Busy Monday

I don’t have any “before” pix but this is what my pantry looked like after I spent the day clearing it out.

It may not look like it, but I got rid of quite a bit.  There was a fair amount of food well past its prime.  Some Sure-Jel with an expiration date of October 2000.  I decided not to take a chance on it lest I spoil a batch of jam just to save a few dollars. 

I also found two of these Chinois:

One set apparently came from a thrift store and still had the price tags attached.  I don’t know where I got the other one but it has two wooden pestles.  Both are out the door because we no longer use aluminum utensils but I think I’ll keep at least one of the pestles.  I have a similar sieve from Ikea, supposed to be used to drain yogurt and made of stainless steel.  Instead of a stand, it sits in a cannister with a handle.  By the way, Chinois are usually used to strain the fruit seeds and skin out when making  jam.

The reason I did all this work, aside from the fact that the pantry was such a mess I could hardly walk into it, let alone find anything, is that we are having new kitchen flooring installed Saturday.  We have lived here for 16 years and the linoleum wasn’t new then.  Every year we talk about having it done but now we’re actually doing it.  I had a really hard time choosing a design.  Everything was “faux”, either faux brick, faux wood, faux stone, faux tile, none of which really suit a house built in the late fifties.  Next job will be painting the kitchen; and possibly changing out the lights and adding a ceiling fan.  We have them in all our other rooms and it really makes a difference in the summer.

These clouds are supposed to bring us rain most of the day tomorrow, then showers most of the rest of the week.  This morning we had some sprinkles that started just after I got home from my morning walk.  This year has certainly been odd, weather-wise.  We almost never have measurable rain in May but this year the storms just keep coming.  The temps have also stayed lower than normal.