Cleaning Out!

Hubby-Bubs can be the King of Clean! Tonight, inspired no doubt because it's trash night, he decided to clean out the fridge and freezer. A little self-promotion: while on Spring Break, I did clean out all our kitchen cabinets. However, I do tend to be the kind of cook who roots around trying to find an ingredient or spice--that's how we end up with three open containers of cocoa powder. My bad.

The good news is that the fridge and freezer were fairly free of duplicates (although there were some questionable containers of 'mystery meat' that I had failed to properly label).

While this may seem a non-sequitor, stay with me, as I will bring it back around: after school today, there was a wonderful smell coming from the after-school program. After picking up Daughters #1 and #2, I learned that they were making quiche. The best part was that they were making it from ingredients grown in the school garden and from the eggs our newly-acquired chickens had laid.

The conversation went on to include Hubby-Bubs and there was an excitement about quiche. Hubby-Bubs said, "I would like to have quiche again sometime." I mentioned that, ironically, I had put quiche on my list of test recipes for Duffy's Kitchen.

Misc postings as I contemplate..

My Spring Break is about to end. And I know what faces me on the other side...a period of time without naps, without time to read my favorite news periodicals, without the opportunity to decide each day what my day might hold. A time to take a breath. But I DID get to do that..an I'm grateful.

Shortly, I will dealing with people that I don't want to deal with because of their negative vibe, but I will ward that off with my good vibe, which, at some times, can leave me exhausted. It takes energy to not let someone "yuck your wow!"

It was so nice to un-plug. And we didn't go any farther to do it than our own yard. And I am a revitalized woman...hopefully ready to take on those negative forces.

Bamboozled!

Fish taco night was Friday--did I mention how incredibly tasty they were??!!! I'll post the mango salsa recipe soon, so look for that. The true trick to tastiness is a lightly bread the white fish - I like tilapia - gently fried in vegetable oil, not olive oil. Anyhoo--because we have some leftovers fit for a Mexican meal, I decided to indulge Daughter #2's request for fajitas. We sandwiched a meal of chicken parmesan in on Saturday in order to take advantage of some leftover spaghetti, but the Duffy fam does like Mexican!

I have uncooked chicken left over from last night and picked up some beef at a great price. More mango for more salsa and an avocado and tomatoes for Daughter #1's fave--homemade guacamole (recipe is posted, but you'll have to scroll down a bit).

Unfortunately, my great deals were undone by the fact that I, along with my daughters, got bamboozled by the "attention all Kroger customers...we have a free gift for any adult shopper now in front of the deli counter." Suffice it to say, there was a free gift--albeit small--followed by a demonstration of a "new" cooking gadget which you could buy for 40% off--ONLY today. Yeah, right. Well, I was ready to move on, but the Daughters got caught up in the hoopla, and then I got caught up in theirs. Now we are owners of some sort of 'chop-o-matic' that promises to make culinary magic at the slightest of ease in under 2 minutes. We'll see. For now, it's being hidden from Hubby-Bubs in the pan cabinet. He'll never find it there.

In any case, I'm certain the fajitas will be super yummy. I plan to entice Hubby-Bubs with a couple of beers and a game of cards (letting him win, of course) before I bring out the new "fandangled" chopper so that when he says, "When did we get that?" I can play off the "Oh, this old thing?" relatively well. Hopefully when I make salsa and guacamole in under 5 minutes, all will be forgiven.