Buffalo. Tuna. Mac.

You guys. I don't have a photo because I ate it too fast, but holy cow. I've been on a buffalo sauce kick since around Super Bowl time, and tonight I was just sitting at home thinking of things I could do with the buffalo sauce in the pantry when I got it in my head to make buffalo mac. 

Sometimes a kitchen experiment just goes terribly, terribly well. No further ado needed. Here you go.

Buffalo Tuna Mac

These are the ingredients I used. Feel free to substitute at will.

• One box Annie's White Cheddar mac and cheese
• One package Sea Fare Pacific jalapeno tuna
• Two slices American cheese (I buy Trader Joe's organic)
• Approximately 2 tbs Litehouse OPA blue cheese dressing
• Approximately 2 tbs Frank's Red Hot buffalo wing sauce
• Approximately 2 tbs heavy cream

This is how I made it. Feel free to follow your own heart's mac cheese instructions.

1. Boil yo water.
2. Boil yo noodles.
3. While the noodles are noodling, clean up your house a little. You're a grown up.
4. Al dente noodles? Strain 'em. No need to rinse.
5. While they're straining, plop the whole package of tuna, with its olive oil, into the pot.
6. Mash the tuna around with your spoon, breaking it into little pieces as best you can. This is just a matter of taste. If you like bigger chunks, leave 'em bigger. I like 'em to be smaller so they integrate better.
7. Add the heavy cream, swooshing it all around together.
8. Add the cheese packet from the box, stirring until dissolved/integrated.
9. Add the pasta back into the pot, stir it all around until noodles are coated.
10. Tear American cheese into little pieces, because little pieces melt better.
11. Pour in the wing sauce. Add more if you want. This is just "to taste", whatevs you like.
12. Pour in the blue cheese dressing. Again, add more if you want. Live your life.
13. Stir it all together and marvel at how good it looks and smells.
14. Try not to eat the entire box, and then realize you're a grown up and you can eat however much you want so there. 
15. Kind of wish you had celery to crunch on alongside this amazing concoction, but don't stress about it.

You're welcome.

Got Cold Feet (literally)?

I was contacted recently by the folks at Heat Holders, who were wondering if I would like to try their socks. Socks? Yup. You heard me.

I'm a person who is frequently cold, so I was game for a little sock experiment. And I'm glad I was. These things are somehow warm without making your feet sweaty. Soft and fuzzy on the inside without pilling and shedding between your toes. They're thick enough to wear as slipper socks around the house, and make perfect rain boot liner socks if you just have cheap rubber boots like I do.  :)

The only downside is that they are *so* thick that I can't wear them with most normal (ie: fashion) boots. But they're great in the winter, and for wearing around the house. I'm considering purchasing a striped pair, or maybe some leggings or tights. I'm really impressed with how warm they are while still being breathable!

I have a pair to give away, so if you're not lucky enough to be experiencing 75 degree Springtime days like I am, you might want to consider entering. Stay warm out there, my friends.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


While Heat Holders did send me two pairs of original fuchsia socks to review, I was not otherwise compensated for this post. I was not required to provide a positive review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Happy Purim!

The wonderful Jewish holiday of Purim is on Saturday! It's one of my favorites, so I thought I'd share a little bit about it. Big thanks to my girl Stephanie Nudelman out in NYC for being my "second pair of Jew eyes" to proofread this for typos and accuracy.

What is Purim?

Literally, the word "Purim" means "Lots", which is kind of morbid, because Haman (the bad guy) cast lots (aka choosing by lottery) to randomly pick a date to destroy the Jews. What a cool guy. More on that here from a sweet rabbi with an animated video.

But you didn't want a definition, you wanted to know what this holiday is all about. Well, like most Jewish holidays, it's about celebrating how we didn't die when someone wanted to destroy us. Fun! You may have heard the old adage, "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat!" -- it's pretty accurate.

So what's Purim all about? Imma break it down for you, easy peasy. Story Time!

Purim is a super sick feminist story from the biblical book of Esther. Esther was this hottie Persian Jew, living with her cousin Mordecai who happened to be the de facto Leader of the Jews. Nice cousin! The King was lookin' for a wife because his old wife Vashti wouldn't strip for his friends when he was like, "you're hot, I wanna show you off", and thus was sent to be beheaded (thanks to Stephanie for reminding me about that fun fact)...so with Vashti out of the way, he had everyone get together for a Parade Of Potential Harem Ladies. Mordecai was like, "Yo, E! You should go out for that parade! You're beautiful, and you're also super smart so maybe you'd bring some diversity to that harem!" - she paraded, and the King thought she was the Most Pretty Lady In Persia. Esther joined his harem, which, at the time, was a pretty good gig for a lady. Anyway, the King loved Esther more than everyone else, not knowing that she was a secret Jew (she had to keep it a secret because not everyone in that castle was pro-Jew), because she was basically all-around awesome and smart...in addition to being hot.

Beauty and Brains!
Classic!

After Esther became Queen of the Harem (and basically, Persia), Mordechai overheard some of the King's men talking about assassinating the king. He reported them, and the traitors were hanged. This is important later...

Meanwhile, there's this bad guy named Haman. He wears a 3-pointed hat, is the advisor to the king, and is generally just an egomaniacal, anti-semitic a-hole. Think Jafar from Aladdin. He hates Mordecai because he won't bow down to Haman...and Haman's the type to hold a grudge. So what does he do? He vows to destroy the Jewish people. He picks March 13*, a random day (by casting lots, remember?) and is like, "Yo King. The Jews are totally different from us, and they follow different religious laws, and (even though we've been living peacefully forevah) we should get rid of them." The King was not the brightest crayon in the box, and he was like, "ok, whatever you say, Haman, you're my advisor and I totally trust you." 

