This and That and Kitchen Stuff

Ack!  Not exactly a few days later.  Well, in my defense, I've been busy!  My big Bernina 830 sewing machine was in need of a spa treatment and the best technician lives in Montana.  He does come over to the Spokane area once a week to pick up machines at several designated drop-off points so we had taken Moby Stitch (the great white Bernina!) up earlier and we picked it up last week.  That's a day out of town, but there is a Trader Joe's up there which is, of course, a mandatory stop.  :-)

We've had Daniel over each Sunday night through Monday dinnertime since the beginning of August until this week as Ann had to be back to work at school, prepping for the new year.  He's so easy to have, but still it seemed like the days went differently when he was here as we visited and found things to do.  School started last week on Wednesday so he's back to learning.  Fifth grade this year!  Where does the time go?

Last Monday it finally worked out for Dan to have my birthday party and Ann and family showed up with pizza to share dinner and cake with me. Such a fun, wonderful time we had!  

Since my machine was back, I have ventured into my sewing room and have started a new round of bibs.  I had only two left in my gift pile and they were both for girls.  I've embroidered five new ones and cut out about twenty blanks to work on next.  

But enough on this stuff.  I mentioned in my last post that I'd do a kitchen post, so here goes.  

In May when we were at Costco I stopped to look at a Ninja Foodi Flip Air Fryer they had for sale.  I have friends who love their smaller air fryers but I didn't have a space for one, either on my counter or in my pantry, and I draw the line at storing kitchen items in the garage! The foodie is made to flip up and take up a smaller amount of counter space when not being used.  As I pondered the display, Dan picked one up and put it in the cart. "Happy Mother's Day!" he said.  Okay!

It took a bit of figuring to decide where to put it in my crazily designed kitchen but I finally put it in the corner where my mixer has lived and moved the mixer next to the frig.  It works, and somehow it seems I have even more room in that corner than I did before.  And we love our Foodi!  I've always loved the Mexi-fries at Taco Time and now I can make my own.  Score!  And the Foodi is more than an air fryer, it is a convection oven, a toaster and can broil, too.  It has a much bigger capacity than the usual air fryer and so is great for families.  I made little pizzas last week using ciabatta bread from Costco and they were so good using the air broil feature on low.  And it's perfect for reheating things like pizza or crispy casseroles so they aren't soggy the second time around.  

In its down position, otherwise up against the side wall

Yummy ciabatta bread pizzas!

And in other kitchen news, we are awash with zucchini!  Awash I say!  Last year we could hardly get any to grow and this year Dan brings up four or five (or more!) a day.  I'm working hard to be a good zucchini steward and use it all, so varied recipes have been used.  One winner was a chocolate cupcake recipe found in the August Costco magazine.  Oh my!  As I've told all my friends, it received rave reviews from everyone who ate it (I made it into a cake).  The zucchini chips featured in the article are good, too!

This cake from the Six Sisters is also a winner. And last week I found this recipe for zucchini onion pie.  I did change it a little; I caramelized the onions instead of adding them raw.  We loved it! Of course we've already had multiple dinners using my old stand-by summer squash skillet. Zucchini bread?  Of course!  

And thus ends this summer's zucchini themed post!  ♥

March

March is such a strange month.  Weather all over the place, daylight savings time kicks in (and kicks me!), and it's neither winter nor spring. But, it is what it is.  Even the muse has been missing.

I have been reading lots of fun "cozy mysteries" on my iPad using Kindle Unlimited.  I've kept up the subscription as it's less than ten dollars a month.  You can hardly buy one paperback for that price and the library has been either closed or on weird hours due to the virus, so it's been a treat to be able to prowl for books and download whatever strikes my fancy.  I'm currently on a series in England in the l930s.  

The sewing room has actually been seeing a little of me and I'm working on a Christmas quilt from a kit Dan got me for Christmas.  It's been a little slow going as the template that was sent to use with it had an error in it.  It took some doing to get that settled and then I had to figure out how to line up the different pieces as they're triangles. Tricky to do to get them placed properly before stitching, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, I'm finding it fun.  A learning process for certain though. In the picture below, only the top row of trees is done.  Hard to tell since the white triangles between are the same color as my flannel backdrop.

And a further update on the new dishwasher, christened Louise by Dan (also called Weezy and LuLu).  She continues to perform perfectly!  I'm so happy! ♥

Dishwasher Update

No picture, because how many pictures of a dishwasher do you need to see?  

