photh booth props

Since my brother’s wedding is officially only about a week away, I decided I should probably get around to making the photo booth props I said I would. I wanted something sturdier than paper/cardstock, so I decided to try foam core, on the advice of a d.i.y. tutorial.

Let me tell you, that ish is hard to work with. In theory it seems simple. 1. Trace desired shapes, 2. Cut them out, 3. Paint/spray/decorate them and glue on the wood dowels. Easy, right?

Except cutting through foam core without massacring the edges, let alone the shape itself, is next to impossible. Luckily, painting said foam core after the fact really disguises those flaws pretty well. Still, after three only semi-successful prop attempts with the foam core,  I was on the verge of resorting to the heaviest cardstock I could find when Trevor pulled some “fun foam” out of his ass.

Okay, it actually came out of the crafter’s paradise that is his office. But who else just has this stuff lying around? I’ve never been happier that my husband is so craft-y. This stuff is amazing. It’s thinner than the foam core and because it is more solid, the shapes I cut out actually resemble what I originally traced. The only downside is that the material isn’t as paint-friendly, and right now he only has green colored fun foam on hand. I’m going to Michael’s tomorrow and I hope they have some different colors for me to work with.

Anyway, I still need to attach the dowels, and make more props, but this is what I’ve got so far:

food rut

I have been in a food rut, for – I feel like – going on two years.

Lately, though, I’ve been trying to eat a little healthier (smaller portions, more veggies, less breads/pastas) – nothing revolutionary, just trying to instill some better habits. But I keep coming up against the fact that I eat the same three or four things over and over and over again – not only does it get old, but also none of those things fulfills the aforementioned “eating healthier” kick I’m on. Here is what I eat (over and over again) on a regular basis:

Frozen ravioli or tortellini with either brown butter and parmesan or canned meat sauce.

Noodles with butter and seasonings. Occasionally alio e oilo (spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and red chiles).

Frozen entrees (usually pastas again, or Pot Pies)

Note that almost all of these revolve around pasta – note also that there are no veggies to be seen. Note, thirdly, that all of them are quick and easy to prepare. I like to cook, but working six days a week plus being broke does not always lend itself well to that endeavor. I’m about to – finally- be back at five days a week at work, and I’ve been out of school for over a month now, so I am hoping to get into a more regular cooking routine. Still, even when I cook more involved meals, I generally cook one of these 6 things:

Ground beef and onion gravy over mashed potatoes

Chicken enchiladas with mexican rice

Bacon-wrapped mock filets with mashed potatoes

Breakfast (fried eggs, bacon, toast)

Chicken tettrazini or pasta w/cream sauce casserole

Spaghetti Carbonara

Again, note the preponderance of pasta/bread-y carb-y-ness and complete lack of veggies. As many people before me have found, it’s hard to eat healthy when you want it to be a.) quick, and b.) inexpensive – but then for me, I feel like you have to also add on c.) like anything you would normally eat. And that makes it even harder. So eating healthier, for me, is not just about changing habits like how much I eat at one sitting, but it’s also about trying new things, branching out and adding more variety into my diet.

Things I’ve tried lately (and loved!):

Thinly-sliced apple on top of a toasted bagel with cream cheese – drizzled with honey. Or the same thing but with Feta instead of cream cheese.

Orange slices and chopped pear, mixed with fresh mint crushed with equal parts sugar. Last night I added some mixed greens and a balsamic vinegarette to take it from snack to salad.

Quiche with cheat’s frozen pie crusts. Broccoli, cheddar, onion, heavy cream, eggs – cook up the broccoli and onion a bit, add everything together, pour into pie crust, pop in oven and wait 40 minutes. So easy, and so filling, and I can’t wait to try it with different ingredients! This is especially great for someone like me, with eating habits still somewhat resembling those of a nine-year-old who has to be forced to eat vegetables by hiding them/slathering them in butter or other bad stuff.

