Fall, Football, Cakes...Craziness!

Hello all.  I have been so busy lately that I have really neglected menu planning.  It shows in the household too.  I have been making more clutter and mess than I am getting cleaned up.  Oh well, nothing but a thing I guess.  I will eventually get my house totally clean, fixed just like I like it, meals planned, projects finished, and then just fall over dead from shock.

I will once again try...no will...hook up with Organizing Junkie and link this post to her Meal Plan Monday.  Great place to get some ideas.  I am doing my meal plan a little differently for a while. So here is what is cooking this week.

Ground beef, round steak, chicken, pork chops and steaks with various side dishes.

I know you are thinking that this is not a plan, but it is.  Let me explain.  By the end of the week I will have finalized plans for the grand kitchen remodel, in other words will have paid the money and it will be starting.  I have for months gone back and forth over cabinet style and color, countertop material and color, paint color, tile color.  It is now time to put it all together in a contract and get it going.  So...this means that I will be cooking out of my pantry in an attempt to downsize my inventory so that I will have less to deal with when I have to empty out all the cabinets so we can demo the current cabinets and counter top.  I have no idea what to do with all of my kitchen stuff while we are in the middle of this, or just how I am going to cook even.  But it will SO BE WORTH IT.  I will post photos along the way of course.

In fact, one set of cabinets is going to have clear glass in the door so that I will be able to put my collection of mom's glassware in there to be stored and still show off a little.  Some of her crock bowls as well.  I have a hall storage closet that I am working on emptying out so that I can put some food stores in there along with the every day pots and pans. All the extra stuff, that isn't used every day, along with all my cookbooks and small red appliance collection will go to the storage unit.  When we are completely finished, I will just bring back a box at a time and see just how much I can actually get rid of.  I mean really...do I need 18 coffee cups...in a house that only one person drinks coffee and he has his travel mug that he uses?  No I don't.  Do I need 7 glass pie plates?  No, but 4 or 5 where my mom's.  Do I need 5 sets of mixing bowls?  No, but one is from my grandmother that I never knew and one can be put up for youngest daughter Miss Zebra for when she gets her first apartment.  The other three...I have to admit, I do use them regularly, depending on what I am making.

Speaking of Miss Zebra...we finished up our Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Course 1.

This is her cake for the final class.  I think she did extremely well.  Even if she did jack my denim blue icing. I know the photos are kind of yellow tinted, but that is what my kitchen does to things for some reason. In fact, Miss Zebra was so proud of herself that she has now approached her school club leader to have a bake sale for their fundraising. She has offered to make decorated cupcakes...10 dozen...lots of cupcakes.  Pretty sure I will end up helping to finish them up.  At least cupcakes ice our quickly.

This is mine.  We were late getting to class because Miss Zebra had play rehearsal so the instructor asked another student to let me use her icing for the border.  I had a terribly time with crumbs on these two cakes for some reason.  At any rate, that course is done and Monday we start course 2 which is gum past and fondant.  Am really looking forward to that one.

Got to go meet for another design session for the kitchen.  Wish me luck.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.