Sunday, January 30, 2011

Weekly Winners

After 3 years of trying to take steady photos I finally bought a tripod

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And was at  long last able to take a photo of my nails without creating an elaborate book & pillow stack to hold my camera at just the right angle

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Note to self – no more home French manicures

I was able to get this shot of my afternoon snack

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And this of Asoka & the Red Queen squabbling over just who owns the throne.

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We had the Pinewood Derby this past weekend

Havoc’s car, a Clone luge

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And Mayhem’s Jones mobile

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For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, January 28, 2011

I now realize the problem

One of my New Year’s goals for about 4  years running, not including this year when I finally just gave up, was to cook and eat more veggies.

I’ve failed at it every time.

I’ve had excuses, mostly that I am just not a fan of veggies, especially cooked veggies, plus there are the texture issues – mine & the boys, but it’s been since I surrendered on the whole topic that I have finally seen the actual problem.

Despite being able to multitask in every other area of my life (I can crochet and read at the same time), I am a cooking unitasker.

So if my attention is focused on prepping, browning & stewing chicken in a skillet, it cannot be on the cauliflower gratin.

Which is why we either have raw veggies or slow roasted veggies or veggies in stir fry.

I made the Pioneer Woman’s chicken fried steak the other night.

OMG y’all! this is excellent!

(where has this southern accent suddenly come from anyway? I grew up outside of Pittsburgh. We say y’unz. Though OMG y’unz! just doesn’t sound the same.)

We had it with raw carrots.

Unpeeled.

Because chicken fried steak consumes my entire attention & the thought of making mashed potatoes or Brussel sprouts sautéed with bacon as well just about makes my mind explode.

I can’t deal with two things on the burners.

Even if one is just boiling potatoes.

I can put something in the oven or in the crock pot and then put something on the stove. But not two things on the stove.

And roasting & crock potting requires advance planning. I can manage that on weekends but not so much during the week.

I discovered this while trying various recipes from Rachel Ray’s “365 No Repeats” book. She almost always has several burners going at once, plus endless bowls and dishes with prep stuff on them & lacking a staff of prep minions and dishwashers I just can’t cope with that. 30 minute meals are great in theory but I’d rather have 60 minute meals with one pot & one prep bowl.

But, now that I know this I can plan ahead. I can make pot roast (our favorite recipe for it has no veggies, adding some changes the taste in a negative way) and plan for the brussel sprouts with bacon since I don’t have to think about the pot roast.

I foresee more braised and crock pot dishes in the future.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The voices in my head made me do it.

Well Mister Scissors, we meet again!

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I decided, for reasons best known to the voices in my head, to sew an apron this past weekend.

Why?

I have no idea why.

I saw a picture of one on the internet and then another (pinterest.com, it’s of the devil y’all) and that voice in my head that thinks I am Martha Stewart suddenly woke up. (you know, the one that convinced me to buy table clothes of actual cloth & matching napkins, the one that forgets just whose life I am actually living) The voice was fascinated by the aprons, especially the retro ones and had visions of me (taller, thinner) wearing an apron over my (adorable designer) clothing while cooking in my (much larger with nicer appliances) kitchen or standing out near the (in ground) pool serving drinks to friends on our (landscaped) lawn.

Yeah.

This voice has such a nice fantasy life going and I really hate having to bring it down to earth by pointing out the obvious flaws.

Not the least of which is – I have two aprons & never wear either of them.

But they aren’t cute retro smock aprons! There are no adorable ruffles, no fun patterns, no sweet little pockets!

Sweet  little pockets??? Who let this voice in anyway?

Then the cheapskate voice saw that these cute aprons cost anywhere from $25-40 and weighed in heavily against the whole idea and the crafty voice & the practical voice suggested I make one from fabric I already own, just find a pattern.

Except I am not sewing ruffles on anything. Ruffles are outside my comfort zone.

Sweet little pockets too.

