The Conclusion of the Beet Venture; I do not like them

I forgot the last time I'd tried beets and felt pretty meh about them and succumbed to the fresh vegetable lust of the Farmer's market. I found a recipe for cooking the greens as well. Conclusion: I can just stomach roasted beets, although they will never be my favorite. The edibility of beet greens is a cruel and unsupported rumor, much like the edibility of okra. They smelt worse and worse the more they cooked, they tasted worse than they smelled, and after I threw them away the reeked most vilely. I like enough other vegetables that I do not need to experiment further with these. Note to self - remember that you do not like beets and your memories of liking them the first time you had them should be tempered by the memory that that was the first time you'd had vodka too.

Fiddling with my hair

It is not as easy to take pictures of the back of your head as you would think. To do this, I pulled back my hair in a clip, braided it loosely, took the clip out, twisted part of the braid up and held it with a claw. It took several tries to get it to stay and wasn't very sturdy and the shorter braid was a little annoying, but it was different.

My Kitchen

It's all clean!

My desk, in the corner of the kitchen (the books aren't permanent. that's a project in process)

Renovations continued! Which fabric should I use?

Bedroom renovation continues! It's almost done now, just waiting to re-catalog and replace books, put up curtains and pictures. But first...I had to add a shelf for plants!

The pieces await construction

It's not exactly the same green as the bookshelves, but close!

The curtains will be white, with little embroidered butterflies in light blue and yellow

But first I have to decide on a fabric for a runner across the shelf

I can't decide....

hmmm

No easier from this angle

The green in this matches really well, but maybe it's too dark? Then again, that could hide any potential water stains

This green doesn't quite match, but I like the flowers...

This goes with the butterfly theme, but it's not quite right...too light?

This really stands out, but the green is wrong and I don't have anything else red. Then again, that's never stopped me...

Renovating the bedroom; or, I deal with stress by moving everything

Before - bed by the window

Shelves in the corner (laundry drying...ok, totally dry and not put away)

Clothes closet

craft closet

Starting to move the books out to the living room

The living room plants waiting hopefully for their new shelf in the bedroom

I would like to say that the living room shelves looked like this after I moved everything....but actually they looked like this before. I haven't done the living room yet

Paperbacks mounting up in the kitchen at my desk, waiting to be re-cataloged

Cleaning up the hallway - it has to get messier before it gets cleaner

Starting to clear off the bedroom shelves

First stage in moving the bed

Shelves and sheets piling up in the living room

Moving the bed

The bed almost in its new home

Fairy lights!

Shelves in place

You can see it's sort of an extra large cupboard bed

With a little gap to reach my bedside table and the light switch

Putting back the sheets and books

The hallway beautifully clear

It took forever to clean the entryway because I dropped a huge bottle of laundry soap on the doormat. But it's very clean now!

I live in a book world

The fabric in the entryway hallway

Of course, now the living room looks like this, but you can't have everything

Back to the bedroom - the clothes closet is beautifully arranged

Bed curtains at the end of the bed (sideways picture, sorry)

And at the end of the bed.

I'm not completely done - I still need a small table or shelf from Ikea to put in front of the window for the plants, I have to hang pictures in the bedroom and the hallway, and recatalog and replace all the books on the shelves. But I'm getting there!

Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole

I adapted this from Smitten's recipe. I sauteed onion, cooked mixed wild and brown rice in the rice cooker, and boiled the broccoli. I made a basic cheese sauce. It smelled really good but tasted kind of bland - could have used some more spices. I probably went a little overboard on the brocooli, but I had some to use up.

Nut bread that works!

This recipe is from my trusty Good Housekeeping cookbook. I cut out some of the sugar and chop up whatever nuts I have on hand. I also add a ton of dried fruit, which isn't in the recipe at all. It comes out very thick and heavy, but if you want something to slice and toast or heat up with butter, it's yummy. Kind of like a heavy muffin. I actually made this a couple months ago, so it's not really a new recipe, but I threw in sunflower seeds this time, so that counts as new.