I so can cook...and I found my potato peeler

On the home front ...

1. Today was a day off for me, and it kind of turned into an off day. I spent my time cleaning out one drawer in my bathroom. The top left drawer. It was a major task, of sorts, I will not lie. I think everything I own had made it's way into that one drawer.

I have this really bad habit of putting anything left over in my hand in that drawer (How fortunate to find my potato peeler!). That way, I can be sure to find whatever it was later (in another life maybe).

Only, the day had finally arrived in which the point of ~ drawer saturation ~ had been reached. (It can happen.) A coup dʼétat, one may say, as the drawer had reached its limit of tolerance for my total disregard of putting anything away, away.

My catch-all, sure safe, no-lose anything drawer was no longer able to allow me to sustain my need for the ability to identify one single item without moving and shifting and lifting just about everything in it. So, I gave up, and today I cleaned it. I dumped the contents on my bed. (And the bed collapsed.)

I filled 5 of my empty candle jars with items from aforementioned drawer. I wrote on the jars with black permanent marker to help me identify the contents at a glance. Like one say "eyes". And I drew an 'eye' on it. (I guess, just in case, it would be late at night, and I couldn't read my own writing or see what was in the jar??) I put all my contact cases, refresh tubes of eye stuff in ~ and then I was thinking, "why do I need 9 contact lens cases?" Since I did not have an answer to that question, I put the jar in the cabinet with all the eye related materials and moved on.

My favorite jar is the last one I did. I got tired of cleaning out the drawer, so I marked one the jars 'miscellaneous', threw the rest of the stuff in there, and voilà! I was done~ and reveled in my brilliance. The drawer is now mostly empty. (I am tempted to put a piece of paper with the date in it and follow up on how long it takes to fill it up again.) All jars fit perfectly in the cabinet!

2. Because I spent so much time cleaning a drawer, I didn't get to the grocery store. I really did need to go there. But I am getting really experienced at this, that is making dinner from what appears to be nothing ...as that is what it did appear to me. Here is what I had: one pound of hamburger and for my vegetarian daughter, one can of refried beans.

So. What could I add to that? I had one half an onion and one quarter of a red pepper, so I sauteed the onion and the red pepper, then added the ground beef. And since the refrigerator was so bare, I could plainly see some green salsa. (That stuff can adjust the flavor of anything to the positive for us!) After the meat was finished, I drained off all the fat, and added the green salsa.

I searched the cabinets and discovered a jar containing a cup of white rice. We stopped eating white rice a long while ago, but white rice never dies. And, an added bonus!~ I found a wayward package of enchilada sauce. Oh happy day~!

I got the rice going and divided the enchilada sauce between the beans and the meat (being careful not to mix the spoons, you know, my daughter the vegetarian?)...but I still needed something green, and I wasn't sure I could count the salsa as a vegetable.

The freezer held very few items, but I could clearly see a folded package of something in a zip lock bag and lo and behold~! Peas!!

I rinsed the peas off really, really well and sprinkled them with Nature's Seasoning and garlic powder (which I also sprinkled in the meat the the beans). As soon as the timer went off for the rice (yes, I cook with a timer, a most needed tool for me) I added the peas and let it sit for 5 minutes ...

And wow!!
What a dinner!

3. I'm ending the day rewatching Sense and Sensibility. And thinking of myself as one that may have no sense, but comes through on the ability.