All three of those new-to-me recipes came from Offbeathome’s Cooking Challenge. Because I read offbeathome.com regularly, they were just kind of thrown in my lap, which I think it what made the difference. They looked like interesting things to eat, so I tried them. When I’m usually looking for new ideas for things to cook, it’s hard to think outside my own little cooking box – so even just finding a recipe that is appealing but different from what I normally would gravitate to is challenging.

Initially I told Trevor that my attempts to eat healthier would probably require grocery trips every few days, which was exhausting even just to talk about much less actually do. I do think the days of once-every-three-weeks grocery trips need to go the way of the dodo, since that always means great meals the first couple days and then shit for the rest of the three weeks since freshness is a factor. But the idea of going to the grocery store every other day is also just…ugh. So if I can be a little more creative about what we eat and how we use different ingredients hopefully I can get away with a once a week trip. I think this is definitely going to require meal planning, though, and that has always been a challenge.

I’ve heard of services where they send you a recipe a day or a weeks worth of meal plans, and I’m seriously starting to think maybe this is a worthwhile idea. I’ve always scoffed at this idea, like, jeez, I don’t need someone to tell me what to eat. But actually, I think that’s EXACTLY what I need at this juncture in my life.

One of the things that really impresses me is when people make a grocery list wherein they use several of the same ingredients in multiple dishes throughout the week – without the dishes being the SAME dish or even overly similar. This is a skill I really have not been able to grasp. I eat leftovers, so I almost never cut a recipe in half even if it’s for 8 people and I’m just feeding my husband and me – we will (usually) get to it all in the course of a week, although then I don’t make that dish again for a few months because we’re so over it at that point. The idea of being able to eat something different every night without having to go to the grocery store 3 or 4 times a week is really appealing, so I feel like this would be a useful skill to have – I think it just requires a lot more creativity than I currently possess in terms of repurposing different foods in different ways AND  making sure a leftover doesn’t feel like one.

Clearly I’m familiar with the idea of staples – mine are just bad for you: pasta, rice, etc. And I think it’s helpful to kind of rethink the idea of a staple – I’ve always thought of it as something on hand all the time, which necessitates that it needs to be packaged/processed/frozen food, which also is not good for you. If I can start to reimagine the staple as something that is just on hand for a bit, that might go a long way. For example, I used apples 3 different ways in 3 different recipes this last week – clearly, an apple won’t stay good forever, I can’t just have them in the shelves at all times, but I sort of made it my staple-of-the-week by using the same batch from the same grocery trip in multiple ways. I just need to get better at doing this more often.

Lastly, I read an article in the NYT the other day profiling Peter Kaminsky’s efforts to “eat well by focusing on healthy items that deliver maximum flavor” that has also kind of inspired me. I am not a big fan of overpowering herbs, curries, seasonings, etc. – but I do think there is something to the idea that if you focus on the flavors you like (in my case, tarragon, thyme, mint, onion, garlic) and use them more liberally, you kind of get more bang for your buck, which might help you to eat less food over all. As the writer of the article explains, “the idea is that by amping up the taste, you can satisfy your cravings with smaller portions”.

I am by no means espousing covering everything I eat in mint or using WAY too much garlic – but I do think that if I choose foods that are more flavorful and make smart decisions re: adding flavor where needed, it will probably help me to feel more satisfied with what I’m eating and therefore eat less of it.

Anyway, to all these various ends, I’m on the lookout for new-to-me, flavorful, non-pasta recipes and if you have a meal planning service or tool that you love – or even just some tricks of the trade you’d like to share – I would appreciate it greatly if you would send it my way!

now what?

Last week I graduated from beauty school. My girls at school did it up big with the decorating and the balloon-getting and the flower-giving, as evidenced below.

Graduating was much-anticipated, obviously, but also bittersweet because I no longer see my friends 5 nights a week, guaranteed. I went out with my ladies that night and then spent a fair chunk of the ride home from work the next day trying to rework “Beauty School Dropout” from Grease into “Beauty School Graduate” – but other than that, school pretty much just….ended.

