Dinner and Planning Go Together...Really

No pictures of the taco feast or of the delicious salmon dinner we had last night. My family ate like the bunch of hogs they are. I did however manage to take one not-so-flattering shot of tonight's rice and sausage dinner.

This was cooked by my grandmother, not me, so she gets the credit. It was tasty.

I've had a bit of a lazy day today which has got to change tomorrow. My To-Do list keeps growing and doing one thing a day is not getting me anywhere. Still, mundane daily chores are hardly blog worthy so instead I'll blab about my backyard and my plans for it.

Actually, I have no plans. My backyard is a big sprawling doubleU-tee-eff. See for yourselves.

If you click on each picture you'll get a description and some planning ideas. Mostly I want to make it look clean, tidy, and making the grass green. Once that's achieved I'll worry about adding in new plants and a garden. I still want an orange tree.

I do not have a lot of experience with gardening so if anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or general comments, feel free to share.

Until next time,
<3 Jess

Herbs, Spices, and Condiments- Oh My!

I take great joy in my kitchen. It's not state of the art, it's not huge, and it's not fancy but it suits me just fine. With Thanksgiving just a week away I've been spending all my spare time in my favourite room of the house pouring over cookbooks, reorganizing shelves, and purging what I don't use anymore (C'mon, we all have that one kitchen gadget we bought and never used...).

Last night, on whim, I decided to organize my spice cabinet. Yes, that's right, my spices have their own cabinet. It wasn't working very well, however; in order to find one spice I had to go through countless bottles wasting time and energy. I couldn't find my spices and I ended up with duplicates. I have four bottles of white vinegar! Clearly something had to be done. After a day of planning (and failed attempts to sleep) I was up for the challenge.

First thing was to empty my spice cabinet. Um...yeah. That was a mess. Then I had to throw out the stale and/or unused ones. I took a picture of what was left.

I found plastic bins at the grocery store (3 for $0.94!) and got two sets. I split them by cuisine since that seems to be the easiest way for me to remember where something is. Also, I can now just grab a whole tray and pull it down without having to sort through countless bottles. My bigger items (like the vinegar and soy sauce) I've put in a drawer.

Now I have everything within reach while I am cooking. A happy cook makes for good meals, dontcha think?

Until next time,
<3

A Spongebob Sort Of Update.

So, as if I didn't have enough projects to do, I added one more. I'm going to spruce up the utility room. It's in my bedroom and, while it's a finished room, it's grey and just drab. So I bought Spongebob Wall Appliqués and a roll of Spongebob Wall Border. And no I didn't pay that much for that stuff.

The first thing to do is look for any holes or anything I need to sand down and repair on the walls. Then I'll add a nice ocean blue paint to the walls and make the inside of the shelves a nice yellow for accent. Then I'll put up the border and appliqués. I think it'll make the utility fun. I might even smile while doing laundry.

The items for SAL have been ordered and are taking forever to get here. *Taps fingers impatiently*

Yesterday was a very tiring day. I went food shopping...and it took six hours. $500 later I have enough food to feed a few armies. If I am careful this should last a month. I'll be making a menu so we stick to it and make the food last as long as possible. Now I need to go make a huge batch of sofrito to freeze.

<3