This is how I organize my spices. It's very convenient and easy to find exactly what I need.

I'm big on tubs and jars and boxes to organize things. I even have a box in my freezer filled with bags of vegetables. I decided several years ago to do the same thing to my spices. Now I just reach up and pull the entire tub down, find what I need, and put it back. No more digging through cupboards, knocking things over. This way I can see every spice that's in there and reach it easily.


So basically this was one of my best ideas ever. Ever.

A few tips

Hey everyone! I feel like it's been forever and a day since I've blogged or been on the internet for longer than ten minutes. Kind of refreshing, kind of not. My precious Macbook Pro laptop broke (for good), and instead of getting a quick fix done on it I'm upgrading to a bigger and better computer. Faster, at least. Tyler has convinced me to get a PC (i know, i know!!) because being the computer saavy individual he is he can easily upgrade and fix it anytime he wants. Apple, on the other hand, would require taking my computer into the Apple store and paying upwards of $300 each time I needed it fixed. So when I have a husband who can fix it for next to nothing, I might as well take advantage of it, right? And by Tyler building me a PC, I get to upgrade to Adobe CS5. I've been behind, stuck on CS3, but a few new features on CS5 should make it all worth it.

I've got two easy tips for you today, and both are from my sister Courtney. The first one will help all you mommies out there who have experienced "blow outs". A blow out at our house usually means that Jack is in one of my favorite outfits, and he gets poop all up his back, soaking the onesie in a mustard yellow stain that will not come out in the laundry! I have tried presoaking it and scrubbing it in the sink with a toothbrush, but nothing worked. The stain was still there. So I remembered what Courtney told me and I laid it out in the sun for an hour or so to dry. The sun bleaches the stain out perfectly! See the above picture? There was a huge yellow stain there but the sun bleached it out. I love natural remedies!

My second tip is for the kitchen. You can keep green onions for months at a time. Just trim off what you need and stick the rest in a jar with water, and place it on the windowsill. The green onions will continue to grow and you can keep cutting them as you need to!

I'll try to post a little more this week (I've got a cute video of Jack giggling that everyone has been asking for) but as I don't have a computer during the day, I am limited. I only get to sneak a few minutes here and there when Tyler isn't doing homework. I'll be back though, I promise!

E-V-O-O

I love Rachael Ray. Most of the time. 

I think she's got a great TV personality, but I don't care for most of her recipes. I think they're strange.

But one thing I love love love is all of her cookware! If I could only fill my entire kitchen with her bright, modern lasagna dishes, spatualas, and pots and pans!! Right now I am totally digging her olive oil bottle. How cool and funky would the yellow one look in our kitchen??

Kitchen Tips

Two kitchen tips that I wish I would have known earlier:

1. When measuring peanut butter or shortening, or some other sticky substance (honey?), line your measuring cup with plastic wrap. Spoon your ingredient in and drop it into your bowl. Then toss the plastic wrap and clean-up is done!

2. In Utah the climate is so dry that your brown sugar tends to harden like a rock within a few hours of being exposed to air. Drop a couple of marshmallows into your brown sugar jar and it'll stay soft and crumbly, just like it's supposed to. I also keep an open bag of mini-marshmallows (it's what I had on hand) on the top of my large, 25-lb tub of white sugar.

Ew, vegetables!

Don't be fooled. Tyler isn't as great of a cook as he thinks he is. The above picture may look good, but be glad you weren't there to smell or taste it.


This secretly made me happy last night (although I was still a bit bummed about wasted vegetables). I hate to admit it, but I finally found a fault in Tyler's cooking skills. Silly me; for a year now I've thought he was the best person for the job to mix spices and season food. Last night, it finally went terribly wrong for him.

As part of dinner, I began sautéing fresh-from-the-garden zucchini and squash. I asked Tyler to season it (because previous to last night he had "mad seasoning skills") but instead of using a nice Italian seasoning, he decided to use CINNAMON and THYME. Yes, together. (I might also add for your enjoyment that he pronounces thyme as "TH-yme", using the "th" sound.) Needless to say, that combination will never grace our dinner table again. I almost threw up in my mouth it was so bad. (And what a bummer--I don't even think he tried it.)


Editor's note: I don't mean to pick on you, Tyler. (Okay, actually, I do. But it's all in the kindest, most gentle way.) I'm glad you aren't perfect. I love you. And I'm so glad I can finally tease you about kitchen-related blunders. I've been waiting for this day for a really, really long time. It's good to know I'm not the only one who can get tormented now. :)