We finally ran a load. (Is it bigger inside?  Seems like we usually filled Brunhilda every day or two, but it took us four.)  We decided to try the one-hour wash and see how it did before we bit the bullet and went for the two to three hour cycle. There were plates and forks with egg on them, a pyrex pan that had enchiladas baked in it plus having the left-overs run through the microwave, and the usual miscellany of a well-used kitchen. The silverware basket was stuffed.  

So how did it do?  It shut off in exactly an hour and we trooped right into the kitchen to check it out. Everything was spotless and shiny!!  We were thrilled.  We examined every dish and piece of silverware.  Nary a spot. There's rising hope that this new one will be a winner!! 

Changing of the Guard

It is with some sadness that I tell my faithful readers that my beloved dishwasher, known to one and all as Brunhilde, went to that great scrapheap in the sky on Tuesday.  She had performed with great faithfulness and I knew we were on borrowed time.  The service tech who installed the new one today said he thought she was probably original to the house.   That would be forty-two plus years!

I had just set her to run Tuesday morning and stepped over to the stove to finish cleaning up after breakfast when I stepped back into a large puddle of water with more pouring out.  Thank goodness I hadn't gone any further!  

We contemplated trying to see what was wrong and fixing her, but finally decided that we would be afraid to leave the room when she was running.  We'd noticed a spot in the drum where it had rusted through just the day before and Dan had caulked it.  We finally declared total organ failure and went to look for a new one.

The shopping was an eye-opener.  Who knew Covid has played havoc with appliances?  Our local appliance store, the one we've used for thirty-some years,  had a limited number of dishwashers and only two were white.  I knew there was no hope of getting a bisque one to match the other appliances in our kitchen, but had no idea getting a white one would be a problem.  I don't want stainless, I've never liked it.  We finally picked the Whirlpool white model.  We decided if it wasn't up to our standards, we'd put our names on the list for the Bosch model we wanted and donate this one to Habitat for Humanity.  

An interesting comment was made while we were looking.  The lady helping us mentioned that someone had come all the way from Spokane a few days before to get the last white Bosch in stock because there were none to be had up there.  Apparently people building new homes can't do the final closing on their homes without a "working kitchen" including all appliances. Apparently it's a Washington rule and it's causing some problems during this pandemic. 

Well, my new dishwasher is in and we'll be giving it a run in a day or so.  I'll keep you up to date.  Here she is.  

I hope her name doesn't turn out to be Rue. ♥

Buche de Noel

Ann and I decided to try to make a Buche de Noel for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We found a recipe from the Pioneer Woman and tonight we began. We read and reread the recipe. Then we pulled out bowls (many), mixers (two), and measuring cups and spoons.  Oh, and a fine mesh strainer to sift with.  There are many parts to making a Buche de Noel.

Ann separated the eggs and worked with the yolks while I did the whites.

Then we sifted, mixed and poured.

And finally baked!  

And part of the resulting mess--just keeping it real!

We forgot to take any more pictures as we rolled and filled.  We were too busy trying not to make any mistakes!  Tomorrow we'll make the frosting and cut and assemble. Hopefully we'll have more pictures to share then! ♥

Christmas in the Kitchen

I seem to spend a lot of time in my kitchen.  Dan has never eaten cold cereal so a hot breakfast it is each day.  From the start of the day until evening, I am probably in the kitchen more than another other room in the house, unless I'm on a sewing mission.  Decorating my kitchen happens with each season, but never so much as for Christmas.  These are new photos, but may be very similar to ones I've posted in past years.

The cookbook cupboard Dan made me some years ago is my favorite spot of all.  The Jim Shore trees and Santa just make the top and were gifts from Ann at past Christmases.  

The broom is many years old, probably dated, but I still love it.  I made it probably forty years ago. The calendar is a Susan Winget one, the same artist who did the illustrations for the book in my Bear Corner pictured a few days ago.  The snowman platter was a gift from Bruder Bear and Karen, and under it, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, is a garland of little angels, a gift from Susan Boehne, a teacher friend of mine.  The wooden mitten on the door knob was made by Cyndie McCabe, another long-time friend and former neighbor.  I get the best gifts! 

These little snowmen, perched by my sink, were also a gift, made by a former assistant principal at the school where I taught.  So cute!

And on the wall in the breakfast nook is a quilt I made from a Country Threads pattern, called Uncle Santa, also many years old.  

Even my stove gets a little decorating.  I put my lovely dark green Staub dutch oven on the back burner, put an appliqued towel on the oven handle, and park an adorable snowman timer next to it.  Those red spatulas in the utensil crock fit right in, too!

And last, here is the breakfast nook table.  

