Makers & Tasters: Labels in the Kitchen

Growing up in Alabama, you had to be either an Alabama fan or an Auburn fan.

In high school, you were a sophomore, a senior, or a whole group of other labels that I’m choosing to forget.

Now there are more and more labels for the type of food people eat: Slow food, Gluten-free, GFCF, GAPS, Weston A Price, Maker’s Diet, Nourishing Traditions, and on and on and on.

But at home when it’s just us, the food is just good food. In our kitchen, we have two important labels: you are a maker or a taster.

Doug’s a maker. He gets mad when I sample the bacon in the midst of preparations.

Lane and I are tasters. We try so much cookie dough that we don’t want to eat the cookies.

It’s important to know and understand the two when cooking with someone else. And now, thanks to your countless cookbook recommendations, I have a full reading list. I can’t wait to get started.

Spring Forward a Little at a Time

Early Sunday morning Daylight Saving Time starts, so if that applies where you live, you’ll get to set your clocks ahead one hour.

I love having that hour of light at the end of the day, but it messes up my sleep routine and I feel out of sorts for several days.

Prepare for Daylight Saving Time a little at a time. Go to bed a little early tonight, and tomorrow, Friday morning, wake up 20 minutes earlier than you normally do. On Saturday morning wake up 20 minutes earlier than that. On Sunday morning when your alarm goes off at the regular time it’s just a 20 minute shift instead of an hour. You could wake up feeling rested on Monday morning instead of dragging your feet over the lost hour of sleep.

I’m hoping that my kids who wake up with the sun will sleep an hour later now!

The night before last I didn’t sleep (or even go to bed) at all. The kids took turns waking up every half hour. By four in the morning I reached that crucial decision-making point of whether I should go to bed to get two hours of sleep or stay awake and push through ’til morning.

I don’t think there’s a winning answer to that question. I stayed awake, and it felt like the longest day. What do you do in that situation?

31 Things You Can Do in 1 Minute (or Less)

Photo by Tazmany

Guests were coming over, so we hurried around the house doing a last-minute pick up. I don’t really need to explain, because I know you’ve done it too.

A skirt had been sitting on my hope chest for so long. For weeks, probably. As I picked it up to hang it back in the closet, it seemed so easy to put it away. It took less than forty seconds to get the hanger and put it back in the closet where it was supposed to go.

Why had I looked at that skirt for so long instead of putting it away sooner? I let it clutter up my bedroom instead of taking care of that one small thing.

Lots of easy things can make a real difference to your home. Short on time? Here are thirty more things you can do that take one minute or less:

2. turn on upbeat music

3. wipe crumbs off the table

4. take something to another room where it goes

5. reply to an email (one email, don’t get lost in your email inbox)

6. water a plant

7. file a paper

8. empty a trash can

9. check the toilet paper supply

10. wipe spots off a mirror

11. bring empty glasses back to the kitchen

12. put your plate in the dishwasher

13. start the dishwasher

14. cut a loose string off your clothing

15. swish a brush around the toilet bowl

16. hang the towels up off the floor

17. shake out the welcome mat

18. sweep the entryway to your home

19. check your calendar

20. toss the junk mail

21. put your bag by the door so it’s ready to go

22. toss old vegetables from the fridge

23. stack magazines and remove the old ones

24. throw dirty clothes in the laundry basket

25. rinse off the soap dish

26. add a couple things to your grocery list

27. plug in your cell phone to charge it

28. take receipts out of your wallet

29. close drawers and cabinet doors

30. put your shoes away

31. give someone a hug

Are you ready? Go!

Making a Home: The Single Girl Apartment

Previously in this story: The run-down charm of an old house and the community of college life.

Photo: The commute where I prayed that my ‘92 Ford Tempo would get me to work and back home again.

Accustomed to the activity of college life, staring at a computer screen for eight hours in a cubicle every day exhausted me. I came home to my one-bedroom, single-girl apartment and slept. I slept all the time, for several weeks.

In my awkward business-casual attire, I longed for days when I could wear my overalls to class and my favorite pink Patsy Cline cowgirl shirt.

Making friends was slow-going, and new friends often moved away. What was the point of living somewhere where I didn’t have relationships? I wanted to run back to my college town where I still had friends.

I got used to cooking for one, freezing leftovers, and listening to the hum of the dishwasher. I bought a washing machine and a dryer. Most of my furniture was still garage-sale castoffs. I gradually started cleaning out some of the clutter I had brought with me in my hurry to furnish a home by myself.

One thing I bought new was my Fiesta plates (six place settings, each in a different color), and I still use those today.

It was after I’d lived in this apartment for a couple of years that I started dating my future-husband Doug, though we only saw each other once in a while since we didn’t live in the same city. He was carefully vague about what he thought would be the future of our relationship, so I decided not to wait around.

I was ready to shed the temporary feeling of an apartment, and my rent was going up. Doug and I seemed to have different life goals, so I decided that we shouldn’t date. We broke up.

It was the early days of the housing bubble, interest rates were low, and buying a home was the thing to do. I wanted to feel established. I bought a condo by the lake (the second place I looked at), and even though it was dated, I had seen enough home makeovers on HGTV to imagine its potential.

A couple of hours after getting the keys, I remembered that I didn’t know how to do any of those repairs. I was short on funds, the condo needed a ton of work, and I didn’t know how to change a light fixture, much less repair the shower.

All those hours spent watching HGTV had failed me.

–To be continued. –