De-clutter Week 23 - Hidden Clutter

I keep hearing that computers save trees since so many things can now be stored electronically. I don't know about you, but I seem to have more paper than ever.  I do not find the few bills and other records that are now totally computerized to be as handy to reach for, so in the end, I often find myself printing them anyway.  That and the fact that you can't access your records at all if your computer is down, or the power is out, makes me want to keep as many things on paper as possible.

Even though I have a filing system, paper can still easily get out of control around here.  I have folders that hold certain types of records. Before those papers get into the folders, they get put into a specific drawer. The idea is to take those papers out of that drawer and file them on a regular basis. That regular basis seems to be when the drawer gets so full I can't put anymore into it.  Mind you, that can happen several times a year, but really, I should do it at least quarterly. 

This kind of clutter is hidden from the general public, but it still exists. The drawer overflows, and the folders fill up.  This time, I actually went through the folders too, and eliminated a LOT that I decided I no longer needed to keep. 

Now I have a bunch of shredding to do.  That's another chore, for another day.

This week I also went through some old e-mail and eliminated a lot of that too.  Next it will be the photographs taken since the beginning of this year. There is a lot of garbage in those files, especially since I started this de-cluttering project.

I'm not sure anyone but me would notice that these areas have been cleaned up this week, but I do feel like I've accomplished something that needed to be done.

We won't mention the multitude of recipes now available, that I also print off.  After all, my computer isn't in the kitchen where I can read the recipe off the screen.  I suppose, now that I have a tablet, I won't have that excuse.  I will still want a paper copy after I've made the dish, and had it family approved, just so I can find it again more easily the next time I want to make it. 

I have not been as good at weeding out the recipes as I had hoped to be by now.  In fact, I'd call that my one major failure in this de-cluttering project so far this year.  If I'd even given it that 15 minutes a day as originally planned, I might be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel by now.  Perhaps sorting paper this week was a wake up call to get back to that. 

If we ever get some nice weather though, you can forget I said that!

An InLinkz Link-up

Need Multiple Recipes? It's a Crock!

It's hard to declutter when you're sick. I managed to catch my hubby's cold.  He slept through the first 48 hours and then went back to work. He likely shouldn't have, but he's the conscientious type. He's on the mend now, but I'm just getting worse each day.

I decided that if I put a little chicken in the crock pot, we would at least have some decent food over then next couple of days.  I checked out my chicken recipe file and found three for whole chickens in the slow cooker.  Two of them were ones I have never tried, so, because I'm supposed to be weeding them out, I tried to pick one of them.  The first just had a prep time of 15 minutes. I figured I could handle that.

Slow Cooker Chicken Provencal

Cooking time: 6 to 7 hours on Low

Yield:  4 servings

4 medium potatoes
3 carrots
1 whole head fresh garlic
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
2 medium onions
20 cherry tomatoes
20 white button mushrooms
1 cup pitted ripe olives, drained
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dried thyme

Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices.
Cut the carrots diagonally into 1/4 inch thick slices.
Peel all the garlic cloves and thinly slice them.
Cut the chicken into pieces
Cut the onions into quarters
Lightly spray a 6 quart slow cooker with vegetable oil cooking spray.
Layer the potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker.
Scatter half the garlic slices over the vegetables.
Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
Salt and pepper the chicken pieces.
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Scatter the remaining garlic, the onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives around the chicken.

This all sounded wonderful to me, but I quickly realized that my hubby might not like it because of the mushrooms and olives. That also sounded like a lot of garlic to me.  I decided against it. I didn't have the mushrooms anyway and there was a bit too much work involved, considering how I was feeling. I wanted to cook a whole chicken, not cut it into pieces.

The second recipe sounded much easier and I had all the ingredients.

Whole Crockpot Chicken

Cooking time: 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on high
Yield: 4 servings

1 (3 pound) whole chicken
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp minced garlic

Remove skin from chicken, and empty inner cavity, if there's anything in there.
Pat chicken dry with paper towel, and place inside slow cooker.

In a bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients and pour the mixture over the chicken.
Cover and cook chicken on low setting for 8 hours on high heat, or 4 hours on low.

