Today after hitting the farmer’s market and Wegmans, I accomplished a small bit of kitchen organization. Old stuff was removed from the fridge and I went through the pile of stuff underneath the little wooden island/cart and moved bags of beans and rice and grains into glass jars to make them a little easier to get to and to see what we have better. I have a Martha Stewart-esque dream of having little to no food packaging in my kitchen, with everything in jars and bins.

The kitchen in our current apartment (link to a photo from 2003 - part of it is cut off, but not much) is super-tiny with not enough shelving or cupboard space and almost no prep room. My number one wish for when we move is a place with a tad more room (and a floor that is not made of perpetually dirty linoleum). I would love a separate pantry (there was one in my apartment in Troy, but that’s a post for another day: Kitchens of My Past), but for now I’m shoving things wherever they can fit.

I was going to try to take pictures of tonight’s meal, but instead you get the aftermath of the day. We have an unexpected (but welcome) guest this evening in the form of Joe’s friend Ben, and luckily I had planned on making a decent amount of food today.

Dinner consisted of Spicy Pan-Fried Sirloin Steak with Noodles, a recipe from Cooking Light. I’ve been trying to eat in a more healthy manner lately and Cooking Light is a nice resource as it includes nutritional information with its recipes. This was pretty tasty, kind of reminiscent of a goulash, with both Joe and Ben approving and having seconds. I followed the recipe exactly except for the egg noodles, substituting Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Extra-Wide Noodle-style Pasta. I think this is something I will be making again.

Dessert, as you might be able to guess from the bundt pan, was a cake: Orangette’s Buckwheat Bundt Cake with Blueberries. This is an excellent recipe and very easy to make. I mentioned in the comments of that entry that it looked like it would work not only as a dessert or snack, but for breakfast as well. After tasting it, I can definitely agree with that assessment. The cake is ultra-moist with a light flavor that perfectly complements the blueberries. I dusted the tiniest amount of powdered sugar on top to give it a bit more post-dinner glamour. This recipe will absolutely be made again! I can’t recommend it enough.

Finally, the coffee pot. I felt like Super Adult to magically have dinner, dessert, and coffee to offer a guest. I really only started liking coffee in the past year or two. It started with Greek/Turkish coffee. I always felt as though coffee tasted like dishwater, but smelled great. Tasting Greek coffee finally melded the smell with the taste. I realized that I actually did like regular old coffee too, but I liked it black, when I had previously been tasting it with cream. I like it fairly sweet too (Greek coffee is often somewhat sweet as well).

We bought a briki to make Greek coffee at home and some little demitasse cups. I still like the ritual of making it, but I noted a few weeks ago that I missed waking up to the sound of the percolator. I think everyone in my mom’s family has the same Farberware percolator. Well, now we have one too and I’ve started down the path to daily morning coffee. I’m still a tea person (and the percolator is nice because you can use it as an electric kettle as well), but mornings have been much more familiar and easier to start with the sound of the percolator “perking”.