photos

The spices



Here are some photos of before and after challenge of the pantry and spice cupboard.  I am still working on the basement, but it is promising.





The pantry



I have to laugh at the pantry before and after pictures.  While cleaning it, I took everything out, I washed down the shelves and rearranged some items to that is was grouped better.  I like how it is organized now.  But when my sweet husband looked at the pictures, he liked how the "before" picture looked better than that "after." Well, at least I tried....

I did complete challenge #1, of cleaning off the kitchen counters, but alas, the pictures are missing. (We have had computer/internet issues the last little bit and it ain't groovy.) Next up is the refrigerator and freezer challenge for the week.  And bring it on! I am ready.

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Of another note, we just finished up the last of our tomatoes from our garden.  Every fall, I pull up some plants and hang them upside down in our barn.  They are able to ripen with some protection from the frost.  YUM!! YUM!! Next year I will take pictures to post so you see how it is done.

An organized kitchen and fresh tomatoes in January, is, my friends,

being organized

Being organized..........well, what can I say?  it's a struggle for me.  HUGE struggle.  It always has been. Probably always will be. 

I have been better in recent years. But it is still a struggle. I am a pile person and really, am more interested in other things-- gardening and flowers in the summer, reading, internet, playing with Miss M, cooking, the list can go on and on--pretty much anything except housework, especially organizing the house!

I think, though, there is hope for me.  I recently came across this blog,  Home Storage Solutions 101. Most of the time, websites like this overwhelm me. And I don't spend more than 3 nano-seconds at them.  But what caught my eye, was the 52 weeks to an organized home challenge.  The idea behind this is that you take a whole year to organize your house.  I could do that.  This challenge started at the first of the year, so I am 2 weeks behind.  But I can catch up.  (Besides, I looked at the whole list and there are a few areas I am quite proficient in and can use that time to catch us.)

I will also try to post some before and after pictures on my blog.  Are you interested?  Do you want to accept the challenge with me???

Because, my friends, having an organized home is:

Holiday yams

Once upon a time, my father, wanted to add to our holiday meals.  He remembered his mother's delicious yams and so he called her for the recipe.  She hadn't cooked the yams in years and could only remember that there was brown sugar on the cut up yams.

This turned into a 30 year quest for the perfect recipe that his mother used to make.

One year his concoction became alive. I am not sure what he combined in the skillet, but the more he cooked it, the bigger the sauce became.  After a few minutes, it would grow, expand and erupt with one big bubble...like a slow boil.  He took it off the stove top, but it still continued to grow.  He took the skillet out to the garage and it, truly, was still growing. Needless to say, we didn't eat candied yams that year. 

Many years and multiple recipes later, it became the family joke. What would he do with the yams at this years' Thanksgiving?

Well, this year, He did it!  His mother's long lost recipe was found and once again returned to the recipe files of the family.   He claims he had vision in a dream...or was it a dream in a vision.... well, either way he woke up with the idea that the yams and brown sugar were joined by some butter for perfection.  And in this moment of revelation, he came to realize that he could search the internet for the perfect recipe!  After hours of searching recipe (and pictures because it had to look right!) of candied yams, he found the holy grail!! 

And we ate many delicious candied yams at Thanksgiving, knowing that this was the beginning of many years of delicious yams! 

And, that, my friends, is