Time to get Organized: What's your excuse for clutter?

I was trying to do Time to get Organized on Tuesdays, but this week, there was no time to write on Tuesday, but there WAS time to get organized!  I have been having trouble organizing my things in my new house for various reasons, such as lack of time, lack of vision on what I want the room to be, fear of being too bold with color, not the right pieces of furniture, lack of time- you get the point.  I bought an awesome magazine by Better Homes and Gardens on getting organized back in June.  I was so inspired by the magazine, I went to the bookstore and bought a book on organizing.  I never thought I'd buy a book on organizing, after all, I don't need someone to teach me how to alphabetize or put things on shelves.

The book I ended up buying has really been life changing for me.  The book I decided to buy was authored by a man who hosted the TLC show Clean Sweep.  I was fearful that the book would be hokey, after all, once a show takes off, the person has their picture on anything to do with the show, whether or not the product is worthy.  The book I bought is called It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh.  If you are looking to get organized, or just actually looking to get rid of clutter- you should read this book!  This is my own opinion and no one made me read or buy this book.

The past three weeks, I haven't been around much because I was away visiting my family.  In that time, I did a lot of searching on the internet for photos I liked because I'm trying to start my own photography business- one thing I noticed in all the photos I liked, there was no clutter in the background, the environment looking serene and inviting- that's what I want my house to look like.  This pushed me further in my desire to make my house clutter free.

When I walked into my house after being away for three weeks, I immediately got stressed out at the piles that were everywhere.  I do a good job of organizing stuff into piles, but then I don't have time to deal with those things and put them where they need to be.  I saw a quote on a friend's facebook page and it really stuck with me:

Do you agree with this?  I find myself constantly rushing around trying to make the piles disappear before I have friends over.  I find myself having less friends over because of the piles- I do not want to live like this, I want the serene inviting house in the photos I see, the one that isn't stressful to walk into.  Reading this book has made me feel like I can get there, like I will one day walk into that house.  I am by no means a hoarder, but I do fall into the excuse category of "I don't have the time", but somehow I find the time to go buy something else that might make my life better or help me get more organized.

The first step Peter tells you to help get organized is envision your life how you want it to be and then look at how you want each room to be.  Next, you have to commit to not buying anything else until you have eliminated your clutter (especially organization devices).  I am officially commiting to not buying anything (besides food of course) else until my house is clutter free.

Think of this, instead of spending the time going to the store, looking at stuff, then driving home with the stuff, putting the stuff away, and taking care of the stuff, you could be using ALL THAT TIME tending to the stuff you do have that you probably don't even use.    Let me ask you: How much time do you spend cleaning, organizing, and taking care of the stuff you have- is it worth it?, would you rather be playing outside with your kids?  This is the biggest thing that hit home to me- I don't want to take care of stuff I might use or never use- I want to spend it with my family, cooking, and taking photos.

I'm leaving with you with Peter's list of top ten excuses why people won't get rid of stuff, think about it, which excuse are you using:
1) I might need it one day (you can buy it again or something better might come along, stop living in the future, and live in the present- GET RID OF IT!)

2) It's too important to let go (do you use it on a daily basis, do you only look at it occasionally, do you know which box it is in- take a photo, designate a small box for super important mementos- GET RID OF THE REST!)

3) It's worth a lot of money (only to the person that was foolish to pay that price to begin with or the specific person that knows the value- who you may never find to sell the item to, the value means nothing sitting in your house, collecting dust- try to sell it or GET RID OF IT!)

4) My house is too small (you have the space you have, do not buy something for a future house, even if it's a good deal- do you really need a bigger house for your non-living stuff- do you need to pay heating and cooling for those five couches?, move now or GET RID OF IT!)

5) I don't have the time (somehow find the time- get up 30 minutes before the kids, stay up 30 minutes after the kids, cut out unnecessary shopping, don't ponder over the stuff or walk down memory lane with it- GET RID OF IT!)

6) I don't know how I got like this (none of us do, just realize where you're at and find a way to get to where you want- GET RID OF IT!)

