As I mentioned about 2 weeks ago, my New Year's resolution was to keep a neater, tidier kitchen. The first step in that was organizing my pantry so everything had a designated location, it was easier to find things and to know when I was running out of an item. That has so far gone swimmingly. I have to dig around a lot less, and my husband can find the things he wants--small trash bags, large trash bags, snacks, what have you, without asking me, who may or may not be anywhere near the pantry.
The second part of my plan was to take care of dishes more quickly (not instantly, because some of them are better off soaking overnight and some of them are 300 degrees), and generally reduce clutter in my kitchen. While it is not perfect, partly because there is no good place to put mail, my purse, etc, that isn't the kitchen island corner, it is certainly better than it has ever been. I have a lot more working space, and Dear Husband seems to be less twitchy every time he walks in.
The third goal was to be more prepared for weeknight dinners. During the semester, actively cooking on Tuesdays and Thursdays is difficult. I get home around 6 (which is late for me) which means dinner cannot be produced from scratch before 7:30 or so, which is just too late when you go to bed a little after 9. So my goal is to either have something prepared Monday night so Tuesday I can take it straight from the fridge to the oven and not have to cook, or make a huge batch of something on the weekend that I can use as leftovers. This is also so far going pretty well. Monday I put together a baked ziti, but did not bake it. When I can home yesterday, it went into the oven and we had a hot homemade dinner without my having to actively do anything other than check it.
Of course, it's easy to keep a resolution for 2 weeks. But I am hopeful that I will be able to keep it up because it actually does seem to make my life easier. We shall see.
~AMPH
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