SassySally's Profile

Plain black loose leaf is my favorite, followed closely by ginger tea. A restaurant in town makes the best ginger tea. They brew fresh ginger with apples and prunes for hours. It's perfectly spicy and sweet.

Toast w/ butter and honey, and tea. I eat a sort of second breakfast as I'm leaving the house of warm milk and molasses. Most people think it's an odd combo, but I have to tell you that it's delicious, and healthy, too, especially if you use blackstrap.

I'd make a man-pleasing pot roast.

Looks like a great gift for someone just starting out in their first place.

In my dorm I had a hot-pot, and you can do a lot with a hot pot. You can make ramen, and just about any asian noodle based soup as they cook really quickly and don't really need to be boiled. Also good for having around to make tea and coffee. I'd get a hot-pot, as they're relatively cheap, and having a way to make hot water will greatly increase your options.

Good question about whether it's a toaster oven or regular toaster. If it's a toaster oven, you're set. If regular, that could be a bit harder. If it's a regular toaster, you might want to try experimenting with small pasties. Sort of like hot-pockets, but home-made. You'd probably have to make them really thin to get in the toaster, but I could see this working pretty well if you thought it through. I've never done it, but if you perhaps par-baked them and then froze them before going up to the house, you'd have a bag of read-to-toast meals.

It's pretty hard to wrest the Vernor's from my hand, but being the ginger ale nut that I am, this sounds like fun!

I would find a way to move the computer from the foot of the bed. That would make me antsy to have the office essentially in the bedroom. Maybe switch where you have the drawers and the desk? Not sure if it's possible space-wise. I also like the office armoire suggestion, but not sure if you have the space between the foot of the bed and wall to make it functional. Also, how big is the kitchenette? IKEA has some cool tables that fold one leaf against the wall, and you can leave the other out for eating, and then fold it down when you are done. You'd also have the option of pulling out the full table if you ever have people over for dinner. This might let you take the dining table out of the living space and give you some room for shifting stuff around.

Dawn. I like the scent, and it sudses up well. I'm rather proud to say the bottle I bought when I moved into my apartment this time last year is the same one I'm using today. I have a bottle of all-natural, environmentally friendly stuff waiting under the sink. It's Lavender scented, which I love the scent of lavender, but I'm not sure if I'll like it for the dishes. Dawn has such a lovely, soapy smell.

Vinegar is top on my list, use it all the time. I also make my own general cleaner that is super awesome at hitting the tough, greasy messes. I fill a standard spray bottle (like what you would have for 409) with 8 oz. rubbing alcohol, 3 TBS ammonia (I just eyeball it. No need to be exact, but if you overdo it too much the ammonia will overpower you each time you spray), and fill to the top with water. Gets greasy fingerprints off just about anything, cleans random smudges on my cheap apartment carpet pretty well, and gets the post-cooking stove mess off in no-time. And so cheap, too!

I do love scrubbing bubbles. I feel guilty each time I use it, all those chemicals, but gosh does it clean my shower better than anything out there.

I had a concoction of white beans with garlic, onion, herbs from the garden, and I stopped at the farmers market on the way to work and tossed in some fresh tomatoes when I nuked it. To accompany it, there's a place that sells day-old very good bread, so I bought some of that. I'll make some grilled cheese with the bread tonight, and maybe bread pudding if it starts to go stale tomorrow.