Storecupboard Progress

Inspired by Quince Tree 65, I decided it would be a good thing to make a list of all the provisions we have in our food cupboards, fridge and freezer. I especially like how QT65 used a different colour for protein, carbohydrates etc. I was full of good intentions, but after eating dinner and washing up, I have managed only to turn out the tea and coffee shelves and the small dry goods cupboard.

I do this periodically anyway as it is good to know exactly what you have and haven't got lurking in the back of your cupboards, and I like just being able to check my spreadsheet to see if I have the right herbs and spices for a particular recipe rather than having to go and check. I like the feeling of everything being shipshape and catalogued neatly - a relic of so many years spent working in libraries coupled with the autumn feeling of squirrelling away stores for cold weather.

I am so tired this evening I can barely keep my eyes open, so I am signing off to go and snuggle in bed and fall asleep listening to Radio 4. Tomorrow evening I am going to tackle the larger dry goods cupboard, and the fridge and freezer. The next part of the plan is work out which things that I like to keep a stock of need replenishing (tinned tomatoes, lentils, arborio rice etc) and which things I need to use up (frozen meat etc).

Then is is just a case of working the latter into a menu plan, and seeing how well I can do with the Storecupboard Challenge that I mentioned last week. I have How To Feed Your Family for £5 A Day by Bernadine Lawrence to read to get some ideas. I think my Mum used to have an older edition of this when I was a little girl, so I am hoping to discover some forgotten childhood favourites in there, as well as some new ideas.

Heaven forbid that either of us should ever be in a situation where we start the day with our jobs, but end it without, but I like to think that should that happen, or should we be snowed in, or whatever else, we could not just survive for a few days, but eat well.

What are your favourite store cupboard items?

Love Mimi xxx

New Domestic Routines

Earlier this year, I treated myself to The Art of Homemaking programme over at Brocante Home, and I am so glad I did. I have always enjoyed Alison's writing and programmes, but this one seems to really click with me somehow. Maybe it is because it is the one that I need right now? Who knows...but it is all about housekeeping as a way to prime your canvas for homemaking. It helps you to develop your own routines, so your home runs like clockwork, and you have the pleasure of knowing that everything is taken care of.

With going back to work full time, and this short time of having 3 jobs, and it being spring, which always makes me want to start fresh, it really is a good time for me to get some good routines going to support me. The other evening, I found myself alone, so I sat down with some notebooks and got scribbling.

First I made a list of all the jobs that have to be done in each room every day, and then every week, and then periodically, perhaps monthly. Then I took the 'every day' tasks, and tried to put them together into a morning and evening routine, so they will be done on automatic pilot. One small tweak I have made is rather than taking the rubbish and recycling out in the evening (Carl often used to do that after one of us had done the washing up) I am taking it out on my way to work in the morning. It is only a tiny thing, but it means I am doing it when I would be going out anyway rather than one of us going out in the dark. Early days yet, but the new daily routine seems to be working nicely for us.

The big decision I had to make as far as cleaning went was if I wanted to do a different room each day, a different task each day but in all the rooms, or do everything on one day. For now, I have opted for the latter. The plan is to do it on a Monday when I come home from work, unless I am working late, or we are going out or having company for dinner, in which case I do it on Tuesday. Then if I have done it on Monday, on Tuesday I choose one 'periodical' task like defrosting the freezer or cleaning the oven (I wipe it out after every use so it doesn't need doing more often!). If I have done the cleaning on Tuesday, the periodical task moves to Thursday. Friday I write a menu plan and do the grocery shopping online, and clean out the fridge ready for the grocery delivery. Sunday is the day for fresh bed linen. Carl likes to have a hand in some of the tasks, so the laundry tends to be his, although I do put it on from time to time, but in general I have not included it here, as he takes care of it.

