THANKSGIVING AND OTHER HOLIDAYS

A step aside from the kitchen, well, a little bit.  With (American) Thanksgiving coming this week I thought I would talk about holidays and organizing. While I am talking about Thanksgiving, it applies to all large family (or even company) dinners.

I used to make Thanksgiving dinner for our families.  Since I am Jewish and my husband is Roman Catholic most family type holidays are different for our two families.  Thanksgiving being an American holiday which crosses religions and ethnic backgrounds was the only holiday for which both our families wanted us for dinner at the same time.  For years we waffled at what to do and generally ended up going out to dinner with his family.  Then one year his sister was married just before Thanksgiving.  Dinner with just his parents and grandmother seemed too small.  I suggested we make Thanksgiving dinner in our little apartment and invite both families.  He took some convincing that we could and that we could fit everyone in our apartment.   So for 25 years we did.  The year we moved from our apartment to our house - in October - we still had Thanksgiving dinner here in November - on the good china and cooked by us.  Depending on the year we had 10-14 people, ranging in age- at various times from 2 months old (my niece - when her brother first came he was 3 months old) to my grandfather in his mid 90's. 

In the apartment we would have to move stuff into the bathtub and close the curtain and into the trunks of our cars to make enough clear space for the dinner, especially when we were running a crafts business in the apartment (finished goods to the car trunks...). We would take my small electric clothes dryer put it in the corner of the living room and put a table cloth on it and use it for server for cheese and crackers and soda - so it was not in the way and we had the top to use.  The small washer had to be shoved in the corner of the kitchen to be out of the way.

My mom would make family dinners for holidays and I learned to organize the meal from her.  We cheated and had the turkey cooked by a local deli (and later their not so local related deli when the one near us closed).  My sister and her family were nice enough to pick it up for us on their way here - it was a hot pickup on Thanksgiving in midafternoon.  This left our efforts and oven available for other foods.

Due to our different background our families had different foods for Thanksgiving.  When people have been interviewed about what they have for Thanksgiving the answer is generally “turkey and all the trimmings”.  It was only when people were questioned about “trimmings” that it came out that each area of the country, each ethnic group, and each family has a different idea of trimmings.  His family, being Italian, had manicotti as a course before the turkey.  My family sometimes had dinner at kosher deli, as a relative we had Thanksgiving with was kosher, and my sisters and I would order corned beef sandwiches as mom made turkey sometimes for dinner and corned beef sandwiches were much rarer to us.  (The deli staff was shocked at the idea, but they were offering their full menu.)  To combine our families we went with traditional American.  I made Pennsylvania Dutch beef vegetable soup, mashed potatoes, Colonial Williamsburg’s recipe for sweet potatoes (no marshmallows of course), “pop open can” rolls, canned cranberry sauce, canned gravy (plus the gravy that we got with the turkey), boxed stuffing, canned pumpkin pie (the pumpkin was canned, the pie was baked by us), apple pie (crumb topping as I prefer same, also baked by me), brownies (from a mix) and vegetables.  As we went along I added venetians (rainbow cookies) and the vegetables varied including green bean- wax bean-carrot mix a couple of years, and one year I made succotash as my niece had a line in the Thanksgiving performance at school “Please pass the succotash” and I thought she should know what it was. 

I tried to split the shopping into 2 trips, one, the second week of the month and the other, the third week of the month.  (Of course there were still midnight Wednesday night runs to the 24 hour supermarket the first few years.) Cooking started in advance.  If I was making the venetians it started on Tuesday as it was a 2 day process, if not, on Wednesday when I made the soup - most of the day it was on the stove - and we baked the pies and brownies and set up the sweet potatoes to bake the next day.  I knew after awhile that on Thanksgiving the white potatoes went into boil first - they were baked later and by doing them first the stove was available and they could get cold as they would be heated in the oven later.  The rest followed.  I preplanned which pots and baking dishes, as well as which serving bowls and pieces  were to be used for each dish.  I kept each year’s meal in a spiral notebook with notes for the following years.  In the first few years I listed what each dish would be cooked in and served in, as the years passed I knew what I had used before and it became instinct.