Mordecai was like, "ESTHER! YOUR 'BOYFRIEND' IS GONNA LET HAMAN KILL US. YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY! GO TALK SOME SENSE INTO HIM PLEASE! STAND UP AND SAVE THE JEWISH PEOPLE" Esther was like, "uhhh if I go talk to him without being summoned, he might kill me, because that's the way things work around this harem, but...this is serious, and I'm a badass, so ok."

Meanwhile, the King was having trouble sleeping (maybe because he'd agreed to exterminate a people? probably not...) -- he had his servants to read to him some recent Chronicles, which included the bit about how Mordecai saved the King's life. The King was horrified to learn that Mordecai hadn't been rewarded for this deed yet, and asked Haman how he should reward someone who the King wants to honor. Haman, who had been on his way to ask the King to hang Mordecai (because grudge-holding), thought the King was talking about him, so he was all "bestow the finest honors, put him in royal robes and parade him around the kingdom!" The King was all, "KEWL, THX, go get that started for Mordecai!"  OOOH SORRY HAMAN!

Haman, leading Mordecai around town.

Anyhoo, that happened, and meanwhile Esther had been fasting for three days to pray and mentally prepare herself to ask the King not to kill the Jews. She bravely went to see him even though she hadn't been summoned, and he was like, "Oh, Esther, I love you, you can come see me anytime!" To which Esther replied, "Really? Cool. So about that...I maybe forgot to tell you that I'm actually Jewish? And remember when you told Haman he could kill the Jews? Hey, don't let Haman kill me and my people." The king loved her so much that he didn't want her to die, plus he was pissed because he liked Mordecai now too, so he hanged Haman (and his 10 sons, just in case) on the gallows Haman had built for Mordecai.  [cue Alanis Morissette]  Mordecai became Prime Minister and Esther was awarded Haman's estate. Aaaaaaand the King reversed Haman's decree, and the Jews of Shushan (in Persia) were saved!

How do we celebrate?

This year we celebrate on March 15*, the day after Haman's intended Jew-Destruction-Day, because that's when the Jews celebrated way back when Esther saved them. 

The main requirement of Purim Celebration is telling the story of Esther. Which I just told you! Commandment: Fulfilled! During the telling, you're supposed to boo, hiss, make noise with noisemakers whenever Haman's name is mentioned, to "blot out the name of Haman". Along with storytelling, the other commandment is to eat, drink, and be merry...according to the Talmud (the interpretation of the Torah), we are required to drink "until you cannot tell the difference between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordecai'" -- whatever that means for you. Unless you're a recovering alcoholic, or you just don't drink in which case you are exempted from this commandment.

Ain't no party like a Purim party!

We also are commanded to give gifts of food or drink and/or make gifts to charity. A common food-gift is Hamentaschen, a triangular-shaped cookie meant to resemble Haman's 3-cornered hat. Some people fast before Purim, to commemorate Esther's fast. Other common celebrations include parades, performing parodies/plays of the story, holding beauty contests (although Esther was a strong, brave woman who saved her people...the king chose her because she was beautiful)

Delicious, delicious evil jam hats!

*Technically, we celebrate on the 14th day of Adar, which is a month in the Jewish calendar, and it's too complicated to explain here...so just know that Purim is usually in March.

You're Right! Purim is fun!

Yup. Thanks for reading! See also: this video by The Maccabeats, which (kind of) tells the story of Purim.

<3 Kim

Queen Bey as Queen Esther

YoCP February: Bookshelves Reclaimed!

And so we continue. The Year of the Clean Person marches on. It's February! And last month, you got a preview of what was to come. It was not pretty. There were almost tears. But I'm happy to report that February has come and gone in productive style, and I have a super series of photos to share.

First, let's check in with the before, courtesy of that preview post:

Note the poorly white-balanced photos due to an
abundance of natural light. Daytime photography!

And ok, I'll just show you the TL;DR...the after:

Note the poorly white-balanced photos due to a
lack of natural light. Nighttime photography!

Notice a difference? I do. I'm not 150% satisfied yet; I think there are a few tiny tweaks I'll want to do (like that horizontal gray book - The New Yorker Book of War Pieces, of course - that's unevenly balanced, for example), but that's being majorly nit-picky and I'm pretty satisfied.

For those who care about the ins and outs of this whole Bookshelf Reclamation 2014 Situation, I'll now explain the process in a lengthy photo essay. Feel free to jump down to the comments if you're not interested in the nitty gritty. Or watching the light change in our apartment, as this project took all day long.

OPA!

A few weeks ago, I attended the annual Food Fete in San Francisco, and as usual, got to taste all kinds of delicious foods. There was chocolate and cheese and meat and nuts and champagne and don't worry, I'll write about some of those things later, as I receive samples and arrange giveaways for you lovely people. For now, I present Litehouse. These guys do great dressings, made with greek yogurt so they're lighter and healthier, but still thick and creamy. I've been serving them as dips with carrot sticks, celery...and buffalo wings...mmm wings...ahem. I don't feel so guilty indulging, since they're made with yogurt and all :)

Feta Dill, Ranch, Caesar, Blue Cheese
Blurry, but delicious.

Litehouse also makes these dehydrated, "instantly fresh" herbs. When I first saw them, I figured they were just dried herbs. No big deal. But these herbs are much more flavorful than your typical dried herb, and they rehydrate and fluff up like fresh! The basil basically turns right into pesto if you add olive oil and garlic. Magic. I can't wait to try the ginger and garlic, which are some of the most frustrating things to chop and peel...rehydrating is much easier!

Ta-da!

