Cleaning House

I've needed to do a lot of house cleaning, both interior and exterior. The exterior is easy, as long as I can motivate my lazy ass. Here are some before and after pix of my kitchen cabinets. While this ended up taking maybe 30 minutes to do, I started wondering why I've procrastinated on this and a lot of other house projects. No more excuses are allowed, so the next big project is my guest room, aka House of Junk. I renovated my house a year ago (!), and there are still some boxes to go through, art to hang, stuff to put away and paper to shred. I guess you could say I'm a slow learner.

Tonight, I made Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Onions and Mushrooms. Set the oven to 425 degrees, peel and chop 2 lbs. of sweet potatoes, 1 onion and some mushrooms. Toss in olive oil, dried thyme, salt and pepper (I used my Jalapeno Salt, again), and roast for about 45 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally. They came out with some crunch, and are delicious! I'm trying some things out before Thanksgiving, and this one is a keeper. Plus, I enjoy peeling potatoes...there's something comforting and old fashioned about it. I usually put myself in a 50's movie, with an apron that has some rickrack on it and cat's eye glasses. However, wiping mushrooms with a damp paper towel...how many times have we seen this in a recipe? This is a pain in the ass, and really, does this clean it? I may be unemployed, but I am going back to the prepackaged and cleaned mushrooms. Cleaning mushrooms DOES NOT fit into my 50's movie scenario.

As for the interior house cleaning, it's all about how I'm handling and or going to handle my stress. I would love to identify myself with this picture of Fred...he looks like he's experiencing Nirvana. I just finished a tough three-week gig, and it took a lot out of me. Any suggestions on how to deal with it when it's happening, and how to relieve it when you get home would be great. But, seriously, I already have a prescription for a certain something, so I need suggestions that don't involve greenery.

Tomorrow, the long awaited Martha Stewart story...