Skip to main content

super spicy

I've been trying to tackle one small thing (housework wise) each day the last week. It's not a planned thing, but something I've just been trying to do to keep the house semi-clean.

And last night, while waiting for supper to finish cooking, I started this one project (because it was there, in front of me, daring me) and finished it this morning. Normally Bobby is not happy when I throw things away, but today when I showed him the labels, he actually laughed.

Most of these are Kroger brand.  The year before we got married, I lived across the street from Garner High School (which connects to the Kroger shopping center). But I've not shopped there since 2000.  That tells you how old these spices are.

And somewhat in my defense...I used to cook a lot of things from scratch. Bobby's parents had a huge garden every summer, as well as beef cows, so I learned to make spaghetti and chili without the seasoning packets. And then we had to cut back/out the tomato products Bobby could have for a few years, so I quit making those dishes. Hence, chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, ginger...those spices quit being used. And the nutmeg...I'm not sure how or why I wound up with that.

Some people laugh at me, but I have a policy that if a recipe has more than two ingredients I've never heard of/don't use, then I won't try it. It does sound a little absurd, but there's nothing I hate more than to buy something, like spices, and then not like it but have quite a bit of it.

Not every cleaning project is this drastic.  But this one still has me shaking my head.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

things we do for love

Saturday we had a baby shower for Bobby's niece. As I was making the mints, Bobby asked what else was on the menu. After I recited off the litany of items, he responded with "No peanut butter?! This shower is for Hannah! What's she going to eat?" (Hannah has had stomach problems over the years and has been unable to tolerate many foods, but peanut butter has been her staple.) Despite my assurances that she would enjoy the foods we were having, he was adamant that I needed to make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the shower. Even though I protested that NOBODY took that to a shower, he persisted, and informed me I could make them dainty with my little cutter. And so I did. To my surprise all but 3 were eaten. Who'd a thunk it?

get your house in order

My grandmothers were very clean people. My mother thoroughly enjoys cleaning, though she doesn't quite hit the same level my grandmothers were on. I don't enjoy cleaning, but I do like things to be clean. I've almost given up on neatness. One thing that they all instilled in me is the crazy concept that your house must be in order before you go somewhere big - like a vacation or something. After all, you could die in a car crash or have to go to the hospital, and then people would go into your house and find it in a terrible mess. Who wants to be remembered by that? So up until this past year, I would sometimes be up almost all night not only trying to get things packed up, but also trying to totally clean house as well. Or should I say, make the house presentable? The Chinese had a horrible superstition that my mother and grandparents would have enjoyed. Spring Festival (the Chinese New Year based on the lunar calendar) required EVERYTHING to be cleaned top to

Wait...it's almost March?!?

 10 more months 'til Christmas. This last month has been an absolute blur. Cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, cleaning at our house, lots of thinking and brainstorming and rearranging, appointments upon appointments, sinus infection/allergies, Bobby's surgery, meeting with surgeon and finally agreeing to future outpatient surgery for me, ongoing updates from my parents, garden tilled and snow peas, potatoes and beets planted (and yes I left several rows empty between the potatoes and beets for something else to go later as a buffer), chickens are laying, we may have a broody hen..in FEBRUARY!!!, we have two roosters that need to disappear, lots of family have been in from out of town to assist with the sorting and cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, and somewhere in the midst of it all I've found time to pay bills and catch up on a few emails. While I no longer feel like our house is a disaster zone, it is still overwhelming. Years ago a friend posted a quote by Martin Lut