Wait a minute.  I really wasn't feeling like skinning a chicken.  I just wanted to stick the thing in the pot, and turn on the heat and go back to bed. I gave up on and resorted to my tried and true recipe. 

Lemony Roasted Chicken

1 fryer or roasting chicken (3 to 4 pounds)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I don't bother to chop it)

2 tbsp butter

juice of one lemon

1 tbsp fresh parley (optional)

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves

Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Remove and discard any excess fat.

Place onion in chicken cavity and rub skin with butter.

Place chicken in the slow cooker.

Squeeze juice of lemon over chicken, and sprinkle with parsley, grated lemon peel, salt and thyme.

Cover and cook on Low 6 to 8 hours.

We had mashed potatoes, corn and a salad with that, and it was great.

As my rule now is to throw out any of the stored recipes I don't seem willing to make, I've done that, but at least they are now on here if I happen to change my mind.  The rest of you can test these recipes out and let me know what you liked, and what you didn't, and why. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Organized Hoarding

When I first got married I bought a stenographers notebook to write my favorite recipes in.  Over time that filled up and I progressed to a three ring binder.  When that filled up, I got another one, and separated the desserts into that.

The binder system works well because I can keep things more organized by putting recipes for certain ingredients, or types of dishes, together.  Salads, Soups, Chicken, Ground Beef, Crock Pot, etc.  In the dessert one, I not only put the recipes for certain types of things together, but I do it seasonally as well.  Rhubarb, Strawberries, Blueberries and Blackberries, Pumpkin, Zucchini. Chocolate and Lemon somehow don't quite know where to sit in that book so they landed in folders tucked inside the binder cover.

All this makes me sound rather organized, don't you think?  The thing is, I get a lot of women's magazines and when  I see a recipe I like, and I turn down the corner.  That makes them easy to find later, when I'm cleaning out the magazine pile, which happens every 3 to 6 months. Then if I haven't done so already, I pull out the page, if the recipe still interests me. Some of them get weeded out at that point, so that couple of months waiting period sometimes turns out to be a good thing. The bigger problem is that some times there is a magazine with so many good recipes in it, that I keep the whole thing rather than tear out so many pages.  Trying to remember just which book holds the recipe for spaghetti pie, or a certain cookie isn't easy.  The magazines piled up so quickly that it never occurred to me that I could have kept a master list of where to find favorites, like I do with my cook books.  For those I list the recipe and the book it's found in, right down to the page number, and keep it in my main binder. Maybe I'll have to resort to that when I get to the magazine part of this de-cluttering.  But then again, if I keep the magazines, I'm still not throwing out the clutter, right?

Another source of incoming recipes popped up when we got high speed internet, just a few years ago. With that came the ability to sign up for numerous newsletters.  Many of those come with recipes, or links to recipes. I'm always on the look out for something different, especially if it doesn't require me to go out and buy ingredients that aren't already a staple in my house.  I print off several new ones each week and add them to the growing pile.

I outgrew my binders, but I have a red file folder for recipes I want to make, and have not tried yet. The file got so thick that a couple of years ago I created some more files, with categories for Beef, Fish, Pork, Chicken, Pancakes and Muffins, and Pasta, and.....well, once again, I'm sure you get the idea.  One would think I'd be able to find the recipe I'm looking for.

But say I get my hands on some boneless chicken thighs.  I know I have recipes that call for those, and I'd love to find them at times like this, rather than have to do the de-boning myself some other time.  But when I have to sift through the piles to find the required recipe I generally give up and make some old standby.

It's only in recent years that I've had this problem. Last year, when I first thought I'd get this situation under control,  I even created sub folders within the Chicken folder, for Legs and Thighs, Breasts, with and without bones, etc.  But since I still have the tried and true recipes in the folders mixed in with the untried ones, that's not working out as well as I had hoped.  This year I'm going to try to put all the tested and approved recipes in the binders, and get the untested ones out of there. I'm going to get rid of duplicates, though finding 4 copies of one recipe, or even 4 different recipes for a similar dish actually lets me know I must really want to make that.  I'll test those ones as quickly as possible, and get rid of the duplicates, or copy cats.