You can see Uncle Santa on the wall, and on the table is a runner I made for Mom and Dad and brought home after we cleared out their house. The sleigh centerpiece was made by a friend the first year we moved back to town, so it's been on that table since Christmas of 1985.  Tradition!!  ♥

Just Checking In

After yesterday's post, I decided I would see if I could do a post each day until Christmas.  I imagined lively words, some photos, and generally an update as to our preparations for the Big Day.

Today I began in earnest, getting out quilts, wall hangings, and table runners.  These things are all stored upstairs on shelves in the boys' room on shelves in one of the closets.  I have quite a number of all three items to spread throughout the house and it takes some time to take down the Americana and put up the Christmas.  (And why does it seem like I just took them down?)

Yesterday I swapped out my regular dishes for the Christmas set, trotting up and down the hall to the cupboards where they are stashed the rest of the year.  When I was little, I dreamed of having Christmas dishes and I love that my dream came true.  We use them all month and well into January.  They make me smile.

However, I believe I may have mentioned in the past that I'm a very linear person, not a good multi-tasker.  And yesterday proved to be a case in point.  While swapping dishes, I was watching a movie on my kitchen TV (The Intern with Robert DeNiro which I hadn't seen before), while also making a pumpkin pie with some leftover pumpkin.  That's three things at one time.  The pie paid the price.  I reset the timer for forty-five minutes when the first fifteen minutes were up at 425°, but forgot to turn the oven down to 350°. When the final timer rang, I was shocked to see that the crust was a very, very, very dark brown at the edges and then I noticed the black spots on the pumpkin filling.  Then I realized what I had done.  I assumed the pie was a loss, but we tried it (minus the edge crust!) and it wasn't bad.  Not great, but not bad. 

Apparently pumpkin pie is very resilient.   ♥

A Tale of a Rotisserie Chicken. . . and Stew

I mentioned that we went to Costco a week or so ago. One of the things we purchased was a rotisserie chicken for the amazing price of $4.99.  I meant to have it for dinner that night when we got home, but we were later getting to Costco than I had anticipated, which meant we were later leaving, so we popped into Taco Time and got a bite.  Which was interesting because they served it to us in a bag, which we carried to an available table and unpacked.  Such strange times. . .

Anyway, the chicken became our Saturday night dinner, and then again on Sunday.  And there was so much left!! A day or so later, I decided to chop some up and make chicken and black bean enchiladas.  The recipe said it made four or five, but I ended up with a dozen!  I froze six and we ate the other six that night and the next. And still there was chicken left, so I chopped it up and froze it.  Saturday night I decided to make pizza and opted for white sauce and the frozen chicken, along with a little Canadian bacon, red peppers and olives.  We ate the pizza for two nights and I ate the rest for lunch today. (Dan was so kind to let me have it!) And we still have those six enchiladas in the freezer.  That $4.99 chicken has already fed us numerous meals with two still to go. I feel kind of like it was the loaves and fishes!  I think I'll be buying another soon.  

And stew?  We have had a very cold November.  We have snow again, with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow night.  I love cold weather cooking--soups, stews, breads, muffins.  Right after breakfast this morning I pondered supper.  I knew I had some potatoes and celery in need of using up, so I thought of stew.  I have a recipe I clipped from the paper years ago called Five Hour Midnight Stew.  It's fairly simple, but you have to remember to get started early as it bakes in the oven for five hours as the title states.  

It tasted so good!  I had some leftover muffins from a couple of weeks ago in the freezer so I zapped them to complete our dinner.  There's lots of stew left, so I'm good to go for a few nights.  ♥

Vanilla

We made a Costco run yesterday and as long as we were there, we decided to throw anything we thought we might need in the near future into the cart.  I am a baker and vanilla goes into almost everything I make.  It made sense to grab another bottle, and as I did, I marveled over the price.  Marveled may not be the right word.  My reaction was along the lines of, "Whoa!"  Dan came up as I was putting the bottle in the cart and said, "Why don't you get two."  And I answered that spending fifty dollars on two bottles of vanilla seemed a little much. His eyebrows shot up! 

Last night as we finished putting things away, the subject of vanilla came up again so I decided to google why the price was so high.  It was interesting reading!  This article by Business Insider is two years old but it covers a number of the reasons as well as explaining the growth process of the vanilla bean. 

Who knew vanilla, at least at that time and probably still, was worth more by weight than silver?  