It’s sort of odd having something you do every week day for 2+ years suddenly disappear from your calendar. I imagine this is what it must feel like to retire. I get home after work and kind of just putter around the house, trying to decide what to do. I’ve been cooking a lot, which is nice. I see my mom more often. I need to clean – I’ve got hosting duties for our next Cookbook Club AND my dad’s coming to visit for my brother’s wedding. None of this is happening until May/June, but, knowing me (and the state of our apartment), I should probably get started now.

I’m also back to internet daydreaming, which I haven’t done in awhile – I spend a lot of time looking at houses on Zillow.com, and dogs on Family Dogs, and I’m actually able to regularly catch up on my Googlereader feed, too, now. Someone at school asked me if my graduation would mean the potential for the pitter-patter of little Emis anytime soon – but all I’ve done lately is order books on Amazon titled “Beyond Motherhood” and “Families of Two”, so chances aren’t looking good. Then again, I like to do this thing wherein I alternate between reading those kinds of books and reading the “getting it out” birth stories on offbeatmama.com (and not as a deterrent) – so, clearly, I’m still conflicted.

Really, I’m just anxious to get started already (cutting hair, not having babies). As could be predicted with the mass disorganization at my school, there were some hitches in getting my transcripts transferred over to Oregon Health Licensing Agency so I can test and get my license – “hitches” as in they still haven’t been transferred. So I signed some papers and dropped them off, did my online exit counseling, etc. – and now hopefully they can be transferred, but when I said today that I am hoping to take my tests this coming Monday, the woman who works in financial aid gave me this kind of “hrm” face that, in one facial movement, succinctly expressed sizeable doubt that would, in fact, happen. So, we’ll see. But I really would just like to be licensed already, and even better, cutting hair – for paying customers, even!

Assuming all that works out, I’m slated to start behind the chair May 1st. I’ve got new clippers, a bunch of new combs and brushes, and then all my perfectly-adequate old stuff, too. I’m weirdly excited about claiming my chair at the shop – I mean, specifically about setting my station up, it’s funny. There’s an empty chair, it’s right by the front desk, it’s mine, really – but not yet.  I stare at it every day thinking “soon, my darling….soon”. I also stare across the street at The Container Store thinking “soon, my darling…soon”, since I will probably end up going there so I can spend too much money on a couple plastic containers to hold my combs and such – any excuse to make a trip to organizing heaven, really.

The night before the day I graduated I was kept up thinking about all the asshole customers who have ever come into our shop and the likelihood that I would have to deal with them. Beyond that very real, and specific fear, there’s been a more general unease about the whole “hey, I know the last 4 years you’ve been coming here, I’ve been the receptionist, but now I’m gonna cut your hair, k?!” thing, too. But lately I’ve become less and less concerned with either issue.

Asshole customers fluster and confuse me – I’m great at customer service up until the point at which someone becomes irate, belittling, or unreasonable. I keep my head, and I don’t think I ever make it obvious how upset/angry/annoyed I am, but I also kind of just lose all my steam and direction, and I’m pretty sure neither me nor the customer leaves the conversation with any sense of satisfaction at all. This is because, while I’ve never been the type of person to just be like “well fuck ‘em!” and even just the basic act of standing up for myself is a skill-set I am still evolving, I also am not the type of person to just be like “yes, sir, whatever you say sir” – something in me just rebels at that, at least as it pertains to people making silly requests or being outright rude. So what happens is this weird inbetween thing where I very politely tell you why I won’t help you – it’s like I’m trying to plant this little flag of defiance but I’m using a toothpick and the whole time I’m kind of apologizing for putting it there.

However, one thing I’ve noticed over my years in customer service is that assholes are (usually) only assholes to the people at the front – as soon as they get in the stylist’s chair they’re little angels, maybe because you have scissors, I don’t know. But, I can’t count the number of times when I’ve said to a stylist after the customer left something along the lines of “that guy sure was rude to me” and the stylist has been absolutely dumbfounded at the idea that we could be discussing the same customer that sat in his/her chair. Also, as my coworker, Chris, frequently reminds me, “hey, you only had to deal with him for 10 minutes, he has to walk around like that all the time”.

