Friday, December 26

The Pantry Challenge or The Grande Failure


Well, I have to admit, and I'm not terribly ashamed: I have failed beautifully, I only got as far as taking inventory on the lower pantry & freezer, I even had the brilliant idea of putting them on a list on my iPhone so I'd always have that important info at my fingertips.  I still have not done the upper pantry or the fridge, it's just SO daunting - I have countless little jars of this & that in the fridge...
So I failed.  I pretty much KNEW I would.  December is a crazy month spent entertaining, potlucking & being too busy in general to make eating frugally a priority.  (Which is a whole 'nother topic & problem of mine!) 
However, I did LEARN a LOT about myself thru this process of sincerely trying and of failing.  I learned that I definitely have a problem with buying too much food.  I am not very good at planning ahead, which tends to be pretty darn necessary when eating more nourishing foods.  I am also very lazy - there, I said it!   I want to make this new lifestyle a priority, I want to learn a rhythm to integrating these habits into my daily, weekly, monthly life.  I tend to live in cycles, I'm sure that's not unusual.  I have periods of time, where there are lots of social commitments that take up your time, energy & focus.  There are periods of time where, I am able to make home more of a priority.  And there are periods of time when we travel & no matter what I try, it has been impossible to get back into whatever rhythm I had finally worked out previously.   And then I have these cycles of excitement to try all these new things & I just go crazy - I tend to be a bit extreme, all or nuthin', you know?  And then overall that, I tend to get very overwhelmed & very frustrated that I can't seem to bring it all into focus & achieve these goals I've set for myself....
So, while we're talking about goals, with Christmas being over now, and 2009 quickly approaching, everyone is already talking about setting New Year's Resolutions.  I generally try not to bother, knowing I will simply let myself down & all that...
So this year, Kimi from the Nourishing Gourmet has a marvelous post that I found very encouraging about setting realistic goals, rather than 'not bothering' at all.   I read her post tonight on the way home from my 5th and hopefully final Christmas and I felt encouraged & inspired.  Instead of 'not bothering' again this year, I will give it some thought & really try to boil down all my many aspirations to just a few, and to make sure those few really make sense at this point in my life....
Stay tuned...

Thursday, December 25

Merry Christmas to all!



Happy (belated) Christmas to you!
Just wanted to pop in & share some things...
I always get more excited about giving things at Christmas, our family has always placed great emphasis on giving & helping the needy, etc....
With that said, I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but it's relevant to my quest & thus, relevant to this blog, so bear with me....
I SCORED!!!
My lovely husband gave me a grain mill!  It's been on my wish list for a few months, so I'm very excited to try that out & stop buying pre-ground flour from the store! 
I got a new computer, so that should help me post with greater ease, thus hopefully my posts will be more frequent & more interesting with pics & possibly videos...ooo, imagine the possibilities...!
And lastly, our digital camera died last month, so we have a nice new camera, it has all sorts of bells & whistles, but most important, it takes video & it has a 'food' setting...I can't wait to try it out!
Anyway, again, not to brag or anything like that, just to say I'm now very well equipped to be a better blogger in the coming year & I was so excited about that I had to share...
Hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas Season & looking forward to sharing healthier foodie adventures with you in 2009!

Saturday, December 6

Pantry Challenge Week 1

So here's the promised snaps of my Pantry, Before & After:

Before: Pasta & Grains
After: Pasta & Dried Fruits

Before: Baking Supplies
After: Baking Suppies

Before: Cereal & Snack
After: Cereal & Grains

Before: Spreads & Teas
After: Spreads & Teas


Look at my formerly messy pantry, it feels so great to know that it's all organized & clean!

Sorry about the picture sizes being wonky - technical difficulties! After remodeling the house, I 'moved into' my kitchen in October '07 and I am loathe to admit: I don't think I've cleaned them or re-organized them since! How embarrassing!
Thank goodness for the "Challenge"! What better excuse/encouragement?

We be Jammin'....


So my Friend, Terah cam over today & we JAMMED! I started at 8:30, she came at about 10am, and by 4 pm, we'd completed 9 different flavors of Jam - I now have every spare surface in my kitchen & dining room covered with Jam Jars!!

Here's what we did:
Wine Berry Jelly
Strawberry Jam
Jalapeno Jelly
Pear Raspberry Jam
Lemon Strawberry Marmalade
Red Onion Marmalade
Habanero Gold
Orange Marmalade
Strawberry Vanilla Bean

Pretty amazing!

Oh, and I did get a second wind after Terah went home and forced myself to make:
Mint Jelly
Mint Vanilla Bean Jelly
Lemon Mint Jelly
Herb Jelly

Bloggy Friends

Erin

My photo
Santa Susana, Ventura County, CA, United States
Me? Well....I have a day job selling travel to beautiful far away lands, and I love to travel - my job sort of supports & feeds the 'travel monster' inside me. But my other inner monster is: food in all it's facets. I have a 13 yr old DS from a previous life, and married the lovely JoeBacon a three years ago! I finally became a home-owner at that point, we did a huge addition/re-model right away to make the house a bit bigger & I got a wonderful new kitchen out of the deal! I've gone thru Culinary School twice (mostly for fun) 'cuz I love to cook! And thru reading/doing the Maker's Diet 2 years ago, became aware of Sally Fallon, Weston Price, etc...and now after about 9 months of exploring their world, I'm trying to really make it all part of mine. I've had some things turn out great & others have been miserable failures, but I'm learning a LOT (mostly from my fellow NT Bloggers)!! Now I'm enjoying my yard, garden, sprouting, baking bread, brewing Kombucha, using raw milk, making Kefir & Yogurt & just trying to find small ways to make yummy food better for us.