Kitchen Organization and Baking Day

Devil’s Food Baking Mix, at Crate and Barrel

QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:

Fridge/freezer maintenance cleaning: Thoroughly clean one shelf, one drawer, or two door shelves in both your fridge and freezer. Doing this every week means your whole fridge gets cleaned every month, rather than twice yearly like most people’s.
Make menu plans for the week ahead; create grocery list and shop as needed.
Need to pick up or drop off any dry cleaning? Return library books, mail out Netflix mailers, or drop off rented DVDs?
Any elderly relatives who might like a phone call from you today? I find Sunday afternoons and early evenings a great time to catch people at home.
Need to do any tidying up in your garden? Today’s a great day for that.
Water houseplants, turn them to face the light, etc.

TODAY’S PROJECT: Baking Experimentation and Kitchen Organization

Barefoot Contessa’s Chocolate Ganache Cake Mix, on Amazon

Today I’m going to experiment in the kitchen. I tidied the kitchen yesterday to get ready. Now I can put on some music, make a pot of hot tea, and improve my baking skills. Besides experimenting (I’m trying to make cake doughnuts and learn to make frosting from scratch) I’ll bake up some treats to drop off at various relatives’ houses tonight. I’m doing a couple easy quickbreads from Trader Joe’s mixes – the apple spice bread, for starters. I’ll also bake some lemon poppyseed muffins (from a box mix also) for our breakfast and lunch box tomorrow.

I also want to experiment with the new red fondant I picked up yesterday, so I might bake a cake to drape it over.

My mini cupcake pan is ready to go, filled with cute lime green and purple polkadot mini cupcake liners from Sur la Table

Mini cupcakes I baked to drop off at relatives’ houses as a surprise

After I’m done baking and cooking, I’ll need to do dishes, scrub the sink, wipe the counters and mop the floury floor. All in all, I bet I will have enjoyed a wonderful, happy time puttering around in my kitchen on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

When’s the last time you organized a kitchen cupboard or two? Made a fun mess in the kitchen?

LOVELY BLOGS: Gimme Some Oven

Ali’s fun baking blog, where she shares recipes for granola M&M cookies, zucchini pizza with roasted garlic sauce, carrot and zucchini muffins, and zucchini, arugula and white bean soup). (I sense someone’s garden produced a whole bunch of zucchini this year? grin).