Secondly, most of our customers are pretty chill. I try to remember that when having these unbidden panic attacks about the few-and-far-between assholes that frequent our shop. I like our customers and I think most of them like me, too – the ones I know anyway. Will they maybe be taken aback when I come to get them for their haircut? Will I have to go out of my way to prove to them that I know what I’m doing? Sure. But I can’t control or help that initial reaction and I was going to do that anyway re: the working hard bit, so I’ve officially decided not to freak out about that.

Basically, I’ve totally psyched myself up at this point so now, for the first time in the two years since I started school, the waiting around and watching other people cut hair is actually kind of unbearable. Combined with the surplus of free time at my disposal, there really is just a huge “now what?” hanging over my head.

Oh well, I’ll just cook some more, and figure the rest out later.

 

the cleaning bug

Today is one of those random days when I just get the itch to clean something. For those of you not keeping track at home, this pretty much never happens. Even weirder, I just flew back into town late last night and then went to work the first part of the day, and on top of that I’m coming down with something, too. It makes no sense – so much time that I spend hearty and hale and only when I am tired and congested do I decide it would be a good time to do a deep clean in our bathroom? Whatever. When I am blessed with the energy and desire to tackle these kinds of household jobs I just go with it.

Honestly, I think I know where this newfound (and certainly temporary) motivation is coming from. I went and saw my bestie, Sarah, in Austin this weekend, and her house is adorable. Your first time staying in a friend’s new (to you) home, you’re definitely looking around and checking things out. A lot of the stuff she has is the stuff she had shortly after we graduated college and I’ve seen it, but it’s a new place with some new things added in, and it’s just totally adorable – well-decorated, expressive of who she is and what she likes, and CLEAN.

Now, I realize, most people do clean before guests come into town, and it’s possible her house isn’t always that clean, but it’s probably always that uncluttered because she just doesn’t have as much shit as I do. After my visit with Sarah I found myself thinking two things: one, I want to have less shit, and two: my bathroom is filthy.

And I’ve had people over with it looking like that. And I knew it looked like that, and I didn’t care that much at the time. But I found myself profoundly appreciative of how clean and orderly her bathroom is and when I stopped to think about it later I was like “huh, probably because I actually hate how dirty and cluttered mine is, but also equally hate taking any time to do anything about it” – and then I subject my friends and family to the product of my laziness.

Also, Sarah was like the world’s perfect hostess – inevitably I compared myself to her and found myself sorely lacking in the clean-places-to-go-pee department, no matter how advanced my skills in alcoholic-beverage-refilling and better-side-of-the-couch-sharing. Also my Christmas tree is still up.

Secondly, I’ve been watching a lot of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy ever since it showed up on Netflix. They go into these single-straight-dude bathrooms and point out how dirty things are, how disorganized everything is, how no one should be subjected to these bathrooms – and, let me tell you, the Fab 5 would be pretty grossed out to see mine – they’d probably be like “wait, a woman lives here? aren’t they supposed to care about this stuff?”

Anyway, the point is: I’ve been cleaning my bathroom all afternoon. The toilet is beautiful now. I cleaned the sink and counter, and I’m currently trying to unclog the sink drain a la Jezebel’s recent post on the matter. If I get nothing else accomplished all week, every time I walk in my bathroom I’m gonna feel pretty fine with that.

