God is in the Detailing

My little car has been ill used recently- what with all the transporting of Sheetrock & lumber to build the new seasonal location for my business. I decided to give my car a good hosing out as I am going to be transporting a rather valuable portrait in it this coming Wednesday.

Out comes the vacuum cleaner, buckets, rags and sponges. Carrying my dog everywhere means his white fur has permeated every crevice. I must have vacuumed for 45 minutes. Next comes the washing of all the surfaces- especially the snotty nose prints on the windows. While doing this thorough scrub I knocked the plastic console cover off its clips- REVELATION! This things comes off.

I have owned this Element for almost 4 years and have loved the lack of rugs and upholstery (no place for dog hair to stick) but have loathed all of the creases and crevices that catch it. If all these plastic covers and tidbits are removable though- my job just became much easier. While the interior doesn't look brand new, it is many steps closer to, at least, not creating a white hair storm every time you roll the windows down.

Kitchen Magic

This photo is to convey to my boyfriend that in his absence I am both eating food that requires cooking and cleaning the pans afterwards.

My boyfriend is the world's best housekeeper- bar none. He knows every tip to make your world cleaner, safer & more efficient. He leaves Heloise in the dust.

One of his tips is to use the tin foil liner from the broiling pan to scrub the scunge off the rack.... so as to not scunge up the dish scrubby too much- sort of pre-scrub descunging.

His other big tip is to turn on the overhead light so that I can actually see what I am suppose to be cleaning. I am pretty sure that in the wild I would be dead within weeks.

Day Of Domesticity

Happy Columbus Day! Thank goodness North America was discovered or I might be an English peasant or something.

I spent the day washing all the windows in the house. It is not as terrible as it sounds- after a week of whining to my friend Louise about the impending task. I put on a selection of cleaning music:
Annie Lennox- Bare
Kristen Hersh- Strings
Paris Combo- Attraction
Jane Siberry- Bound By the Beauty
Bossacucanova- Brasilade
Somehow music played loudly makes many tasks bearable. A little something to shake your cleaning booty to.

Then I was left to make a side dish with our leftover bounty of eggplants and peppers. I was recently taught to make capanata by my godchild, Hannah. It is a wonderful thing when small children grow up and can teach you a thing or two. She is 26 now, but I remember her clearly at 4 years old. She was wise at that age too. She helped me with my computer skills when I was trying to write my thesis in graduate school. It is a very humbling experience to have a 4 year old help you.

I am pretending I am Pioneer Woman here- what with the beautiful cookery & photography. So you dice up peeled eggplant and saute with olive oil, garlic, shallots (from the garden if you are lucky). It is suppose to have Kalamata Olives. I didn't have any, so in go the black olives. In go the capers too.
Fresh tomatoes are best, but what we have is rotting instead of ripening... so in goes the canned tomatoes.

I'll be serving this with roasted chicken.... mmmmm.