7) It's not a problem, my family just thinks it is (if it's affecting your relationships with your loved ones, it is a problem, do you value your stuff more than your relationships with your living loved ones?-would you rather have a conversation with your box of junk than an actual human being?- GET RID OF IT!)

8) It isn't mine (then give the owner a set amount of time to claim it, obviously if you've been holding onto it for them for this long, it is not important to them- GET RID OF IT!)

9) It's too overwhelming (yes it is, but little by little, you can conquer it.  set aside a small amount of time everyday or set aside a whole day for clean up- bring in a helper who has no attachment to your stuff that will help you plow through it, just GET RID OF IT!)

10) __________ (he assumes lists are better in ten, so what's your excuse that wasn't mentioned- either way, it's an excuse, so GET RID OF IT!)

Stay tuned next week for a before and after!

Simple Cream Scones with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter

Here's some news to some people:  My husband is the scone baker in our house.  When I left Japan in 2007 for several months to have my daughter, he took up scone baking as a hobby, and yes, he's good at it.  He has gotten his scone making down to a science, from freezing the butter, to grating it, and carefully cutting it into the dough.  However, since we've moved into our new house, he has not made them.

A few months ago, I found a recipe online for chocolate biscuits with brown sugar cinnamon butter.  It was a day when I was craving a homemade bakery type breakfast treat.  One of my sons just loved them and has been begging me to keep making them.  I didn't want to keep having chocolately breakfasts,  so I pulled out my trusty Cook's Illustrated Cookbook to find a recipe for plain scones that I could top with this butter.  The recipe is simple, tasty, and quick to prepare.  The scones come out light and cakey on the inside and have a slight crisp shell, reminiscent of a thin shortbread cookie.  

I recently made some homemade raspberry jam and strawberry too- they go perfectly on top of these scones for an easy on the go breakfast!  One day, I actually timed myself making them, from getting the ingredients out, to putting them in the oven- it was less than ten minutes!  

Simple Cream Scones:

Oven:  425'

2 cups all purpose flour

3 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 TBSP unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

1) In bowl of food processor**, pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut the butter into 5 pieces, add them into the flour mixture, pulse until it has been incorporated and the mixture resembles coarse sand.

2) Add cream and pulse until the mixture just forms a ball.  Remove dough from food processor, using hands, form into a ball.  Place dough ball on lightly floured counter top, roll or pat into a 9" circle.  Cut into 8 wedges.

3) Place the scone wedges on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, and bake 12-15 minutes (until tops are golden brown).

**If you don't have a food processor, you can do it in the kitchen aid with the paddle, or by hand and use a pastry blender or fork to cut the butter in.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1) When butter is soft enough to mash with a spoon, mix in brown sugar and cinnamon until well combined.  Serve immediately with hot scones or biscuits.  If serving later or to store, spread the butter in a line across a piece of plastic wrap,  roll up and form into a log.  Freeze, then cut into small circular pats of butter.

Source:  Scones- Cook's Illustrated Cookbook  Brown sugar, cinnamon butter- How Sweet Eats

Chocolate Glazed Funfetti Birthday Donuts

Before I say anything, I have two words about these donuts:  WICKED. GOOD.

Ok, so, these donuts.  I found them a few weeks ago, actually, I made them on Mother's Day for breakfast.  I figured it'd be a fun breakfast for the kids to butter them up for some good behavior since Dave was out of town.  I also figured they'd be easy for me to dissolve in my mouth since my wisdom teeth had only been out for two days at that point.  They were so good, but it was hard to enjoy without being fully able to chew them.

My son's sixth birthday was yesterday and I was feeling so guilty because of the 26 birthdays I have celebrated with my children so far, I have never ever missed one.  I had class last night so I wasn't going to be home for cake. Even though he had a friend party Sunday and we were having whoopie pies before I left for class, I still wanted to do something extra special for my little guy.  I knew that seeing a giant plate of these on the table would make any birthday boy feel special and after a few bites (donuts), I wasn't feeling so guilty anymore.

Besides the obvious tastiness of the donuts, they are baked not fried- Happy Birthday to everyone on that !

