Foodstuff.

I have a cookbook which I absolutely love because every recipe can be made in twenty minutes.

No, you didn’t read that wrong. Meals! In twenty minutes! (Or if you’re a mite slower like I am, and are constantly stepping over a certain white dog while you cook, it might be more like twenty-five minutes.)

But still. By the time we drive to a restaurant, order, wait for the food, eat and drive home, at least 90 minutes will have passed. Plus we’ll end up paying three or four times as much for that meal as it costs to eat at home.

So to make a relatively inexpensive, home cooked, FAST meal and be eating it in twenty minutes? I’m sold.

Although I won’t be posting any of the recipes today, here are a few tips from the book about saving on cooking time.

1. Buy an extra set of metal measuring spoons and remove them from the ring. Store the individual spoons on a magnetic strip close to your spice cabinet. If you’re only using one or two spoons, why wash them all? Plus, they’re easy to grab in a hurry.

2. For a quick side dish, stir any of the following into a pan of cooked rice: Crumbled bacon and sour cream, grated Parmesan cheese, crushed pineapple and green pepper slices, Teriyaki sauce, chopped pimiento and chopped parsley, toasted slivered almonds and chopped cashews.

3. Keep three sets of measuring cups on hand; you can speed through recipes without having to wash and dry that same half cup measure multiple times.

4. Put a pot of water on to boil as soon as you walk through the door from work (before changing clothes or reading the mail) and you’ll be halfway to cooking pasta, steaming rice, or boiling potatoes when it’s time to start dinner.

And if you’re really in a hurry to get water boiling fast, divide the water between two pots and then combine them after they’ve boiled.

5. Don’t throw away leftover rice; freeze it for future use. Measure by 1 C increments into Ziploc bags and write the amount and date on the outside. Before sealing, fluff the rice with a fork to prevent clumping.

To use, remove rice from bag and out in a microwave safe bowl; microwave covered on high for 1 minute per cup. Fluff with fork and continue with recipe.

This method defrosts rice but doesn’t heat it through. If you want to heat it all the way, continue heating in microwave by one minute increments, checking each time.

Or you can put rice in a pan on the stove and heat it 2-3 minutes per cup. (Covered with just a little bit of water.)

So there you go! Some ideas to make your (and mine) limited cooking time go a little better.

If you go to Amazon or Ebay, you can get this book (used) for just $6 or $7, including shipping. I highly recommend it!

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And on the subject of food, last night I was not in a real enthusiastic cooking mood and hadn’t been to the grocery store in a week; however, I knew that at some point in the evening, something fairly nutritious and vaguely delicious needed to appear on the kitchen table. So I scrounged morosely around in the freezer for a little while and found a box of fish sticks, which I try to keep on hand for those fairly infrequent “I don’t wanna cook” nights.

Then I discovered some macaroni and cheese that someone had brought to a meal at our house, leaving the leftovers behind. I had divided it up and frozen it for future use. (It's amazing how well mac and cheese freezes!)

My original idea was to bake the fish sticks and just put them on the table on a plate, and put the mac and cheese in its own bowl. But then! A teeny burst of inspiration made it's way through my non-excited-about-cooking-brain and I found a prettier way to present the evening’s repast: everything in one dish with the macaroni on bottom and the fish sticks on top--with a little parsley tossed over it all. It made it look a “real meal,” instead of a pretend meal!

I also made some oven bread and threw it into a white bowl, just to get it to the table in a hurry. But then I just couldn’t stand the sight of pale bread in a white bowl so I took an extra four seconds and grabbed a napkin to put in the bowl first. It made my color-lovin’ heart so happy to see what a big difference such a little thing made.

And it made my heart even happier when my sweet daughter noticed my efforts and said, “Mom, that sure looks pretty!” (Steve and Sarah are always very diligent to compliment even my most meager efforts—I am blessed.)

In non-cooking news, I am continuing to enjoy the “What I Love About Where I Live” entries. (Scroll down a few posts to find it--the title is "A Great Idea.")

If you haven’t chimed in yet, I’d love to hear from you. And if you haven’t scrolled through other peoples’ comments yet, I think you’d really enjoy taking a few minutes to do that. It’s fascinating to read where all our Smithellaneous Neighbors hail from.

