It occurs to me that there are several trends, food and otherwise, we need to spring clean out of our lives—you’ve got a week.
They are not bringing joy.
- Red Wine Hot Chocolate: with or without marshmallows. No matter whether you made the marshmallows or got them out of a bag, it’s still a dumb idea. Start working on the next dumb idea.
- Oh, wait, it’s here: Red Wine Coffee. Obviously not a good vintage, and you couldn’t get Trader Joe’s to buy it or you wouldn’t be trying to dump it in coffee. Need I say more?
- Hygge: There’s a reason we don’t live in Scandinavia, it’s cold and dark (and did I mention it’s dark?). Hygge, IMHO was created as an excuse to hide under a blanket (as if it wasn’t dark enough) and drink…coffee. Pronounced hue-guh or hoo-gah, if you really care (or need to be that trendy).
- Time spent on Facebook. Let’s face it, it’s depressing. And do we really need to sign another online petition for something we’re outraged about? Let’s put our money and power together and get it together for 2018, without getting lost in the daily mishegas.
- Kale: One of the big reasons I didn’t join PFP’s winter CSA was that the marketing material trumpeted “17 different kinds of kale”! Just kill me now…
- Cookbooks: Honestly now, how many cookbooks do you have that you’ve never used one recipe from? And, when you’re looking for a new recipe for short ribs, you might look through one or two favorites, but really, you just look it up on the Internet. Maybe we should take a trick from closet organizers and turn them all backwards on the shelves (and/or floor) and the ones that we use, turn back around. At the end of the year (see, I’m giving the ones you only pull out on the holidays a chance), donate the rest.
- The depths of the refrigerator: Food waste is a huge issue, and the fridge is one of the biggest culprits. Let’s think of some creative uses for things like half empty bottles of BBQ sauce (at least combine them—who is going to know, especially if you put it all in the popular bottle). Or make it a point to try to use something once a week. The reward? Plenty of room to store and admire all the great produce that’s coming!
- Spring clean ___________. What would you add to the list?
Agreed! Long ago I cancelled all the weekly ones, because there was no way I was ever going to get to them. Now I’ve killed everything except a couple of food ones. It’s so easy to get what you need/want on the internet.
I’d add “magazines.” I don’t actually subscribe to any, but somehow I get a dozen every month. And who has time to read all that? I end up with piles of periodicals all over the place–and still feel as if I should at least look through each of them.
it’s always a relief when i finally pile ’em up and drop them off at my branch library, so they can clutter someone else’s coffee table.