The windows are all open a crack to let in the sound of the rain and it is delightful. I am not sure why I am all over this rainy day. But I am. My plan hours ago was to tackle a big job (mucking out the pantry or my office) but I haven't gotten to it yet. I will. I just can't stop loving the rain. It invokes all kinds of wants -- like reading or playing board games or cooking something all gooey and comforty.
But I have been making blueberry desserts like a crazy woman and I can't watch Peter shove any more into his mouth. His lips have been blue for days. That whole moderation thing and blueberries doesn't seem to work in this family. Maddie sits down with a big bowl of them and just eats away. The blueberries have been OUT of this world and I can't wait to pick again tomorrow. Huge, plump and sweet, it almost feels like picking apples they are so amazing. My stomach has been a wreck. No sane person eats as many blueberries as we have consumed in the past two weeks. Even while I was picking them, I ate constantly. I don't think I have ever encountered such fabulous blueberries.
I still have this recipe printed out on my desk that I want to make. They are black and white cookies, but with a blueberry glaze on top. First off, black and white cookies are amazing. But with a blueberry glaze? MAMA! I made this stuff called Blueberry Boy Bait and we couldn't stop eating it. A huge pan of blueberry wonder in a soft cake like filling. Oh my. The second was blueberry bars. I thought those might last. But no.
I have to stop talking about blueberries. I must be hungry. The only way to have a BLT without the B (as I like to say) is by going out in the pouring rain and picking some lettuce. How bad do I want one?!!! Maybe I will have a BLT without the B and L!
You don't get to run into exciting blog posts like this just everyday, no sirreee. This is what you call procrastinating. I have nothing to say (clearly) but once I delve into the pantry thing, the entire kitchen (which is currently clean and neat) is going to be in total upheaval. It takes a strong (and possibly full) stomach to even begin. So instead I write a few words here, write a few words to Hallie, gaze out the window at the rain and rinse and repeat.
While on vacation on the Vineyard, I was struck with how easy it was to have a pantry with just a few things in it. I had brought down a number of meals, so all I had to do was take the ingredients and wa la. No thought, no worries. I didn't have to stand in a pantry that is overladen with way too much and hope and pray that there was some brown sugar floating around in there somewhere. Since I primarily eat fresh foods, I don't even know why the pantry is so crazy full. I am suspecting that I will have to go in there and just start heaving out stuff I don't use. It is time. I am heading there now. In fact, I am going to take a before picture. Now.
OK, pictures were taken and I started. Then Maddie and Charlie, who have been out of commission all day glued in front of the TV, decided that it was time to come into the kitchen. They blocked my entry into the pantry repeatedly by opening the fridge door, and then kept pushing my piles of this and that on the kitchen counter all over the place. In other words, they are creating chaos out of organized chaos and it is giving me a headache. Now they are fighting over cheese. Yes, that is what I said. Cheese. Screaming and yelling, give me back my cheese. They are also incapable of saying a sentence that does not contain a swear word. Cuz it makes them so cool, ya know. They are ruining my rainy day.
As I run to my shelter (my office) and hope that they leave the kitchen soon, I have to say that I have 11 coolers jammed into that pantry. I live a cooler life, pretty much year round. In the summer it is all about filling coolers to spend a day at the lake. Drinks need to be packed, lunch, dinner. It takes multiple coolers to harness all that, and let me tell you, it is one pain in the neck. Even a simple meal, like I took to the dock on Friday, takes forever. I collected lettuce from the garden, rinsed it then ran it through the salad spinner. Broke that into bite-sized pieces and put it into a baggy. Then I grilled chicken breasts, let them cool, then cut those into bite-sized pieces and put those into a container. Then I whipped up some caesar salad dressing, into a container. Peeled a dozen cucumbers and put half into a container with vinegar, and half into a container alone, because Maddie and Charlie don't like vinegar. Scrounged out some parmesan cheese from the fridge, put that into a container. All these containers must then go into a cooler. Also to be packed: A big salad bowl, plates, napkins, silverware, croutons and crackers for the cheese I threw into the cooler along with chips for the salsa, also in the cooler. It is ridiculous. Oh, and the blueberry bars, into a container. In the cooler.
After that, I dealt with the drinks cooler. Seltzer water, vodka and ice and beer. Jam that one shut, try to wrestle a few things of water between them, and there we go. Two big coolers and two bags of the other shit. That doesn't even count our bags with clothes in them. Again, I say ridiculous. We look like we are staying for a month when we go to the dock. And then, I pull it out, and it seems just so EASY. Oh look, how quickly she prepares that meal. Bullshit. Then when we get home, entire contents of coolers must be emptied. And as you can see, then I just toss them into the pantry.
But how do I weed out those coolers? There are all shapes and sizes for different occasions. They must return. Oh well.
Update: Charlie has broken a bowl and set off the fire alarm while cooking a grilled cheese sandwich. He is totally driving me bonkers and yelling at me to leave him alone. All I want to do is clean the pantry. Oh good. He just slammed the door and is out in the other room. Bye bye.
Now to be nice, he returned while I was back at it and emptied the dishwasher, took out the garbage and gave me some water when I was choking (I had to sample some things to see if they were stale and one went down the wrong slot.) I came over here to rest from the near death experience! LOL
Update: I have removed said sweatshirt because I was sweating. Charlie has taken yet another bag of garbage out. There were items in there with expiration dates of 2004. I am a hoarder! I am halfway done and panicking because I am losing steam. There are six jars of relish and four big things of white vinegar. Who knew.
Okay, here are the results, some many hours later.
BEFORE
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And this is of course AFTER! (The cardboard box on the left of the wine fridge is my seaweed. That I haven't dealt with. And apparently still have not.)
After
And yet another beautiful BEFORE
Before
This pantry is still not done. I hadn't really thought about it until I was looking at the pictures. And this is partially why things don't get done around here. Because I stop seeing it. The floor is funny because a part of it is waiting for the cabinets to go in. Because there are no cabinets, I have been creative as I could by jamming any type of furniture I could find in there to act as a food holder. That is why they all match so nicely!!! The ultimate plan is to put in cabinets below and above. I think I might just have to put this intent into the universe, because I would gain so much not having to deal with the land of the mismatched stuff!
Tomorrow it is my office's turn.
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