on hostessing with the mostessing.

The title of this just sounded fun.  Making sense is optional.

One of my favorite things about blogging are finding good, practical things.  Since I like to over-share things that I do which are successful, here are a few wins I've encountered in the hostessing arena:

• BAKE the bacon.

Y'all.  I've heard about baking your bacon in the oven but I always thought it wouldn't be as good, as tasty, etc.  Well, I baked bacon for the first time and it was INCREDIBLE.  (Don't think that baking it makes it healthy.  It's bacon, folks.  Grease is still there.)  Baking bacon resulted in flat, crispy pieces of bacon and the easiest clean-up ever.

To bake, cover your lipped-cookie sheet well with foil, put on the bacon, bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes (I flipped them over at minute 15 for giggles), take it out and put it on paper towels, and serve.  A while later after the grease has cooled, roll up the foil and toss it, then put away your clean cookie sheet.

• DIY pita chips

Whenever I serve hummus or a spread I always "make" my "own" pita chips instead of buying a bag.  I buy whole pitas (whole-wheat), cut them in half then triangles/shapes, put on a LIGHT coat of olive oil (I drizzle my {clean} hands with a little olive oil then rub them over the pitas), sprinkle on some kosher salt, and place the pita pieces on a lined cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 5-10 minutes.

• Citrus in water

In water pitchers, some sliced citrus goes a long way on upping the pretty level.

keeping it clean | the 5 minute sweep

I bet you thought I forgot about this series.  I did, but then I remembered again.  Twice.  I drafted this post about a week ago, then forgot about it.  I have a few more on the burner!

My favorite cleaning tip/trick is the 5-minute sweep.  For the most part I do it every night, and if not I take care of it first thing in the morning.  The sweep is married to my favorite cleaning principle, "a place for everything, and everything in its place."  It is exactly what the name entails--an intentional 5 minute blitz of putting away anything that isn't in it's home.  Clothes get hung up, shoes put away, dishes to the drying rack, etc.  I rarely pull out cleaning products, it's just a run through of my space.

Speaking of putting things away, do you have any specialized spaces for stuff?  Some of my favorites are:

• Keeping a stash of bandaids (well for me, paper tape and gauze) in my knife/sharp things drawer in the kitchen.  When I cut myself at home, it's usually in the kitchen and I consider it genius having those things at hand.
• Having a set of cleaning products in the room they clean.
• Zoned-places.  For instance, anything sharp in my kitchen lives in the "sharp drawer."  All adhesives (glues, mod-podge, different kinds of tape) in the house are in one place together (except paper tape).  Magazines stay together, games stay together.  Everything in its place.  :)

125 biscuits

I woke up at 5:38 this morning. On my own. No alarm. And it made my heart so happy. And my equilibrium at the gym happy too, having had 40 minutes to adjust to being awake before exercising, instead of the usual 10 or so. It's now 8:59 and I'm wiped out. But since I don't want to wake up at 4 (which would not make my heart happy), blogging is a clear answer. :)

Today at work we had the monthly staff birthday lunch. While in line I noticed a co-workers skirt and in my head I said, "Oh, Courtney's skirt is from Gap." What came out of my mouth was "Oh, Skirtney's court is from Gap." I heard it come out. I paused. Received a strange look or two. Said it again, thinking still "Courtney's skirt is from Gap" and again what came out was "Skirtney's court is from Gap" still not computing what was wrong. Yeah, blaming THAT on that 5:38 a.m. magic.

Last week (per mentioned, maybe?) was a 4-day work-week, and how thankful I was for it. I did a lot of work at work on Sunday, and Saturday was filled with a project of sorts (more below), and Friday was really a great day of just fun. My friend Katie came to town for a bit--hooray! There was a multi-church Good Friday service--HOORAY! And pizza with excellent ladies afterwards--hooray!

Saturday was a quiet morning. Run, errands (including a trip to the bookstore; more on my selection below) time with a friend. Then, my Saturday project. I got to make breakfast for church on Sunday morning, and I choose recipes that I could do the day beforehand. The menu was biscuits and breakfast casserole. I have an awesome (and easy) homemade buiscuit recipe I used, and the casseroles were easy, just labor-heavy. Zakiya came over and helped me; thank God-I think she grated cheese for an hour and a half. When all was said and done, 125 biscuits were made and 5 casseroles were constructed. At one point I was worried there wasn't enough. Let's just say I sent half a casserole home with someone on Sunday. I took an ENTIRE casserole to work. And took an ENTIRE casserole home. Yes, that's almost 3 too many. I've been having it for dinner since Sunday. At least it tastes fantastic. If you live in Athens and want leftovers or some biscuits, call me. Seriously.

Sunday was Easter Sunday...happy, happy day. Excellent, excellent church service and fellowshipping. Quiet afternoon. Happy-happy.