Not everything went well.  One early year we were making chestnut stuffing from scratch.  The chestnuts had to be cooked and then shelled and peeled.  Peeled?  We did not know that chestnuts had a skin to be peeled inside the shell.  It took hours and hours and then we just dumped them in with the skin.  At one point a drinking glass fell out of the closet and broke - not only did the glass need to be cleaned up, but the chestnuts which were out at that point had to be discarded!  I was near tears, but we muddled thorough and never made chestnut stuffing again - although I did think about it this year.  Another year towards the beginning I decided to bake a Colonial Williamsburg recipe bread.  I tried it in advanced and it came out great.  The day before Thanksgiving while I was making the soup and baking, I mixed up the bread mix and put it on the back burner of the stove to let it rise “in a warm place” as I had done previously.  This day the kitchen and stove were much warmer and the dough rose much more - much, much more.  It rose out of the bowl and onto and into the stove!  The bread ended up coming out great, but I had to stop and clean up a huge mess in mid baking/cooking.  I made rolls from scratch in a later year - again the trial run was fine, but this time I had done something wrong and they did not rise.  The corn muffins one year did not want to leave the muffin pans (and they would have been such cute little teddy bears too).  Believe it or not with all these baking problems I am a blue ribbon winning baker at the county fair.  I learned not to make anything with a cream sauce which had to be made at the last minute - too much to do in the rush of the day.       

We also had one year where my niece (then in high school) had gone to a dance near us the night before Thanksgiving and we picked her up for her parents and she stayed overnight for Thanksgiving so she helped with the baking, setup and cooking.  One year we were watching one of husband’s nieces, preschool age at the time, the day before Thanksgiving and I had her help me set the table. 

One thing I did to make it easier was to clean as I went, yes, everyone suggests this, but it works.  I had figured out back in my mom’s house when we had dinner with extended family that if we stopped leaving everything to wash after dinner was over and filled the dishwasher and ran it when full, there was much less to do after everyone else left.  In our apartment and after my house dishwasher died (and I have not replaced it yet) it meant to wash when I got a sink of stuff to wash and set it aside to air dry; when I had a dishwasher I would load it as I went and start it when full - unload it when dry to have it ready to reuse. 

Generally I did not get around to setting the table until late Wednesday night or on Thanksgiving day.  When we first started we used 2 folding tables the length of our apartment living room.  For a while when we were first in the house we had to assemble the top we made which clamped on to our kitchen table to hold everyone - eventually we got a dining room table that when open almost filled our dining room, but we could squeeze in at one end and one my sisters and a child or two children, could fit at the other end.  I have been gradually clearing away items which were sitting on the dining room table and putting them where they belonged (many in our tiny RV as they came in after the last trip to be emptied and never went back out.) 

Today (Wednesday) I cleared the dining room of items which needed to go the basement and we had not brought down and of additional, larger items which needed to go out to the RV.  The table is open and the table cloth, napkins and the table pad are waiting for the table to be set tomorrow for the two of us.  Tonight I baked a pumpkin pie (low sugar) and assembled the sweet potatoes (also made with low sugar) in a casserole for tomorrow.  I am trying new instructions for the turkey which involved some preparation tonight and it is done.

Each Thanksgiving night (or any other dinner I made/make) ALL of the dishes, pots, etc. (unless a pot really needed to soak) were washed that night - not necessarily put away or dried, but washed.  Pots were done last.  I would use extra towels to put items on to air dry as needed.  In our house I also took the tablecloth outside the house and shook it out of crumbs and it and the napkins were washed in the washer and drying in the dryer before I went to bed.  In the apartment it would be shaken out and all would be in the laundry bag for the next time I did laundry.   I would put everything away starting Friday and have it mostly done by Sunday (some items still being used for the leftovers).                      
Leftovers from the main course were put into plastic containers or zipper plastic bags immediately after the main course.  Family members, including children - especially children - are wonderful for helping with this, as well as clearing the table.  (Children love to help, they think they are being treated special as grownups.)  Leftovers from dessert and the soup were put away after the guests left.  (The leftover soup needed to cool before being put back into the refrigerator.)  The garbage went out Thanksgiving night.