I got home from work yesterday afternoon, and felt a little tired. I didn't really feel like cleaning..it was a beautiful afternoon, and I would rather have sat and read. But I looked around and realised that it would be so much nicer once everything was clean and in order. I also realised that I couldn't do it on Tuesday because I am working late. So I put on some music and got down to it..and I am really glad I did. I finished just before Carl got home, by which time everything was clean and neat, and I had candles burning in the living room, and lavender oil in a diffuser burning in the bedroom. The kind of home you would want to come home to. I hope the routines will help keep me on the straight and narrow and not be tempted to put things off! I think that having a regular day for menu planning and ordering groceries will be a really good thing too. Over the last few months I have found it harder to settle down to doing it regularly, so of course I end up buying some milk on the way home, something for dinner, something for our lunchboxes, which really adds up. So I think this way will save us some money as well as being more organized!

Talking of being organized..I did want to post about our Mothering Sunday, but I want to go and get dinner ready now, so when I come home from work this evening, it just needs to go in the oven to reheat, so I must away to that.

I hope that spring is smiling on you today
love
Mimi
xxx

ps I have taken to using a lot of natural cleaning products based on vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and lemons. I am really pleased with how efficient they are, and I was also thinking that I know a lot of friends with children who have bought all kinds of cupboard locks to make sure their little ones don't drink their Cillit Bang or the like...it made me realise how wrong it is to use chemicals that could kill us to clean with. Ok, if the baby drinks the vinegar it isn't going to do it any good, but it isn't going to do it as much harm as if it gets into the bleach bottle. As well as being good for the purse and the environment, homemade natural cleaning products are just better all round! They make sense...and with essential oils, you can choose how they smell, as well!

Written In The Stars

It's funny, what we believe, isn't it? I don't believe in stars and horoscopes as in 'a tall dark stranger is coming into your life' but I do believe in certain astrologers (such as Jonathan Cainer) being able to give you a kind of 'weather forecast' as it were. I know from experience with working with the public that we can tell when a full moon is coming from their behaviour! I was given a free booklet of week-by-week predictions at the start of the year, and for me the theme seems to be change. Now I am not great with change! I rather like routine and am a creature of habit. I tried to brush thoughts of sweeping changes out of my mind, but it must be written in the stars, because things are starting to happen! Firstly, of course, there is the change to the opening hours and days of my little library on the hill. Swiftly followed of course by the will-I-won't-I-have-a-job review at my other library. Oh, and in 8 weeks time, we are offically homeless as we have given in our notice to quit! Really, we have outgrown our flat and need somewhere with more storage and closer to town, but it feels terrifyingly scary to know so little about what my life is going to look like in just 8 short weeks. In 8 weeks I will know if I have a job, and if so, where, and be living somewhere else! Eeek! We viewed two properties tonight, the second one I knew as soon as we walked in it was not for us. The rooms were small and dark and very tall, and there was an oppressive atmosphere. Although it had more rooms than the first property, it seemed to have less space. Not for us at all! The first place though, I fell in love with. It only has one bedroom but is large and airy and spacious, and I just walked in and felt at home. I have phoned to say we want to take it, but have to hope we get in before anyone else as property rents so quickly. It is not ideal as it is available before we have to give this place up, so we may have to run them both for a month. It is making my tummy bubble with nerves and excitement all at the same time! I am at once overwhelmed by the thought of packing all our things up and moving, but do think it is a great opportunity for us (by which I mean me) to have a good declutter. I am a hoarder by nature, but the idea of having fewer things, and everything being super organised really appeals to me. I think it will be exhausting and I know it will be overwhelming at times but yes, we are ready. So please, do keep your fingers crossed for me that we get this new little flat! It would mean a 10 minute walk for Carl a day to the station instead of his current 50 minutes! More space and a new start somehow. I guess what is written in the stars is bound to come true, it is all change for us at the moment! Also, I am having a birthday tomorrow. I will be 29...the last year of my 20s. I have had some wonderful times in my 20s, and I feel sad in a way that they are coming to an end. I don't like finding grey hairs...I don't like feeling less flexible. I don't like feeling old and tired sometimes, although I know that 29 is not old...it is just older than I have ever been! I always somehow feel nostalgic too, and it is the thought that this is the end of my 20s that I am dwelling on ever so slightly, rather than it being the beginning of my 30s. I am not sad and blue about it, although I realise I sound a little reflective. I think really, I am getting to know myself better and am becoming closer and closer to my authentic self, to use a phrase that readers of Sarah Ban Breathnach will recognise. I want to spend this last year of my 20s having some wonderful adventures, but also, perhaps rather selfishly, to spend it on me. I want to have an idea of who I want to wake up as, this time next year, and spend the year working towards it. Poor Carl has been working so much recently, weekends, evenings, early mornings...but lucky, lucky me, he has managed to get tomorrow off work to spend with me. We are going to have brunch then go up to London for a talk at the V&A museum, and I am hoping we might squeeze in tea at Fortnum and Mason, or perhaps Liberty too. Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a scrumptious day!

