Of Earth and Stars

After a monstrously slow day at work, I came home and went for a tiny 1.25 mile run, followed by 15 minutes of walking. During that I finished listening to The Book Thief, which was just wonderful - it's my first ever audiobook (well, since childhood), and the story-telling style of the novel just suits it so well in audio. Allan Corduner’s voice is just amazing here. I cannot recommend it enough. It is lovely and sad and yet very full.

Last night I'd prepared a meal for the crockpot (an African-style peanut stew) and refrigerated it overnight, so today I just called L. at noon and kindly asked him to plop the ceramic bowl into the crockpot, such that I only had to add a little spinach and cook a little couscous when I got home. It was a pretty good meal, and not having to cut up vegetables = priceless. Win!

I've been working on collecting a number of canning/old sauce jars of various sizes to store my bulk-bought items in the pantry. I've been having some trouble with a pantry moth infestation (double ick), and so tonight I set out to clean up the top two shelves of the pantry (which hold all the flours, sugars, grains, and legumes). I moved almost everything that I could into a tightly sealed glass jar, with the exception of a few things that are in sealable bags, and I threw a lot of crap away. I also found a few things, like that giant bag of hemp seed that I did not know existed.



I am too ashamed to show you the bottom shelf, which is full of spices and is a gorram mess. I hope to tackle that one tomorrow night.

I really need some gallon-jars to house the larger bags of flours (those are on the top right at the back, behind the oils), but the last time I went in to buy some I dropped one and it shattered everywhere, which left me too mortified to buy one.

I also cleaned out another half-cabinet that houses the dried fruits, nuts, and seeds in smaller jars - most of my nuts/seeds are in the fridge because of spoilage concerns, and that's a huge mess because they are mostly kept in the paper bags they are bought in.

Also, I hate pasta boxes with the fury of a thousand burning suns. They just *barely* fit into my cabinet standing upright, and they never, ever stay closed, even if I tape or band them. I swear half of tonight's cleaning was brushing away broken pasta shells. *grump*