I feel fortunate that I can afford the real thing.  I know my mom was not a fan of imitation vanilla, and so far I've been able to avoid having to use it.  Maybe I need to branch out in my choice of extracts, though.  I do have almond, lemon, orange, butter, and peppermint in my cupboard.  Oh, and maple!  ♥ 

Little Things

Ever notice how sometimes it's the little things that give the biggest pleasure? Take my pantry for example. When we bought this house, two of the most important things I was looking for were a shower in the master bath (our previous house had only a half bath en suite) and a pantry in or near the kitchen.  

We scored!  Our master bath is small, but it does have its own shower and I have loved it for almost twenty-one years.  And we have a pantry, a good sized one, right in the kitchen. I don't think the space was built to be a pantry, however. I think it was meant to be a utility type closet for vacuum cleaners, brooms, a waste basket, etc.  The biggest clue besides its size?  It has a ceiling light in it.  The shelves are deep, almost too deep, and it had a bi-fold door on it.  The hinged side was on the right and when the door was open, it blocked at least six inches of the shelves, and that coupled with another five inches or so behind the adjacent front wall made for much difficulty accessing things stored on that side.    

I queried Dan some time ago about redoing that bi-fold door by removing the center hinge and attaching the resulting two doors with hinges on their outside edges so that they would open from the center and fold back giving me better access to the right side, not to mention making it easier to get around the pantry without the door sticking out into the hallway.  At first he didn't think it would work because of suspected structure issues relating to studs, sheetrock, and blah, blah (issues I didn't understand).  But then last Saturday he decided to give it a try.  And it worked!!!

Here's picture of it in process, doors split and left side up.  

We still need to buy another knob and do some painting, but here's how it looks now when open.  

Such a little thing, but it makes me so happy!  ♥

It's Zucchini Season!

Every summer since we've owned our own home, we've planted some type of garden.  In the early days, it really was for "survival" in that we certainly didn't have much money and a garden provided much needed food for us and our little ones.  And every garden included zucchini and yellow squash (which we called crookneck) even though as years went by, and locations changed,  it was more for the fun of it rather than cheap food.  

It seems that we always wait in great anticipation for the plants to finally produce something big enough to eat. Then, all of a sudden, there's too much!  And there's always a few zucchini that hide (how do they do that?) and turn into torpedos.  Ah, but they are perfect for zucchini bread and zucchini relish.  Until your freezer is full and so are your cupboards. This year Dan has tried to beat the system by picking the squash when it's very small, and for the most part, it's worked.  Mostly.

We've had Summer Squash Skillet; bread; steamed, blackened, and topped with cheese; PW's Simple Sesame noodles with chicken and squash added; and so on.  Last summer I discovered a spice cake that was extremely well received when we had company over a weekend.  I think one will be in the works later today.  

We've also grown green beans over the years, usually very successfully until this house.  The soil isn't very good, apparently, and Dan's often so busy with his consulting that the garden usually gets short shrift.  This year we were determined to get beans enough to can. Here's a photo of our crop.

Yes, that's it.  Seven jars.  The bunnies ate the rest. Sigh. Such is life here on the edge of town.  ♥

Only Four Months 'til Christmas Eve!!!

Yes people, I keep track of such things as how long until Christmas.  As I get, um, more mature, yes, that's it, more mature, time passes more quickly and those four months will be gone in a flash.  I need to start contemplating, especially as shipping seems to be taking longer and longer these days.  

Case in point:  On August 7th, I placed an order with the King Arthur Baking Company (formerly the King Arthur Flour Company) for six items.  It took a day or so for the order to go "live" and I then received notice that things were beginning to be shipped out.  According to shipping notifications, four items were being shipped together and the other two were being shipped singly.  Okay.  I got free shipping, so I was prepared to wait.  The first four items arrived in about ten days, and as I checked the other two items I noticed a strange happening with one.  

Let's see if I can follow this:  It left Virginia and went to Maryland, then to West Virginia, and Ohio.  From there it made it further west to Indiana, and then what??  It went to Pennsylvania, then back to Indiana and then to New York!  What, what, what??  Then to New Jersey where it stayed for four days.  At this point I called King Arthur.  Was I ever going to see my silicone rolling mat?  

I was impressed with KA when I got a real person to talk to immediately.  He was able to pull up the tracking record and was as amazed as I was.  He pondered a bit and then said he'd get another one off to me second-day air and if the first one ever showed up I could gift it to some helpful organization.  Two thumbs up to King Arthur Baking Company!!

Anyway, this digression is to point out that it's none too soon to be planning and if necessary, ordering, Christmas gifts so we don't have to print out tracking records to show that the present is on it's way--hopefully!!