And they're available at most markets, too (I found them at Safeway), which makes restocking quite handy...not that I'll need to restock for a while :)

Litehouse is letting me give away a package of their 10 most popular herbs, so lucky you! Get yo' Rafflecopter on below, and enter away! Contest will remain open until Friday March 7, and you can enter as many times as you want! It's not often I become an insta-fan, but I hope you enjoy Litehouse products as much as I do.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Full Disclosure: Litehouse sent me free samples of their products, but did not otherwise compensate me for this post. While I love receiving free treats, my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Santé Nuts!

At this year's Food Fete, I stopped at the Santé Nuts table for...quite a while. These are some delicious nuts, you guys. And I feel great supporting them -- Santé is the brainchild of a single mom whose kids suggested she sell the delicious spiced nuts she often made for them at home. They're roasted in organic canola oil, made locally in Santa Clara in a peanut-free environment, and are all natural, gluten-free, and vegan. And they're delicious. Santé sent me a sample pack of their snack-size bags, and Will has been eating them so quickly that I'm having to fight for my own! 

I did take a picture of the bags
they sent me, but this one by
Susan Burdick is way nicer.

To celebrate National Almond Day (which was yesterday, when I was originally going to post this), Santé is giving away 2 full-size bags of their Chipotle Almonds and Garlic Almonds. There are lots of ways to enter, so check out the Rafflecopter below!

They're also offering 20% off their almonds Sunday 2/16 – Saturday 2/22. Head to their online shop and use promo code ALMOND214 to get the discount on super tasty sweet or savory nuts!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: Delicious Ways to Serve Fruit

Hi friends,

I'm pleased to introduce you to Blake Daniels, a stay at home dad and blogger from Upstate NY. Blake reached out to me recently, hoping to post a guest-post on Kim's Kitchen Sink as he plays around with a new subject (food!) before launching his new blog in the Spring. Why not? :) I'm pleased to present his first guest post, about making use of a fruit-of-the-month gift...feel free to say hi and ask questions in the comments below! - Kim

Delicious Ways to Serve Fruit

I am thrilled to have received a very thoughtful Christmas gift from my wonderful aunt. She knows how much I love food, which makes this gift even more welcome. Every month for the year, I will receive a shipment of fresh fruit from Shari's Berries.  With a variety of fruit coming I now need to find different ways to use it rather than just serve it in its raw state. As a stay at home dad my primary goal is to create healthy dishes for my family with the delicious fruit coming my way.  Here are a few of my ideas.

Right away next month in February my delivery will be of Bosc Pears.  For some reason I am excited to try a new dip for the big game, a Pear Salsa. This side dish takes advantage of the juicy and mellow components of the pears.  If there is any leftover I think a pairing with roast turkey or chicken might work.  Adding some nice acidity and brightness of flavor to the savory roast bird. The recipe uses simple ingredients and is easily prepared. I will be using this recipe from Epicurious.com for my salsa. 

Tangerines come “March”ing in next.  This will be a difficult month because tangerines are delicious and I tend to eat three or four of them at a time.  But I will have to restrain myself for the sake of Aunt Alice’s gift.  After trolling the Internet I came across this amazing sounding salad with my featured fruit of the month.  An Avocado and Tangerine Salad with Jalapeno Vinaigrette.  That sounds amazing and right up my ally.  I’m thinking I’ll save this recipe for an intimate night with my beautiful wife.  I found it on Bonappetit.com so feel free to look for yourself.  

With the showers in April come Strawberries.  They are the perfect ingredients for delicious and healthy strawberry smoothies. My kids love the flavor and they provide a healthy drink for any meal or snack.  We like to add almond milk and yogurt to thicken ours up and add even more flavor and texture.  I simply just throw everything in the blender and let ‘er rip!

Skipping ahead to November we get my favorite apple, the Fuji Apple.  They have a great firm texture and a sweet almost pear apple hybrid flavor.  They are an ideal baking apple.  But I don’t want to make the conventional pie.  I still have time to decide about these apples but some ideas I am tossing around are homemade chunky applesauce, doughnuts, turnovers, Apple Dessert Nachos?  I haven’t decided yet!

I love this gift and am very thankful to my aunt for thinking of it. I look forward to the exciting dishes I can create. Each month brings a new fruit and a new adventure.

Bio:

Blake Daniels is a native of Upstate NY and is constantly trying new things in the kitchen. His newly started “hobby” has slowly evolved into a full-on obsession overflowing the pantry and refrigerator (according to his lovely wife) with fresh produce and new exotic ingredients. He's still learning the ropes but is lucky enough to have plenty of willing friends to serve as taste testers (or guinea pigs) for his latest recipes.

Superb Owl

We hosted a last-minute Super Bowl party, and you guys, I think I've figured this thing out. Turns out, if you have a party where all the guests are going to be sitting in one room watching something on the TV that you don't care about, you can spend the party cleaning, and then only have like 1.5 hours of cleaning to do when the party's over!

Ok, I realize that I sound pretty lame, and I'm probably angering feminists everywhere by admitting I spent the party in the kitchen. But honestly, I had so much fun hanging out in the kitchen and guest room, chatting with girlfriends and doing dishes. Tidying the living room and clearing trash as it accumulated, instead of waiting until the party was over, and bringing out more food when we ran low. And sure, I watched the game here and there. I caught the halftime show. I socialized. I held a baby. And then, by 8:45pm, I was on the couch with my feet up, catching up on Saturday Night Live all alone in my quiet apartment.

Yes, again, I realize that I sound really. super. cool. like. someone. you. totally. want. to. party. with.

But hey, I do throw a mean party. The food was killer, folks had a good time, and I even tried a new recipe for Sriracha hot wings (pictured, top row and left) that is a definite keeper. Will smoked ribs, and even though they took nearly 6 hours, they were worth it. Gorgeous, delicious baby back ribs.

