Rainy Days and Sundays Always Make Me Clean

As I mentioned on Saturday, I was on a mission to make granola bars over the weekend. I did make some, but they need a little work before I share them. They’re in the “they’re good enough for me but not ready to share” stage. I have been really focused on macronutrient levels lately as I get deeper into training season to make sure I am putting back everything I use up with all the swimming, biking and running. So, the granola bar in question has a twist – it’s going to be high protein – but it still needs a little something before I share it with you!

But, I did make Andrew’s veggie stock, and it was so ridiculously easy I question why I haven’t done this before. And, DIY stock is free. Free! It uses up scraps of things that would have gone into the compost bin anyway, you just cook them before they make their way into the box of black gold. If you haven’t made your own stock before, there is no time like the present. Save up all your veggie scraps for a week or two in the freezer, and in 30 minutes or so, you’ll have beautiful broth raring to go.

This weekend was a doozie of a rain producer in the Northwest. I am certainly not complaining – we have it good compared to most people, especially folks in Japan trying to get their lives back together. However, days full of sideways rain do tend to make a person pad around the house with “what to do” anxiety. Luckily, I had a monster run-bike-run brick workout on Saturday, and a very long swim on Sunday. Those pretty much took away all the anxious energy!

Sunday afternoon, as I was digging out items for the veggie stock, I found myself organizing and cleaning out the freezer/fridge. I am a bit of a neat freak. Not overzealously so, but I do enjoy things tidy. When we bought a carpet cleaner a few weeks ago, 2Chili noted that it was right up my “power alley” and he knew I had hours of enjoyment on tap cleaning the carpet. (We hardly have any carpet, by the way, but it did take hours.) A rainy day to clean out the fridge, much like the carpet cleaning, is indeed right up my power alley.

It wasn’t too bad before, but, it is better now! You may notice we are running low on fruits and veggies. Thankfully, Tuesday is a CSA day. We have been on clean out mode all week, with me serving pretty much solely leftovers.

When we met 50 years ago (okay, only 10, but the following statement sounds like something from 1960), 2Chili informed me that you can tell the difference between a man and woman’s fridge by looking at the condiment shelves in the door. He thinks men have: ketchup, mustard, mayo, beer, and that’s it, and women have 28 bottles of salad dressing. I want you to know, the majority of these condiments are his, not mine! We don’t have any bottled salad dressing because I make it from scratch now, but there was a day when I did have quite a few varieties, so his point was somewhat true. Though in general, neither of us is very big into a diverse group of condiments.

I had a helper for this little endeavor. Pipa has learned recently that if I say “oh, shoot,” or, “uh, oh,” while I’m in the kitchen that she should come running. She drops whatever she is doing – wherever she is in the house – and comes to sniff out whatever has dropped on the floor. Smart doggie.

Pipa and I hope you’re having a good Monday!