The Martha voice was content I was making an apron so off I went to find a simple smock apron pattern. Something with the fewest fabric cuts possible.

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Check out the lighting.

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One 60 watt bulb in the middle of the ceiling.

Casting a shadow over the sewing machine, which still has not had it’s bulb replaced.

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Step one, measure myself & compare their measurements. Upsize where needed.

Step two, find fabric. I have plenty from back in my pre child quilting days.

Then Martha thought the fabric was kind of thin & had the bright idea to make it reversible. (really Martha?)

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Martha lives to make my life difficult.

Step three, barricade the office door. As much to keep myself in as the boys out.

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Step four, trace pattern onto fabric

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Yeah, I could barely see it either. Especially since the light was overhead and therefore I cast a shadow over everything I was trying to see unless I hunched at an awkward angle.

Step five, cut out pattern on both fabrics

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Step six, pin them together, right sides facing

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Hellz.  You see that darker purple fabric against the lighter?

You aren’t supposed to. If you flip it over there are spots where you can see the lighter fabric against the darker.

But I’m not letting you win that easy Mister Scissors!

I will TRIM the fabric where it doesn’t match! HA!

Then, after repinning the bejeezus out of the thing, sew it all together except for one skinny strap area.smock-11

Step,um, seven? Nine? thirteen B? – spend much time trying to pull the huge amount fabric inside out through the tiny opening you left unstitched. Remember you made the opening small because you will have to whip stitch it together with tiny invisible stitches which you can do well when you have lots of time & plenty of reserve patience, but you know full well most of that patience went out the window during the pinning, unpinning, repositioning, trimming and repinning that went on in the previous step.

Swear a bit until at last:

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Iron hems flat, sew shoulder straps together, fit in back strap.

These all run together because they are hand stitching & I didn’t want to stop to take photos.

And tada!
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A smock apron, or a sack with arm holes as the case may be.

From the back

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And the reverse color

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If I had a long skirt on I would look like a Victorian scullery maid.

A rather old & obviously very bad at her job scullery maid since any decent scullery maid would have been promoted to at least kitchen maid, if not cook, long ago by the time she was my age.

The apron is actually 8 inches longer than the pattern specifies because that was how long the fabric I had already was & I was unwilling to risk another tangle with Mister Scissors to trim it down.

Plus I have been known to burn my bare thighs on the open oven door in the summer.

Somehow I cannot see myself in this apron over my (adorable designer) clothing while cooking in my (much larger with nicer appliances) kitchen or standing out near the (in ground) pool serving drinks to friends on our (landscaped) lawn.

But I can see myself mopping the floor and making bread in it.

The Martha voice has a great idea for altering the pattern just a bit, to give it a little more shape, take out some of the extra material in the lower half of the back & maybe use the yellow & green fabric that were both too short for the original pattern, with the yellow on the bottom and the green for the bodice & shoulders & do the other side in a solid white & use this green/yellow batik fabric to make a faux belt on each side with ties in the back.

Bodice? Faux belt?

And she has it all worked out how to do it in my mind too. Though I am dubious because her reach always exceeds my grasp. That’s what makes her so dangerous and convincing. I did buy the table cloths after all. I actually went to 4 stores looking for the ‘right’ ones under her influence.

I’m thinking I need to have DH hide my cutting mat before I try & sew again.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

And now he is 7

My baby boy.

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The sleeping baby, the VBAC, the one who nursed for a year. The 9lb 2oz surprise that made my OB wonder how I had hid such a big baby from him those last few weeks, when he was expected to be similar to his brother’s 7lbs 7oz at birth.

The one who’s infancy I remember only in disjointed moments due to rampant insomnia and 10 months of battling chronic bronchitis.  I was so very tired when he was a baby. So very glad this one slept more & cried less than the other, making it easier to care for both of them & not feel I was neglecting anyone.

The one who has more than made up for those easy months by developing a stubbornness that is astounding in one so young and a tendency to solve problems with violence that we are still struggling with almost daily.