I made my first stab at all this today.  I chose to start with the Pasta folder.  Maybe that wasn't wise as I kept finding things I wanted to make instead of recipes I didn't mind disposing of.  I did get rid of 20 and file 5 previously tested ones in the binder.  I thought this year, instead of copying out recipes onto lined paper, I'd simply glue them on.  After all, I do have an over abundance of glue in the house.  But the two recipes that were not already printed off the computer were on small pieces of paper, so I ended up copying them after all. So much for saving time with glue.

It was day one. I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go along. Hopefully I'll learn to be more ruthless quickly. If not, I'm likely to replace the few pieces of paper I'm throwing out with even more when I get to the magazines.

I've made a couple of new resolutions:  I will not resubscribe to any of the magazines this year, and I will not print off any new recipes (unless I'm actually going to make that dish that very day). I might even go so far as to cancel the newsletters if I find I can't resist.

Baby steps. One thing at a time. One day at a time. 

Going Forward in a New Year

As a new year begins, even people who claim not to make resolutions seem to think it's a good time to start a new project, or make plans for the year ahead.  The web is full of helpful tips for those who are determined to lose weight, or just live a healthier lifestyle. Getting rid of clutter seems to be another popular theme.

I didn't really have any new plans for this year, but when I read a blog by Bonnie at Jasper's Gems about Week One of a De-clutter Project I was reminded that I definitely have that sort of problem here and perhaps I could follow along for a while and tackle some of it.  I say "for a while" as I'm not about to make it a New Years Resolution, and set myself up for failure.

I've lived in the same house for over 37 years, so you can just imagine the piles of stuff I have accumulated during that time. There is no doubt that the time has come to try to weed some of it out. I'd be totally overwhelmed if I committed to do it all in one year.  I'll just start someplace, and hopefully keep on going.

There are three areas I'd definitely like to tackle this year.

I need to go through all the accumulated recipes, and try to just keep the ones I've already deemed to be good. I set up a filing system for them last year, but I wasn't really trying to getting rid of many at that point. I just wanted to make them easier to find. I think weeding them out will have to be project number one as I'm still having problems locating some of the recipes I know are in there, on days when I actually want them.

Project number two is related. I have piles of magazines under the bed in the spare room. They all have corners turned down on recipes I intended to make. No, let's not think about that yet. I have to do the first purging before I go there! I know now that I've somehow become a hoarder, when it comes to recipes, and that's just silly since we can find one for anything we want to make right here on the web.

One should never make a spare room a storage area, according to Flylady, who also has a page on de-cluttering.  Too bad nobody told me that before I got started.  At least she seems to think I can get everything under control in just 15 minutes a day!  I can handle 15 minutes, but I can't guarantee how long this plan will last.  One day at a time.  Collecting recipes has become like an addition, and I'm putting myself on the program!
 

The third area is right here in my office/studio. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned out and reorganized. As it is, I'm dragging my art work to the kitchen again, as my desk is piled with stuff I really have to find a way to store. I cleaned it all off just before Christmas, but you would never know it.

I thought, perhaps if I followed along with another blogger trying to tackle clutter, and reported in here from time to time, I might feel more accountable, and actually get something accomplished.  Don't lay any bets though, as life gets pretty busy for me between now and the end of the tax season.

Oh, that reminds me.  My recent computer problems have delayed my year end report for the karate club. So, balancing the books, printing off those reports and properly filing all the paper involved in my business will be the first project for this year.  That should even clean up some of the clutter on my desk. :)

A Christmas Present From President's Choice

Have you applied for your new PC Plus card yet?  They have been advertising it on TV a lot lately, so I got myself one.

The first time I asked for one they gave me a post card that had a web address on it. But that was meant to sign up a PC financial card to this new system, and was not the new points card itself.  While I have their financial card, I found I don't really like charging for groceries and getting a shock at the end of the month. I just wanted the points card.  The next time I went they gave me the right one, and they activated it right there, so I even went home with points from that day's purchase.