Chocolate Glazed Funfetti Donuts:


Oven:  425'
Donuts:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1/2 TBSP vanilla (~2tsp)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup your favorite sprinkles

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 TBSP cocoa powder
3 TBSP milk (or more depending how thin you want your glaze to be)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1) Preheat oven to 425'.  Spray your donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.  (I'm usually not a cooking spray fan, but for the donut pan, trust me, it's easier).

2) Cream butter and sugar in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment on medium, until light and fluffy.

3) Separate egg whites into a small bowl.  Add egg whites and vanilla into bowl with butter and sugar. Mix, then scrape down sides.

4) In medium bowl, combine flour, cake flour, and baking powder.  Alternately with the milk, add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl in two additions.  Scrape down sides.  Add in sprinkles, lightly mix until combined.

5) For easiest method of filling the donut pan, I put the batter into a piping bag with the largest tip opening I have.  You can also put it in a ziploc bag and cut off the corner.  Pipe a small circle of batter into each donut well (1/2 full height-wise).

6) Bake 7-9 minutes (I used a mini donut pan, so I did 7 minutes).  Let cool about 5 minutes.  Remove donuts from pan, regrease, add more batter, and bake some more.

7) While donuts are baking, prepare the glaze, by whisking all ingredients together until smooth.  Dip the top of a warm donut into the glaze.  Sit on a plate or cooling rack and shake on some sprinkles.

Yield:  40 mini donuts

Source:  Sugarcrafter
For a little extra something something, serve the milk in ice cream sundae glasses.  Your kids will not care if you're not home on their bday night for sure!

We heart these donuts!

He could barely wait til I was done taking pictures to eat one:

Pokemon Birthday Invitations (DIY Pokemon Cards)

Of course, now that we don't live in Japan anymore, my kids are obsessed with Pokemon.  Hello, it was all over Japan, and we had nothing to do with it for those four and a half years.  Gasp, if they only knew the Pokemon haven that is in Japan.  I love that Pokemon's name is a Japanese way of shortening an english phrase they didn't have a word for- pocket monster- pokemon.  (same for their word for laptop- pasokon (shortened personal computer) and dijikami (digital camera)).  

Anyways, the point is that my son is having a pokemon birthday for his 6th birthday.  I went online and found this awesome website, mypokecard.com, where you can upload your own image onto a pokemon card, you can even choose the genre, and fill in your own powers and weaknesses.  I just typed in the info for the party.   

Once you are done filling out the card, you just right click and save it to your computer.  I opened it in power point and pasted four in a document and resized to fit the paper and printed on card stock.  The whole thing took less than ten minutes and my son loved them so much, he didn't want to give them out.  Let's just say I started a revolution, and now I'm making trading cards for all my kids. If you size them right, you can glue them on the back of an existing card and make your own game.

I'm already thinking thank you cards!  You could even make a set of these for one of your kids' friends for a bday gift (if you have stock in printer ink;)

Homemade Cherry Sherbet

Not long ago, I posted about the lime sherbet I made.  Since then, I have been on a sherbet kick- I have made five kinds in the past two weeks!  I'm almost positive that this cherry sherbet is the clear favorite in our house.  I'm not sure that more than one of my kids would actually eat a real cherry, but cook them and mash them and put them in sherbet, and they all ate them!

I went to a farmer's market last weekend to take pictures for my photography club and the cherries are starting to come into season.  Now would be the perfect time to try buying fresh cherries (locally if possible) and make some of this refreshing summer treat.

Cherry Sherbet:

3 cups cherries, stems removed and pitted
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
3 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla (or vodka)- I used 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp cherry extract
2/3 cup heavy cream

1) Cook 3 cups pitted cherries, sugar, salt, and 3/4 cup water over medium heat- until it reaches a simmer, about 7 minutes.  I used a flat bottomed whisk and mashed the cherries while they were cooking to help extract more of the juices.  Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and strain the cherry mixture.  Press down on the solids to help extract more juices.  Discard the solids when done.

2)  Add lemon juice and vanilla (and/or vodka- cherry extract). ** This amount of alcohol helps to keep the ice cream smooth, not frosty when it freezes. Cover and place in freezer for about 30 minutes, do not freeze.