Household Routines

One of my favourite books (well, series of books really) when I was younger was Little House on the Prairie. I still have the set now, for those times when a comfort read is the order of the day. In one of the early books, Laura describes the rhythm of life in the little log cabin which she lived in with her Ma, Pa, and sister Mary:

Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday

The lovely Alison over at www.brocantehome.co.uk has often blogged about her housekeeping rhythms and rituals, and I love to read about them. I have been trying to get into some rhythms and patterns over here in our dear little flat, particularly with our shopping and cooking.

You see, dear Carl works up in London and is not often home before 7:30pm in the evening, and I am working quite long hours commuting to my own little library- add into the mix that I don't drive, and you have a little housekeeping challenge. How to keep on top of the shopping without using up too much of our precious puttering time?

I did go through a period of doing our grocery shopping online, but I always felt vaguely irritated by it...I still had to do a menu plan, write out a shopping list and sit down to order it, as well as try and book a delivery slot.

Well, no more! We have been changing our eating habits slowly over the last few months, and all of a sudden, everything has come together. We have always taken the view that we would rather eat a little bit of meat that has lived a good life than a lot of cheap nasty meat, and gradually, gradually, we have got to the point where we are eating very little. I have found a fantastic WI market near where I work, and there is also a Co-Op right next door, a prime location for lunch hour shopping.

So now the shopping-and-cooking rhythm is like this. Once a month, I do a big online shop for staple provisions- everything from loo roll to tinned tomatoes, risotto rice to stock cubes. Then, each week, I pick some dishes to make- 2 vegetable soups (made in my wonderful vitamix machine) 2 vegetarian dishes, 2 fish dishes, and 1 meat dish. I then go to the WI market and the Co-Op to buy perishables such as milk and eggs, and any ingredients that I need for my weekly meal plan.

I am making a lot of things which really are more delicious than they sound- smoked mackerel pate, lentil dahl and veggie curry- and saving leftovers in the freezer. I have taken to making batches of spelt-and-pear muffins, and homemade yoghurt too. Later today, I am going to try my hand at home made hoummous later!

One of my favourite domestic pleasures is my monthly turn out of the fridge, freezer, dry goods cupboard and provisions cupboard. I like to make a list to see just what I have got, and then sit down to make my big once-a-month-shopping-delivery-list. I have been doing that today, and when it is all done, and the monthly shop delivered and put away, I always have a glow of domestic bliss about me!

Another thing that I like very much to do in the kitchen is to decant nearly everything into pretty storage jars. I have those hexagonal glass jars with screw on lids for my various kinds of flour, and a kilner jar of vanilla sugar. There is a beautiful bulbous jar for tea bags which somehow always reminds me of the Taj Mahal, and a little vintage tea caddy for my herbal tea. Somehow everything looks more organized once it is decanted! One little project that I do have in mind for future days is to find a source of pretty spice jars, and have a good turn out of my spice cupboard. At the moment they are all of a hodge-podge of different style of jars, depending on if I have bought Schwarz or the shop's own brand, and even a few plastic bags where I have bought them from the market. Most of them have nasty plastic lids, and I would so like a nice set that matches. I forsee a little internet shopping in my future!

I really like how this new little domestic routine feels like it has 'clicked' for me. I feel like it is my routine...perhaps that is why it is so satisfying? Anyway, I must away to my kitchen and start decanting, for the monthly shop has just arrived!