Efficiency

dandelion flower growing through creeping phlox

I love efficiency.  Or more to the point, I love being efficient part of the time so that I don't have to be efficient the rest of the time.  Is that confusing?

Part of my landscaping in my heavily gardened yard includes ground covers.  Things like wooly thyme, Japanese spurge, sweet woodruff, sedums of various types, and creeping phlox can be found in various planting beds.  I like them because they prove a significant hindrance to anything else that wants to grow in those areas.  They grow thick, they have interesting textures and great floral character, and they definitely mean less watering and less weeding.  Occasionally they let something through, like the dandelion flower shown above, but most of the time they serve multiple purposes that I appreciate.  So they are highly efficient plants to have in the yard and their presence allows me to spend less time doing some things like weeding and more time doing other things like resetting pavers and gravel to change a walkway, or maybe just sitting in a patio chair and watching the birds at their feeding stations.

I always appreciate efficiency.  When I go get my favorite butter, which is only sold at a few places, I always get much more than I immediately need, and so I toss the excess into the freezer until I go through my stock in the fridge.  So I have to go out much less often that way.  When I get chocolate, I always get more than I need.  (Of course, one could make the argument that it's not a desire for efficiency that drives that choice but rather a weakness for chocolate.)  And why get a single bag of sugar when two will do even better, and so I have a backup waiting in the pantry.

mint chocolate chip ice cream mix
ready for a long chill in the fridge

As you can tell, efficiency for me means lots of redundancy.  I always like to have multiples of things on hand.  That doesn't go just for ingredients.  It is also true for the finished products.  When I make ice cream mix, I always like to make an extra batch so that the next day when I get ready to freeze it and I realize how much I wished I had an extra batch for even more ice cream ... well, I have that extra batch sitting right there in the fridge.  

Madeleine cake

When I make cakes, I often make extra and freeze the slices so they are ready to quickly thaw when a sudden craving arises.  The same goes for cookies.  Nothing is finer than having a log of cookie dough or already shaped and portioned balls of cookie dough sitting in the freezer for an easy late night dessert.

Being efficient for me means not just multitasking or careful planning.  It means having more of everything around so that when I want it I can have it with without all the extra work of making something all over again.  For me, I feel very rich when the pantry and fridge and freezer are well stocked with backups for all the ingredients I use and extras of everything I make.  A life of plenty is a good thing when it comes to good food.