RECIPES & RAFFIA

Today I took most of my spice collection to the temporary storage dump in our basement rec room. How many spice jars would you guess you have? I had 87. I stored 65 jars for future use, pitched 8-with-no-smell-left in the garbage, and kept out 14 that I might use before Sept. Of course I've packed away all my cake pans and tart pans and cookie sheets. So in what am I going to use nutmeg?

By the way, I kept the Beau Monde seasoning, since one of my many readers gave us a recipe for the stuff.

I’ve always been a recipe nut. I used to read cookbooks while soaking in the bathtub. Really. A year or two ago I did a minor sort-job and gave away 128 cookbooks. The Man Who Doesn’t Know A Grapefruit Knife From A Melon-Baller, said, "NOW what are we going to eat?" To which I replied, "Not to worry; I kept 75." Heaven knows what for; I now buy cooked chickens at Grasch’s. Is that pathetic, or what?

Anyway, I’m into sorting through the recipe files now. Will I ever make "Almond Potato Puff Casserole?" How about "Baked Chicken and Rhubarb?" YUK! I actually cut that out of a newspaper and saved it. I have recipes from my vegetarian phase and my low-fat phase and my Weight-Watchers’ phase and my South Beach phase.

Since I’m now in my ‘Drink-Wine-And-Eat-Cheese’ phase, very few recipes are required. I think I'll store the scale too.

Signed:
Almost Kitchenless in Brookfield

PS: If you know anyone in Our Fair City who needs a perfectly good, 21 cu ft white Amana refrigerator with a top freezer and ice maker ($150) and a great gas stove ($75) that makes amazing bread (if kneading is your thing), I will have them for sale after Sept 5th.

PPS: Our 4 ½ year old grandson is coming tomorrow for a couple of days. His mom, our daughter, is a potter in Virginia and has a craft show in Evanston this weekend. (You can see her gorgeous work at www.suzannecrane.com). As I have NO art or craft talent, she must have inherited her artistic ability from The Engineer Who Can Draw Anything From Buildings To Buffalos. Just to give you an idea of how craft-challenged I am, I was asked to buy some raffia for the Waukesha County Land Conservancy’s Gala Party coming up this Friday evening. I am president of this organization, but, thank goodness, not in charge of any part of this party. I had volunteered to make price tags for the centerpieces. Easy enough, I figured, as long as I have a computer and a printer. Then the Party Committee decided I should tie these tags on with raffia. Now, I’ve heard of raffia, but I had no idea what it was. Truly. I assumed it was some kind of ribbon. I went to Michael’s Craft Store, a huge place on Bluemound Road, in which I discovered miles of ribbons. I walked up and down aisles and more aisles of ribbons, reading labels, searching for something called "raffia." Finally I had to ask a clerk to please show me where the raffia is. When the clerk pointed it out to me, I declared, "Oh, THAT stuff!" Which probably gave away the fact that I was not a regular customer of this shop.