It’s summer time. Whether you are going to be at the cottage or on a getaway, we can make your vacation “greener”.  At GreenStop we can provide you with all your daily and necessary needs. Starting with your personal care (i.e. shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, etc…) to cleaning care (i.e. laundry soap, all purpose cleaners, etc…) to your cutlery needs (i.e. biodegradable spoons/knives/forks as well as cups, etc…). All you have to do is swing by our store and our staff will be happy to help you enjoy a safe and environmentally friendly trip.

Dave

Here are some easy tips that can help you live a longer life.  The tips are easy and you'll feel great making these small changes.

Avoid soft drinks and other acidic drinks, particularly colas, which are extremely acidic and full of sugar. Replace soft drinks with lemon or cucumber flavoured water.  It tastes great and is refreshing especially on hot summer days.

Replace coffee, which is also quite acidic and full of caffeine, with tea, particularly green tea. There are many flavours of tea available and they taste great on ice!

Drink one-half fluid ounce per pound of body weight of water each day. A 140-pound person should drink about nine 8-ounce cups per day.

By making these small changes in what you drink you'll be giving your body the hydration it needs to function at its peak.

Every time I go to my parents house in Merrickville I can't help but stop in at Mrs. McGarrigle's. They have delicious mustards, chutneys, sauces and so much more. If you have never been you must go.

This is one of my favorite recipes they have available online or on recipe cards at the store.

New Potato Salad

Ingredients:

These sensational potato salad recipes are the creation of Margot Silver-Dumas, a colleague and good friend of Janet Campbell, the owner of Mrs. McGarrigle’s Fine Mustard...Fine Food. “When I first met Janet we connected immediately as we are both extremely passionate about food, travel and our love of all things Italian. Italian cuisine is based on the premise of using simple but high quality ingredients. This New Potato Salad is delicious and extremely easy to prepare. Using a high quality olive oil and lots of fresh herbs along with Mrs. McGarrigle’s Mustard is the key to this tasty salad. Don’t forget to add the Fleur de sel! 

2 lbs. new potatoes
2 tbsp. Mrs. McGarrigle’s Lemon Dill or Honey Tarragon Mustard
2 tbsp. champagne or white wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

finely chopped red onion
freshly chopped fresh dill
1-2  tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, Italian parsley, fleur de sel & freshly ground pepper

Variations:  Add chopped chives or finely chopped green onion, smoked salmon, sour cream or crème fraiche

Try other mustard flavours in the vinaigrette:

Mrs. McGarrigle's Red Wine & Garlic Mustard, aged red wine vinegar, olive oil, finely chopped red onion, finely chopped Italian parsley, fleur de sel & freshly ground pepper.  Variation: Add diced sautéed pancetta.

Mrs. McGarrigle'sBalsamic & Cracked Pepper Mustard, balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, finely chopped red onion, Italian parsley, fleur de sel & freshly ground pepper.  Variation: Add diced sautéed pancetta.

Mrs. McGarrigle's Lemon Dill Mustard, lemon juice, , egg yolk, lemon zest, olive oil, chives, fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper.

Mrs. McGarrigle's Canadian Maple Mustard for Country Ham Potato Salad:  homemade mayonnaise, cider vinegar, minced chili

Mrs. McGarrigle's Creamy Champagne Mustard for a Traditional French-style:  vinaigrette, aged red wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper.

For more delicious recipes check out Mrs. McGarrigle's website.  http://www.mustard.ca/

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!!!!

Tilly

I love silver jewelery, especially when it is clean and shiny.  I usually clean my jewelery the night before I plan to wear it and have always used a chemical based cleaner.  The kind of cleaner that even smells toxic.  Once, I forgot a bracelet in the container and when I found it, the stone had partially dissolved.  Cant be good stuff to be in contact with. I decided to look for a greener way of cleaning my jewelery and found one that works fantastic. 

Take an aluminum pie plate and lay your jewelery in a single layer.  Sprinkle baking soda over the pieces, covering each one,  then pour boiling water over the jewelery.  There is some kind of reaction – a bit of a sulfur smell, so its probably best to not inhale the fumes.  Leave the jewelery in the solution for a couple of minutes, stirring with a wooden spin, if necessary. Remove from water with tongs,  rinse in a bowl of clear water and  lay on a clean tea towel to dry.  I have a large cuff bracelet that was too big to clean in the pie plate, so I lined a coffee cup with aluminum foil, and It worked really well. 

The jewelery will be shiny like its never been before.  I have mostly silver jewelery, but did clean my daughters gold ring that was tarnished from a hot tub.  I had to repeat the cleaning a few times, but eventually the gold was restored to its shiny best.  I have cleaned every piece of my jewelery this way, including the ones that have real  turquoise stones and it all cleaned fantastic. 

This was a great find for me and a small change that has made a big difference!

Catherine