Puttering Around the Kitchen

Hello to all my friends in blogland!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  All is well in my part of the world. 

This past weekend the weather was chilly. There was no wandering about the yard.  Too cold. Instead I did some cleaning, three loads of laundry, went grocery shopping, and paid bills.  Such is the life of a domestic goddess....: )

By Sunday night I was itching to bake something.  This seems to have turned into a ritual lately.  I like to bake on Sunday's, then we have goodies to snack on all week.  I reached for my recipe box and picked out something that I knew my little guy (and big guy) would love.   Blondies.  These are so easy and a perfect lunchbox treat.  All you need is:

3/4 cup of butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 pan.

Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add to egg mixture, mixing well.

Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Spread batter into pan and bake 30 to 40 minutes. 

Place pan on a wire rack and cool before cutting.

While waiting for my Blondies to come out of the oven and cool I did some puttering around the kitchen.  My definition of puttering is simply the inability to sit still. I inherited this from my mother who is an expert putterer. And now that I think of it, it seems that I have passed it on to my son who can Never sit still. 
The circle of life...haha...

Because my time is so limited anything I get done on any given day is a gift. If I accomplish the slightest thing, I am content for the rest of the week.  No lie.   The fact that I am even able to write this blog post is an accomplishment to me : )  

So there I was, 40 minutes to putter while my Blondies baked and my house slept (I was the only one awake, which is always a good thing). 

I decided to tackle this....

In case you can't tell, this is a heap of candles that has been stuffed (as is) in the bottom cabinet of my hutch.  I Love, love, love candles.  I go to Yankee Candle all the time and stock up on all my favorites so I never run out. I look forward to changing the scents with the seasons. I have so many and I'm always adding more.  I don't need them, I just want them.  You get the idea.  I've always had a problem on how to store them.  Up until now I just stuff the bags in the cabinet and go on my merry way.

Rob, the hubby, actually came up with an idea on how to store them.  I have several cookie tins that I have been saving for years.  They have no purpose, I just won't throw them away - just in case.  What if I ever need an extra cookie tin?  I would never BUY a cookie tin. The concept of saving something that you don't need NOW, but might need later, is something that he can't seem to understand.  He uses what he has and if it has no use then he throws it away.  We come from two different planets.

The other day he said to me, "why not use those old cookie tins to organize your candles?"  I have to admit it was a great idea.  Then he added "because you're not using them for anything now, right?"  That was his way of emphasizing that I wasn't using them and they were just sitting there. I got the point.  Anyway, here's how it came out.

I took three empty tins - filled one with tea lights, one with votives, and one with tarts and scented tea lights.

It felt good to throw away all the plastic bags and organize what I have. 

Now I can just slide these back in the cabinet and whenever I need a candle I can bring out the appropriate tin and get what I need. 

I gave myself a pat on the back because if I hadn't had those tins on hand, I never could have done this.  I knew they would come in handy someday. Hubby didn't see it that way.
See what I mean....two different planets.  : )

The next idea I got from something I saw in my mothers pantry.  She has all her baking goods in glass jars.  What do you do with all those half empty bags of chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, etc.  Mine were all piled up on the shelf of my pantry (much like the heap of candles you saw above).  Until now...

I emptied out more bags and filled these mason jars. 

The contents will stay fresh (have you ever had stale coconut? Not good) and my pantry shelf will be a lot more organized.  I love this idea.  Hubby did too. 

Finally, with only a few more minutes left to kill I filled up one more tin.  I bought this Paris tin at Michael's a few weeks ago. 

Since then I have been trying to figure out what to do with it.  It was too cute to pass up.  I had first intended to put cookies in it, but I changed my mind. 

Now it is the keeper of all my tea bags!  Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Lady Gray, etc.  I love it when I can actually USE something I am crazy about.  It's not just cute, it's functional too.  

Fabulous!

Ok, there goes the timer.  Puttering is over and Blondies are done.

It's time to reap the benefits of my little ideas.  Sometimes it's the smallest, tiniest, things that can really make your day and make your day to day life easier.  Maybe that's what being a domestic goddess is all about.  While you are wearing lipstick of course....