Life and Omelets

In our ongoing efforts to make our house more saleable, Steve installed an over-the-stove microwave this week. Although we knew that one little ol' microwave would not make or break a sale, it would mean that we could remove the Huge, Gawky, Gigantic Black Box of a Microwave that we've had on the counter. And doing that would free up a lot of counter space.

Since bathrooms and kitchens sell houses, and since our master bath (with only a single instead of a double sink) is going to hurt the sale of the house, we figured we'd concentrate a little more on the kitchen. (Since installing a microwave is a bit easier than creating double sinks.)

Here is the old kitchen look. Please note, if you will, the aforementioned Huge, Gawky, Gigantic Black Box of a Microwave and accompanying junk, er, necessary items taking up half of one counter.

Now look at the difference! Pretty, cool huh?

And here is where I must insert a word about my multi talented husband. He took a look at the light/exhaust fan unit that was above the stove which had to be ripped out, and he pondered the issues of getting electricity in the cupboard above the stove in order to plug the new microwave in, and he thought about the challenges of getting a heavy microwave lifted up and mounted on the wall above the stove (all things that would have made me run away in horror) and he said, "That shouldn't be too bad of a job."

He said the same thing when he was contemplating our shower in the master bath a year ago and was preparing to install a glass shower door to replace the shower curtain. "That shouldn't be too bad of a job."

Yeah, it's not too bad of a job if you're massively talented in doing home improvements like he is.

But I digress. Back to the story in pictures we go.

Here is the Brilliant Home Repair Man unpacking the exciting new microwave.

And here is the Brilliant Home Repair Man pondering the installation directions.

And here is where I asked the Brilliant Home Repair Man to change his pose so that he would more closely resemble The Thinker. He looked at me and said, "You don't need me to take off my clothes, do you?" (Since of course, The Thinker Guy is a bit nekkid.) I said, "No, I think it would be okay for you to leave your clothes on."

You all can thank me later.

While the Brilliant Home Repair Man did his Brilliant Home Repairs, his Brilliant Wife and Daughter worked on their own Personal Home Projects.

I got going on some further sorting duties which I am attempting to get finished before we start packing for real.

Sarah took everything out of the TV cabinet and started sorting through videos and DVDs and deciding which ones to give away and which ones to pack.

After The Brilliant Home Repair Man had finished his masterful job of installing the microwave, he got to work on installing a new light fixture over the kitchen sink. In this photo, you have to be aware of the fact that he is standing with his feet straddling the kitchen sink while cutting a hole in the very hard oak thingie above him. (He would never say the word "thingie" since he is a Brilliant Home Repair Man. I, on the other hand, call just everything a "thingie.")

We also thought it would be good to change out the burners in the stove since they were about twenty years old and all crookedy. This "feature" caused the making of certain things like omelets to be a study in patience and creativity as we had to learn how to pick up the pan at exactly the right time and swirl the eggs in the opposite direction of the downhill flow.

Did that make any sense? If you've ever cooked on a crookedy burner than I know you understand. You are my Crookedy Burner Pals!

Here are the old burners in all of their crookedyness.

And the new burners. Ta-da!

Steve cooked an omelet the next morning and he said that it was quite disconcerting for him to put the eggs in the pan and just watch them sit there calmly and obediently, in a state of complete untiltedness. He hardly knew what to do with himself since he was so used to assisting his omelets through the cooking process by scientifically thought out and empirically tested tilting methods.

It's the simple things that make life (and omelets) so good.

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Before I answer a couple questions asked in the comments section, I want to let you know that my next post will be about Extreme Hair Trauma. Don't miss it! (smile)

And now, from the comments section:

Q. Where does Snowy go when you travel out of town?

A. In the past, we've taken Snowy with us, but it gets to be a bit complicated--for him, and for us. So we've found a kennel nearby that he seems pretty happy at; whenever we pick him up, he always seems calm and contented. We'll take him in tonight (since we'll leave for Florida before it opens tomorrow) and he'll stay till Wednesday morning. This will the longest he's been apart from us but I think he'll be fine. He no doubt enjoys the social, yappy interaction with all the other dogs.

Q. How does Sarah feel about the Manteo area?

A. She really loves it. She seems to find the thought of living on an island exciting and of course, she is impressed with the loveliness of the surroundings. Sarah is the kind of gal that finds the good in just about everything and she's finding plenty of good in Manteo!