We all have that collection of plastic containers that accumulate.  Some we bought, some came filled with something and were too good to throw away, some just appeared, but they do accumulate.  Since I used more of them after Thanksgiving dinner for leftovers than at any other time during the year, in the days after Thanksgiving I would look at what was left and after making sure I had a good size assortment, I would get rid of the spares which had come filled with food (ones not paid for) and passed along any excess other ones (the ones we paid for) that were not needed.  By using this time of year I knew I had plenty of plastic storage containers to use during the year and more would accumulate by the following Thanksgiving.   
   
Recently I was discussing on an online group that Thanksgiving is the unique American holiday that is celebrated across all lines.  Someone posted back that it is only those with a deity who have someone to give thanks to.  I pointed out that thanks may be given to mother earth, providence, the universe, one’s family, one’s friends, one’s luck, one’s self, etc.  A Happy Thanksgiving to those here in the USA.  Please remember that what is for sale on “Black Friday”, “Small Business Saturday”, “Cyber Monday” or any other day is just stuff and most of us have too much of it.  Remember more stuff for you or those you gift it to, is more stuff to organize and deal with and the sales are not really as great as they seem.

KITCHEN CABINETS -START

I said that this week  I would tell you what I have in my kitchen to use - or at least start.  Obviously the amount and assortment of plates, etc. that you need will vary by what you use them for, how many of you there are, and what you need.  I wanted to tell you what we have, why we have it and where I keep it and how I organize it to help you decide what you might need.

In the wall cabinet over my dishwasher I have a set of everyday dishes for 8.  Why 8?  This was the standard set for dishes when we were married.  We also never thought that we would stay a family of 2.  We have dinner dishes, bowls for soup or cereal, small plates (for cake or side dish), cups, and saucers.  Do we need them all, not really, but we do not want to break up the set and if we break some - oh, that’s right.  I actually have 15 bowls, 2 of which have small chips.  I broke a bowl  - okay, I have broken several bowls, but the others were replaced.  When I went to replace the latest broken and the 2 chipped bowls I found out that the company had completely changed the shape of the bowls and complained.  They sent me 8 bowls in the new shape - free.  I am used to the old shape and will need to break a few more before I switch to the new ones.  So the old ones are with my dishes and the new ones are in the other wall cabinet with my glasses.  (Since I use ceramic dishes the chipped bowls are good for use around the house where an electric connection has to be made, say with an extension cord, that would be sitting on carpet and could be a fire hazard.  I use the chipped bowls to hold the connections and help to prevent a possible fire.

I do not keep the set together - a stack of dinner plates, a stack of small plates, a stack of bowls... I used to.  I realized that it was inefficient to keep it all like that.  I am on the short side and can only reach the bottom 2 shelves of my wall cabinets (and only the front of the 2nd shelf ).  So I decided that it was silly to keep things together just because “one does”. I put what I use most often where I can reach it without a step and the rest above where I need a step to reach it.

So on the bottom shelf of the cabinet I have 2 dinner size dishes from the set in a stack with 4 other dinner size dishes.  2 of these others are “Corelle”.  I use these for working on as well as in the microwave.  (My ceramics can go in the microwave or the oven, but I prefer not to put them in the microwave.)  I also use these for cutting up food on.  The other 2 are heavy weight plastic plates.  They were inexpensive and are used under food in the refrigerator - such as for meats which might leak.

Next to the dinner size plates I have 6 of the 8 small plates, mixed with 2 of the saucers and 2 “Corelle” small plates.  We do not actually use the cups and these saucers are used under gravy servers and such.  The “Corelle” plates are used for the same purposes as the larger ones.  Why 6 of the 8?  That is what fits in the space with the other 4 plates. 

