A good part of yesterday morning I worked some more on the kitchen reorganization. I filled the spice jars that live on the shelf and reorganized all the rest and moved those to their new home. Hopefully it’ll be easier to find things now. My allergies have already been bothering me but filling the crushed pepper really set them off again. After doing this I’m beginning to wonder if Penzey’s should have it’s own line in the budget!

With some new cabinet space open I was able to unpack and put away Grandma’s glass. There are ten sandwich plates with teacups. Originally she had twenty and Heather split them with me. There’s also a little serving dish and a few bells. Grandma had quite the bell collection and Heather has most of those. My favorites were some little brass apples in two sizes.

Yesterday afternoon I worked out the problem I was having with the market bag. I’d just forgotten to p2tog with the last picked up stitch. Once I realized that I set to work and finished the first tier of diamonds. At home I did a couple diamonds of the second tier as well. This project was hugely poplular with the girls coming in for their tutoring yesterday afternoon.

Orange and Bacon salad with Vanilla nuts

2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
1/4 pound bacon, fried crisp and diced
2 ounces crumbled goat cheese
8 cups mixed greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup vanilla nuts

Toss the greens with olive oil and squeeze over any orange juice from what remains after the segments are cut out. Season with salt and pepper. Layer on the orange segments, goat cheese, bacon, and nuts.

Vanilla Nuts

3 cups whole raw almonds
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat sugar and creme fraiche to 240 F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and nuts and mix thoroughly. Spread nuts on waxed paper and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.