I really need to take better photos.

Folks filed out at the end of the game around 6:45, Will left for his hockey game about half an hour later, and by 8:45, I was relaxing in the quiet, with furniture all put back in place, and dishes done. Usually, it takes us a few days to recover from a party, so this was hands-down the fastest post-party turnaround ever. I love throwing parties, and I consider myself a damn good host, but there's something peaceful about having the house back in order before you go back to work on Monday. 

Someone (besides my mom, who I know feels the same way) please validate these feelings and make me feel like I'm not the only one who would be so thrilled about this. 

YoCP: Bye Bye, January, Hello Love

My Year of the Clean Person is off to a great start. Not only did I make my January list and blog about it, I worked in a couple of bonus projects, and I calendared the SHIT out of my year! Check it out, guys. 

I know, I'm a little insane. But it's so pretty! It's so easy to see what's planned for when...and I'm hoping it'll be easy for us to pick things to do each month. Just grab a card and get to work!

And bonus: once you're done, you get to flip the card over to reveal a congratulatory note. Some of them are even themed to the project (ie: "clean out fridge > tasty!" or "hang bedroom mirror > lookin' good!"), because like I said, I am a crazy person. 

Onward to February...and here's a sneak peek of the "before" pictures. February's a busy month, and we've definitely got our work cut out for us.

You can see the "bins by the couch" on the left there, and
just the piles and piles of books that can't fit on the shelves.
Oh boy.

Cowl me anytime

This blurry picture represents the beginning of a new knitting project. What? Knitting? I know, it's been a while. But semi-regular crafting club lunches at work have gotten me in the mood.  Besides, it's...cold? ish? Ok it's not that cold out in California these days, but it is technically Winter, and there are days where it's cold enough to wear knits. 

So I'm making a cowl. It's my first cowl, and in true Kim fashion, I'm not going off a pattern. I have a hard time paying attention to patterns, since I usually knit in short spurts while on public transit, and also? I kind of like just knitting and seeing what happens. I'm doing a seed stitch, and Kath helped me guesstimate how many stitches to cast on (we settled on 111). And we'll just see how it goes!

My first round was nearly impossible to knit. I cast on pretty tightly, and the yarn (Waverly for Bernat) isn't very stretchy. Honestly, I almost quit and tore the whole thing out, vowing to cast on more loosely next time. But I persevered, and I'm glad I did, because once I got past that first awful row, it was a lot easier to knit. My seed stitch pattern is a little wonky - it was hard to tell which stitch I was on because it was so tight and I was blinded by frustration - but I'm not worried about a few mistakes on the end, and I'm back on track now!

I haven't made much more progress, not enough to photograph, but I'll keep posting pictures as I go. This thing will take a while, I'm sure, but maybe I'll finish it in time to wear it before summer?

A Casual Experiment

This week, I've been experimenting with the Casual Carpool. What's that? You've never heard of such an insane thing before? It's pretty insane. Basically, you line up at a designated spot in the East Bay, strangers pull up, you get in their car, and they drive you to a designated spot in San Francisco. 2-3 passengers per car, suggested-not-mandatory donation of $1, and carpool lane all the way, baby!

Casual Carpool has two websites (one and two) if you're interested in checkin' it out, for no apparent reason except that maybe one is the old one and one is shiny and new, and they didn't use the same URL? Multiple twitter accounts, too. I don't expect much organization though...after all, the whole point of CC is that it's relatively disorganized. Or...you know...casual.

Anyway, I've been experimenting with CC in the mornings, since the pickup spot is about halfway between my house and the BART station, and the drop off spot is literally on the same block as my office. Super convenient, and gets me to work earlier in the mornings!

Here are my findings:

Monday: First day, a little unsure of what to expect. Only one person waiting in line, but no cars to be seen. Within about 2-3 minutes though, someone showed up and off we went! I'd forgotten it was MLK day, so the 14 minute stop-to-stop ride was a pleasant surprise. Left the house at 8:40, was at my desk by 9:05. Cost: $1 (I offered to contribute a dollar, since the last time I drove, passengers all chipped in). Drivers dropped off on the left side of the (one-way) street, but it was still the same intersection, so whatevs.

Tuesday: Crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, on my first CC day with normal commute populations, but only had to wait about 3 minutes for my turn to get into a stranger's car. Was going to offer to chip in $1, but I didn't have any change, and nobody else in the car offered. Driver didn't seem to mind. Noticed how lovely it is to see the city (and the water, and the Golden Gate bridge) from above ground on your way in. The driver took a different exit from what I'm used to, so it was interesting to see a new way to get to work. He didn't seem like he was going to stop at the customary intersection, so I asked if I could hop out at a red light. Cost: $0 /Time: about 35 minutes door to door.

Wednesday: Huge line when I got to the stop, around 8:50. Waited about 5 minutes or so (felt like longer, but that's lines for ya) and got in a car. Nobody offered to pay, and the driver didn't ask, and I still didn't have change, so another free ride for me. Got in at about 9:20, so about half an hour door to door. Driver exited the same way as Tuesday's driver, and asked where we wanted to be dropped off (since her end point was several blocks past the customary drop off point). She pulled over and I hopped out, pretty easy.

Thursday: There was a pretty decent line, and the wait was almost 10 minutes. It was almost 9am, so I was worried there would be no more cars and that I'd have to resort to BART...but joy of joys, a car pulled up at 8:59am (same driver as Tuesday). She took a different route to get to the freeway (again with the learning new ways to get to the city!), and I was at my desk by 9:22. I'd left the house at 8:40, so that's still 40 minutes...but it was free (she didn't ask for money, and again I was an idiot with no change) and still took 10 minutes less than it takes me on BART. So far, so solid, CC.