Between the two stacks of plates I keep the bottles of our medications.  They stay dry and are convenient for filling our weekly pill boxes on Saturday nights. 

I have a wire rack which sits over all of the above so I can put more items on this same shelf - remember I can’t reach too far above it without climbing up.  On the wire rack I have 4 stacks of bowls - the 7 soup bowls to my dishes, 3 of the 7 (broke one of these also) small bowls that match my dishes, 2 small serving bowls (same company as my dishes, different pattern), and 2 “Corelle” small serving (or large soup) bowls.  I think what most of these bowls are used for is obvious.  The “Corelle” bowls are used for the microwave as are the plates.

Boy, all that on one shelf.  This is probably about 90% of the dishes we use for dinner.  I can reach what I need and put it away easily.  Storage this way is easy for me.

Between the wire rack and cabinet wall, standing up is a trivet and our small collection of rarely used takeout menus.           

Do you store your dishes as sets or as you need to use them?


“Corelle” is a trademark name of items made by Corning Glass.  I am not endorsing in any way the plates, merely mentioning that I use these unique plates/bowls in this manner.

LET'S START WITH MY LITTLE KITCHEN

The kitchen - everyone’s kitchen and it’s uses are different.  When reading books I am told that I must make work areas.  I have no room for work areas do you?

Our kitchen is allegedly an eat in kitchen.  We have a small table that fits the 2 of us, possibly a guest if we sit very close.  Our kitchen is what is called a galley kitchen.  This means that the work area of the kitchen consists of 2 sides of an aisle, similar to what might exist in a boat, hence the term. 

I have a sink in the middle of the counter on one side of the aisle, with the only window in the kitchen above the sink.  There is a non-working dishwasher under a counter top on one side of the sink and a counter top on the other side.  Total length of the this counter is maybe 5 ft.  There is the usual cabinet under the sink, 2 small and one “bread” drawer and small cabinet under the end of the counter without the dishwasher.  Above the counter there is a wall cabinet on each end with 4 shelves in it which goes to the ceiling.  Across the aisle from this is a range (freestanding stove and oven) with a wall cabinet over it, a free standing floor cabinet with a drawer, a thin wall cabinet over it and the refrigerator. 

I also have a small pantry closet with shelves which supplements the above for kitchen storage.  It is located beyond the kitchen table, across the bathroom.  Yes, I have a bathroom which is basically in part of my kitchen.  When we sit at the table we are looking at the outside wall of the bathroom and the entrance faces the pantry closet.  I have to turn on the light in my bathroom to see what is in my pantry closet! 

The kitchen also serves as our main entry to the house.  We have what used to be a den that we use as a studio, attached to the back of the house, behind the kitchen, so we walk through the kitchen to reach it.  The kitchen also connects through the dining room - opposite the entry to our studio - to the rest of the house.  I have never heard of a kitchen like this in any organizing book I have read.

I do suggest, as others do, going through your kitchen stuff and getting rid of items which you don’t use.  I have no hard and fast rule about time - no one year limit.  I am about to get rid of, for example, a set that is suppose to keep your eggs round when fried (in rings) and your bacon flat (a weight).  I have never used them.  We don’t eat breakfast.  I don’t cook bacon.  When cook eggs we do so for dinner and I make omelets.  We had received decades ago a “fold in half, nonstick” omelet pan as gift.  It sat around unused and was long ago donated to the Salvation Army or Goodwill.  The egg set will soon be following it.  On the other hand, I have a very large stockpot and lid which I used to use to make soup for Thanksgiving dinner and other meals I made for the extended family.  We no longer have the family (or anyone) for dinner in the house (the story behind this will be written much later in time).  Organizing books would say I should get rid of this pot.  I hope to one day have dinners here in the house again and I would never be able to replace this pot with one I would be happy with, so I keep it.  It is stored, though, not in my kitchen but in a very small closet in my basement.  So my rule is that if I reasonably might use the item again, I keep it.  If it gives me hope, I keep it.  If I have never used it, it goes.

