Weekend Musings ~ More Kitchen Busyness

Along the lines of healthy eating, fresh herbs from the garden, and keeping busy in the kitchen, I am sharing some further busyness I have had in the kitchen.

First, we found these GREAT herb cutting scissors. If anyone shares my dislike of chopping fresh herbs, these are for you. Lots of cutting edges with one cut.

THE BEST herb chopping scissors

I always had rosemary pop across the counter when I chopped it with a knife, and it felt like it took forever to chop the mint and basil, and to get the leaves in line for cutting a whole other struggle.

These scissors make it, dare I say, fun to chop up, or cut up, the herbs. Gather herbs and put on the scissor blades and cut. Then keep cutting. I lay the scissors on their side and keep cutting the pile of herbs until it gets the desired chopped-ness.

I think I go a little crazy these days with using the herbs and cutting them up. I do it nearly every other day. But what yummy results!

Tomato Cucumber Salad, with fresh cut herbs

This is tomato and cucumber salad. So much better with fresh cut herbs.
(Yes, the cukes look yellow but that is from the Badia Sazon Tropical I used.)

Another project in the kitchen ~ hubby had decided to give up Diet Coke and needed something else to drink. (though this was short lived it turns out). I had been trying for years to get him to drink water, and give up the cokes. But he doesn't like water, which is, well yeah there is no flavor! But, he would stand for bubbly water, and settle for adding flavors to water like Mio's. That gets pricey and old quite quick. So we had this brilliant idea, make iced tea!
Sun Tea to be exact.

Perfect for Sun Tea

I honestly don't know why we didn't think of this sooner. Well, we had the idea for Sun Tea, but of course the day after we bought that awesome drink dispenser (glass), it was cloudy outside. No sun.

Tea Boil

So a stove top boil it was. It still worked, and lovely home brewed tea was then chilled, and the option to add as much, or as little, sugar as you like.

Home made Iced Tea

He did great for 2 weeks. No Diet Cokes.
But alas, it was not meant to last. He broke down and had one. Then of course that was it.
Off the wagon, and now there is more than one 12 pack of Cokes in the fridge.
But this weekend, if the sun cooperates, then more Sun Tea there will be!

I like spending time in the kitchen, when it is not urgent dinner, or required meals especially. And especially on the weekend where there is no rushing out the door in the morning, to return at the end of the day totally unmotivated.

source

I guess I should also write about those days, as I suspect I am not the only one who often feels like the kitchen is the last place I want to be, especially during the workweek.

Take-out happens more regularly than I like to admit during the week. (the staff at the Chinese place down the road know me by name these days, not just phone number. When I call now I say this is Rebecca and they know what I am going order. When I walk in it is like greeting old friends. They say 'Hi Miss Rebecca, how are you?' We chat about how busy it is or not busy, and the hard week or weather.. Old friends I see every week, sometimes more than once a week.....)

Weekends are so much easier for me to get my butt in the kitchen, and get busy.
No rush, no panic, no cooking while stomach is growling. (That is the worst, am I wrong?) 
That is when I enjoy being busy in the kitchen.

What busyness have you gotten into in the kitchen lately?