Mistakes and triumphs with Rachael

A few weeks ago, I was so proud that I made this recipe from Rachael Ray. It was her show 30 Minute Meals that got me interested in cooking--there was none of that "magic" like on other shows where they throw some veggies in a pot and open up a different pot and there's a meal. I even got a subscription to her magazine for Christmas last year. This recipe has polenta, which is Italian so it's fancy. It has kale, so it's healthy. And it has cheese, so it must be tasty, right? Unfortunately, I was not so impressed with the recipe. First, I oversalted the polenta. Second, I used white hominy grits (grits are the same things as polenta, just with a less fancy culture attached--it must be true because AB told me) instead of yellow, which made it kind of look like spinach on grey barf. I also couldn't taste the "white sauce" that made up the layer between the kale and the cheese. I dreaded eating the leftover so much that I left it in the fridge until Thursday night. It looked like this:

I made the picture small so it's less gross.

I don't want to give RR a bad rap though. So, here's a link to her garlicky bean enchilada recipe that I love and use a lot. I modify it, not because it's bad otherwise, but because the first several times I made it I didn't read it closely and I'm used to making it my way now.

We also made this delicious dinner a while ago after I learned about jicama during a "Pick a Better Snack" presentation at a school where I subbed. The carrot-jicama salad and burrito filling are inspired by this RR recipe. The couscous and black bean salad is from allrecipes.com. I love to make it with quinoa as well. Dexter wouldn't eat the jicama salad because he was freaked out by the existance of this apple-potato-food, but the black bean salad is his favorite.

Home Ec Sparknotes: Edition #1

I have a little addiction to "self-help" books. Whether it's getting organized, becoming more productive, or eating healthier, I just have to know what this "expert" thinks I should know about becoming a better me. Thankfully, I'm not at all driven to read every word of each book or to implement all the ideas. I skim and then usually put the information I find into one of two categories.

Category #1: I already knew that. Doesn't everybody?
Category #2: That's a stupid idea. Why would I do that?

If you are a self-help writer, I'm sorry to make light of your work, but usually, these are the categories that most of the information in these books fall under. However, once in a while, I do file information under Category #3.

Category #3: That's a really good idea. I wish I would have realized that earlier!

I don't know if it's pride or good judgement that keeps Category #3 sparse, but that's the way it goes. I tend to do a lot of this skimming at a table in the library and leave books there that seem, upon further inspection, to have no hope of containing #3 information. The stack of books pictured above did not go through this pre-inspection before leaving the library. I thought I'd share my findings with you in case one of these books pops up in your catalog search at the ICPL.

Organizing Idea Book by John Loecke

This book contains some #2 with photos of "organized" spaces that still look cluttered to me. Or, more often, the organizational ideas were pricey and would work much better in a beautiful, well-designed mansion. I live in a duplex with shallow pantry shelves, so I did not find many of these ideas applicable. The pictures are fabulous and could probably get your imagination going on variations that would work for your home and budget.

Get Crafty by Jean Railla

I appreciated the "quiz" at the front of this book that helps you decide what kind of crafting to get into. Because I said I like to read books in a sitting, it recommended I do short-term projects like cooking. Lots of the questions pointed to cooking, which might suggest that the quiz paints a precise picture and gives good suggestions. However, because I like math and being dirty, it suggested gardening. If you saw my garden last summer, you would know that this is not an area in which I will likely experience success. This had a few cute ideas, but more commentary than I appreciate.

Organizing for the Creative Person by Lehmkuhl and Lamping

I checked out this book for Dexter, who resists all organization projects relating to his desk. I hesitate to call it a work area, because the other day I couldn't find his keyboard under all the crap (his and mine) on the desk. I was disappointed with the content. The key message was, "You're creative! That's great! Maybe you're disorganized. That's just part of your right-brainedness and it's okay. But if it's screwing you up, here's stuff that organized left-brained people do to keep it together." So, I didn't find any great creative-person-specific tips within.

Don't Throw It Out: Recycle, Renew, Reuse to Make Things Last by

If I owned my own home, this would be a great reference book. It includes information on how to clean things or fix things that you might think were broken or inefficient. I didn't find anything that pertained to me currently, but I kept running across things where I thought, "I'm never going to remember this, but I bet I'll want to know that someday." This might be a good reference book to check out when something goes wrong with an appliance or you're doing spring cleaning. Or, maybe it would be good to buy to have around for reference.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

The table of contents was not very conducive to skimming. I think this book is geared toward "reading" and possibly even tries to make skimming impossible. There are subject headings and chapter titles, but all I could read was "positivity, goals, blah, blah, stuff, blah." Maybe I need to try again when I grow up a little?

Totally Organized by Bonnie McCullough

Skim-friendly! It only took me about half an hour to get through this one, and although she didn't give any specific advice that I applied, I did think of a new way to organize my files while I was reading it. It's also more family-oriented than it is poor-recent-graduates-with-no-kids-oriented, so you might find more things applicable. It was also written in the 80s, so it could use a revision. Maybe replace phone-time-management with inbox-clutter-control?

Feed Your Family for $12.00 a Day by Rhonda Barfield

Barfield offers meals that seem fairly balanced and buys plenty of fresh fruit and veggies. She also makes deals with local produce salesman to buy boxes full of slighly damaged produce for $2. Some of the things she does just aren't practical unless you are willing to be a little obnoxious about finding a good deal, but she does have a big recipe section where I've marked several pages. I would have liked it even better if I still ate meat.