I’ve said this before, and it hasn’t taken hold yet, but I really think the idea of just cleaning one room or one area at a time works best for me – I can only go on very focused cleaning frenzies. I’m not one to lightly clean everywhere so much as to deep clean in just one place. And then the rest of the house may be disappointing, but at least I have one room that’s perfect. My strategy moving forward is just to clean like this – one task or one area at a time. But I also DO need to go on a major throwing-shit-out, giving-shit-away bender if I ever want to have the uncluttered home I desire with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Being me, my first impulse is just to run out to Target or The Container Store or Ikea and go apeshit buying up all kinds of organizational bins and bookcases and the like – but I really think that’s foolish. I mean, I do need more things to help me keep stuff organized, but I think step one should be getting rid of a bunch of crap. I just kind of have a girl-woody for the idea of organizing – actually doing it is not as fun as buying the cute little patterned boxes and such. So I’m making a new rule – I’m not allowed to buy new storage unless I have first cleaned out an area and will actually have an immediate use for said storage, which should actually also make my storage shopping a lot more focused and useful. See? Just the idea of picking up a few of these storage boxes makes me want to get started cleaning out the hallway closet.

But not today. No, not today.

I kind of suck at this, but I’m going to keep doing it

Man, epic fail.

I remember last year when I wrote that my new year’s resolution would be to write a blog post once a week. Instead, I wrote 19 posts over the course of the entire year. That’s, like, 0.37 posts a week. I don’t feel that bad about it though, guys. I’ve had a busy year – actually a busy couple of years. I’m gonna let myself slide here – but, then, I was never not going to let myself slide.

I actually just can’t believe how quickly time seems to fly by now. It drags when you’re young and all the old people are always telling you it’s going to fly by quicker than you could believe – and you can’t believe it, not yet. I feel like I wrote that resolutions post yesterday instead of last year.

A lot has happened and nothing at all. Still in cosmetology school, although that’s done in May. Still at the same job, although our revenue is up. Still happily married. Still just about to start that diet, right after I eat this one thing…

Speaking of which, the third meeting of the cookbook club is this weekend! It’s easily my favorite new thing from last year, and I hope it continues in some incarnation for months and years to come.

Reasons for me to be excited for 2012:

I graduate in May and can get my hair design & esthetics licenses and start working in the field a couple weeks after that. BOSS.

I am traveling and taking time off this year, I think moreso than the last two years, maybe combined (maybe not). In February, I’m maybe taking a weekend off to go camping. In March I am definitely going to San Antonio and Austin, Texas to visit my dad and my bestie, Sarah Mcabee. In June, I am probably only taking a day or two off since it’s semi-local, but still…to go to Erin and Eddie’s wedding (and to do Erin’s hair for said wedding!). Finally, in November I am going to NY (state and probably the city, too) for Ryan & Sarah’s wedding (different Sarah), which will be amazing all on its own, but will also be a mini-reunion of a bunch of my college alums PLUS the first time I’ve been out east since I left in 2007 PLUS hopefully the first time Trevor has been east of Wisconsin if he can come with me (I hope he can!) That’s probably about as much time off as I dare take in one year, but I also really want to sneak a quick trip down to California to see my much-visits-relegated-to-some-later-date bestie from middle school, Shawna. Her son is almost 3 and I still haven’t met him.

I am excited to (hopefully) be in a house (rented, but still a house) come the middle of this year (roundabouts). Living with roommates is going to be an adjustment, but I’m actually really excited – I think it could be a really positive adjustment. For one thing, my house will probably be cleaner than any of the four of us currently keep our own separate spaces since living with others kind of requires clutter-free living. For another, it’ll be nice to have a little bit of community at home. We all want to maintain our space, but I think we’re also all excited for the occasional shared meals and hangout time. I’m also excited to have laundry in-house, a yard and/or porch to hang out in/on, and no shared walls (well, except with the actual roomies, of course).

Mostly, I am excited to get my life back once school is done. I will miss my cosmetology school girls a lot, but I long for the spontaneity that my life has been almost totally missing since I started school. I also long for the ability to make plans with people that don’t revolve around my no-days-off, when-can-we-fit-it-in schedule. And I am really excited to do all the fun things I’ve been (mostly) holding off on over the last couple years – like joining a pool league, doing a weekly or monthly trivia night, hosting game nights, and doing more crafts and projects even when I’m at home.

