Pleasant Living: ORGANIZATION ON SPEED

WASTE NOT WANT NOT

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I was born into a family where food was important and plentiful. The spoon may have been wooden but the meals felt as if they were prepared for royalty.

Meals were so important it was not unusual for us to sit eating one meal while talking about and planning the next one.

In the 1950's and 60's my Mother was a trained Home Economist with her own mid-day TV show extolling the virtues of "waste not, want not" in the kitchen. Today you'd be hard pressed to find a " Home Economics" class in the curricula of most high schools in our country yet when I was in high school "Home Ec" was taught, but only to girls. The boy's equivalent was "Shop" where we supposed to learn how to be men.

However a course called "Family Living" was a co-ed offering and one considered a "crip" course. As a high school senior who had completed all my required courses I still needed one more elective. I figured "Family Living" wasn't going to hurt my GPA or harm my planned senioritis social life.

As it turned out I really got into the class, did the work and I aced every exam. I was clearly Mrs. Jesse's pet and I walked out with a solid "A". The big plus: I learned how to do laundry, properly make a bed, make cheesy grits and most importantly: Mrs. Jesse's personal mantra "A place for everything and everything in it's place" a tenet I have always strived for but have fallen short of way too often.

My family will attest to the "everything in its place tenet". Just ask them about the alphabetized spice rack

or the "everything in its place" utensil drawer.

Having completed all my requirements and passed all my exams the only thing left in high school was the graduation ceremony. I wasn't going to be Valedictorian, I had partied a little too hard senior year but I was expecting some recognition. During the past four years I had already been chosen "Best Thespian" " Best School Spirit" and c'mon, as a tall, lanky string bean I even managed to letter in Track & Field. At the designated time in the awards portion of the ceremony Mrs. Jesse stepped up to the mic "This year's recipient of the Home Economics Award is Ricky Shaver (don't laugh I went through the first 18 years of my life being called Ricky, but let me tell you that moniker was quickly dropped as soon as I got to college!) So there it was, I had won the Home Economics Award, an award that up until then was given only to GIRLS! Stunned and stuck to my seat I felt my ears turn hot and the red of embarrassment rise to my face. After what seemed an eternity I pried myself out of my seat, stumble to the podium, accepted the award from Mrs. Jesse, mumbled some sort of thanks then tail tucked between my legs somehow got back to my seat to the sounds of silent applause.

Today, I'm proud of that award. I am good at home keeping and I have had a successful career as an award winning and widely published Interior Designer. I've embraced my feminine side.

I'm as comfortable in my suit as I am in my apron and I'm so proud of the audible applause from family and friends when they down to one of my well prepared meals.

So with memories of this award and my own Mother's scolding " Waste not, want not" I offer this easy and economical one pan recipe.

SUNDAY NIGHT CLEAR THE FRIG ONE PAN SPAGHETTI SUPPER

This recipe was in spired by a video I saw on MarthaStewart.com, ONE PAN PASTA and demonstrated by Linda Scala Quinn. I decide to use everything appropriate that was about to go bad including some sad but still flavorful basil. So follow what I have done here or watch the video at https://www.marthastewart.com/978784/one-pan-pasta. The only thing I changed besides the ingredients was the cooking time but that could have been because I used a pound of pasta and lots more veggies than shown in the video.