The hard choices, or what passes for them

How long since we moved into the condo?  And how many days did I take off from everything else just to unpack?  And yet: still no place for my swift and ball winder, and my sewing machine is still on a desk I can't get my knees under because the space is full of boxes.  In spite of doing a ton of pruning during the move!  For example:

Which cookbook to keep?  I don't cook a lot from recipes, and when I do, I mostly grab ideas from Epicurious or some other site online, so technically I don't need many cookbooks.  Smitten Kitchen and Domestic Goddess served me as aspirational reading, and omigosh, Domestic Goddess is a gorgeous experience, truly one that sweeps you away.  I loved England during the year I lived there and I so wish I could try it again without being practically destitute.  The cost of living was high there then, and higher still, now.

I kept the Smitten Kitchen.  My edition of Nigella's book was all about UK measurements and ingredients and though I tried to duplicate a few things, they were all total disasters.  At least I can tell myself I can replicate Deb's menus... plus, her ideas seem more achievable generally, knowing she is working on a very small patch of counter space compared to Nigella.


The other thing I am trying to prune now is poor eating habits.  I'm sure it's no secret that I live for chocolate, and I'm sure everybody else is quicker than I to accept that too much milk chocolate is a very bad thing.  Much better to go for very dark chocolate, which is so bitter you can't eat much anyway.  After much ingredients-reading and taste-testing I got my chocolate choices down to these two:

Green and Black Organic Dark 85%, and Lindt 85% Cacao.  Neither uses soy lecithin - you'd be surprised how many dark chocolates do - and they are both readily available to me in local grocery stores and other shops for about the same price.  Which would you choose?

(hint: Green and Black is crazy delicious.  dark or not, you can totally eat the whole bar in one sitting.  with the Lindt, it's like chewing cocoa powder and you can only handle two squares max. I buy the Lindt.)


Then there's energy in general.  I think I must be really burned out from all the planning and packing and moving because I'm noticing it's still an ordeal just to make it through the laundry piles.  Seriously: at this point I can't even bring myself to fold laundry the same day I wash and dry it.  At some point very soon I need to swap one sofa slipcover for another and the effort involved in even thinking about doing that is making me want to curl up on a chair with a good book and my eyes carefully averted.

So... when Pete isn't taking something up to the roof terrace to cook on the community barbeques while chatting with new neighbours, we are all about the takeout.  I especially love Pastizza, home of the cutest takeout food packaging ever. 

Also, the most delicious foods (short of Pete's efforts - the man in a genius with a barbeque, I am telling you.)  The reason you didn't get the whole image of this pizza is because it smelled too good just sitting there to put off devouring some. 


So glad I don't have to make really hard choices these days!  What about you?  Made any helpful changes yourself lately?