Lastly, let’s be honest, one of the most exciting things happening this year is going to be my ability to earn more money while doing something I really like to do. I’m excited about getting tips, I’m excited about never having to not have lunch or not have my morning coffee for lack of a few bucks, and I’m excited to start getting really aggressive about paying down my mountain of debt. More money for the win!

Later this year, I might even blog more. But I’m making no guarantees.

sweet success

Tonight was the first meeting of my and Erin’s cookbook club, and I think I can officially proclaim it a success. Erin expressed the sentiment that sometimes when you’re planning something new that you’re really excited about it just doesn’t seem real until it’s actually over – then you’re like “whew, it happened – it’s real”. I couldn’t agree more. This is especially true when you’re planning something that involves a lot of other people contributing to the event – you kind of wonder if it’ll actually all come together after all, but then everyone shows up with food and wine and actually talks about the cookbook and the art of cooking and it’s like YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Despite my last minute flurry of cleaning and baking (finished my Queen of Sheba cake around 2:30am yesterday), it was totally worth it. And, as Trevor points out, now our house is clean to boot!

This time we cooked from Julia Child’s “Way to Cook”. Erin’s Onion Quiche and Allie’s Chicken and Mushroom Roulades were the clear frontrunners for me, although I also thought my own Queen of Sheba cake turned out really well. I had worried that it looked a little dry, but once you cut into it it turned out to be very moist.

My mama had a great idea to change the format from picking recipes from a single cookbook to picking recipes from a single cook, which will give us a little more flexibility and also make it easier for everyone to get ahold of recipes without having to buy a cookbook if they don’t want to. Our next meeting, in January, will be based around Jamie Oliver’s recipes, but the list we made of future candidates is as follows (in no particular order):

- Giada de Laurentis

- Ina Garten

- Nigella Lawson

- Rocco Dispirito

- Bobby Flay

- Guy Fieri

I like this list because it includes cooks whose recipes I already like and cooks who I am not as familiar with (and in some cases, not even fond of) – I think this is good though because it forces you out of your cooking comfort zone.

I have a feeling even just the act of going to this cookbook club is also going to force me out of my eating comfort zone. Tonight I ate something with mushrooms in it and something with minced shrimp in it – two ingredients I would normally stay away from. I think all of this is good for me.

The group as it was tonight also seems to include a nice mix of skill levels. Erin has a cooking blog and my mom is an excellent and experienced cook. Sarah cooks all the time, although she, like me, is not necessarily as comfortable with some of the more complex recipes with lots of unfamiliar steps. Before last night, I had never beaten egg whites to form stiff peaks, for example. Or melted chocolate in a kind of makeshift double boiler.  It’s hard to gauge where everyone else is from one go, but it seems like most of the rest of us are at that same “comfort food” level. It’s going to be fun to have all these sort of inexperienced cooks or comfort-food cooks try out more complex, fanciful food on occasion. And it’s a great reason (excuse?) to buy new kitchen gadgets and cookbooks and spices and such. Sarah bought a food processor and the “Way to Cook” cookbook this go-round. Even though I have one Jamie Oliver cookbook, I’m pretty sure I’m going to use our next meeting as an excuse to buy another.

Everyone had great ideas about the club, too. Aside from my mom’s cooks-not-cookbooks suggestion, someone else suggested we do a breakfast/brunch-themed meeting in the future and Erin thinks it would be fun to do a meeting based on seasonal ingredients sometime as well – potentially even drawing ingredients from a hat and then you have to make something involving that ingredient as the main component, an idea I LOVE. I want to do a picnic/al fresco meeting once summer rolls back around. And we’ll probably try to do at least a few meetings earlier in the day. I’ll have to take time off work to do that, but if we’re only meeting every other month, that’s not too much of a hardship for one or two meetings a year.

I loved the group that got together tonight, but I do think those that couldn’t make it really missed out, and I hope they and perhaps others might be involved in the future.

