Saturday, May 9, 2009

Alphabet of Daily Life - K


K is for the Kitchen...

This is the heartbeat of our home, where just about EVERYthing happens. When we first moved into our house, the kitchen needed our immediate attention. We had to get rid of the faux flagstone floor, the pink countertops, and the pink, black and cream striped wallpaper scattered with pink flowers. I also did my first tile install, including use of a wet-saw, by putting in a tile backsplash over the counters.

Cooking

Obviously, all of the cooking takes place in the kitchen. After a long day at work, it's nice to just pour a glass of wine, put a good CD into the under-cabinet player, and set to cooking.

I have a beloved cookbook collection (they MUST have pictures...after all, how would someone know how the end result should look without a photo?). And, the cookbooks are used to plan out menus, both for our weekly repasts as well as for parties and holidays. We try to eat something new as often as possible. It's also not at all unusual for us to serve a completely new dish that we've never tried before to guests. So far, everyone's lived.

Canning

Yup, love to can (but not fruits and vegetables). I make chutneys or preserves. My all-time favorite is Victoria Sauce which is a rhubarb chutney; we use it on ham and pork, and also give it out (very parsimoniously) as gifts. I used to have a fabulous old canning set, but gave it to Goodwill in the midst of our moving-into-our-new-house frenzy. So, I now use a large stockpot. It does the same job, but without quite the same degree of convenience.

Homework

The handy counter height table and chairs we added to the "empty" side of the room make great homework and other writing or creative work space. My daughter will often do her homework here while I'm cooking.

Holidays

For some reason, during holidays, EVERYONE ends up in the kitchen. I'm cooking away, usually handing out cooking tasks to others, and everyone mills about or sits at the table, chatting and sniffing the good scents. We're wondering if our recent living room remodel will entice everyone to move into that room or if they'll still stay in the kitchen?
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2 comments:

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

where just about EVERYthing happensSigh... you really do make it just too easy :) Or was this an invitation about the various uses of certain fruits and veggies?

On a serious note (HA!), I'm going to be starting up a bunch of cheese making posts. Would you like them on both my blogs (I'd ham it up on Alaskan Dave while trying to be serious on Dingo Dave) and do you think I should copy my homebrew posts to my cooking blog?

You did a great job on the kitchen, tiling is fun, eh! I wish our kitchen was as large as yours, but at least I have more cookbooks ;) --that's cuz I need em.

LoveANewIdea said...

Dave-
So good to have you back in the blogosphere...I've been missing your "irreverent" comments! And, yes, I'd say just about everything does happen in the kitchen :)

I would love the cheesemaking on Alaskan Dave (something I definitely want to learn) - I like the humor on that blog a lot. Plus, I hear about other things, along with food. And, I'm sure your Dingo followers would love the brewing posts...you're so good at documenting steps.

Thanks for stopping by!

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