Friday: I woke to my husband's alarm with a start at 8:30, after accidentally sleeping half an hour past my own alarm. I had planned to leave the house at 8:30 and get an earlier start on the CC line. Oops. Amazingly, by 8:37 I was out the door, and despite a line of 12-15 people, I was in a stranger's car by 8:48. This driver listened to the Steve Harvey Show on the radio, which only struck me as odd because the other 3 drivers in my small sample set all listened to NPR (which didn't surprise me at all, given the community-casual-carpool-bay-area-vibe thing). She was actually kind of rude, snapping monosyllabically and interrupting the guy who asked if she was going in a direction past the stop (sometimes people will ask the driver where their end point is in order to get dropped off closer to where they, the rider, are trying to go). After we got out, the guy said this driver is always like that. But whatever, who knows what's going on in her life? I was barely awake anyway, so I certainly didn't mind the silence. We pulled up to the stop in SF at 9:07, which puts my door-to-door at approximately 30 minutes. Oh, and the "I'm not going to talk to you and I seem actually kinda annoyed that I let you get in my car" woman didn't ask for donations, so I didn't offer. But going from dead asleep to at the Starbuck by my office in 40 minutes? Baller.


Overall, I think this is awesome. It allows me to be a bit more flexible with my mornings (I only get a BART train every 15 minutes, so if I miss one, it throws off my schedule), and it saves money (I saved $17.75 this week! Even if I paid $1 every day, I'd still save $13.75/week over taking BART). And it's much more pleasant than the super-crowded morning trains. The only downside is the relative unpredictability. If I have an early meeting that I need to get to, I'll probably BART rather than risk not having a ride and getting pushed back. But on most days? Riding in Cars with Strangers is the way to go.

Casual Carpool, I think I love you.

Bonus Projects

I just posted my YoCP January Project...a massive list, calendaring all of my home-related projects for the year. Oof. It's gonna be an exciting year!

I kicked things off today with a few teensy tiny projects, just to feel like I'd done a little something visible in the house. I was inspired by Jolie posting her list and the bonus projects she's already done. So yeah - two little things done!

First up, hanging a mirror on the door of the
guest room closet. I've had the mirror for years
(it used to be the only full-length mirror in the
house), but never figured out where to put it.
A couple of velcro Command strips later,
BOOM. MIRROR. 

I also hung this cute little clock that my
mother-in-law got me for Christmas.
It's plastic, and made for a kitchen, but I
thought it worked better in the bathroom.
I even already had a nail in the right place
on the wall (it looks higher than it is in this
picture). Super easy, and we didn't have a
clock in the bathroom before!
Also, hanging the clock meant cleaning off
the top of the craft cabinet, since it was in a
pile on top of the cabinet :)
Bonus Goal!

So, those are the two bonus achievements of the weekend. I need to grab myself some colored index cards so I can make my fancy hang-it-on-the-wall calendar...kind of like a cleaning advent calendar for the whole year, really. 

Have a great week, clean friends.

YOCP January List

So a few weeks ago I mentioned that I'm participating in the Year of the Clean Person. Well, the year has begun, and here we go! I'll be documenting progress here, with the hashtag #YoCP. Follow along, and let me know if you're doing it too.

January: Make Your List! 
I've been thinking about this since I read it, and I've started keeping a list on my phone. It looks like this.

Yes, I'm using the "notes"
app that comes on the iPhone

The trouble with using the iPhone notetaking thing is that it's not very easy to organize. And it's not easy to share. And it's not easy or satisfying to check things off when you're done. Ok, that's three troubles. But it's easy to use when I think of things as I fall asleep, which is usually when I think of things. I could use some sort of project management tool, sure, but I think I'd rather just make my list and keep track here. More fun for you! I also have a cork board that I use for house projects that I'll update so Will and I can keep track together. Another post on that (before the end of the month!) when it's done.

But first, I'm dividing my list into Evening Projects and Weekend Projects, to better keep track of what can be accomplished when.

Next, I'm assigning projects to months, sticking to Jolie's YoCP Calendar wherever possible.

February: Reclaim Your Bookshelf and Bins by Couch
Yes, please. Definitely on the February agenda! I assume this is a one-weekend project, so I'm going to add organizing/purging the bins by the couch as well, since that's something I can do in the evenings.

March: Let's All Make Our Beds Misc. Bedroom Cleaning
Thanks to #LAMOB last year, I'm pretty good at making my bed every day. Or at least, my half of the bed (Will is usually still asleep when I leave). So instead of LAMOB, I'm subbing in Misc. Bedroom Cleaning. This includes cleaning/organizing the tops of our dressers, fixing the lamp by the side of my bed, and hanging the full-length mirror (which I'd really like to do before March, but hey we'll see).

April: Create Your Dream Bathroom and Clean the BBQ
This will include fixing the tiles on the floor (something I volunteered to do; our landlord reimbursed us for the supplies, and I've still never done it) and cleaning/purging/organizing the medicine cabinet and linen closet/drawers. Maybe even getting new bathmats or something as a reward. I'm also going to add Clean the BBQ to the April list, because it needs to get done in time for Spring and Sumer BBQs (if it hasn't happened already by April, that is).

May: Winter Clothes Purge and The Big Closet
My version of the Winter Clothes Purge is mainly going to include purging old ski gear and coats, which are all in The Big Closet anyway. I'm saving The Big Closet for May, because it's usually a slower month for us as far as social activity goes, in between ski season and camping season. Plus, Spring Cleaning and all that. Depending on how April goes, I might try to get a head start on this one. And since June is just Car Wash month, I'm giving myself the leeway to spill over into June if necessary. The Big Closet is a bit intimidating.

