make your own ?

No, I like to make my own.

And normally what goes into your salad dressing?

Usually I put about - I think the rule of homemade salad dressing is one-part vinegar to three parts oil.

Olive oil or canola oil?

Either, it depends. Olive oil is a little bit heavier; sometimes it tastes a bit heavy . So vegetable oil sometimes I use, sometimes I use sunflower oil, and different kinds of vinegar, balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar. Then, for the rest of the dressing I usually put a little bit of mustard in, either dried mustard powder or Dijon mustard from the jar, and a pinch of sugar and salt, and pepper and maybe some garlic chopped very finely. That`s usually our salad.

Do you also sometimes have a cooked vegetable with your meal?

Very often we do. We will fry and steam some broccoli, asparagus, perhaps some cabbage.

And with salt and pepper or do you put other spices?

I usually keep the vegetables quite simple. Maybe just some salt and pepper. Maybe a squeeze of lemon. We try and keep things fairly healthy .

Now with your meats, sometimes you do fish as well?

Yes, fish as well.

What sorts of spices do you like to use with your meats and fish?

Meats, we usually - if we are barbequing we like to marinade the meat in perhaps some soya sauce, a little vinegar, some ginger chopped up fresh ginger.

When you say marinade do you do that the day before, or how many hours?

I would say the afternoon that we`re going to eat.

Marinade would mean that you let it sit in its juice ?

Yes, we put it in a dish, like a baking dish that will hold just a 1/4 of an inch on the bottom of some sort of marinade, it`s called, you`re making a sauce to let the meat soak in the good flavours . When it`s cooked it`s much tastier, especially barbequing.

Especially barbequing where sometimes meat can get dry. So it keeps it tender and moist and tasty. And how do you like to do fish?

Fish. I do it differently. I like fresh dill and lemon. Dill is really nice on fish.

Would this be steamed or in the oven?

I usually like to wrap it in tin or aluminium foil, it`s called, and I wrap it and bake it in the oven. Sometimes I use a black bean sauce from Chinese cooking with a little ginger in it and perhaps some honey to sweeten it up and cilantro. Usually we have a rice dish with it or steamed potatoes or maybe just some bread.

Do you sometimes make pasta dishes as well?

Yes, because my children really enjoy pasta. Probably 2 or 3 times a week we have some sort of spaghetti or macaroni with cheese or spaghetti and meat sauce.

What kinds of sauces do you make with your pasta? Do you have your special favourite sauces?

Well, the kids like meat sauce, which is ground beef. And you fry it up with some onion and some garlic and usually a can of tomatoes and a pinch of dried oregano or basil. If there is a bottle of wine in the house I will splash some wine in . And that`s meat sauce and put it on top of spaghetti.

Do you sometimes make a pesto sauce?

Yes, I do in the summer time. Basil is very abundant and quite cheap.

Do you grow your own ? Or do you buy it?

Sometimes basil is a little bit difficult to grow on your own because the bugs like to eat it. A lot of times it`s worth it to buy commercially in the shop. You can get a big bunch of basil in the summer for a dollar. I put it in a food processor with olive oil and Parmesan cheese and garlic again and pine nuts. You put it in a Cuisinart food processor and blend it until it`s very finely pureed and just toss it with hot noodles from the pot.

Now you do grow some vegetables here in your garden.

Yes, we do.

Which vegetables do you like to grow?

We mostly like to grow the things we really eat the most. So I usually put a row of green lettuces in. You can buy a package of mixed greens. So it would come back with some spinach, arugula, a little bit of radicchio, maybe, a few leaves and you get quite a nice row of lettuce throughout the summer, it keeps coming back as you pick it. And we also like to grow some carrots because the children like to pick their own carrots and munch them out of the garden. What else?

Sometimes some beans. Onions, green onions are very easy to grow. They grow quickly.

Right. And what`s the season - for how many months can you grow vegetables?

Well, usually we start planting in, probably, late April or May when the weather is comfortably warm enough that it`s not going to freeze and things are going to grow because you just can feel the warmth in the air. So, we grow from May until September usually. Some things finish earlier in August and some things grow right until the end of September .

Now, of course you have three children of your own. So in terms of lifestyle how often would other family members come and visit?

Well, we are very fortunate to have our families very close by. So we usually have babysitting help. One or two of the grandmothers come by once or twice a week maybe more, for an afternoon to baby-sit. We usually have a family dinner with each side of parents once a week or a brunch. And if any siblings are around we have a dinner or brunch with siblings. So family plays a big part for us.

Do you think that`s normal in Canada? In Vancouver most people would see members of their family once a week, once every couple of weeks? Would you think people spend a good portion of their social time with family members? I guess it varies a lot.

I wouldn`t say a lot of time. I think it varies. The busier people are the less time I think they have for families. And a lot of families in Vancouver I find, our friends, other young people, have come from Eastern Canada, or from Alberta or from somewhere and a lot of them their families are not here. So they don`t get to spend much time with their families.

So but what do people do here? Do they tend to get together amongst friends, more than going out?

Yes, mostly. For someone like myself who is at home with small children, we get together with other mothers and children in the morning for a couple of hours. The kids play and it`s a chance for mums to get together and talk to each other about what`s going on in their lives. Friendships are formed that way.

Do a lot of people make friends through their children`s activities?

I think so. Very much so. It`s an excellent way to meet people who you have something in common with. You meet at the school and pre-schools at different community activities. There are many activities that you can join when you have a family at the local community centres. There`s swimming lessons, skating lessons, different little art classes for the children. They`re usually age-specific so you would go and would meet kids the same age as your own.

Now what age does it start, there must be a minimum?

They start very early. There are baby programs for 3 and 4 month old babies. They sing little songs with them and exercise their legs.

And these are typically for people in the community? Or do people come from outside the community?

I would say that in each community, in a big city like Vancouver, every community has these programs that are readily available .

Now do you have other community activities that are more for adults that you participate in? Or at this point with 3 children I guess you have your hands full!

The kids are so young right now our lives revolve around the children for the most part.

Now how about special getaways? Do you and your family like to get away from Vancouver? Where would you normally try to get to?

We try. A weekend in the winter perhaps or in the early spring we could go to Whistler skiing for 2 or 3 days. That`s really a great holiday; it`s very close. Another holiday we do every summer for one week we go to the Okanagan and we rent a little cabin on the lake. Everybody goes swimming and water skiing and we cook our own food. There`s a big community barbeque where everybody cooks their food every night and plays on the air mattresses in the lake during the day. The weather is very hot and sunny there. It`s a great place to visit.

I gather that the facilities there are not so comfortable but maybe that`s part of the flavour .

That`s part of the charm . Even though you have a roof over your head you feel like you`re camping.

And the weather there is quite different from Vancouver, very hot and of course you can swim in the lake?

Exactly. Very hot and very dry.

And going to a lake like that is a very typical Canadian or Vancouver thing to do?

Yes, because again, it`s fairly close to Vancouver. It`s about a 4-hour drive. It`s just an easy holiday for families to do.

Well, I think that has given us an interesting overview of what at least one family does. So thank you very much for taking the time.

Well, thank you.