MoFail - projects and stuff I never got around to

This here is another catch-up post. I will get in 31.

I had lots of plans for this MoFo, my first but the third for a lot of other participants. Unfortunately, I'm just lazy, and I couldn't be bothered to do most of what I planned. Here are the things I never got around to:

1) A master index of all my recipes - The idea was to put all of my recipes (from cookbooks, blogs, etc.) into a spreadsheet, listing them for every ingredient they contain, so that if I needed to use up my hoisin sauce, I could just search 'hoisin' in my spreadsheet and find every recipe that contained it. There were two reasons I wanted to do this - first, I have a lot of cookbooks and bookmarked recipes, and it would be great to see at a glance what my options are to use up the spinach that's about to go off. The other is that some of my cookbooks don't have the best index, so even though I'm sure an ingredient is mentioned, they might not be listed under that ingredient because it's not a main component. Maybe I'll get around to this if I don't get a contract around Xmas.

2) Clean out and inventory my cupboards - I probably really should do this, especially after the lost cinnamon incident (I swear I bought a package of cinnamon, but I couldn't find it). The thing is, I know most of what's in my cupboards, and more importantly, where to find it. I don't need to be able to see the labels on my herbs and spices to know that the turmeric is against the left side, third from the front, and the thyme is just behind the paprika. But having an idea of what else is in there (so I don't buy and open another bag of pasta before finishing the last) would probably be a good thing.

3) Using stuff I never use - I've got so much cooking equipment. Probably not as much as some people, but I still have a ton. And some of it I never use. I've had my food mill for about a year now, and I think I've used it once (maybe twice). I've used my crepe pan once. I have cookie cutters and a springform pan that are still in their wrapping. I should really make use of this stuff, especially since I paid for most of it.

4) Monday Movie Night - This happened once. To be fair, this was mostly down to my friends not being able to turn up (when it did happen, only one person turned up). I would've liked to have done this more often, because I really enjoy cooking for a lot of people, but nothing much I could've done about it.

5) Make sushi - I bought all the stuff for it. My tempeh might end up going off (again) if I don't get around to it. But I just haven't done it. It's a bit daunting, I guess, but even if it isn't perfect, at least I would have tried.

Of course, there's still later today and tomorrow, so I might be able to do at least one of these things. I might do the sushi. Or maybe I'll make use of my forest animal cookie cutters when I make Mike's shortbread cookies.

I'll leave you with a link to a blog post I really liked about how much being vegan doesn't suck. I have to get ready to go do my volunteer thing, so I might elaborate on this in another catch-up post, but I just wanted to share it.