The one who shrieks and wails and sobs when things don’t go the way he wants in a game, but who absolutely refuses to give up until he succeeds. Even if he cries the whole way through.

The one who’s learning comes in sharp, often harsh, spikes rather than his brother’s gentler curves. And who is less likely than his brother to insist that things be ‘equal’.

The one who so far, is still not embarrassed to be seen hugging & kissing his mom in public. Who still likes to sneak up on people and then suddenly announce “There is a hug coming up behind you”

The one who has insisted on pizza for his birthday every year since he turned 2.

And cupcakes. “With lots and lots of sprinkles”

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Happy Birthday Mayhem!

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Monday Rambles

Today I haven’t even got it together enough to ramble.

So I am treating you all to thoughts from my notepad, where I jot down stuff as it occurs to me during the day. Sometimes those thoughts become blog posts. These didn’t quite make the cut.

~ Maybe cats stare because we change colors. Think about it. Your grey striped cat does not wake up one morning & decide to be an orange spotted cat. Yet you put on a green shirt one day and a red shirt the next. That has to be confusing to them.

~ McD’s stops serving breakfast at 10:30. On the dot. (here anyway) Have you ever wanted a Big Mac at 10:35 am? My mind is still on Egg McMuffins & those pancake sandwiches until well after 11am. But they only serve breakfast until 11am on weekends, when I am never in town. I need to find out when Burger King stops serving breakfast since apparently they are now serving the exact same food.

~ My car battery doesn’t like the cold & refuses to start the car, randomly, when it gets below 32F. This is mildly annoying in my driveway, where I have a car starter machine that will jump the battery. It’s rather embarrassing in grocery store parking lots, where I stand around in the cold, holding a set of jumper cables and asking strange men if they want to jump me. Like I am a  streetwalker with REALLY kinky services.

~ Everywhere I go to eat lately offers a burger with an egg on it. Usually on the bacon & cheese burger. Which is pretty much putting a sandwich on a sandwich to my mind (I like a bacon & egg sandwich and I like cheese burgers). But then there is one that also put fries on the burger, as well as the bacon, egg and cheese. That’s obscene, fattening, decadent & strangely compelling. I keep trying to get whoever I am with to order it so I can have a bite. But so far no takers.

~ I sewed an apron yesterday. A full smock style apron, not one of those little half aprons. And there was hardly any swearing involved. Hardly any lighting either. It will be featured in it’s own post at some point this week.

What’s random in your life today?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Weekly Winners

Some random photos this week

Potential in a basket

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Homemade deep dish pizza

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The Legos have a secret fort

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For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Downgraded

*sigh*

My ISP called me yesterday and said they would be downgrading my blight on the landscape.

You remember the blight that brings me my internet signal, right?

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A 75ft mini tower that, in Sept 2009, replaced this 50ft mono pole eyesore.

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because the mono pole had a tendency to do this

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and this

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in high winds or after heavy rains,

before it finally did this and resulted in the mini tower

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It was  a regular feature throughout 2009.

The ISP says the mini tower ‘can be better utilized elsewhere’

Nice.

So obviously someone else is now more important to them than I am.

Apparently enough time has passed they have forgotten just how annoying I can make myself when my internet signal has problems. I’m like a crack addict desperate for a fix.

I will CUT YOU if you don’t fix my signal! I know where you are! I have nothing better to do than call you eleventy billion times a day. Of course if my signal was working I’d have LOADS of other things to do. But since it isn’t – well here we are. Only you can change the situation. I’m going to park myself in your office and use your wireless signal until you fix mine. What’s that? The bucket truck will be right out? Great!

Naturally the first thing I said was “Will this negatively impact my signal strength?”

Keeping it professional, not screaming “YOU’LL HAVE TO PRY THAT TOWER FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS” like I wanted.

