In the kitchen..

I spent hours in the kitchen last night! Between making dinner, homemade laundry detergent and over a dozen muffins I didn't get out of the kitchen until after 9pm!

My tools.

I tried a new muffin recipe to use up the dried craberries I'd purchased for the homemade chewy granola bars I never made. (I am having a hard time finding a recipe that sounds good...and like it will work. Any recipes you'd care to share with me?) The muffins are good...but a bit on the dry and chewy side. I prefer a bit more moisture. But the flavor is good. You can't go wrong with orange and cranberry!

*Edit: Turns out the family really liked the muffins! They didn't have any complaints. Well, I take that back..Ian, it turns out, isn't into cranberries. But he ate them anyway because "they weren't THAT bad."*

My husband and I are going away this weekend. We signed up for a conference back in October...before finances got out of hand...before work came to a screeching halt...but we decided to go anyway, to enjoy ourselves anyway, and to not worry about it so much. We haven't gone away together, just the two of us, in about two years! Between finances and baseball season and church commitments...we just haven't seemed to make the time.

So, we're going for it.

And to make it easier on us I'm packing all of our food. We may go out for one meal...maybe. But I will be prepared to feed us in our hotel room for all meals...just in case. I made extra lasagne last night and froze two servings for us to take. I'll bring some muffins...and I'll make brownies to take, too. I'll bring sourdough rolls and some good lunch meat along with all the trimmings for a good deli style lunch. We can also eat a sourdough roll along with the lasagne. I'm also going to make some breakfast burritos and bring some juice. Our room has a fridge and microwave...so that will help a lot. I think we'll be set. We definitely won't starve! And...we'll save money. And that's a good thing...since we don't have any!

On the to-do list today:

• purchase the few items needed to prepare all weekend meals
• stop by post office
• return library books (are they late yet? I hope not!)
• start laundry
• pull out suitcase and begin packing
• pull out the boys' duffel bags and begin packing for THEM too
• ask neighbor to feed the dog
• keep my chin up