The spice drawer

The Obsession will now begin

Ok, I'll admit it....I might have an obsession with organizing like other people do with couponing, French cooking or computers. I can't help it. I have a quest, an internal drive to put things in order. I sat and daydreamed with a notepad about what would be the best place to put each item in my kitchen for optimal ease of use and storage. I made charts. I grouped like items together. I demoted less used items to remote storage. I spent a LOT of time arranging adjustable drawer dividers.

Why?

The gritty truth revealed:

I am a Messy.

I will never be one of those urban chefs with open shelves of ingredients and dishes. No Can Do. If there is too much stuff on the counter I get overwhelmed, demotivated, even...no, not ME...grumpy. I even feel that way after I've cooked dinner. I want to avoid the kitchen, hide from the piles of dishes and ingredients, secretly hoping that someone else will clean it up for me. They don't.

but I am a reformed Messy.

I know the tricks. Put ingredients away in stages (all the fridge stuff, all the pantry stuff) as I'm cooking. Just start the dishes and the peace will come as each dish is put away and order begins to return item by item. Don't fool yourself into thinking that washing them and leaving them in the drainer will work. Then the drainer becomes an area to avoid and the whole thing starts again.

So I make a choice.....be chronically messy or foster the obsession with organization. It's a little tiring because I can never let up without disaster lurking around the corner, but I lived for a long time as a Messy (just ask Nancy about my room on Woodcrest Ave.) and I don't like the feeling. Even now there's not much middle ground for me. Things look really good or really bad, and there's only a couple hours of middle ground for me to reign it back in or suffer the consequences.

Hmmm....I wanted this to be funny but it sounds like a confession!

Oh well! Now to start the fun :) Here's a pic of the spice drawer, located to the left of the cooktop (not yet installed). It took a lot of willpower to leave any of the spices in their original jars and not to run out and get stainless steel measuring spoons. I also have my tiny glass bowls and measuring spoons in this drawer so that Dave can measure spices for me - I am training him as my sous chef :)

Dang! The pic won't post. I'll add it as another post

a little

I hope this kitchen works out the way I envisioned. The 30 inch counter already has it feeling a little off, a little heavy on the left. I'm a little worried. Let's just keep that 6etween us.

interesting reading

My Kindle 6udget is providing some interesting results. I have always 6een a user of pu6lic li6raries, with a select few authors that I will purchase at retail price. I think working at a li6rary for several years engrained the 6orrowing ha6it in me.

So until Kindle ena6les a 6orrowing application, I will only purchase one new 6ook a month and the rest of the time rely on pu6lic domain to provide my free reading. This has led to my re-reading of some of my favorite classics: Jane Eyre, Little Men, etc. And exploration of some 6ooks that are very familiar to me 6ut not personally experienced: Thoreau's Walden is one I am working on, Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know with many more than the standard handful of tales, and currently, The Picture of Dorian Grey

A6out 5 yrs ago I decided to spend the summer reading classics that I had heard of most of my life 6ut never read: The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gats6y, etc. I expected life-altering revelations and found none. I guess the world has moved on.

And there are still novels I read as a child that I am trying to track down in digital format: Red Horse Hill and Speak to Me of Love are the first that come to mind. I can't even find them on Amazon, the titles exist 6ut not the right authors. I can't even find them in print, though 6oth might turn up in someone in the family's attic or 6asement. Here's hoping!

bizzaro world

reading a new _ook is like entering a different world. I guess the a_ility to totally get engrossed in a _ook is what makes me enjoy reading, _ut it's not something to enter into lightly. Until I am finished it almost seems as if the _ook world is my reality

best autumn soup ever!

This soup is so good! I used shallots instead of leeks since that's what I had. This is a pretty quick soup once everything is peeled and diced, 30-35 min. 5 min for onions to soften, 20 min for potatoes to cook, then puree time. After the onions were soft I put the potatoes in and let them saute while I cut up the ham. YUM!

Ham Yam Soup

1 onion, finely chopped
3 leeks (white part) chopped
1 T oil
1/2 pound diced ham
2 pounds peeled, diced sweet potatoes
4 C chicken stock
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
nutmeg (optional) sprinkle
1 C milk or cream

Cook onions and leeks in oil to soften. Add ham and potatoes, toss to coat. Add chicken stock, salt & pepper & nutmeg. Cook until potatoes are sofft. Remove 2 cups of potatoes and puree (add as much stock as necessary to puree). Return puree to soup with 1 cup milk. Heat through.

why why why

Why is it that when I am in the grocery store I think,

no, don't buy those high priced cookies and side dishes, they are so easy to make at home!

Then when you wake up early on Sunday morning and are laying in bed reviewing your Sunday School lesson in your head you realize "oh, these are little kids - they are going to expect a snack!"

So what do I have in my pantry to take the tiny tikes?

pretzels? sure, if they could eat the giant bavarian beer pretzels with their tiny little baby teeth

cookies? nope, none ready. I have some homemade dough frozen, but I think it is chocolate cookies with walnuts and I don't know these kids - what if one has a nut allergy? well, wait....I do think I have a hidden package of Pepperidge Farms brussels cookies with maybe 2 left in it. Can I divide 2 wafer thin cookies between a whole sunday school class?

chips? no, the only kind left in the variety pack are spicy chili doritos, probably not the best choice. Plus what kind of Sunday School teacher gives the kids CHIPS?

Graham crackers? that's a maybe....I don't THINK I have any, but I'll check before I do anything drastic like make cookies at 5:30 in the morning


I guess I'm stuck making cookies.

And now that I think about it, those 2 brussels cookies might just give me the energy boost I need to get the job done!


The moral of this story is.....buy the stupid premade snacks and stash them away somewhere...you WILL need them


EDIT:

HEADLINE ON MORNING PAPER:

MICROWAVE POPCORN SAVES THE DAY

While getting out the baking supplies from the pantry, I realized I have microwave popcorn! that will do for the SS kids, but since I have the mixer already set up I decided to make a chocolate cake to keep the natives at home from getting restless...they need homebaked goodies to be reassured of their manliness....ugh..woman bake..me eat...I good man...get treats,..me special