They said they didn’t think it would reduce my signal any. I said if they were certain enough of that they were willing to risk their tech support’s future productivity level, then fine, I agree. I asked how they intended to combat the pole’s habit of falling over due to weather & they have some new guide wire arrangement plan they feel confident will work. I said the bucket truck driver certainly knows how to find the place if it doesn’t, and when I could I expect this downgrade from blight to mere eyesore to occur.

The next few weeks.

So anytime between later today and 2012 basically. I have a worry it will be late April and I’ll be wondering if they changed their minds, or simply forgot. But I can’t call and ask them because if they forgot, then I just reminded them. Or I’ll come home from the gym next week & discover they snuck in while I was at Body Pump & swapped out the tower when I wasn’t around to question everything they did.

So if I sort of vanish for a week at some point, you know why.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

What is that noise?

Yesterday I was in the bedroom getting dressed after a shower. It was close on noon & I’d just come back from the gym & running errands. (paying the electric bill in person while reeking of Body Pump sweat is my passive aggressive way of protesting the high cost of electricity).

The bedroom is right off the kitchen. The kitchen has slate tiles. I have 4 cats who have claws. They can make a racket on a slate floor when they get chasing each other.

The bedroom door was shut. I get self conscious when the cats see me naked.

They stare. Fascinated. Unblinking.

It’s very disconcerting when you are naked.

What ARE they thinking? Are they amused? Horrified? Worried I might be cold with so little fur?

Anyway, while getting dressed I heard this rattling in the kitchen & because my mind was fully taken up with which one of the various shades of purple shirts I own I was going to wear, I vaguely though ‘oh cats’ and then went back to contemplating the purples. Eggplant? Lilac? Grape? Maybe today was a deep burgundy sort of day?

Then while I did my hair there was some more rattling. This time, because my mind was only occupied with wondering if my hair was going to curl today or if I had to break out the flat iron, it occurred to me that I’d seen at least 3 of the cats outside when I came in. And that was a lot of rattling for one old lady cat.

This gave me pause.

The house had been empty for a few hours. I had not made a search of it when I came home as I sometimes do. You know, just to make sure no homicidal maniac is hiding in the spare room closet with an axe, prepared to wait patiently for 14 hours until we are all asleep, before finally striking.

It could too happen!

They are called maniacs for a reason you know.

I began to wonder what he could be doing to cause the rattling. Obviously he is giving himself away, ruining his plan, so if I shout “GOSH WHAT IS THAT RATTLING SOUND? PITY I CAN’T INVESTIGATE IT RIGHT NOW” really loudly and then just stay in the bedroom with the door shut maybe he’ll realize the jig is up and sneak away while the coast is clear.

I even turned the blow dryer on again to give him cover, just to be on the safe side.

No really, this is how my mind works.

After a few minutes I judged it safe to peer out the bedroom door. There, sitting right in front of me was the old lady cat. Staring unblinkingly at me. It was as if she was trying to communicate telepathically. What was she trying to tell me?

The maniac has fled the house, you are safe?

The maniac is in the hallway, go grab your gun?

You should have gone with the lilac shirt?

What, cat?!?! What?!?!?

While I was considering this the rattle came AGAIN!

This time I could tell it was clearly coming from the pantry. There is barely room for a broom to stand in the pantry so no way a maniac could be in there. Or if there was he‘d have to be really skinny & probably I could take him.

See, I can be logical sometimes.

But then I thought, maybe I accidentally shut another cat in there & it’s been trying to scrabble it’s way out all this time?

I opened the pantry door and was suddenly rained down on by small hard objects and was so startled I slammed the door shut and jumped back halfway across the kitchen.

SOMETHING IS FALLING OUT OF THE CEILING IN THE CLOSET!!!

This is worse than a really patient homicidal maniac with an axe!

This shit is for REALZ!

There is something in the ceiling & it’s created a hole & is falling in the closet. Or worse, it’s dried out feces is falling in the closet.