June: Car Wash
Yeah, I could probably stand to give my car a sweet car wash, re-clean the headlights, check on the emergency supplies, clean out the glove box, clean out the door storage things, etc. 

July: Shoe Purge and Frame/hang artwork
Time to purge the shoes, mine and Will's, but mostly mine. I'd really like to get to this before July, but hey, if it happens it happens. If not, July it is. I'm also adding framing/hanging artwork to the list, because we have a lot of artwork we need to hang up. First it needs to be framed. Would be cool to get to this before August, but it's not likely to happen, so I'm scheduling it in. And I don't have 

August: Clean Out Your Desk and Guest Room Boxes
The small desk space we have could use a clean (namely the secretary desk that stores stationary), and I'm going to use this month to also deal with the boxes of wires, papers, and other miscellany that are hanging out in the guest room.

September: Summer Clothes Purge and Entryway/hooks
Yup. Purge those summer clothes, yo. I'm also going to add hang hooks and organize the entryway in time for winter coats to come back into regular use.

October: Kitchen Organization
I'm tentatively leaving this one on here, and including the hutch/dining room area, though right now I don't have a real plan. Hopefully getting rid of things, reorganizing the party supplies, maybe paring down some little-used items.

November: Clean Out Your Fridge & Pantry
This will probably be a good idea by November. Probably a good idea already, but hey, I'll wait until the pre-holiday season.

December: The Holidays Are Busy Enough, Take a Break And Admire The Work You Did This Year!
You got it, Jolie!


Oof. I think that's everything. Here we go. Anyone with me?

Smokin' Turkey Soup

iPhone photo. High class.

About a month ago, we hosted a party to celebrate the (very very) soft-launch of a little side project of mine called Potluckiest. The food was pretty much out of this world (I mean, come on), and everyone's contributions were outstanding. But the pièce de résistance was our smoked turkey.

The turkey was brined and smoked and gone very quickly. There was quite a carcass left though, and it smelled so good that I had to turn it into stock. Mr. Turkey turned into about 6 cups of stock, and 4 cups of shredded turkey (I thought we had picked it clean...it's amazing what 6+ hours of boiling over the course of 3 days will do!).

And if you're worried that the shredded turkey had no flavor (how could it possibly, after being boiled for so long?), worry not. It's still very flavorful, and shredded so finely that it didn't get chewy or tough. Instead, I was left with a delectable pile of meat, and several cups of stock, both of which sat in the freezer for about a month.

Until Monday night.

Hungry and looking for carb- and sugar-free options, I remembered the turkey business taking up valuable freezer real estate and decided to improvise. [sorry excuse for a recipe starts now] I browned up some garlic (in a little bit of lard, because...I had some in the fridge), tossed in the frozen hunk of shredded meat, popped the cylinder of stock out of its tupperware, and set it to work in the Le Creuset. I added whatever was in the kitchen (a green bell pepper, some cipollini onions, a little olive oil, a little white wine) and let it defrost as it simmered. Added a can of tomatoes, and a can of black beans, which turned out to be great ideas both, and also tossed in fresh kale and chard from our garden because lah di dah. I don't even remember what spices I threw in there...chili powder, black pepper, lemon pepper, paprika, oregano...unidentified-red-curry-type-spice-whose-label-has-rubbed-off. It was all good.

Topped that baby with some avocado, Greek yogurt, and Tapatío and BOOM. That is some damn good smoked turkey soup.

There are about 4 cups left, hanging out in the fridge in glass jars, waiting to be reconstituted with a little more stock and wine. And there are still 2 cups of stock and 2 cups of shredded chicken hanging out in the freezer.

Healthy, delicious, and filling, this soup-from-scratch makes me feel like bragging about my culinary prowess. But guys, it's too easy. I can't get all high and mighty (besides, that's not the KKS way) and condescend to you about the joys of cooking from scratch and my magnificent stockpile (get it? stock - pile? oh I slay me) just waiting in the freezer.

I have a lot of stock at the moment. It's true. And making it is time-consuming, but it's not hard. (add carcass and/or veggies to a big pot. cover with water. boil until it tastes good. strain out the stuff. freeze the liquid or reduce it down further and then freeze it. boom.) Because it takes a while, and good-quality stock is pretty readily available for purchase, I don't always believe it's worth it...but this soup is worth it.

I guess the lesson here is that if you're going to take the time to smoke your own meat, you should take the time to make your own stock. Lesson learned. It's really, really worth it.

Re-frigerator

When we moved into this apartment two years ago, we figured it was only a matter of time before the fridge crapped out on is. It looked like it was from the 1980s, what with the beige exterior and brown plastic drawers. But it worked. Until a few months ago, when we started seeing random puddles on the floor in front of the fridge. I'm pretty sure it was just water, but you don't really something leaking from your fridge. I assume.

Luckily, we have a great landlord who didn't hesitate to buy us a new fridge as soon as we told him what was up. Now, it's not some super fancy appliance or anything, and it's probably not what I'd choose if I just got to go shopping, but it's new and (I presume) leak-free. And because I'm a lifestyle blogger, it's basically my duty to document and post before and afters, right?

Front of Fridge: before and after

Inside of Fridge: before and after

The new fridge has fewer shelves, and no meat-and-cheese drawer, and only one butter-area-in-the-door-thing, but everything fit, with a little (not much) room to spare -- the two fridges are similar in capacity, just with different layouts. I think I'm going to explore some options for more efficient storage in there, but for now, it all fits. And it was free. And it's done. Phew!