The Starving Artist's Way by Nava Lubelski

I had a bad attitude about this book before I opened it up. If you're truly living like a "starving artist," sacrificing your self for your art in a desperate yet arrogant way, isn't it selling out to write a book about how to do cool starving artist stuff? Either way, I was pleasantly surprised. Did you know that some grocery stores sell canned octopus? Well, if you need a recipe to use some up, you can find it here. It has a great table of contents, so it's good for skimming. It's got sections for recipes, home decor, wearables, cosmetics, events, and gifts. Some of the ideas are kind of stupid and tacky or probably too expensive for a "starving" person to pull off, but some of the ideas are cute, creative, and unique. It could use a few more pictures for partly-arty people like me who have a really hard time picturing how to do things or how things look from descriptions. There are also lots of references to famous artists in the book--one for every project I think--so if you want to have some good art trivia and to obtain it in a way that's more fun than an art history book, this may be your source.

Blitz It Friday: After

This is the list of things to do for my blitz that I made while eating breakfast:

1. Wash comforter (Fitz...ahem...dirtied it last week)
2. Clear and wipe kitchen table (glad I did this early on--helped me when I folded my towels and set out my ziplock/gladware containers to group before putting away)
3. Put away clean dishes
4. Do dirty dishes
5. Take recycling to garage
6. Clear off and wipe down counters
7. Pick up living room
8. Fold towels and put away
9. Put comforter in dryer
10. Vacuum/sweep/mop
11. Dust

I did the list mostly in this order. I was glad I had it since after the first few tasks I looked around and started to get that overwhelmed, "What now?" feeling. The timer went off as I folded the towels. I didn't put away one towel that goes upstairs, and I didn't get to floors or dusting. However, now I am ready to clean since all the picking up is done. I do still have some books out on the couch. I have a $120 fine to pay if I don't return two of them to the university, so they need to be in sight. I need to finish "reviewing" the others for a future post and take them back to the library.

I didn't post an "after" picture of the piano because blogger kept flipping the image. There's a picture of Levi, an antique camera, our wedding album, and a piece of our coffee table that we broke off that still need to be put away. But, that will be easier when we move our beautiful Ikea shelf downstairs to join the living room furniture.

Possible projects for the rest of the day?

1. Clean out coat closet (which has a very nice, half-empty shoe rack on the door and paint supplies and shoes all over the floor)
2. Finish cabinet reorganization project (resulted in a few very organized cabinets and on set with a bunch of random crap piled up)
3. Reorganize pantry

Organizing supplies that might help:

1. A basket for Fitz's leashes, treats, and kong
2. A sturdy container for Fitz's toys that he can reach and that isn't too ugly
3. Spice organizing device (probably won't get this soon--I've been debating about what kind to get and how much to spend for a long time--any suggestions?)

Blitz It Friday

I've been on an organizing kick lately. It would be a lot easier if I was a neat and tidy person anyway, but I'm not. So, before I organize, I always have to pick up the house. One way I used to trick Dexter into helping me was to set a timer for 15 minutes and told him we only had to clean that long. Then, when it went off, I'd finish up a few odds and ends and he'd feel guilty quitting. That wasn't really intentional on my part, that's just how it always turned out.

I came across this blog the other day that takes it up a notch. She calls the "cleaning time" a "blitz" and does it for 1 hour. I have the day completely off today, which hasn't happened in a long time. We're having Easter at our house on Sunday, and today is my main preparation day since I'll be making a trip to Des Moines tomorrow to have my sister-in-law-in-law-to-be cut and color my hair. I've decided to kickstart the day with a "blitz." My goal is to get the living room and kitchen completely picked up. They're not too bad, so if I really work I might get floors clean and pianos dusted.

Here are the before pictures.

The plan?

1. Eat breakfast.
2. Take dog outside.
3. Set timer and start cleaning.

Fitz's First Outing to the Dog Park

Although we've had Fitz's dog park tag for several weeks, we hadn't gotten up the courage to go until today. I was afraid that Fitz would eat the other dogs or that the other dogs would eat Fitz or that he wouldn't come to me if he was being bad or that he'd do some other naughty dog thing that I haven't even thought of yet.

Dexter and I both had some free time in the middle of the day today, and I persuaded Dexter to go. I put on the tennis shoes that Fitz had chewed on in case of an foot-poop incident, we armed ourselves with leftover hot dog pieces to give him incentive to come when called, grabbed his water dish, and away we drove.

We were afraid to let him off the leash once in the park, and the raised fur on his back didn't encourage me to let him go either. Some people on a bench realized we were newbies and told us some soothing things to help us chill out about letting him go. Fitz was a little calmer, and I was afraid he was raising his fur because he felt like he was at a disadvantage because he was on a leash, so we took the fateful step and unclipped the leash. The first few moments were a little nervewracking as the group of dogs sniffed and growled, but soon they were running around and being friendly.

Here are some highlights from the day:

He ran, he sat and showed off the dirt on his tongue, he chased birds,

and when he was pooped, he plopped contently down in the sand.

He's been doing a lot of snuggling and curling up the rest of the day.
Fitz and his mommy and daddy like the dog park!