And I just know some is in my freshly washed hair but am afraid to touch it and confirm this.

I looked up at the drop ceiling tiles with trepidation. Drop ceiling tiles are a worthless barrier between you and whatever is in your ceiling. They are flimsy, they never sit completely down in their tracks, leaving gaps for all sorts of stuff to get in.

But wait!

The closet ceiling is solid. It’s drywall over wood for reasons that made perfect sense to the stoners who built the house but continue to elude me.

And believe me, I can think of some damn peculiar reasons for things happening if I put my mind to it. I have 9 years of insomnia on top of a lifelong overactive imagination. My mind is an exhausted, strange, yet wondrous place these days.

Not that any of this is news to anyone.

So whatever made that hole must have some hella sharp claws.

And really hard poop.

Then the rattling came again.

Okay I need to open the door and look so I know what to tell my pest control guy when I call him. “It’s not a guy with an axe” is insufficient information in this situation.

When I was 14 we had hornets build a huge nest in our attic over the bathroom & they dug or wore down a hole in the bathroom ceiling & one morning I opened the door to discover a swarm of angry hornets in the bathroom.

So this part isn’t some random, over tired, imagination induced thought process. It’s based on ACTUAL EXPERIENCE.

I cautiously cracked the door open & the rattling shower came again. I glanced at the floor of the closet.

What IS that? Strange looking poop for sure. Maybe pebbles? Stored seeds?

Then I looked up.

You know what they were?

LENTILS!

One of the bags’ twists was insufficiently closed & they are on the top door shelf so they were being bumped by the door frame every time the door moved. The door never shuts completely & tends to inch open & closed at random due to wind currents or the moon phase or something.

It was making the lentils randomly fall out of the bag onto the slate floor.

Damn homicidal maniac lentils.

I knew I didn’t like them for a reason.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Words for Wednesday

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This is one of the 6 photos I have so far managed to take for my project. But I have a system in place now & a spreadsheet. I feel much better now that I have a spreadsheet.

This is Thor, who is HUGE in real life. Seriously huge. He fully takes up and actually overhangs the seat of a kitchen chair when he lays on it. Here, he is on my bed, reading my Kindle. I had set it aside to listen to Mayhem reading “The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog” in various funny voices and the screen saver kicked in after a couple minutes. It a random screen saver. This time it happened to be birds. Thor, who had been laying next to me, shifted his bulk so he could look at the birds.

If you have cats you have probably seen them watching birds through a window. If so you have probably heard that strange semi-chirping noise cats sometimes make while watching birds through a window. I’ve always assumed it was a “Wish I could chase & eat those birds” sort of running commentary.

Thor started making those noises while watching the screen saver. He stared at it. He touched it lightly with a paw. He sniffed at it. And he chirped at it the whole time.

The screen saver does not move. It’s just a static picture of birds. I think after awhile it changes to another picture but that didn’t happen while Thor was watching.

Of course when I reached for my camera to take his photo he turned to look at me & that broke his concentration. After that he sort of watched the Kindle out of one eye & just chirped occasionally until I picked it up.

Still, days later, he will come over to the Kindle when I leave it on the bed, check it out and turn around in disgust when it isn’t showing birds.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Rethinking

I decided against P365 2011 because I don’t want the pressure.

Just do something easy I said.

Just make a list of things you enjoyed taking photos of last year I said.

Just take photos when you feel like it I said.

It’ll be relaxing and fun I said.

Here is the problem.

I forgot who I was talking about.

I sort of need structure to function. Free form, do it as you go, let the spirit move you is all very well & good in theory but in  practice it ends with me sitting around doing nothing. It always has.

As many of my former professors & employers can tell you.

The flesh is unwilling and the spirit is hopeless. The spirit thinks it should maybe surf a few more web pages & then go find a snack & think about the project later.

I don’t even have a spreadsheet set up yet to track what photos I have & haven’t taken.

And if you know me, you know that means I’ve pretty much forgotten I was supposed to take photos in the first place.