Oh! Per mentioned, I got a new book. I was given a giftcard to Barnes and Noble, that I went to use it on Saturday. I was going to grab a couple of novels, but it put me in too bad of a mood to buy "beach books" with no scheduled beach time in my future, so I moved on. And a cookbook would be a far more practical choice (and I love practical uses for giftcards). So I spent almost an hour looking at books. I was going to get one by the founders of Baked, but I just wasn't in the mood for a sweets only cookbook (practical, remember)? I saw a few Food Network cookbooks, but I just wasn't impressed. I was thumbing a Rachel Ray when I saw it. The one I was missing. The Joy of Cooking. I'm in love. I used it for the breakfast casseroles. I read a chapter or two when I got home.

My current cookbook collection. Joy fits right in. (The Grit cookbook was absent for this photo-shoot, but definitely an important part).

I took this picture last night from my front door, thinking it was cool (it was at the top of the porch).

This morning at 6:30 I walked into the web.

Not cool.

and we're back.

Throughout the week, when I'm not blogging, I'll have a moment of, "oh! I should blog about this, that's funny! Or thought-provoking! Or cool!" then I carry on with my day and forget anything I may have thought of earlier. Moving on...

I again, had some receptionist desk time at work and I again, went to check the news. I found another article that caught my eye and made me elicit a HAH! PROOF! right when I saw the subject line. Then I read it. Or most of it. But it also "justified" my eating habits. If you can't tell from my tone in the 'ole blog, I'm a big proponent of eating as naturally as possible (one of the reasons why I bake so much). I have had more than one experience at Trader Joes and Publix of the cashier saying "what a healthy cart," or some variation of that. However, as also evident on this blog I. love. sugar. A usual lunch or dinner is a vegetable salad with a cookie (my reasoning...you have to have carbs somewhere, and I choose to have mine topped with chocolate chips). The article talked about how those who eat sweets also tend to be active to "compensate" which is very true with me. But anyways. I was a fan of the article.

I'm brining chili to work on Thursday, and as I was gabbing on the phone at Publix today I completely forgot to pick up a package of chili seasoning. I ran back in to pick up the $1.25 package of seasoning and I glanced at the ingredients. And was disgusted. There were a lot of things I couldn't identify, and I don't play that way. So after reading the ingredients again and thinking a bit, I decided it was high-time I made my own chili seasoning blend. $11.34 later, and I'm on my way. As I told myself at the cash-wrap, "this will make far, far more than those packets and be far, far better." We'll see on Thursday. I'm also going to be making it in the crock-pot (which I don't do). We'll see. Oh boy...

Last night the weather looked like this for Georgia,

so I decided to not go out and do anything, and instead stay in and get things done (the homestead has been terribly ignored as of late). I was wrapping things up, and finishing up by deciding to wash the drip-pans (which were dusty. not drippy.) on the stove. I go to move the faucet head over and it fell off. And I had the water on full blast. Cue gushing water up the ceiling, me shrieking, turning off the water, etc. It wasn't as messy as it could have been, but sheesh.

finishing up.

I don't know which painting experience was more difficult...the kitchen or my ceiling. Wait, I do. The kitchen. It was awful. But it's done. And I enjoy it SO much!

So that's home! There are still projects to be completed, and artwork to go on the walls. No doubt as items are added it'll be chronicled here.

Home tour continues: my space.

Wow. I had forgotten some of these changes. I had blocked them out of my mind. Painting the ceiling, three coats of paint everywhere...yeah, I blocked it out.

Below is my bathroom. The raspberry-pink color was replaced with a beautiful blue (that is bright, great for rooms without windows, like a certain bathroom and kitchen). The shower and commode got thoroughly cleaned numerous times (I don't know how I have lungs left after some of the chemicals I used) and everything else is new. The bathroom was the first area of the house (for me) to be completely set-up and organized.

That was one electric blue room. With a vaulted ceiling.

It's now a muted gray room with white curtains and a level ceiling.

I think put-together/decorating wise my room will be last to be completed (I tend to prioritize gravy boats over bedding), but I do have aesthetically charming aspirations for it. But it's currently put together and organized, which is plenty for me.

The long awaited home tour begins. Now.

Being confined at home (and sent home from work early) gave me time to blog. Because I couldn't...shouldn't have done much else (and my body is not letting me sleep. at all). So what better time to do the often-mentioned blog home tour?! Exactly!

As I was looking at these pictures I was struck anew by just how much work went into making this home. And just how awesome condo-owner man and his fam are! Wow!

Here we have the entryway.

I had forgotten it was yellow. But oh it was. Almost all of the walls at home are cream, and the baseboards and outlet covers are white. Sooo peaceful!

I didn't get a picture before priming time, but the dining room had been green. With a dividing wall-do-hickey, that is now gone.

I LOVE having people over. Want to come to dinner or brunch?

The kitchen cut-out window. This is such a great element to the condo! I really enjoy it because I can continue to cook/prepare while still talking to roommate/guests. And it makes cleaning up from the dining room so easy!