Spring Cleaning, Spring Dreaming
Plus, an ultra easy pasta recipe!
Mid-February has a built-in lull, have you noticed? Perhaps not in warmer climates— I recalled when I texted my mom this week the energetic sunshine and near-constant stream of tomatoes and corn in my home state of Florida. But here in the North, there comes a time mid-February when everything is quiet. Valentine’s Day (divisive, but still a distraction from the grey and the cold), has come and gone. Spring produce has not quite arrived, winter produce is tired, and I’m throughly uninspired. It happens this time each year that I find myself with a brain blank.
Maybe that sounds bleak, but it isn’t. Uncomfortable at its worst— but this year I’ve quite enjoyed it. No ideas? Oh well. Watch the boats drift by on a foggy Puget Sound, listen to the Unexplained episode on the Count of St. Germaine, (highly recommend!) and mostly, enjoyably and productively, start preparing for the most exciting season of all, Spring.
First up on the Spring preparation roster: plants!
Embarking on my seed-starting journey— ready to be wrong about everything and see nothing grow at all— I’ve wrapped some perennial seeds that I saved last summer in damp paper towels and stashed them in the fridge to simulate cold stratification (a faux winter that seeds naturally fallen from a plant would experience outside.) Those will be planted mid-March.
I’ve also scattered some poppy, snapdragon, and black eyed Susan seeds directly over prepared soil outdoors and I’ve been keeping them moist for 10 days now. I’ll be sure to report back on any sprout sightings! To distract the birds from my flower seeds, I’ve put out bird feed, since they’re sure to be hungry this time of year. I’ve also started collecting Luffy’s fur to put out as nesting material for our feathered friends. By the way, did you know that a group of hummingbirds is called a charm? That’s my favorite thing that I learned this week.
Indoors, I’m preparing to refresh, repot, and divide some of our many houseplants. The houseplants saw zero attention last year, and I lost a few, (poor things), as my focus was pulled entirely to the plants outdoors. I’ve decided to try my hand at mixing up my own tropical houseplant soil this year, with coconut coir, vermiculite, charcoal, coarse sand, and organic fertilizer.
Then, there’s Spring cleaning. I have quite a few neglected Spring cleaning tasks that are more important (namely washing windows and cleaning gardening tools), but I honed in on organizing because it’s my favorite thing to do. To proudly wave my nerdery flag from last week, there’s nothing I find more satisfying than organizing. Essentially, it’s creative problem solving, which sounds a lot less square. If you’re keen, here are the organizational pillars I stand by:
Put like with like.
Items of similar nature, or items that are often used at the same time, can be stored together. (i.e. cookie cutters and sprinkles)
Items want to be near where they will be used (i.e. coffee near the coffee maker. An off-beat example: I keep my AirPods in the kitchen because that’s usually where I wear them.)
Items used the most frequently get the most accessible spots.
Some things are going to have to go behind other things or in harder to reach spots. Let those things be whatever is accessed the least often. (i.e. my tea set is in the cabinet above the refrigerator because I rarely use it. And, the ice cream bowl attachment for my kitchen aid mixer is behind my food processor because I use it infrequently.)
Any box will do.
This I learned from Our Lady of Organization Marie Kondo: use boxes or containers of any kind to organize with, you can always upgrade them later. Better to have an organized drawer with shoe boxes than a disorganized drawer without.
It’s a great opportunity to up-cycle too! I like using old candle tins from Trader Joe’s to organize my junk drawer.
In general, I think the best way to get started organizing is with boxes or trays without lids. They divide up drawers and wrangle smaller loose items in cabinets. I really like these from Target that come in multiple sizes, they’re endlessly useful!
My proudest organizational accomplishments of the week were finding solutions for a weird tall, skinny cabinet and a deep, upper cabinet. Here’s what I came up with:
The tall, skinny cabinet:
I used this truly great slide out organizer so I could take advantage of the vertical space. (It also comes in more sizes.) The organizer isn’t quite as deep as the cabinet, so behind it I put a box of borax that I’ve had for 5 years and may never use (but you never know!), and used the space beside the organizer to line up more items single file.
The deep, upper cabinet:
My biggest issue with this cavernous upper cabinet was that I couldn’t reach the items in the back. I also tend to not use the vertical space much. I use this and the cabinets below it as my pantry, so I need items to be as accessible as possible.
I added a cabinet riser, and put my homemade canned goods on top, since I have a lot of them and I don’t need to see them to know what they are. Under the riser I used a bin and a tray to store spices and other pantry goods. This keeps small items wrangled together, and, I can slide the trays forward when I need to grab something out of them. I think I will probably get more of these bins for the same use in the future! (They are actually refrigerator bins, but I use them for everything. And they come in tons of sizes.)
I’m sure more artistic and culinary inspiration is on its way on the wings of Spring, but for now I’m enjoying the quiet lull (and maybe tapping my fingers a bit for that Spring produce.)
As promised, here’s a recipe for an ultra easy pasta dish, which was one of the best things I cooked this week:
Goat Cheese Pasta
The fundamental part of this pasta is the goat cheese and the pasta water that come together to form the sauce. Aside from that, anything can be changed. I think it would be equally delicious with asparagus, or with some lemon zest sautéed with the leeks. The breadcrumbs are really only there because I like the crunch of breadcrumbs on anything and everything, but they could easily be left out. (The ones I used are the ones I made in my Substack titled ‘Feng Shui Breadcrumbs’ a few weeks ago!)
Serves 2 (just double the ingredients to serve 4)
8oz short pasta
Salt
1/2 tbsp butter
2 tsp olive oil
2 leeks, halved and sliced thinly into half moons and cleaned
2 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
Half a bunch of curly kale, cleaned and sliced into 1/2” pieces
2oz chèvre goat cheese
1 cup reserved pasta water
Coarsely ground black pepper
Unseasoned breadcrumbs
Bring about 6 quarts of well-salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente (around 6-8 minutes, the package will usually tell you!) Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
Meanwhile, melt the butter with the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Sauté the leeks and garlic with a little salt, stirring, until everything is softened and a little translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the kale (start with as much as will fit and then add more) and season with salt. Stir, cooking, until just wilted, about 2 minutes more.
Add the goat cheese and a quarter cup of the pasta water and stir to coat the pasta. Keep stirring and adding a little pasta water at a time until there’s a nice saucy consistency. (Don’t be scared if it looks a little too watery, the pasta will continue to thicken the sauce as it sits.)
Plate the pasta with the veggies on top, then finish with breadcrumbs and black pepper.
Here’s the other best things I cooked this week:
Chickpea Coconut Curry
This was my first foray into Indian cooking! After a rocky start, (adding far too much dried spices) this curry did eventually become delicious, though it meant making about twice as much as I intended. Blessedly, because it came out delicious, it’s going to be easy to finish! The curry itself is curry powder, garam masala, cumin, onion, ginger, garlic, tomato paste, birds eye chilies, coconut milk, yogurt, and lemon juice. Chickpeas, carrots, bell peppers, and kale make up the rest of the dish.
Five Spice Roasted Chicken with Tarragon Dressing
I meant to roast a chicken on Valentine’s Day because I love the smell of chicken roasting, but I didn’t get to it until a few days later. I spatchcocked the bird and rubbed it down with pressed garlic and ghee, then seasoned with salt and five spice. I put the chicken on a rack and roasted it at 425F for 20 minutes, then 350F for 45 minutes. I also made farro and sautéed asparagus that I plated over watercress. Then I topped with a tarragon dressing similar to this one.
That’s all for this Fryday, see you next time!
Kiya