We’re halfway into the month & I’ve taken maybe 5 topic photos & if you don’t count the panty cleaning photos, only about 20 photos overall.

I need to rethink this project, set some hard goals, maybe assign specific topics to specific weeks or something or I’m going to look up from my coffee in mid April and be all “oh yeah…I was going to take photos of…things…”

To get in the mood I downloaded a trial of Lightroom 3.  I have Lightroom 2. I figure having to spend some time editing photos to see the difference means taking photos to edit which means getting back in the swing.

At least I hope so.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Weekly Winners

I am a digital scrap booker. My digital ‘home’ is www.sweetshoppedesigns.com. They run a series of challenges every month. A new one this year is 12 on the 12th, where you take 12 photos on the 12th of the month & then scrap them. This works well with my own 12x12 2011 Project. These are some of the photos I took on the 12th.

I have coffee & Cheerios for breakfast 98% of the time. I prefer to think of it as regularity of breakfast instead of monotony of breakfast

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My cross stitch project is finally nearing completion

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There was laundry

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Havoc & I played mancala

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And Mayhem helped the Lego battle fleet invade my desk

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For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Cleaning the Pantry

Stunning, descriptive, emotive post title isn’t it?

Well, if you were here a year ago you know it actually is indicative of a thrilling post, chock full of suspense, mystery & really outdated food products. An example of bad housekeeping so shocking you can only shake your head in disbelief and revel in your own smug cleaning superiority.

Plus you can use me as a comparison when your own cleaning shortcomings are revealed to neighbors or parents.

You can thank me later.

First, for my mom, a disclaimer:

I *was* raised better than this. These sorts of goings on would never have been tolerated in my mother’s house, where food, lined up neatly by category, in rows, in cabinets in the basement, was rotated religiously with each & every trip to the grocery store. In the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate, I make the case for ‘nature’.

This is the pantry is question:

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“pantry” sounds better than ‘glorified closet’.

That broom handle is there because, while the door never stays completely shut, it also does not stay completely open either.

Also, to suggest kitchen size, let me say that the pantry is in one corner of one kitchen wall and in order to get the whole thing in the frame I had to kneel down in the door of my bedroom in the opposite corner of the opposite kitchen wall, while leaning at a slight angle to keep the kitchen island out of the frame.

The things I do for blog fodder….

And with the pantry door open like that it cuts off half the natural light coming into the kitchen so the photos to come will have odd lighting.

Lets cut to the chase shall we?

Good God there is a lot of crap in there! How do you find anything?

Mostly I don’t. That’s the problem.

The bottom of the pantry, the first shelf & the top shelf are dedicated mostly to random ‘stuff’ I have no place else to keep.  Mixing bowls, plates for cookouts, cookie cutters, liquor we only drink on special occasions like Kahlua (liquor we drink regularly like whiskey is kept out on the counter for all to see) and various kitchen gadgets like my Pampered Chef food chopper & my immersion blender & it’s accessories.

Plus more plastic grocery bags than anyone would ever need in their lifetime, which is odd given that I use reusable fabric bags for my groceries.

Actual food is kept on the other two shelves and in those bins on the door.

First order of business – empty the shelves!

This proved to be a bit of problem due to the size of my kitchen.

First I covered the kitchen table with all the baking supplies, bottles of juice and pasta products

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Then I covered the island with what I like to call “Things I can buy with coupons”

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Bowls,gadgets & paper products went on the counter & overflowed onto the stove

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Leaving me with this still to empty and no place to put anything.

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Cleaning the fridge means using the bathtub to wash the shelves, cleaning the pantry means using the coffee table in the living room for storage space. I prefer to think of it as ‘adding to my daily workout’.

Among the interesting things I found were a box of not spoons at all, not even one.

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and 3 things of coffee filters that don’t fit any coffee maker I have owned in the 21st century.

