Saturday, October 29, 2005

Winter approaches

As mentioned the other day, we moved kitchens again. This is a biannual event. I kinda have a love/hate thing goin' on with this practice. I hate having to move everything, but I love how clean and neat the place is that it gets moved to. The other hate thing is the decision making process of how will I arrange the drawers and cabinets this time? I must take photos for reference, and then remember where I filed them...it'll never happen.



These Mexican plates came from my friend Tommy, who didn't know my taste when she bought them, but they are perfect here on my shelf with my other Mexican stuff. I finally bought some plate easels and now don't have to worry so much that they will fall off the shelf and break.


I love the cleaned up kitchen. I must thank Dave for this. He scrubbed every cabinet, including washing off the disgusting top of the refrigerator. Don't go looking at yours, it's just as bad.


Refrigerator immaculata. I really love Gladware containers, and took everything that was in a plastic bag and transferred it to Gladware. On the right top shelf is the yummy bean dinner recipe at the end of this post.

Do we have enought condiments? I buy those salad dressings in hope that they will be delicious and will save time but once I taste them I am underwhelmed. Making my own is always better. The other night I grabbed Rose's Lime Juice (instead of my usual Key Lime Juice) and mixed it with olive oil for a tremendously fresh tasting vinagrette. Yummamente


The vast wasteland of our freezer. A few pounds of hamburger and some frozen peas (Aged 6 months....) I discovered I had purchased three pounds of coffee and really must start using it up.
This is why a kitchen move can be a good thing.



A picture of Fat Mel, a reminder of my days as Ms. Rotunda of Northern Illinois. I am holding my quilt Streetdance, before it got shot for slides. Laura Wasilowski kindly took the picture. This was around 2002, I think.

Now for the recipe. I first had this meal at my mother's house when I was about 31. She was out when I came for a visit and I left before she got back. My brother was heating it up on the stove and it smelled so good I sat down and ate a bowl with him. It has no name, so I am in need of one and will take suggestions.
Place clever recipe title here
Italian sausage links, cooked and cut into chunks.
Homemade meat balls, with an Italian bent. This would only be if you have them on hand of course, like from leftover pasta dinners the night before. Mine were discovered, again aged well, in the freezer downstairs.

A jar of pasta sauce, any variety but preferably spicy and chunky. Add more tomato sauce if necessary.

Three cans of beans, like Cannelini, Great Northern, Garbanzo, white kidney or whatever, drained and rinsed.

Lots of chili pepper flakes. I tossed in some chunks of green and red peppers, sauteed, and some onions and garlic, also sauteed.

Serve with salad and red wine. (or forget it and just have the salad and wine). This is what we call stickum to-um ribums food. MY ribs are carrying a little too much at the moment, but I couldn't resist a second helping. Dave inhales this kind of meal and now has lunch ready and maybe a mid afternoon bowl waiting. Which is good, because I have to dye all day again today.
I work for you.

11 comments:

  1. You have THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HOME, Melody. It is a joy to be in it because it is a reflection of you. Isn't that corny? Well, it is...corny and true. The colors and objects are so warm and fun and eclectic and personal and blahblahblah.

    BTW...the top of my fridge is always clean. It's the rest of my house that I can't keep in order. HA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mel, you or I never looked liked that. It was obviously someone posing as us while we were off having a good time in the yarn shop. Love the kitchen; however, I don't know what to do with one, much less two.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope Martha checks your blog today because she will be so inspired!! Love the colors of your kitchen. And your before picture is an inspiraation for me to kick butt and lose the lbs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow!! a red kitchen. Now why didn't I think of that? I love it. And the floor. It'a amazing how many of us have that floor. Mine is in my from bedroom. It's the black and white room with many quilts in it. I wish I had two kitchens but then I love to cook.

    Rosy

    ReplyDelete
  5. The kitchen is awesome and beautiful. I'll have to try the recipe, I have some Italian sausage in fridge.
    If you get a spot on Martha, I will come home early from work to watch it (and see it live.) Jen

    ReplyDelete
  6. You've written about the 2 kitchens before...I was really intrigued by you having seasonal kitchens. I had never heard of that before until you wrote about it. Blogging is so educational :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. (European comment here)
    Two kitchens? You have two kitchens?(/European comment here)

    I am intrigued: why do you move kitchens? I'd have to kill myself of someone else if I had to move kitchens with my two sets of dinner ware for 12 and all that other stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, this is just wierd. You have exactly the same stuff in your refrigerator door that I have. Exactly. Bottle of "I can't believe it's not butter" spray (pretty good on popcorn), big bottle of brown mustard, bottled lemon juice, rose's lime juice, half bottle of white wine (looks like Pinot Gris--that's what mine is), half gallon of milk (mine's skim--looks like yours too--I think the blue cap is code for skim) jar of mayo with flippy blue lid, tabasco, new box of butter, odd bottles of ketchup, barbeque sauce and disappointing salad dressings and a few little jars of other stuff (pesto, horseradish?).

    My kitchen floor is just like yours as well. Note the Mexican accessories, as well. http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2005/10/bird.html

    Spooky.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So....was it really Martha?!?! I'm on the edge of my seat!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't know how you do this seasonal move the kitchen thing?! I can barely get my sweaters moved out of the main part of my closet by July, then it's February, and I still have tshirts hanging in the center part of my closet hogging all the primo space!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Loved checking out the condiments. Kitchen voyeurism. I think that looks like a bottle of margarita mix, not pinot grigio.

    ReplyDelete

Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com