Last, but not least, here are some pictures I took of the spread – although by the time I remembered to take them, a lot of it was gobbled up already:

acorn squash two ways

I’ve been in the mood to cook lately. Part of it is because I’ve been on vacation and whenever I have more free time the first thing I want to do is cook again. Another part of it is the weather, though. Whenever it starts getting colder, there are certain dishes I crave.

Last night I made acorn squash stuffed with ground pork and buttered breadcrumbs, something my mother just turned me on to a few weeks ago when she made it. Trevor doesn’t like squash so I just put his ground pork on top of mashed potatoes, but that also meant more squash for me. I ended up making half the squash savory, stuffed with the pork, and the other half sweet, with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. That sweet acorn squash has been a fall/winter standby in my family since I was little. I actually used to hate it – or rather, refuse to try to eat it. But as I’ve grown older both my tastes and my openness to trying new things has changed a lot, and this is one of those things I now love.

The other great part about both the sweet and savory versions of this acorn squash preparation is that it is SO easy.

For savory acorn squash with ground pork:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (f).

Take an acorn squash, wash and dry it, then cut it in half lengthwise. You may want to use a vegetable peeler to gouge out a little even plain on the bottom of the squash so that it will lay flat in your baking dish.

Scoop out the innards of each side of the squash and discard.

Rub the inside of the squash with a little olive oil, and set aside.

In a skillet, fully cook your ground pork. You can add whichever type of flavorings/herbs/spices you want. I just kept mine simple with salt, pepper, and a little paprika.

While the meat is browning, put a tablespoon of butter in a mug, add in a heap of breadcrumbs, and microwave about 30 seconds. Then stir them together to make sure all the breadcrumbs are nice and buttery.

When the meat is done, fill your acorn squash with the meat, top with the breadcrumbs, and fill a pyrex baking dish with about an inch of water and set the acorn squash inside it, “hole up”. Now it goes in the oven for 45 min-1 hour. Check at 45 min to see if you need to keep cooking them – they are done when you can easily pierce the squash “meat” with a fork.

For the sweet acorn squash:

Do the same prep on the squash, including rubbing with a light-tasting olive oil.

Then take 1-2 tablespoons butter and put it in the squash. Cover with 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar. Then sprinkle cinnamon on top to taste.

This squash is cooked exactly the same way: fill a pyrex baking dish with about an inch of water and set the acorn squash inside it, “hole up”. Now it goes in the oven for 45 min-1 hour. Check at 45 min to see if you need to keep cooking them – they are done when you can easily pierce the squash “meat” with a fork.

The nice thing about the cooking time being the same is you can do just as I did and make a sweet and savory version in one by doing each half differently – then you have an entree and dessert!

I’ve been slowly trying to clean the apartment for Sunday’s Cookbook Club meeting, but I’ve gotten precious little done. I’m feeling very sloth-like lately, and the only things I really want to do bear directly on the kitchen area alone. So, besides cooking – today I am also attempting a chicken stew after being inspired by Erin’s post over at Gingers Like it Hot - I also was able to reorganize/clean out our cabinets, something I have been wanting to do for awhile.

I’ve been trying to be much more conscientious lately about using the stuff we already have in our kitchen before going out and buying new stuff. But almost every time I went to grab something out of our cupboards I kept finding that it was past its expiration date. On the one hand, this just verifies that I am correct in my thinking that we should be trying to use those things first, since clearly we otherwise do not get to them in time. It’s also making me a little more savvy or aware of what I am buying and whether or not we are actually likely to really use it. But on the other hand, it’s totally depressing. Although we bought these items over many months (even years in some cases, gasp!) – it was still sobering to see two giant paper bags FULL of food that I had to throw away. What a waste! But oh is it satisfying to see our nice, bare cabinets, properly stocked only with things that are usable. Although I don’t have a before photo for comparison, I really think the after is a thing of beauty regardless:

Anyway, I’m supposed to be cleaning and my stew’s almost ready. I’ll let you know how that went tomorrow!