The Second Thing I Did After Vacation
We returned last night from a week of vacation. The first thing I did would probably show up in the top 5 list on Family Feud, I unpacked my suitcase. The second thing I did would probably not show up on anyone’s list. I reorganized my kitchen.
Many, many lovely, idle hours on the beach can be blamed for this irresistible urge to tackle this big job IMMEDIATELY. It’s not that I had more energy last night after vacation, it’s that I needed to see if my beach inspiration for fixing a long-standing problem would work. You see, 6 years ago this month we completed a total kitchen renovation. I’ve been delighted with all of it, except for one feature. My spices were not happy after the renovation.
I have many spices and they take up a lot of real estate. When we redesigned the new kitchen, the the builder suggested a specially designed, pull-out spice drawer after he saw my collection. It sounded good at first, but the only place it would fit was in a corner, right next to the always warm Aga. Anyone familiar with spices knows that they should be stored in a cool place and, as anticipated, they lost their flavor too quickly. Unfortunately, I thought there was no other place to store them, until last week on the beach. It hit me that maybe, just maybe, I could put them in the deep drawer on the island where I store the cutting boards, knives, measuring cups, and other flotsam and jetsam. Of course, that stuff would need a new home, and would have to displace another drawer’s contents, etc. A big project that should have been put off for an idle day at home.
But I couldn’t wait to find out whether this plan would work. So after I unpacked the suitcase, I went right to work, pulling out all of my many spices from that specially designed spice rack. Next I pulled out the cutting boards, knives and other stuff from the island drawer and began to load it, taking the opportunity to toss any old spices in the process. As expected, I found a bunch of spices that were duplicated because the old spice rack was in a difficult location to see the overwhelming contents in the collection. But as I worked through this task, voila!, they fit. The displaced items were moved into a drawer that housed my collection of kitchen aprons, and old plastic place mats that haven’t seen the light of day since the girls were about 6 or so. The place mats are history and the aprons found a new home in the drawer where I kept the girls’ coloring books that haven’t seen the light of day since they were about 8 or 9, once I chucked them into the trash behind the place mats. Oh, and I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to that special spice drawer. Well, it now houses salts, peppercorns and the flotsam and jetsam.
My new spice drawer makes me so happy. Now I know what I have, and what I have will stay fresh much longer. Not a bad homecoming activity after a week away.
This Has Nothing to Do with Food
It’s my birthday so I’ve given myself the day off. I’m only going to eat food (looking forward to a good dinner tonight), but not write about it today.
But I didn’t want to leave my readers hungry for a post, so I’m sharing a picture of my favorite animal with you. Giraffes. Tall, graceful, quiet, fast, and the coolest natural design you could ever want.
What’s your favorite animal?
Photo of the Week – June 29, 2011 – Where’s the Fried Kool-Aid?
The latest craze in fried food was missing from last weekend’s blueberry festival – all we could find was boring old funnel cakes. Our local festivals really need to get with the times and start serving fried Kool-Aid.