I looked online and discovered they have a very well designed website. Each week you "load" the products that earn points onto your card account from the website. The products offered will be more and more in line with the type of things you buy on a regular basis. Over time the system keeps track of your preferred products, so it can tailor the sales, and the site to you.  There are recipes on there, based either on what's on sale that week, or the products you tend to buy, or both. It's your choice. You can make out a meal plan, and have the site issue you a shopping list. I think it may become one of my favorite sites to visit. 

As for the points, they add up far more quickly than I would expect.  I have just gone on my third weekly shopping trip and already I had enough points to cash in for $20 off my grocery bill.   That was perfect timing, as we all know that Christmas extras add a lot to that bill. I feel like I got $20 off my turkey this year, and that feels like an early Christmas present from the President's Choice people.  I'm already a quarter of the way to being able to cash in more points.  You have to reach the $20 level before you can cash in, but you can wait and add more in $10 increments if you chose to.  Apparently you can even add other family and friend's cards to the same account so that you can pile up the points even faster. I'm not sure who would agree to that, unless several people within a family all do the shopping and this way no points would be missed out on. 

At this point I have to say, if you don't already have one of these PC Plus cards, go get one. 
And thank you Presidents Choice.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

As some of you may recall, last fall I was looking for a bread maker at WalMart, not so much because I needed one, but because they were offering one at a sale price I just couldn't resist.  Well, I never found the advertised item (see Luring the Public) but my search must have convinced my hubby I really wanted a bread machine. He managed to get a WalMart employee he knows to track this item down for me, and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. He insists he got it for the sale price, but I'm not so sure.

Well, that was Christmas and this is February and yesterday I finally made my first loaf of bread in that contraption.  This model has various modes, so the manual gives one sample recipe for each mode.  Each of them required powdered milk, which is not something I normally have in the house. I waited until I could go to the bulk store, to get enough for just one or two loaves, and was all set to create a treat for the man last week. Then I discovered that the yeast I had was not the right kind. I had to wait until this past weekend to pick that up, and by then he was so sick he was off his food. 

Finally, yesterday, I decided it was time to test this machine out.  As I was reading the manual I discovered the flour in Canada is different from the flour in the States. Ours is made from harder wheat and therefore has more gluten.  While the Americans have to use bread flour, our all purpose flour works just fine.  As none of the recipes in the book interested me, and I knew I'd want to experiment over time, I went looking for a good Canadian bread machine cookbook.  I found one at Amazon.ca but I currently have a credit slip for Amazon.com, where the same book is only available second hand, but at the same price as a new one in Canada.  Nope. For the same money, I'd want the new one. Since I don't get to use my credit slip, I'll wait until I get to a bookstore so I don't have to pay shipping either.

Next I decided to check out some recipes online.  I found a good page related to Canadian bread machines and decided I'd start with the raisin bread. That would be a nice treat.

I dug out the machine, and after trying to figure out where I could place it, without it bubbling the paint on my cupboards, I carefully measured ingredients into the bread pan in the order given, as instructed. I wasn't sure when to add the cinnamon and other spices I wanted in my raisin bread, but by looking at the other recipes in the manual, I figured they went in before the flour. The online recipe nicely tells me not to add more than 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, as it inhibits the yeast action. 

Fruit, apparently, gets added when the kneading is almost finished.  But how am I supposed to know when that is?  Hmmmm.  So I watched the action through the window and when the dough formed into a ball and was getting tossed around nicely,  I opened the lid and sprinkled the raisins in.  They seemed to gather on the outside of the ball and I figured I did it wrong.  Later, when looking through the manual once again, I found out that the machine would beep at the 30 minute mark, and that's when I should have added the raisins.  Oh, and did I mention that I sprinkled the yeast over the top instead of making the indent on top of the flour where you are supposed to place it?

By that time I figured this first loaf was doomed.

But hey, it turned out not too bad.  Some of the raisins got chopped up, but I'll know better next time.  The bread could be cut amazingly thinly for fresh eating.  By the time we got to towards the middle of the loaf (it was a treat, after all!) we found the bread a bit moist,  so then it was sliced nice and thick for toast.  I added more cinnamon and sugar on top of the buttered toast, which improved it, I'm sure.

