Who knew wanting to do a fondue for New Years would be so difficult? Or that I would be doing so much running around this year!

After searching online, I decided to go to the nearest Canadian Tire, as the website said they had the gel fuel I needed in stock.

Of course, I walked right past the display and missed it, until an employee told me exactly where it was.

I was confused by the website description saying the fuel I got was a liquid gel fuel suitable for the burners we have, so when I got home, I double checked.

*sigh*

Another reason I hate using my phone as a computer. I so look forward to having my desktop again!

It turned out the three images in the listing were not three different views of the same product, as is typical. It was three different versions of the same product. The liquid fuel I bought, the liquid gel fuel, and the gel fuel.

The photo on the website for the gel fuel did not have the big blue box on the label, like in the above photo.

So I was reading a different description for products with almost identical labels.

Apparently, the one I got is suitable for cheese or chocolate fondue.

The prices were all the same, though, so it was a straight exchange. That part went smoothly.

After that, I still needed the dry white wine, but the liquor store I knew about was next to a Safeway, so I went there to look at their cheese selection.

Yes, I did find Swiss cheese.

I also had a slight heart attack over the price! The smallest block was still over $17!

Then I noticed the display above.

There was ready-made cheese fondue sauce.

For only $12.

The ingredients differ from our recipe slightly. We don’t have potato starch, but the recipe calls for either flour or cornstarch as a thickener. I have never seen kirsch in my life, so that would have been skipped, but it is an optional ingredient in our recipe. “Spices” is vague, but we would use whatever we have in our cupboard. Sodium phosphate is not in the recipe, of course, but it’s just a salt compound used as an emulsifier.

I had actually been trying to find this in all my shopping, and never did until today. If I’d found it before, I would have bought three, and we would have saved quite a bit of money!

I just got the one, though, as a back up.

I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I also got a little thing of hot chicken strips with potato wedges, and a drink. Plus, I found some stir fry pork that I also got for the oil fondue.

My next stop was the liquor store. After going through the first set of doors, I was confused when the second set wouldn’t open. Then I realized there was a woman’s voice calling to me.

She was seated behind a plexiglass barrier. I had to slide my photo ID through a slot for her to scan before she let me in. I’ve never had to do this before, so I had to ask. Turns out, they had a major problem with theft, so now they don’t let anyone in without scanning ID first!

People really suck, sometimes.

But not here! She was really nice. Once inside, I started looking at the wine section for the Canadian wines. An employee saw me and offered to help. I told him I was looking for a dry white wine, and he asked if it was for drinking or for cooking. I told him it was for a fondue. He got quite happy and recommended a dry riesling, which is what he always uses for fondue. I was quite tickled to find someone that actually does fondue; not a lot of people do, anymore.

He then led me right to the Canadian wine section and to his preferred riesling.

The price was right, so I got two!

Of course, I looked around as I made my way to pay for it. There are so many interesting drinks I’d like to try. One display caught my attention, though. It was a beer display, and the cans had a bison on it. I half saw the name, which immediately made me think of a particular Polish vodka I haven’t seen in years, Zubrowka, that uses bison grass.

The beer turned out to be called Zubr, which means bison, and yes, it is from Poland. I just looked it up. Turns out it’s a lager that has been brewed, under a different name, since 1768!

As I waited in line, the guy who helped me earlier came over to open another till, so he rang me through. As we chatted, I told him I don’t care for beer, myself, but my daughters like beer, so I got it for them to try. He said it was quite good. I hope they do like it. I can’t remember if they like lagers. I do know they don’t care for IPAs, but that’s all I can remember.

So that went well enough.

I remembered that my husband needed distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. Since it was on the way, I decided to stop at the Walmart.

Out of curiosity, I also looked for the gel fuel, since I was pretty sure I saw it at this location before, but found nothing.

Nor did I find distilled water! All I could find was spring water, which can’t be used in the humidifier.

After a while, I snagged an employee with a pallet jack. I figured he might have at least seen the display, or even filled it.

He didn’t know, but after parking his pallet, he went looking for me. Then he found another employee with a phone and tried looking it up. They spoke for a while, though not in English, so I had no idea what they were saying. Their final conclusion, though, was to check the pharmacy section. I mentioned I did check there, but I may have missed it.

The guy then went with me to the pharmacy section and found another employee there to ask. This guy came over and explained why I wasn’t finding it.

The distilled water was under recall. !!! Something about the plastic. They had a whole pallet in the back they weren’t allowed to sell.

Well, now!

Of course, I’d found a couple of things we needed while looking for the water, so I paid for those. I decided to take a different route home, to hit the town near us, and try the grocery store there, which carries a different brand, then gas up and go home.

Once at the store, I went straight to where they have their distilled water and…

The shelves were empty, except for a couple jugs of spring water.

I snagged an employee. He went to check in the back and came out with a jug.

With all the trouble I’ve been having, I asked if there was more available. He asked how many I wanted, and I asked for 3 more. He went back, then returned with a case of four for me! The one he brought first went straight onto shelf. Lol

Finally! All done!

Of course, I got something extra, too. There were Christmas chocolates at half price, so I got three boxes. Most of the sales on Christmas stock has been things like only 50 cents off.

With all that driving around, I burned quite a bit of gas. I’d chosen where I went in the city so I could fill up at Costco. If I’d known then, how much trouble – and how expensive! – everything would be, I would have gone to the nearer city and found everything I needed, burned less gas, and saved money in the long run.

Ah, well.

At least we’ll know better, for the next time we do fondue!

The Re-Farmer

[Edited for autocorrect typos. I hate blogging on my phone!]