Must-Do Pins

Just have to share a couple of pins I've tried that totally worked! I didn't take any of my own pics so I'll just share the pins and vouch for them.

First...

Source: thekitchn.com via Derek Lindsay on Pinterest

My Story:
Just before leaving for PA, I used a bunch of green onions and dropped the white roots into a little cup with water and left it by the sink. I don't have a good place in my house for plants to get sun so it got zero sun. I seriously cut them all the way down to the white and when we got back a couple weeks later, I had green onions spilling onto my counter!

What I Learned:
Something a gardener should probably think to do... remember to refill the water. And I feel confident that mine would look quite a bit healthier if they had a little sun. But they have served (and continue to serve!) me well.

Next up...

Source: loveveggiesandyoga.com via Derek Lindsay on Pinterest

My Story:
Just did this yesterday and was blown away at how easy it was! Seriously like 3-5 minutes process. Grab peanuts, toss them in a food processor, and hold down the button. Watch peanuts turn to peanut butter in minutes! And you can add any kind of flavoring you want!

What I Learned:
I don't know about pricing. I mean, peanuts can be pricey. And don't make the same stupid mistake I did and just buy the cheapest. I usually check labels, but I honestly didn't think peanuts would have high fructose corn syrup and xanthum gum in them?!? Seriously, I just thought they were peanuts. You live, you learn.

A little encouragement... according to fooducate.com, the Kroger brand honey and dry roasted peanuts (that I used for this) get a B- while Jif creamy peanut butter (what WIC lets us get) gets a C and is labeled "One of the worst products in its category."

I'm not really encouraged by that at all.

Moral of the stories...
Try these pins and learn from my mistakes! You will not regret it! :)

Why I Hate to Cook

I miss having internet during the day. But I must admit, I get a lot more done in a lot shorter time.

So really the only negative to not having internet during the day is my online jewelry business suffers. And since iPhoto wasn't working on Derek's laptop until just a couple days ago, my poor little business came to a screeching halt - online. In the real world, DandLs DangLs made a killing over Thanksgiving :)

And speaking of Thanksgiving, I'll eventually get to working on those pics. What a wonderfully crazy week it was!!

Yes. Week.

So that doesn't really have anything to do with this post except maybe to preface what I'm about to say - there will not be any pictures on this post.

Now for my point:

I hate to cook. Always have. I've attempted to make it more enjoyable by making a meal plan and leaving the kids with Derek when grocery shopping. I even have a great recipe box and several wonderful cookbooks.

But still, every evening I groan.

Why all this hate?

Let's see what the list says...

• I hate grocery shopping
• I hate raw meat
• I especially hate raw chicken
• I even more especially hate raw chicken fat
• I hate cutting raw chicken
• I hate cleaning up after cutting raw chicken
• I hate raw chicken fat.    oh wait, I said that.
• I hate how making dinner interrupts my evening
• I hate timing things to all finish at the same time
• I hate trying to get dinner finished at just the right time
• I hate coming home hungry and having to cook 
• I hate how long it takes to make dinner
• I hate how quickly it's eaten
• I hate how long it takes to clean up after dinner
• I hate raw chicken fat.    I know I already said that. It's just so true.
• I hate when dinner just isn't as good as I thought it would be
• I hate how dinner somehow tastes so much better when I don't cook it

There's probably more, but you get the idea.

As I wrote out that list, I realized that a lot of this hate comes from past events.

1. I almost never cooked growing up. This probably wouldn't have mattered if it weren't for event #2.
2. I basically learned to cook when I was a nanny to a very picky family.
3. Just a few months after taking this nanny job, Derek and I got married. I was cooking TWO dinners 4 nights a week for 3 years. None of which involved cheese. I love cheese.
4. The last couple of years in Scranton, Derek was working almost every night. I had to figure out how to have dinner ready for him to scarf down during his 10 minutes between jobs, or make something that could wait til he got home sometime after 10pm. 
5. And when Derek was working every night, I had to try to cook with a high-maintenance baby who still chooses to be the most difficult right around dinner time.

Is there anyone else out there who hates raw chicken fat as much as I do???