Friday, November 27, 2015

Little things

In spite of neither hosting a gathering nor having to cook something to take elsewhere, I spent a good part of yesterday in the kitchen.

It's my fault. Earlier in the week I'd taken out ground beef for Salisbury steak, but never got around to making it. Lunch yesterday, then, was Salisbury steak and a barley pilaf. Neither are difficult to make, though the meat involves a lot of "saute this, take it out of the pan, cook this partway, take it out and put the other thing in" while the barley simply requires a lot of time to cook.

The plan for my personal Thanksgiving dinner was simple: heat up a presliced 1/4 ham. Add some green beans and a little of the leftover barley, and I was set.

Truth to tell, preparing the food wasn't the project that kept me in the kitchen so long. Empty the dishwasher, fill the dishwasher, get it in your head to do a thorough cleaning of the dishwasher...

Oh - since we had snow last week, I used the winter dishes at lunch yesterday.

This afternoon the furnace guy is coming to perform the annual maintenance, so I need to wash the kitchen floor. Why? Because the furnace is in the utility closet in my galley kitchen.

The embroidery machine will get a workout this afternoon as well. Our work Christmas party is this coming Friday; once again, there will be a charity silent auction. The organizers were pretty much begging for contributions last week, so I'm doing a couple of kitchen sets. Set one will have a chef holding a bottle of wine and a glass embroidered on a black apron, with two dishtowels to match along with a bottle of wine. Set two will be a rooster and chickens, likewise on an apron and towels, with a casserole cookbook to sweeten the deal.

The embroidery work isn't difficult, but it is time consuming. Setting up the motifs, making sure the spacing is correct, marking the fabric and getting things hooped up take longer than the actual embroidery. Trimming the stabilizer and stray threads adds to the time. Still, it's all much less time than trying to make a quilt.

That's the plan for today, along with finishing up a mystery I've been reading bits of all week. I may actually venture out for coffee after dinner (once the Black Friday crowds have thinned a bit) just to get out of the house. The little rain that's left over from yesterday, when we had a record-breaking 1.3 inches, should be cleared out by then.

1 comment:

melissa said...

I remember that post about those dishes. Don't you love having special things that are seasonal? Makes life more enjoyable.

A dear friend gave me two Spode Christmas mugs and a dessert plate. Gary and I use the mugs in the mornings now.

Enjoy your day...hope it's restful. :)