My New Kitchen

So I am not moving for another year, but I like making plans and one thing I really want to do is re-paint my kitchen. It is kind of a light green right now and I don't think that light green is a color that goes very well in a kitchen. However, I don't know what color (s) to paint the cupboards. Any suggestions? I want something that matches the counter-tops a little bit better.

Anyway, I love my kitchen. I love all of the cupboards (and none of them stick!), I love the the counter-tops and I love the window above the sink. The kitchen is big and it has a lot of natural light. Oh, and the oven is up high so you don't have to bend into it. I've burned a lot of body parts trying to pull things up and out of an oven, so I am very excited for this new feature!

Costco repents on Mac'n'cheese

So coasting through Costco the other day, I noticed that they finally fixed the gravest thing they've ever done. Costco once again carries Kraft blue box Mac'n'Cheese! The price is even the same as before. Many people may not have even noticed it was gone.

This has caused me to reflect on the possible causes for the stoppage. One option is as I argued in a past post, that Costco was trying to capture some of the lucrative mac'n'cheese profits for their own brand. But I have developed a second theory that isn't malicious on Costco's side.

As much as I do love Kraft, the corporation has been having some especially difficult times as of late if you follow them much. Yes, I follow the corporate health of my favorite food. Anyhow, the Kraft manufacturers may have been putting pressure on Costco by raising the prices at which Costco purchases Kraft products. Costco could pass on the extra cost to the customer (bad for customers), Costco could cut their own margin on the product (bad for Costco), or Costco could phase in their own mac'n'cheese as a muscle-flexing stunt to Kraft. Such a boycott could convince Kraft to return to the lower pricing levels in order to get their volume back up to normal.

It pains me to think that the producer of such a tasty food might do that. But rationally I must face that option. While I may never know if it is true, I sure do hope that Kraft and Costco keep up healthy relations so I can benefit from inexpensive tastiness.

--Steve
P.S. I still haven't figured out how to make an account on this, so it's still posted under Suzanne's name I think.

Rag Rug #2

There will be four rag rugs. This one turned out a lot better than my first one did. It is flatter, the circles are more even, and it is bigger - it is easier to tell it is a rug and harder to mistake it for a hat! (My other rug was more hat-like).

The plaid is a shirt from a former co-worker and the other colors are fabrics given to me by my mother-in-law.

Fancy (Looking) Food

Every week I go through my cookbooks and decide what to eat in the coming week. Sometimes I try to use a particular ingredient, and sometimes a recipe just looks fun. I even read cookbooks during breakfast to try to get ideas. It's fun, it really is!

Anyway, I don't remember why I decided to make this soup, but I convinced Steve to add the rice like they said to in the recipe instead of mixing it in. I ate it while watching "Ghost" (the movie with Patrick Swayze in it). It turned out to be an very inexpensive way to feel felt artistic and fancy!

Salsa Garden

Last Friday Suzanne had the wonderful idea to plant a salsa garden. They are still seeds currently, but should germinate in a week or so from now. The idea started when we pulled into Lowes for a replacement lightbulb, which they were stocked out of AGAIN! (Yes, that is a plug for Home Depot.) The garden section had all of their veggies pulled out. So we grabbed some seeds and a planter to start them indoors, since it may be too early to plant outside in Utah.

We planted three types of peppers, two types of tomatoes, lots of onions, and basil. After researching a little more found that we should have considered planting a thing of cilantro and garlic as well, but we can get those for almost-free at the grocery store, and I doubt we'll need high quantity.

So if I remember, I'll try to post a real picture of them when we move them outside in front of our house.

--STEVE

Booyah

The other day I did something for someone at work and they said "booyah", as a kind of thank you. My understanding of "booyah" was that it meant "in your face, take that", kind of a thing, but I didn't really understand what it meant so I went to google. On Wikipedia it talks about how booyah is urban slang. Then it mentions that booyah is also a type of stew generally made for charity events. Who knew?

Easter

Okay, this is a long time coming, but I wanted to post this picture of Easter. Personally I really like Easter. Probably because it has lots of pastel colored candy (I love anything that is a pastel) and it isn't as creepy as Halloween. Steve said that he didn't want an Easter basket this year, but I still sunk out of the house (on crutches - my latest fashion statement) and bought some Easter basket candy. But I promised Steve that I wouldn't give him a basket, so when I got home I found flower pots and put the candy into the flower pots instead. Don't they look festive?? Mmm, I like these kinds of things. Oh, and the candy was fabulous.

I tried something new with eggs this year and I am sad that it doesn't show up in the above photo. You boil the eggs, crack them and put them into food coloring. A few hours later they look like marbled eggs. Thanks for the idea, Judy!