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Then there were the lentils. 4 bags of them

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The thing is…we don’t like lentils much. I can probably account for the two smaller bags. I wanted to try this recipe for lentil salad this summer & can easily see myself buying one bag for it, failing to make it & then a month later thinking ‘oh yeah, I need lentils to try that salad”. But I have no idea where the two bigger bags came from.

DH says “Oh, I see you have peanut buttered the lentils”.

“Peanut buttering” means to accidentally buy the item multiple times because you know you need it & forgot you bought it already. (it’s different from ‘stocking up’ on an item, which is done deliberately)

It comes from a time before we had kids when I foolishly bought 3 jars of peanut butter in 2 months.

hahaha, silly me…3 jars of peanut butter…can you imagine?

Oh wait

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Apparently I have peanut buttered the peanut butter as well. And in a BIG way. This is probably a years worth of peanut butter unless I get all crazy making peanut butter muffins by the bushel.

So I sorted through the stuff, found some new storage space for the electric griddle & the plastic serving plates we use twice a year, combined the 3 boxes of lasagna with 2 noodles each in them and the 4 bags of chocolate chips each a quarter full of chips, reorganized the cookout supplies and restocked the pantry.

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What?

It looks the same?

Ok, I’ll give you that, seen alone, but check out this side by side comparison

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Still not seeing it?

How about this?

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1. There is more liquor visible

2. The chips have moved

3. There is juice on the floor

Ok, maybe the pantry doesn’t display the stunning change in organization & neatness the fridge & the freezer did, but that isn’t what you are here for anyway is it?

You want to see the expired food, don’t you?

Here is what was expired

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Surprising little actually. Broth that failed to get rotated, stuffing mix & hamburger helper, which I never use but DH does when he cooks for the kids, a couple bags of pasta & a jar of salsa.

An example of why food remains in my house long after it expires is this salsa

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Obviously purchased a couple summers or so ago. But! I can clearly remember buying the salsa this summer before our 4th of July party. I *know* I bought this salsa right before our 4th of July party because it’s the WRONG salsa & I remember dithering about it in the aisle when our regular salsa was unavailable.

But apparently I had the exact same experience in 2008 with this jar & failed to serve it, while I did manage to serve the 2010 salsa.

The salsa is not the oldest item in the pantry.

This is:

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Vegetable pasta noodles – organic, wheat free, made with vegetables & rice into clever shapes- aka EXPENSIVE pasta noodles.

Doesn’t pasta keep forever?

I know when I bought these. (‘know’ being subject to my memory, which as I prove time & again is faulty so take it for what it worth). I bought them in 2003 (though possibly this bag is 2004) for Havoc’s baby food when it was time to add more texture to the purees I was making & then for a bit when he was a year or so old he ate them whole with butter and um…powdered mustard & garlic salt (don’t judge me!). Mayhem didn’t like them so this bag just sat on the shelf, getting pushed back behind the elbow noodles, the many boxes of lasagna noodles, the whole wheat penne noodles nobody liked and the thin spaghetti noodles we eat most often.

So, a nearly 3 year old bag of pasta. It ties the nearly 3 year old bag of tater tots in the freezer, to the month, for oldest food EVER in my house.

I also ran across this

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It says Jan 2011 & don’t you love the layer of dust I had to wipe away to see it?

Obviously I need to make something with mini pasta wheels ASAP.

Any suggestions?

Oh by the way, by a stunning coincidence, today is Delurker Day! Today is the day to come out of the lurking closet and post a comment on the blogs you read but for one reason or another don’t comment on. I do it too so don’t feel bad if this is you. It’s ok to comment today. There are no expectations, no one will bite you, I don’t demand your first born (got one of those already & he’s plenty). Just leave me a quick note with a pasta suggestion, or the date of the oldest food you ever found in your house, or just post “BOO!” and run away quickly.

Why is it a coincidence? Because last year’s delurking day was the same day I posted about cleaning out the fridge.

DLD