So #AccidentalKonMari is already snowballing, in a good way. Chris is psyched about this and said he is looking forward to maintaining the clothing situation. He learned the fold in a second and now every tee shirt, pair of jeans, and socks and undies are neat and tidy. We both culled easily 25-40% of our closets between us with just old clothing and clothing we were ready to let go.

Weirdly, saying thank you to several pieces *really worked*. I had a few pieces of clothing I kept tucking back in the drawer for sentimental reasons. I only felt a little silly to hold them, say thank you to them out loud, and throw them on the donate pile. Chris took out an old top he hadn't worn in years and said, "Thank you for reminding me I don't dress like this any more." LOL

Now to see if we do anything with other parts of our home with it in mind.

Today, we go to Lowes to see if we can fill in a couple organization gaps we are missing--we used every unused shoe box and bin we had and it just wasn't *quite* enough to finish the job. Also, I need a separate KonMari day for costuming alone.

You can see what my organization looked like before most days. Things just piled up, super cluttered. I hung a lot of stuff that didn't need to be hung just to keep it in view. And funny enough, I rarely used those drawers for much because I always found stacked clothing (like I grew up with) was too hard to access in a drawer. You can only see a couple top things, and when you try to pull something from underneath, the whole stack becomes a mess. I know I'm not alone in this frustration!

The before: When we decided to rearrange our "closet" wall, everything had to be taken out. I wanted to move my lesser used drawers higher up to a more functional level, and push the shelf down to become better shoe storage (right now many shoes are on a shelf I can't reach and I need a step stool or a hanger to pull the box down.

Marie Kondo's little system gets in your system, man.

I have been watching her series on Netflix as "filler" while I would wait for hubby to walk the dogs or whatever before we'd settled into "real TV watching". But I watched another. And another. And then he would come in and we wouldn't change the show over and watch it together. Then we were watching them all together. She's just so damn charming, and while the transformations aren't as "shocking" and meticulously staged as most home improvement/life improvement shows, that is actually an upside to the show. They aren't selling a flashy idea. It's a simple idea. A real one, for a real life, should you choose to try for it--it feels accessible, though still daunting in scope when you see what each step entails.

We made a plan to play games today. I decided I “real quick” wanted to rearrange a portion of my clothes closet. 4 hours later, Chris and I had done a huge clothes culling, reconfigured our modular closet, dusted, cleaned, and folded all our clothes. #AccidentalKonMari

From Recipes From Italy

My husband turned me onto a channel on YouTube which features prominent Italian chefs watching American cooking videos, and critiquing their versions of Italian dishes. Now, fully knowing there is no one way to do anything, I take it all with a grain of salt, but found I learned a few little things to up my bolognese game. Taking the techniques shown, and their critiques of the work done, here is what I made this past Tuesday--I loved how it turned out!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of smoked bacon of choice (mine was a cherrywood thick cut)
• 1 lb ground beef (we had 3/4lb of ground Wagyu, I would have liked more, so say 1 lb)
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 large carrot
• 1/2 a medium-large white onion
• 1 16oz can crushed tomatoes with basil
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup red wine
• Fresh thyme
• Olive oil
• pasta of choice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Have two pans at the ready--a deep sautee pan and a large sauce pan.
2. Cut the bacon into 1/4" chunks and put in sautee pan to start rendering yummy fats
3. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in the large sauce pan over low heat. While it is heating, cut celery, carrot, and onion into big chunks and toss into a food processor (I have a little Ninja that works great for me) and fine chop. Add this to the olive oil in the pan and sweat the vegetables over a low heat until they release a fair amount of moisture.
4. While the veg sweats, back over in the sautee pan, add your ground beef and brown over medium heat. You want some crispy brown bits in there, so don't be afraid to bump the heat to get the Maillard reaction you want here.
5. Once beef is browned and veg has sweat it out, add veg to the sautee pan with the bacon and beef, stir to combine. Add in the can of tomatoes and the red wine (I briefly swish the wine around inside the tomato can to get the last of the juices outta there), stir to combine. 
6. Reduce over low heat as long as you can stand it. I only had 45 minutes to do it, since it was late at night and we needed to eat, but 2 hours is better. I add the fresh herbs about a half hour before the end of the cook, because personally I like it to retain some of its "greenness" in the flavor profile. If you don't care about such things, add it when you add the tomato sauce.
7. While sauce is reducing, add water to the sauce pan you used for the veg and cook your pasta. A good spaghetti noodle is good in a pinch, but a wider noodle is preferred if you have it.
8. Drain pasta and spoon a bunch of the bolognese in with the pasta and stir to let the pasta soak up and "finish" in the sauce.
9. Tong a nest of pasta into a bowl, top with sauce. Add grated parmesan cheese on top if you like (this is blasphemy to some Italian chefs, but hell...we're Americans and we like our cheese).

We are finishing up our Whole30 this week, and had some meals prepped for the final two days, which included a batch of my favorite IP pork carnitas. Since we're still off All The Things, we couldn't use regular tortillas yet, but I had great success with making plantain tortillas a couple weeks prior and was eager to try to improve upon it. The flavor and consistency of those were mostly good, but they were a bit dry and dense. I hoped to simply mix up a little bit more moist batter, and add some compliant baking powder to maybe add some fluffiness.

Well, best laid plans... My green plantains intended for my tortillas had turned brown in the middle, and all I had were ripe ones. What came next was messy but delicious! The "batter" is more sticky and temperamental, due to the more ripe plantain, but the sweetness from the plantains were amazing and the texture of the tortilla was stellar. Chris made a point to tell me I needed to write this recipe down, so here it is!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 yellow plantains, mid-ripe ideal, with some browning
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, refined, melted
• 1 Egg Whites
• 1/8 tsp Whole30 compliant baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp Tapioca Flour, or more (or whatever non-gluten flour you like)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut plantains into 2-3" chunks. Boil for 5 minutes to soften and remove skins. (you can also microwave for a couple minutes, if you prefer).
2. Put all ingredients except for tapioca flour in food processor and blend. If it seems too sticky and wet, add a little tapioca flour to help bind. It should be pretty wet, but able to be molded into soggy ball/lumps with your hands (sounds SO appetizing, doesn't it?!).
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a little tapioca flour (you can skip this, but I felt it helped work the batter). Divide plantain mixture into four balls and place well spaced apart on the floured paper. Spread into desired shape with your fingers, wetting them with water as needed to prevent sticking. Optional: Sprinkle flour over the tops, then place a second piece of parchment paper on top. Roll/press out plantain mixture until desired size and thickness. With a couple small plantains, mine came out to about 4" across and 1/4" thick. I would try to make them a little thinner and wider next time.
5. Remove top parchment paper, if used, and place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 5 minutes. Check for doneness and remove when browned.

Soon, my precious.

We are in the home stretch of reintroduction right now. What I can say is: Feh. Nothing has changed, really. Chris MIGHT have a slight corn sensitivity (he got stuffy overnight after having precisely six corn chips, so it seems unlikely, but maybe?), but nothing else has changed. Dairy had no effect, alcohol is back in rotation (though more moderate than before for now), non-gluten grains nothing for me for sure. Tomorrow we do legumes, and Saturday we do gluten grains, then we'll be all done.

We slept a bit better during the middle and end of the experiment, but that's likely more not having sugar, especially in wine or end of day meals or desserts. But nothing like "I SLEPT LIKE A BABY!" Just, "Yeah, I guess I have been sleeping a little better."

We have both cut way back on sugar in our tea in the morning and are more aware of sugar in stuff than before. And I got some new recipes we like very much to carry into the future.

That's about it. Nothing life-changing like they try to promise.