Shine on

This morning I don't believe I heard Pierre let out an aidez-moi (help me) as I took out the trash. I hope he finds a like-minded chef in whatever land fill he ends up occupying. Today, I find myself in quite a hurry to find something to eighty-six before all the power lines become too heavy with a thick sheet of ice before they snap and send us all back to a time before electricity (and the Internet! EEK!). That's right, nearly a quarter of the country is bracing for homewardboundness as another large storm system sweeps across the nation. Mark went to the store today and characterized it as madness and the news is using words like "catastrophic" regarding the weather that's currently bearing down on us. I am not afraid. We have enough eggs, milk, and bread to go on for some time. We have a full tank of gas for our grill. I even managed to score gas for my car on the way home - yes, I'm one of those people that had an empty tank on the day Armageddon decided to take vengeance - as I was the only compact car at the station that could occupy the tiny space next to an oddly placed pump (sorry SUV suckers!). Thus, before I drag on any longer in this post, today I will eighty-six a pair of "Shine" batteries. That's right, not Duracell or EverReady (this word was in spell check!), just quite simply, Shine brand. They were part of Pierre's life for quite some time where they were nestled comfortably in his cozy chef hat. They are "extra heavy duty", made in Taiwan, and in the company's effort to make me feel like they are somewhat environmentally conscious folk, they have a baby pine tree printed on them. (Aw.) Alas, like Pierre they are useless; thus,they will make their way to the battery recycling bin at work - if I can ever get there again!
And now off to what I do best - nest and bake. I mean, I'm gonna need something to eat if it's dark and the power's out!

Adieu, Pierre (je suis desolee)

I discovered today that our utensil drawer is ripe for eighty-sixing. Thus, I found this trendy meat thermometer in there that I either got for myself or my mom got for me:

Isn't his mignon (cute)! Anyway, Pierre, which is what I call him due to his French-like look, has been in the drawer for probably two years now without use. As I just said, I'm unsure if my mom got this for me or if I got it for myself as there's a temperature range taped on the back which must have been cut from the box Pierre came in and that seems like something either my mom or I would do (wow that was a long sentence!). The temperature range numbers on the back correspond to the guide engraved on Pierre's torso - very rare, rare, medium, med. well, well, pork/poultry. Again, I remember about two years ago when I took Pierre out to the grill to pierce a piece of meat and nothing happened. I checked his batteries - tucked cleverly in his chef's hat - but that didn't seem to be the problem. Thus, after that point Pierre's ability to accurately predict meat temperatures was haphazard and dangerous. It was frustrating to me, but instead of throwing him away I just shoved him back in the drawer. I suppose I thought with time he would heal (isn't that what happens to electronics?). Anyway, I saw him today and just realized if he isn't useful then he must be eighty-sixed. Thus, with that we bid Pierre adieu.

I am a puppet

If you have or have ever had a pet you know this: pets rule our lives. I am definitely a puppet to our two cats. The worst habit I have is trying to find food that they like. Since getting our cats three years ago, I've tried lots of different foods. The last food was a dry Fancy Feast, which they loved, but it caused too much random throw up for my taste. So, we're on to greater things and after our one cat suffered a bladder infection I went more expensive - now we use Blue Buffalo (highly recommended). But, this most recent switch left me with a huge stockpile of Fancy Feast. So, tonight when my friend Phil was over - another cat lover - I gave him the two giant containers of Fancy Feast. I do admit that while the food is gone the containers will make their way back so I can use them for the new food, but it's still an eighty-six as something left that isn't coming back to our home.

Ahhh...we meet again

In almost all kitchens, we have the catch all drawer that contains something like this: scissors, matches from a restaurant we went to, a rubber band from some broccoli we bought forever ago, a measuring tape, batteries...but some of us have two drawers. (Go figure, we have two.) My second drawer is full of sauce packets. My "sauce drawer" contains sauces of the pseudo-Mexican variety - Taco Bell - and pseudo-Chinese kind - any American Chinese place not in a "Chinatown" area. Today, I realized that nearly all of the Taco Bell sauce in this drawer is rancid. We don't eat out much, so I suppose that's why. I was cracking open a packet and realized the sauce was mostly brown and the water was separating from the actual spices. [Insert grossed out look on face here.] So, all of the Taco Bell sauce has been extracted - as has the spicy mustard sauce that is no longer a mustard color - and they have been properly eighty-sixed in our trash bin. The soy sauce remains - I'm pretty sure the shelf life on soy sauce is infinity and that it could survive a nuclear holocaust.

Note: The title of this post, "Ahhh...we meet again," is a quote from a Taco Bell mild sauce packet. 

Paradise

It's hard to be a woman. I mean, you get sucked into buying all of these products you don't need, particularly for your hair or face. I bought some "volumizing spray" from Freeman. They make lotions, shampoos, etc. The theory behind this volumizing spray is that when you're hair's wet, you just spray this on there and it makes your hair thicker and shinier. Besides the fact that it smells very nice, I didn't notice much difference. Plus, my hair isn't even that thin so it seems like a useless product for me. Lastly, I'm trying to get away from using parabens and this product is full of them. And, I like Freeman because they don't test on animals; their bottle says "[t]ested in Paradise by friends and family. No animal testing. Contains no animal ingredients. Safe for color-treated hair". I'm sure at the time I bought this - who knows when that was - this is what really sold me. I try to not buy anything tested on animals or with animal products. Not to mention, Freeman makes it sound like Paradise is an actual place, as it's capitalized and all, so that's always a selling point. Anyway, I haven't used this product in years and because parabens are bad, this product is getting poured out and the bottle recycled.

It's (not) in the bag

I bought a new sheet set about a week ago, the nice tee shirt kind. I bought then because they're cheaper than my expensive taste 400 plus thread count taste - I may not be much of a snob in life, but I am a self-proclaimed sheet snob. Also, we simply needed new sheets. They came in a little bag that has a little cotton tie you can cinch down on whatever is in the bag. After I removed the sheets from the bag, I asked Mark what he thought - should we keep the bag? I mean, it may actually be useful for something. The bag has been sitting on our kitchen table since then. In the meantime, I saw a Hoarders episode where they say that those persons with hoarding tendencies will keep things that are useless to most all other people with the justification that they can use those things for another purpose. This sheet bag is the perfect example. I mean, for what purpose will I ever use this? I won't, so without further adieu, it's trashed.

Are they even really Danish?

I wonder who came up with the little tins of Danish cookies stores sell at the holidays. You know, the cookies that are all vanilla colored and are half the size of the palm or your hand. Some of them are shaped like pretzels, others like old-fashioned belt buckles, some have large granules of sugar on top of them. The same cookies that go stale about a day after you open them. They are usually in tins that have winter scenes on them. Anyway, in the past I would save tins like these. Why? I suppose I thought I would reuse them, maybe as a sewing or button tin. But, as we run out of space more and more as each day goes by, the tins will no longer be kept. Thus, the Danish cookie tin from this last holiday season will be recycled.