I finally got a decent night’s sleep last night and today is a slack day. Well, it started out to be one but I ended up rearranging the kitchen a little. I took out my toaster oven since I have both a toaster and a convection microwave. That freed upon some space so I put the Nespresso over in its place. There is a big drawer to put coffee in but I can put my coffee cups in there. I still want to get a set of espresso cups and have also been looking at a pod storage drawer that goes under the Nespresso. That would free up the drawer space in the cabinet to put the coffee and coffee accessories (thanks, Hank..Ha ha ha).

After that I had to do some sweeping but I wanted to wipe the counters down before I did and pick it all up at once if there was anything that fell. It’s not that I am a slob; my countertops are fake granite and it hides stuff pretty well plus there is dog hair. The heat is radiant built into the concrete floor so there is no air circulation. The means I have to sweep every day at least once. I’ll get my dehumidifier and air filter in here at some point and that will help with dust and the dog hair (even after I brushed him).

I still have not gotten a bicycle helmet yet. I have had other things going on that I needed to do, plus crowded stores means I was not going to the store until after the holidays. I have been fine with that since I have been busy but I will get out in the next few days to see about getting one. I would really like to ride the bike! The pavement has been a bit damp, so that means slippery and I don’t care to do that with or without a helmet.

Even though I haven’t been doing any biking yet, I am still dedicated to getting in a good amount of walking every day and I should start seeing some benefits from that soon. I think I am even wearing out the dog! We went out several times earlier and he was walking a bit slow the first time for some reason so when we got to the driveway I took off running and he perked right up.

I am getting a grocery list together and I am finally gonna get the ingredients to try to make a cottage pie. It doesn’t look that hard so I hope this recipe turns out. Luckily I have most of the ingredients and don’t need to buy more than a few things. I am also getting the stuff to make a fruit pie. Actually, I am buying frozen pie crust and gonna use frozen berries to make the filling from scratch. Last time I bought a can of pie filling it was almost $4 and the can was mostly goo and not much fruit. Not doing that again. Eventually, when I get ambitious, I will try to make the whole pie from scratch.

I remember when I was a kid one of my grandmas made the best apple pie in the world. She would slice up the apples and toss in the spices and sugar, spread some out in a pie pan, and freeze them. When she was ready to make a pie, all she had to do was whip up a crust – which she could do from scratch in about 17 seconds. She would take a pan with filling out of the freezer, pop it out of the pan, toss the crust in, toss the fruit frisbee back in the pan, top crust it and toss that bad boy in the oven. She also used to make these incredible fried peach pies cooked in lard in a cast iron skillet. I want to learn how to make those peach pies and try some other fillings as well. Wish I had that recipe…oh well. I will see what I can find online when I am ready to tackle that.

Along with those fried pies, after I can learn to make a flaky crust I want to try baking a savory meat one like in the UK and Ireland. I have food in the freezer to eat while I experiment with recipes and I have plenty of time on my hands to expand horizons. The last few days I was able to free up some real estate in the freezer to store some new creations.

It’s nice to not have anything to do now, but I have to say that it is still odd having no place I have to be. The holiday rush came and went, appointments are taken care of and a few things were changed around in the house (a work in progress as needed). It is looking sunny tomorrow so I will be taking advantage of that with the chance of rain looming the few days after that.

That’s a wrap for today.