And I treated myself to 3 of these and a small cup of dried fruit and unsalted nuts as a snack. It's a "cheat meal" day (tonight is unlimited wine and deep dish pizza date night), but I barely consider the dark chocolate banana bites a cheat, since it's a tiny amount of dark chocolate...hardly any sugar at all (though if it wasn't a cheat day, I probably wouldn't have eaten them).

We had a lot of beer and wine in the fridge.

Any home improvement type things going on in your house? What recommendations do you have for inside-the-fridge organization?

A Few Days In

I'm trying to start this year off on the right foot after my annual goal-setting post, which means jumping right on top of some of the aforementioned goals...no time like the present to pretend my preference isn't for procrastination! 2014 is a year of ACTION, baby!

Yesterday, Will and I (finally) got glasses (no really, we've been talking about it for 10+ months...talk about procrastination), and walked the ~2 miles to/from the optometry center instead of driving. This is the type of "building more activity into my life" I'm talking about. Choosing places to go that are walkable, rather than places where we need the car. Opting not to drive, because we live in a place where there's lots to walk to. Not only does it feel awesome to take advantage of all that's hyperlocal, it's easy built-in exercise as well.

The eating-less-gluten thing is going well: I'm pretty much thinking of it as "no carbs/sugar except two meals a week". My cause doesn't really need to be gluten-specific, and it's much easier to avoid carbs in general than only glutenous ones. It's going alright so far, though it does make things like chocolate cravings and eating out challenging...but knowing there are cheat days built in makes it more tolerable. 

And I played the piano for about 20 minutes last night, too. I've been having lots of fun with my Sara B songbooks (thanks, sis), though it might be time to get the piano tuned pretty soon...

On the cleaning front, the house feels almost overwhelmingly full right now -- while we've mostly unpacked from our holiday travels, we seem to have an unending supply of...things. Bags of unopened mail, magazines to sort through, and of course, a few tubs of holiday decorations to take down and pack away! I'm motivated, I'm ready, and I'll be participating in Jolie Kerr's Year of the Clean Person (#YoCP), which I find much more realistically approachable than Apartment Therapy's exhaustive but intimidating January Cure.

I'm especially excited about February...our bookcases are a hot mess. I'll be sure to take before and after shots, don't you worry. But for now, it's January. January is "Make Your List" month. So it's time to start making a list. Per Jolie's suggestion, I'm going to go around the house making a list of things I'd like to do, and then post it here. Because making it public puts the pressure on.

Stay tuned.

What's Winter?

This is what I pulled out of our garden last night. On January 4. Yes, those are tomatoes.

Living in California is wonderful.

The Annual New Years Post

Looking back on last year's intentions, I didn't make much progress. Yikes.

2013 Recap:

Exercise more, by finding a routine I enjoy -- it was great for the first 4 months. 30 Day Bootcamp was fun, and I kind of felt myself getting stronger, even though I didn't lose weight or flab. But then it turned out that boot camp is not good for my knee, and I spent May through December on and off different physical therapy regimens (mostly because I am terrible at PT upkeep).  I was doing yoga once a week and ballet once a week as well until around July, when my knee just got too bad to really do much of anything except whine. 

Feel healthier and stronger; take care of myself -- well, I totally failed on the "actually do my PT exercises" front, and I didn't lose weight. I did get my eyes checked, though I failed to get new reading glasses (this month! I swear!). 

Eat more hearty salads -- Sure, I ate salads. But as the weather got colder, the amount of fresh, raw, hearty veggies I ate quickly diminished.  

Spend more time in the present -- I tried this on and off, and it's a constant struggle to step away from the gadgets and focus on the present. 

Get organized about our finances -- we're lucky enough to not have had to do this in 2013 because of financial struggles. But it's time to start preparing for the future, like adults. 

Make a plan for finishing areas of the house -- Hell yeah, something I've actually done! The guest room is functional, and we had a siiick veggie garden this year. 

So this year, it's more of the same. Organized into categories.

Health:

Let's see what it's like to eat less gluten.5 days a week, I am going to cut out processed grains and sugars from my diet. That means 2 days a week, I get to have cookies and bread and pasta and ice cream and beer...but only once/one meal per day. Why? Everyone's on this anti-gluten kick right now, and while I'm not much one for fad diets, and I love bread (and sugar) too much to forgo it altogether, I've heard that the benefits (dropping weight, healthier digestive system) are pretty high. You may say, "Don't worry! Once you stop eating it, eventually you stop craving it! I never even want bread anymore!"And to that I say that a life without a crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside sourdough baguette is not a life in which I am interested, sir! 

So 2 days/2 meals a week it is. Until Mardi Gras. If all goes well for the next two months, I'll pick it up for another two. And another. We'll see. 

Get the knee healthy.An unhealthy knee totally puts a damper on fun life plans, like hiking and skating and dancing and you know, going up and down stairs. There's a lot of PT work to do, and I need to do it. I need to do it. I need to do it. Dammit. 

Build more activity into my life.I want to try the Zaaz. I want to do more Kinect. I want to take walks. I want to be more active in general. I really do, despite the (laziness) evidence to the contrary.

Home:

Make Big Closet Better.The closet off our dining room is large and wonderful, and is a giant pile of mess. I want it not to be. Part of this is creating a gift wrap station, and a place for luggage/bags, and better-organized camping gear, and less messy hockey gear...much to do. 

Finish purging the guest room.It's still full of boxes, though they are more organized and tidied now. I'd like it to actually be nice-looking, and not just a pile of boxes tucked onto a bookshelf.  

Hang art.In the bedroom, more in the guest room, in the hallway. We have a lot of art that needs to be framed and hung, so why are we waiting. 