So, while the first loaf was not a screaming success, it was at least edible. And since we ate so much of it in one night, I guess it got some sort of passing grade.

Now, if I could just get the paddle out of the pan.  It's been soaking in water for a while now, since the manual says that might help.  Water and flour do make glue.  Hopefully more hot water will soften it up enough to get the parts separated for the next experiment.

If you have a favorite bread machine recipe, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Herbfest 2011

Today we went to the 16th Annual Herbfest on Old Almonte Road.  We have never gone before, but being it's 16th year must explain why they have this thing down to a science.  It was very well organized and everything ran smoothly.  Even the weather was cooperative.

There was a Chef Cook-Off between Executive Chef Cesare Santaguida of Vittoria Trattoraia, Executive Chef Brian Vallipuram of The Lord Elgin Hotel and Executive Chef Neil Mather of Graffiti's Italian Eatery and Saloon.  The recipes had to include the special herb of the year, Horseradish.  Some of the recipes can be found here .  I got to taste the dish with the salmon and scallops, and understand why Chef Brian won the contest today.  It was marvelous!

Under the same tent, after the chefs were finished, Vanessa  Simmons guided us on the Great Ontario Cheese Discovery.  We were given a plate with 5 artisan cheeses on it, and we worked our way through these, one by one, as she told us about each of them and the proper way to taste cheese. 

Pictured here are the 5 cheeses, starting with the fresh Chevre from Claremell Farms in Manotick. (at the top) I've never been fond of goat cheese, but I rather liked this stuff.

The second (going clockwise) was also a goat cheese, and the third (the greasy looking one) was made of sheep's milk. I can say that I discovered I like goat milk cheese better than sheep milk cheese.

The fourth cheese was made of cows milk, and is called Lakaaster. It's somewhat like cheddar in flavour, but not quite the same. It comes from Glengarry Fine Cheese in Lancaster. This was my favourite of the five and I'll be wanting to buy some of that for sure. The 5th one remained on my plate, after just a tiny nibble. It was also a cow's milk cheese, so I did expect to like it.  Apparently I wasn't the only one that didn't care for that one as others sitting near me didn't eat it either. I guess my palette is not sophisticated enough to handle that yet. It's unfortunate that it was the last one, and I'm just glad I had a mint in my purse!

There were also numerous vendor stalls to browse through.  There were plants for sale, and houses for birds, bats, butterflies and bees. You could get your fortune told, or get a massage. There, were, of course, a lot with food related items, and I came home with a package of tortilla soup mix that I just have to add crushed tomatoes and water to. There was even a lady selling mixes for totally gluten free bread.

The most fascinating thing I saw were phone books that had been impregnated with mushroom spores, so you could grow your own mushroom farm. Unfortunately I'm the only one here who likes mushrooms and I was afraid it would produce too many for me to consume alone. I suggested they find some smaller growing medium for people like me.  I would have enjoyed just watching it grow, but I left it there.  The ones in the photo are pink oyster mushrooms. Pretty eh.

Then came the fairies.  Folk dancers worked their way through the rows of vendors stalls.  Occasionally a child would join them.  Too bad others didn't fall into line too. It could have been quite the sight!

Elsewhere there were food stalls and music to be enjoyed.  You could also visit the gardens, the greenhouse, and some other vendors in the Century Barn.  One of the gardens was even a small maze that you could walk through.  There was lots to see, and it was certainly an enjoyable way to spend the day.

While we did a lot of sampling at Herbfest we didn't actually eat until we were on the way home. We stopped at The Old Mill in Ashton.  This was also a new experience for us.  The building is old, as indicated in it's name, but it's nice to see they have found a way to use it.  It was quiet when we first went in, but it got much busier as time went on. The riverbed was pretty dry today, so I may have to go back there again sometime, if I want to enjoy the view.

Chatelaine Test Recipes

For those of you who read my previous posts about testing recipes for Chatelaine, I will now pass along the links to the recipes I tested.  (while reading the link above, follow a link there back to a previous one too)
Upside-down Shepherd's Pie
Chicken and Dumplings
Classic Lemon Tart

Enjoy.  And do tell me if you make any of these, and what you thought of them.