3) Whip heavy cream in medium or large bowl until soft peaks form.  Slowly whisk in juice mixture from freezer.

4) Turn ice cream maker on.  While ice cream maker is moving, slowly add mixture into ice cream maker and let it churn until it reaches the consistency of soft serve ice cream.  Place in a covered, air-tight container and store in the freezer.

Adapted from:  Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

This baby was on fire about this sherbet:

Happy Friday Everyone!

Organizing Recipes from Magazines

Time to get organized on Tuesdays, I think it's a new thing I'm going to try out.  Why?  Because I love being organized, today is Tuesday, and I really want the boxes and clutter out of my house!!!

Last year, when we were getting packed up from Japan, I found a large collection of magazines I'd saved because I wanted to try a recipe in them.  I never looked at them the whole 4.5 years I had lived there!  I certainly wasn't going to let those magazines bump something of importance out of my shipment.  So, I sat down, went through the magazines and ripped out all the recipes that sounded good to me and recycled the rest of the magazine.

Every summer, when we were on homeleave from Japan, I would clean out the shelves under my parent's kitchen island.  My dad had tons of cooking magazines under there, five or six years worth of Gourmet and some Bon Appetit!  So, after my episode of magazine purging when leaving Japan, I asked my dad if I could do the same to his magazines.  Note, I decided to do this less than a week before I was moving to my new house.  Literally every night, I was pouring through, ripping out recipes, trying to lessen the load I was taking in the moving truck with me.  I think I ended up having to take about 20 magazines with me.  I got a cute little bag and carried it around with me to my daughter's gymnastics and dance classes.  While she danced, I ripped out recipes.  I went from probably 5 feet high of magazines to this:

How good does that feel?  Pretty awesome!

After I ripped out the recipes, I placed them into a folder that I carried around in the bag with me until I was ready to organize them.  When I was done with all the magazines I had at the time, I spent some time organizing the recipes into categories, meal, appetizer or side, dessert, breakfast, tips, breads.  You can organize yours however you want, that's just how I'm doing mine for now.

After school started, I bought a 3-ring binder on clearance at Target, along with binder divider tabs and the clear plastic page covers.  Those were sitting in the office collecting dust for a while.  Finally, when I got my wisdom teeth out, I was forced to sit on the couch for a few days, so what better thing to do when you can't eat, than look at all the recipes you want to try?  I slipped all the recipes into the clear page covers, put them in the binder behind the tab I wanted to categorize them in and voila- a lot less space being taken up in my house and a lot more organized recipes for me!  If I try something and don't like it, I take it out and bye bye.  If a recipe is two pages, slip them in side by side.

Be open minded when you are tearing out recipes because you can always swap out an ingredient that you don't like.  For instance, swap chicken for fish, or... swap strawberries for the rhubarb in this:

In the front of my binder, there is a nice little pocket, where I keep two very important things, paper to write my meal plan for the week on the front (grocery list goes on back) and a wish list for kitchen items I want/need to make some of the recipes.

I have already made many of the recipes in here and in fact, the buttermilk pancake recipe I pulled out of Fine Cooking is by far the best buttermilk pancake recipe I've made- and I've made it three times in the past month alone.

I was talking with my friend about this this past weekend and she said she's been doing it with cookbooks that she doesn't use that often- genius!  Except, there are some you just don't rip up, like Cook's Illustrated, Baked, Pastry Queen.

I'm using the same idea for all my craft stuff that I get from Family Fun magazine and Parents too.

This is a project I've been working on since last summer.  Don't worry, something like this is very easy, I just did it here, there, and every where, and until the end didn't truly devote myself to it.

Thousand Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found the recipe for these cookies the day after I got my wisdom teeth out.  I was immediately intrigued by the title, thousand layer- who wouldn't want to try a thousand layer chocolate chip cookie?  Talk about sheer torture, I couldn't make them because I couldn't eat them, so I made a note to myself to make them as soon as I could chew.  The very next weekend, I made my first (and second batch of these cookies).

