A Little Sparse on Recipes

Yeah, no kidding. Who has time to cook when you have no kitchen?!

Most of my meals are cucumber slices and American cheese slices. Sheesh. Cucumbers are wonderful, though. I hear they are good for the skin. So I won’t be needing any wrinkle remover cream for a while, eh?? LOL

One of the best appliances I have right now is an electric skillet. That thing cooks FAST. And it’s so so so easy to do– just dump stuff in, and turn on the dial. It uses a god amount of electricity, but probably a lot less than my electric range! I have been toying with getting rid of my electric range, actually. It uses up a lot of power and too much space… and I don’t really use it much anymore. Although, I do like to roast turkey from time to time…. I would miss that aspect. Maybe I should just get a gas stove… :-p I don’t know.

ANYWAY. I’m sparse on recipes because I’m not cooking! And I have no interest in food right now! Ugh! Summertime is mostly about vegetables, anyway, right? Back to the cucumbers….

A Good Kitchen…

… is everything to a cook. Really. I have had some really, really bad kitchens. Most of my apartment kitchens either had no countertops, or had a tiny one of 3 feet long. I can’t believe I was living in an apartment with FOUR young children and using a kitchen with a 3-foot countertops and two cupboards. Wow, lol.

Well, we’re redoing our kitchen in our home, at last. And while it’s SO GREAT to be finally renovating the kitchen, it’s very hard to be living here without a kitchen while doing it. We have no kitchen sink. We have no storage space in the house (the basement floods and there is no attic in the house)… it’s surprisingly tough. I’m a pretty tough gal, I can take a lot, so I thought. But having no kitchen is really, really disruptive. And it’s not disruptive just for cooking– it’s hard emotionally on the family. Basic stuff like morning coffee or dinner together is totally turned on its head. Wow. I thought I was prepared for this, knowing how renovations can cause stress, but this is pretty wild! Even my blogging is severely affected– my posts are more terse, less humorous, less frequent.

Still, I’m so happy to finally be getting this done. All this demolition and construction work is quite the abs workout!! Once the plumbing is in and the electricity is in, and the first floor is insulated, all the hard stuff is done. All that will be left is the upstairs– the simple stuff like walls and floors. Whew. I can’t wait til it’s all over.

I Did Wonder…

… what my son was doing in the kitchen that was taking him so long… LOL

Is it just in this area, or are you finding fruits and vegetables to be horribly expensive lately? I cannot afford to buy fruit, the prices are terrible! One tiny little cantaloupe slightly larger than a softball is almost $3! Watermelons the size of a basketball are $8! A bag of oranges are almost $8! Yow. I have a garden, but it’s all vegetables. The kids love their fruit… I cannot keep it stocked.

I sure hope my little apple trees start producing mega fruit in the near future. I wanted to get another tree this year, but we’re doing a kitchen renovation and all my cash is tied up in buying drywall and stuff like a ceiling fan, etc. The kitchen is turning out to be GORGEOUS, by the way!! I can’t wait to actually cook in it! I’ll be posting a lot of new stuff here, believe me!

If you’re interested in knowing about our progress on the renovation, see my home blog, New York Renovator.com.

List of Good Recipe Apps for IPod and iPhone

I recently blogged about the very cool apps I’ve found for my new iPod Touch. Well, I found a great website that offers a list of the Top Ten Best Free iPhone and iPod Touch Recipe Apps. It looks really good, and I thought you cookers out there with iPods or iPhones may gleam something useful. I’m still getting used to using my iPod. I haven’t taken it to the store yet or anything, but I’m sure it will be very helpful. I hope to spend some time exploring what’s out there in App-Land for the iPod, as far as cooking and shopping go. A lot of apps are free, which is terrific. I’m really loving my iPod. It is a terrific organizer– I have my calendar, email, shopping list, recipes, music, contacts, IM account, weather, news, and more. All in one little gadget! I love it. I have to figure out how to send cell phone text messages through it (there’s even an app for that). I’m finding that there are apps for everything!! I also love the Amazon and Buy.com mobile apps– while I am out, I can do price checks with stuff online, and see what’s a better price. PLUS I can research products like allergy bedding and other exciting stuff while I am at the stores. It’s soooo coool!!!

OK OK I’m raving a little too intently. LOL. If you’ve been wanting an electronic organizer/mp3 player, get an iPod Touch! They are so amazing. Really.

Terrific iPod Apps for the Kitchen

I got an iPod. I LOVE IT I LOVE IT! I’ve been wondering about getting one for the longest time, and I finally did. It’s really an amazing little tool. I use it for EVERYTHING now. I’ve been wanting an organizer like this for a long, long time.

The coolest thing I discovered is Apps. OMG I love apps!!! I spent some time last night sifting through the lists of apps, and found some really spectacular ones. Before I list some of the top apps I found, let me explain why they are so cool to me. Maybe I’m the only one this happens to, but I am ALWAYS losing that little piece of paper with the grocery list. It drives me bananas. I tuck it in my purse or pocket… maybe it falls out when I pull out my keys or wallet?? I don’t know, but I am always losing that blasted list. WELL, I found an app that stores grocery lists. It also keeps regular To Do lists, it has a diary, and a travel journal. I love it. It’s called the Awesome Note Lite app. It’s terrific. No more lost grocery lists!!!

iPod also has great recipe apps, loads of them.

So far, I have downloaded the Betty Crocker Recipes App and the All Recipes.com app. I haven’t had a lot of time to try them out yet, but so far, I love them. When I am at the store and need to think of another recipe– or if I see a certain ingredient on sale– I can look up a recipe and get the stuff for it. Wow, it’s totally cool.

There are tons and tons of apps, for everything it seems. I saw stuff for conversions, too (metric always has me stumped), and loads of stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had an app for treatment for hemorrhoid, sheesh! Anyway, iPod is SO COOL!!! It will greatly simplify my life. What took me so long to get it?!

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