Finances.We've been discussing lately how we should start saving for a house. Or for kids. Or for travel. But after nearly two years of marriage, we still haven't sat down to talk about money. We're lucky that we haven't had to, that we've been able to live within our means pretty easily, without much thought. Trust me, I know what a blessing that is. But now that we're starting to think about The Future, we should probably get a better understanding of the various bank accounts we each have open, where our savings is, where it should be, etc. and make some actual decisions about how and where to save.

Happiness:

Make more music.Last week, my dear friend Amelia (one of my first college friends) stayed with us, and last night, we were joined for dinner by our other dear college friend Matti. We sat at the piano and messed around and it was such serious fun that I can't believe I don't do it more often. 

Will and I are both somewhat musically-inclined, and we have a piano...as Amelia said, "What an old-fashioned, wonderful way to spend an evening." It's old school entertainment, no devices needed, and it was incredibly fun. I'm going to try to improve my piano chops, get back to that ukulele I was trying to learn this summer, and just make more music. 

Leave work at 5:30pm.This means getting in earlier (oh no! Getting to work by 9:30am! The horror!), but I really want to stop leaving the office between 6:30-7pm, especially when I do get in around 9:15 or 9:30.  

Invest in our relationship by spending time alone together.We are very good at keeping busy, doing things with friends, and even maintaining our separate hobbies and interests. But over Christmas, we spent an afternoon out shopping for gifts, just the two of us, and it was so much fun to just hang out alone together...wandering around downtown Olympia, driving around town looking for gifts, stopping for a snack. Simple things. But we don't do that when we're home, really. In the interest of efficiency, we'll run errands separately. In the interest of being social, we'll fill our calendar with fun plans with friends. But we don't invest much time in just spending time alone together, and I was surprised at how surprised I was to have that moment of "oh yeah, it's fun to do stuff together, just us." That shouldn't be a surprise!

I have a seriously packed 2014 ahead of me, with a trip to New Orleans, friends visiting from abroad, a ton going on at Disqus, a side business to launch, an organization to help run, and a wedding (not mine) to plan. None of my resolutions/goals/intentions relate to any of that stuff. But it's important for me to set personal goals as well, to take care of myself and my home life as much as I take care of others and my work life (lives).

Who knows if I'll actually accomplish all I've set out to do? The important part (for me, anyway) is taking a little time to reflect and set some intentions. And now's as good a time as any to do that.

What are your goals for 2014? Did you do all you set out to do in 2013?

Drawerganization

This weekend was a big one in terms of productivity and home organization. If this isn't your bag, you may want to stop reading now. If you're like me, though, you might be excited to live vicariously through a weekend of drawerganization.

My gal pal Dina came over, having offered to help me organize the craft cabinet. It was in dire need of help, which has become clear to me when planning recent Crafternoons and realizing I can't find thing I know exist. Now that it's time to start planning Holiday Crafternoon (and pull my knitting needles out again), I figured I should take some time to get the lay of the land, supplies-wise.

Before: It was a mess in there
Not pictured: middle drawer, since it's just yarn

After: Two drawers, organized easy peasy!

Special Thanks to the IKEA drawer inserts, without whom this would not have been possible. But bigger thanks to Dina (and Reed, and baby Parker) for their moral support as I got rid of things I've had for 15+ years. Like the plastic office supplies cart (like this, but black) and scrapbook supplies drawers I've had at least since college, possibly longer. There's now room for almost everything from both (which used to live in the guest room) in the craft cabinet, because I also got rid of a grocery bag full of school supplies (spiral notebooks and folders that I clearly do not need). I put the two plastic organizers and the school supplies out on the street, and they were gone within 15 minutes. Magic. I also threw out two grocery bags of trash, and bagged up boxes of old checks to take to the bank for free shredding. A little more progress made on Mission: Get Things Out Of The Guest Room!

Oh, and I also put together my new laundry sorter, finally replacing the one I've had since 2006 (one of those flimsy mesh-and-plastic ones where the poles always detach from the corners). The new one is super sturdy, and I love how I can just pull the bags out to carry them downstairs. The fact that the bag is compact, with handles on top, makes it super easy to carry them down our narrow, winding staircase (when I carry the plastic hamper, I have to hold it over my head to see where I'm going). It has a smaller footprint than the mesh one, but the bags hold the same amount of clothing. So far, I'm in love.

oooh fancy!

See also: I am obsessed with the Target Threshold line. The end.

This Is Halloween

It's not too late to share Halloween pictures, is it? Good.

After the Nightmare in Elmwood, I was determined to have an awesome Halloween. And it was just the kind of low-key fun time I was hoping for. We had an awesome work party, with pumpkin carving, witches' brew, a costume contest, and lots of rad decorations...all dreamed up by my kick ass People Ops team. They really are the best. And bonus: I got to carve an extra pumpkin, which I took home to replace our stolen babies.

After work, our lovely friends Sonja and Jack came over and we headed down to the neighborhood block party. Now, this neighborhood goes pretty nuts...the street shuts down for several blocks, people do crazy displays and interactive walkthroughs in their yards, and it's estimated that we handed out 2,000 pieces of candy over the course of about 3 hours (the cops shut it all down around 9pm). The block party is family-friendly, and there was a wide range of costumed folks out there, from the babies that were almost too cute to look at to the teenagers we forced to explain their "costumes" in order to receive candy.

After the festivities, we headed back to our place for candy and youtube videos (Chromecast, thank you for working!) and seasonal beers. A fine mix while catching those last groups of trick-or-treaters. I tell ya, after reading this, I have a new place in my heart for the half-costumed teenagers. And what the heck, why not give out the last of the candy at 11pm?

Anyway, here are my photos from Disqusoween (work party) and Halloweevening (after work). I hope your Halloweens were fun and spooky and candy-filled and just as awesome as you wanted them to be.