QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Have you had a glass of orange juice lately? If you don’t have any in the house, add to your shopping list for the week. Remember that blood oranges are in some of the stores right now too. Yum!
- Make some time tonight for yourself; treat yourself to a beauty regimen you don’t normally take time for. Apply a mud mask, a hair mask or hot oil treatment, exfoliate your skin, use a sugar scrub on your hands and legs, or give yourself a pedicure. All these are things you can do while you’re watching TV or in the fifteen minutes before you go to bed.
- Write two holiday cards, stamp them and put on your mailing table ready to go out. The more Christmas cards you write right now, the easier your life will be come late December. You don’t have to mail them right now – no need to rush the holidays before they begin.
TODAY’S PROJECT: Sorting Casseroles and Storage Containers
With holiday dinners coming up, you’ll need all your casseroles, cake pans, pie pans, and Tupperware or plastic containers in order. You’ll want to be sure you have inexpensive, recyclable, reusable empty containers you can send leftovers home in for people.
Sort out your kitchen cupboard, take inventory of your casseroles, and wash any that need it. Wipe down and dry each shelf before replacing.
See if all your food storage containers (Tupperware, Glad, Rubbermaid or other kinds) have matching lids. Throw away or recycle any containers that are stained, melted or gross-looking, or missing lids. Match up containers with their lids and store in an organized manner.
If you have more than one or two makeshift money-saving storage containers (ie old butter tubs you’ve saved) really think about how many you need to keep, and recycle anything you can part with. Declutter!
I think often we fall into the fantasy of “I’ll bake SO many muffins this season to give away, I really better keep these 75 plastic tubs to give them away in!” Then in reality we maybe only needed one or two of those tubs.
If you actually need, and will use, more new food storage containers or casseroles, add to your shopping list.
I’ve been enjoying Gladware holiday colored red and green reusable microwave storage containers. They’re inexpensive enough you don’t care what happens to them, unlike my Tupperware, which I carefully mark with my name and guard ferociously. I use Gladware primarily to send leftovers or food gifts home with people. I’m putting them on my shopping list this week.
After Thanksgiving I can send guests home carrying pieces of pumpkin pie and extra mashed potatoes.
LOVELY BLOGS: Garden and Spice and Everything Nice
This charming blog is by a mom who loves gardening and cooking. I just bought a bag of cranberries I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with, so I’m finding her cranberry recipes post helpful. Other recent posts have included her favorite natural and organic shampoos, her recent trip to explore the Biltmore estate, and her tips on using the Williams-Sonoma Zoku Quick Pop Maker.