The recipe is pretty much the same as the toll house recipe, except you use egg yolks only and you layer the dough and smash the chips in.  The extra step of layering the dough had me intimidated for about two days before I finally bit the bullet and made them.  Seriously, the extra step adds very little time and the end result is so good that you won't even mind.  The cookies are crispy on the outside and edges and soft and delicious in the middle.  They taste exactly like the big giant chocolate chip cookies I used to buy from the bakery that used to be in the town where I grew up.

If you've got a party or barbecue to go to this summer, you might consider bringing a batch of these, they are sure to be a hit.  The best part?  You can freeze the cookies once you cut them out and bake them directly from the freezer and your craving hits.

Thousand Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies:


Oven:  375'

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
6 oz mini chocolate chips- I wouldn't try normal sized chips, I don't think they'd work well here (or you can shred a chocolate bar)

1) With paddle attachment in mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium high until light and fluffy.

2) While butter/sugars are beating, separate eggs, saving the yolks.  After butter is creamed, add in egg yolks and vanilla.  Scape down sides.

3) In separate medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly add flour mixture to batter in mixing bowl, mix on low until combined.  Scrape down sides, mix again, then stop mixing. Scrape dough off of paddle.

4) Stretch a piece of plastic wrap on your counter.  Take 1/3 of dough, place it on the plastic wrap and using your hands, form it into a 4X8 rectangle.  Wrap the dough rectangle up in the plastic wrap and set aside.  Repeat the process for the remaining 2/3 of the dough.  Try to keep each rectangle the same size.  Place the three wrapped rectangles in the refrigerator to firm up slightly for 30 minutes.

5) After the dough has been in the fridge for 30 minutes, remove it and bring it to the counter top.  Lightly flour the counter top, unwrap and place the first rectangle on the floured surface.  Place 1/2 of the chocolate chips on top of the dough rectangle.  Place the second rectangle on top of the chips, then place the remaining 1/2 of the chocolate chips on top of this, and finally, cover the top with the last dough rectangle. You will have a pretty high mound of dough and chips (it's ok if chips fall out, you will collect them later).

6) Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll/pound the dough down to about 1- 1 1/2" thick.  Using a round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out cookies and place them on a plate covered with parchment paper.
Take the dough scraps and smoosh them together (at this point, I abandon the rolling pin and just use my hands).  Form another 1" thick dough piece and cut out more cookies, continue until there is enough dough left to smoosh into the center of the cookie cutter to form the last cookie.

7) Put the cut out cookies in the fridge for 1 hour (lightly covered with plastic wrap).  At this point, you can stick them in the freezer for about thirty minutes to begin freezing, and then transfer them to a freezer safe plastic bag for storage until you are ready to cook them.  (Note:  I have made them from the freezer, from the fridge after 1 hour, and impatiently right away after cutting them out.  I haven't noticed a huge difference in flavor immediately, but the leftovers the second day taste way better from the ones that have been refrigerated for 1 hour before baking.  If you do any type of research online for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, they all seem to stand by refrigerating the dough before cooking to maximize flavor - most are in there at least six hours).

8) After 1 hour, remove cookies from the fridge, place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  If you like (and I do), sprinkle the tops with sea salt.  Bake in 375' oven for 15-20 minutes (until edges are golden and tops start to turn golden.  Try to let them cool before biting in.  If you are baking from the freezer, cook time will be 20-25 minutes, but let the color of the tops be your guide.

Source:  The Newlyweds Cookbook by Sarah Copeland via Tracey's Culinary Adventures

How did I do it?  The first time I made these, Dave was out of town on a business trip.  Since I was using the mixer, I didn't need to be fully paying attention.  I was adding ingredients to the mixer while I was making dinner for the kids.  When the dough was done, I took five minutes while they were drinking their milk to form the rectangles and get them in the fridge.  Then while they were in there for 30 minutes, I served dinner, did the dishes, and cleaned up the table.  While I was pounding out the cookies, a few kids were helping, and the others were reading books.  WHile the cookies were refrigerating for 1 hour, we did baths and jammies, then we got impatient and baked them after 30 minutes.  While they were baking, we read bedtime stories, then we ate them, brushed teeth, and they were off to bed so I could sneak a few more cookies.