kitchen

Busy Week

/ Winnie / Leave a comment

This past week was pretty busy, but very rewarding.

Top of the list:

I got to have my friends 1 1/2 year old little girl, Charlotte, stay with me….cause my friends were at the hospital having twins!  Mama, Daddy and twins are doing well.  I loved having little Charlotte stay with me…Jules and Jane doted, fought and loved on Charlotte.  So cute.

Here she is in all her little cuteness.

Charlotte did so well in a new place, away from her Mama and Daddy.  Miss her little face already.

While Charlotte was with us, I took on a couple of canning projects.

Recipes to come – but we did dilly beans, strawberry jam and crushed tomatoes.

And then this happened…..

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We introduced a new kitty into our family.   Our last kitty, Lillian, died about a year ago and the girls have been pretty persistent in their requests.  We picked this kitty up from the Yellowstone Animal Shelter, where she was being held as a stray.  I do not know much about her history, only that she is 3 and was living under a front deck for about a month before Animal Control was called to pick her up.

We named her Harriet the Cat, or HarryCat.  She has come when called a few times….but it seems to be more of a coincidence.  We are working on it.  HarryCat is so docile and sweet.  She has been very accepting of the kids and dogs.

Crap!  I almost forgot.  Dave and I had our Birthdays as well.  Obviously, there was not a lot of time for birthday exploits….but we will celebrate at a later date.   😉

 

Details in the *new* White Kitchen – Using Contact Paper

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As seen in my previous post (click here), I painted my lowers white.  I am working on the long game for the kitchen and narrowing down my design choices for its future.  I have a lot of ideas swirling in my head and quite frankly its hard to get a grasp on all the things I want to do.  Fancy stove, restaurant style reach-in fridge, island with drink fridge, new pantry….the list is long and funds will definitely not stretch that far.  I think I should distract myself from the long game…don’t you?

Yeah!  Distraction time.

I had some left over chalkboard contact paper from the Bathroom project and I decided to use it on the inside of one upper cabinet.

turned into this

As you can see, I had a rough time cutting off the bottom edge but otherwise it was an easy install.  I then used some command hooks to secure my measuring cups.

Another contact paper project – was just your standard lining of our drawers and cabinets.

More pretty distraction!

The contact paper was an easy and quick project that really cleaned up the kitchen.  Our cabinets are the old 1979/1980 dark wood style that seems to suck the light away from you…so getting those insides painted out and lined really helped lighten everything up.  I kept the chalkboard contact paper on the inside of only one door so I did not negate all the good the other contact paper did.

 

*new* White Kitchen

/ Winnie / Leave a comment

Dave and I have a long term plan for our kitchen and the work that we have put into it till now, is prep for the remodel/gut job.  One of the things that we recently decided on was the choice of a white kitchen.  In order to confirm this choice, I painted our lowers to match our white uppers.

Before:

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Current:

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Here are some inspiration shots:

 

Love the floors and the slick fronts of the cupboards

This one is very close to what I like….just a few tweaks to my taste

This plywood and white kitchen is amazing….and gives me so many ideas.

 Our plan is to extend real wood floors throughout the entire top floor.  Hopefully, the flooring will be reclaimed flooring from the farm.  With the flooring comes the opportunity to take out the L shaped wall where our pass through is and make it a true island.  Since we are doing all that work, we would like new cupboards.  I am happy with the all white, as it brightens the whole kitchen AND dining room.  It is going to be an act of extreme effort on my part to narrow down my likes and preferences into one cohesive design and get it in…without changing my mind a few hundred times before and after it is completed.
What do you think of the white?  And which parts of the inspiration picture do you like?

Garden Tomato puree base for future meals

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My garden is exploding in tomatoes…which I love…..I am just adjusting my plans with the tomatoes that are ripening as I go.  I have only had a handful ripe at one time, so I have been able to easily make meals and/or snacks with them.  This past week, I have had too many to work into our meals and not enough friends who like tomatoes (hello!).  Hopefully, towards the end of summer – my mom and I will be canning together….but now I am making a frozen tomato puree to use in future meals.

Like my hard water??

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  • 20 roma tomatoes
  • 6 heirloom tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon basil, oregano, thyme
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 chopped extra large onion or 1 small onion
  • 1 tablespoon garlic
  • salt/pepper

I used my blender to puree all the tomatoes with a cup of water and added that to a large pot…..um..that pic doesn’t have all of them.

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At this time, I started sauteing the onion with a dash of salt and pepper.  Just towards the end, I added in the garlic….being careful not to burn it.

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Then it all goes into the pot with the tomatoes.  Then add the rest of the spices and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

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I taste tested mine as I went to ensure that it was not overpowering on the spices and still maintained a strong tomato taste.  I want to use this as a base in future meals and since I have different options as to what those meals will be….I want to keep it loose.

After the mixture cooled, I poured it into some freezer bags and placed them in the freezer.

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All in all – I am happy with the result and will let you know what meals I end up using this for.

Right off the bat, I am thinking – spaghetti, barley soup, chili and chicken makhani.