Pots and Pans

Been slow going around here lately. With the husband performing out at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival the last 7 weekends I've been very hurt for energy and time. Kudos to all the single parents and the parents who stay home with the little one(s) while your spouse is gone 60+ hours a week. I can't imagine doing this on a full time basis. I'm not allowed to drink enough coffee right now to make that something I could do long term. But okay, back to the point. It's been slow going. BUT I did make a tiny bit of progress!

For my birthday late last month my one sister gave me money. Always a nice thing, and she told me to spend it on something fun. Well I bought useful and fun! AND the best part, these things allowed me to remove several things from my kitchen. I bought a nice cast iron skillet and a cast iron dutch oven. (I know not everyone loves cast iron, but I do) We had 4 skillets that were barely usable really. The only good one had just started flaking off it's nonstick coating. So those are in the trash! And yes I know, only 1 skillet? Yes, frankly, I maybe MAYBE once every couple months or so use 2 at the same time. If I find myself hurting for another one as our little ones get older, I'll buy another, but right now it's not a necessity. I also got rid of 2 of the 3 large pots we had and kept the one just for boiling water and such. The dutch oven actually would be able to... but it's to much of a hassle for me. But I love the dutch oven. The hubby is not a fan of most baked dishes especially ones with pasta and I've gotten pretty good at changing recipes to be stove top meals. I now use the the dutch oven for this and I think it just works so much better than any other way I've done it. He's happy, I'm happy, we are all happy!

I have not gone through the other baking dishes and trays and such yet. But that is on the agenda for this week or weekend. But so far, here is where we are at for stove top items: 6 pots and pans with any coordinating lids have left our house and we are down to- 1 skillet, 1 dutch oven, 1 lg pot and 2 little pots (it would be 1 but the hubby refused to get rid of his ramen noodle pot from college and I liked the other one, so we kept both). Not bad huh? It's amazing how much going from 9 down to 5 pots and pans has freed up our kitchen.