What do items do I have in my kitchen for use?   Tune in next week.  I have turned on the feature which lets you follow me - feel free to use it.

MANAGING MY TIME

While I can judge time fairly well when I am attentive to time passing, I tend to lose track of time when involved in something, as well as being a procrastinator.  (Are you?)  I have figured out ways to deal with this over the years.

I check my email once a day in the late afternoon.  The exception to this rule is when I am expecting an email and it is not there or if I send out an email - new or as a reply - and expect an answer. I have several email accounts.  Most of them start with my initials and then have something special to the reason for the account.  I have a main account for my family and my accounting clients and my friends.  I have one for each organization I belong to.  I have one that I use for accounting for the various government notices I need to get.  (Have I mentioned that I am an accountant, but not a CPA?)  I have one that I use for my husband so we can send each other things.  I have one for the crafts business my husband and I have.  I also have one that is without one of my initials which can confuse people by sound, so I use this one if I have to give my email by telephone so there is no confusion.  I also have an email for my online groups and such and one which I give to and contact stores and such with to keep same from my other email.  Separately, as they are not technically my emails - I have one for a client who does not use a computer and has things which need to be done online that I do for her, and one each for 2 organizations I am involved in for the organizations themselves which I check for the group.  Yes, that is a lot of emails.  I use a software program which will check all of them at once.  Any junk mail is deleted at once when I check my email. If I am traveling I will check email by going to the website of my email provider and I will only check the ones I need to check . Similarly using this system, if I have limited time I can just check the relevant email addresses and save time or just recheck the email addresses I am looking for an email from.  So email time is fairly limited and organized. 

I don’t have Facebook (which I have almost no presence on) or yahoo groups or other social media emailed to me.  I go to the sites at my chosen times and check the sites then.  This way I don’t find the entire afternoon was used up following something when I should have been doing something else.  I like cartoons, for example, and read several strips online.  I go Monday night and read the strips at their websites rather than receiving them daily which would waste needed time.  Of course sometimes Monday is Tuesday if something is happening on Monday and I don’t have time or sometimes they continue into Tuesday, occasionally even Wednesday, if I run slow on reading them.  But I choose the time I will spend online on all of this and when I will spend that time so that I do not lose my focus to do other things.

When I am working at tasks, such as my afternoons working on the computer, I often forget to check the time - yes, it is right in front of me on the computer, but I still forget.  I also forget to do little things like make needed phone calls, take out chopped turkey to defrost for dinner as well as stuff I don’t want to do - the laundry, the garbage, etc.  I use my computer and my cell phone to help me with this.  I have a calendar program which syncs with my cell phone (more or less, but I will wax ecstatic over my software and how I juggle things to make it sync in some later post).  I set reminders to remind me when it is time to do something.  I have a reminder which goes off at 6:45 pm to remind me to start getting ready to shut down and go make dinner.  I then back up what I have been working on and my calendar and sync my calendar with my cell, at least in theory.  In real life, I usually reset the alarm for 7pm and then possibly even 7:15 pm.  I have an alarm set to go off weekly on the day we usually have burgers for dinner to remind me to defrost the meat for same.  I have a weekly reminder to do the laundry, one to take the garbage out, one to change the towels, one to change the bedding, etc.  No, I don’t have alarms go off for everything just things which are time sensitive during the day.  Something like “Laundry” it is enough it is listed for the day as I will see it and remember.  One of my reminders, set for daily, is “Check blogsite” to see if any of you have left me comments which need to be moderated and, hopefully, posted (I really would like some more of these - feel free to comment), as well as one to remind me to post.  Does everything get done because it is scheduled to be done - of course not.  Sometimes it is done on a different day, sometimes I just delete the reminder as I have a reason for not doing whatever it is which is scheduled.

It is not a perfect system, but it helps remind me of what I have to do and prod me to do it.  What do you do to keep on schedule and stop procrastinating?