I Heart Them

Last night it occurred to me that my kitchen isn't organized very efficiently. Most of my cooking tools were tossed into a big drawer which meant I had to dig and dig to find anything. My hot pads were on the opposite side of the room as the oven and my fruit and vegetable tools were too far from the sink. My goal today was to get my kitchen and my recipes organized. Although I really wanted to take a nap I didn't give in to the urge. I sorted through tools and anything I haven't used in 6 months was put into a zippered storage bag and placed in the storage cabinets in the garage. Then I separated the tools according to use: pastry/baking, fruit/vegetable, and general use and put each group into its own drawer. I then tucked my hot pads into the drawer right next to the oven which makes perfect sense to me. I rearranged serving dishes and cooking dishes so that the most frequently used items were easily accessible and the not-so-frequently used were placed out of the way. Now my kitchen makes sense!

I sorted through my recipe book and took out any recipes that I haven't made in a long time. Some of them made me scratch my head and ask, "What was I thinking?" Now my recipe book is much more streamlined!



Midway through my organizing I looked out the glass doors to see this riff-raff eyeballing me. Sorry, no beggars allowed! Silver and Sweetheart probably just wanted to see what it looks like inside the human coop. The girls have slowed egg production down so much that I'm lucky if I get 4 eggs a day right now.

After the kitchen work was done I brewed some coffee and prepared some cake batter to put in these pretty pans I got from Lene's Web. Aren't they adorable? I LOVE aluminum bake ware. Nothing releases so perfectly. Back when I made birthday cakes to make money when my kids were little, I had nothing but aluminum cake pans. They're long gone and I miss them. I will replace them though, thanks to Lene's Web.



What was the occasion for the cake? Well I got to thinking about how much my guys do for me and I wanted to show them that I appreciate them. I kept the cake hidden during the whole cooling process and managed to get the layers together and the icing on just as the boys were getting off the bus!



I had Derek put dessert plates out when he was setting the table. But they were noticeably empty during the meal. Jim finally asked about the empty dessert plates and I went to the office to retrieve the hidden cake.

I told the guys why I baked it and thanked them for all that they do for me. I also told them to have as much cake as they wanted (a rare treat).

I think they liked it!