And in the Kitchen

Well, here we are, finishing up week eight (or is it nine?) of this quarantine, and I'm thankful I'm still actually enjoying coming up with two meals a day (we're both on our own for lunch because we're never hungry at the same time).  Our food is holding out well, and we've made several trips to the store at low volume times.  

I've heard that before this is over, we'll all have added the Covid 19, meaning adding nineteen additional pounds.  I hope not!!  But I will say that desserts have come into play way more than usual around here. Homemade pudding, peach shortcake, cookies, pie. . . Yum!!

The other day I noticed my fruit bowl had some fruit that should have been used earlier.  A couple of lonely bananas reminded me of a recipe I got from my Aunt Betty Jane, back in my high school days.  I stopped by her house one day and she was making them and allowed me to copy the recipe with the comment that the handwriting was her younger son's when he was home one day and wanted to help in some way.  So, this is a recipe from sometime in the 1940s.  

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas

1 3/4 cups quick oats

1/2 cup nuts

Mis together flour, sugar, soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cut in shortening (I just use my Kitchenaid and it does the work).  Add egg, banana, oats and nuts. Beat until thoroughly blended.  Drop on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400° about 13-15 minutes.  Remove immediately.  Makes 3 1/2 dozen.  

I used to like to make these just before the kids came home from school and have them ready with a glass of milk for a tasty snack.  Memories. . .

And then yesterday, I took some less than stellar looking apples and turned them into a yummy apple pie.  I don't even remember the last time I made an apple pie.  Dan was in heaven.  

Today I have some blueberries that I need to turn into a coffee cake for tomorrow's breakfast.  And Sunday's, too!  Bon appetit!  ♥

Provisions

Saturday we had to be out for a quick bit (another drive-by), and when we got home I told Dan to leave the car out as I wanted to find out just exactly what was lurking in our freezer.  It sits in our garage right in front of the car, and while I can get the door open and get what I need, it isn't conducive to a large inspection or rearrangement.  

Dan volunteered to bring out a folding table so I had a place to sort and that helped immensely.  So, what exactly was in there?  More than I thought!  I even unearthed a box of Skinny Cow fudgesicles! Score!! Underneath the bacon I found two vacuum sealed bags of three pork chops each.  Oh yes, I remembered them. The ones I used from the larger pack they came from were tough, and I mean tough.  No matter how I cooked them, they were awful.  Dan appeared about the time I found them and suggested that maybe they'd make pulled pork.  Hmm, didn't sound like a bad idea so I said I'd try.  

Further rummaging found an extra bin of pork roasts and lots of stew meat.  Yay! Meat for dinners that will stretch over a period of days.  We are good to go for many a day, especially with the bread flour he found last week.  

As I finished up my mind drifted back to the early days of our marriage and the first freezer we bought.  It was the summer of 1973 and the oil crisis was nearing its height.  Freezers were hard to come by as were canning supplies (this situation lasted for well over a year) but we somehow managed to score a large freezer from Sears.  (Side note:  It was a self-defrosting model which wasn't supposed to be good for the food stored, but it was absolutely the best freezer we ever had, lasted the longest, and gave us the least freezer-burned food of all the freezers we've had. And we've had to defrost all the rest of them!)

Yesterday evening I decided I'd see what was available on Costco.com as it doesn't look like it's worth making a trip out of town to our nearest one.  The lines, the time, the availability of goods, it all sounded like an exercise in futility.  So, I opened up my computer and went shopping.  Turns out Costco.com is out of many, many items, too, but I did manage to get some more almond milk (I use it in my smoothies and for our oatmeal), Ghirardelli  brownie mixes, and the all important evening TV snack, Pub Mix. I got some other things, too, of course, but these will help make the days a little more palatable.  

Oh, and the pork chops?  They did indeed make great pulled pork! We had it Saturday and Sunday nights and I froze the rest.  Another meal in the freezer for when I am not in the mood and that's a good thing for certain! ♥

Cleaning Up

What a weird title, huh? Well, grab your coffee, pull up a chair, and I'll tell you all about it.

Here at the Resort, we have our own well, which necessitates a room we lovingly call "The Culligan Room" due to all the big tanks it contains to make our water usable. We needed to add a new tank a week or so ago when one of the old ones began to fail.  Tuesday morning Dan appeared in the door to our bathroom as I was getting ready for the day and said, "We have a problem," and then stopped.  I waited for him to say something like, "I think we should eat out tonight and we need to decide where to go."  He does that.  But finally he said, "The basement is flooded."  

That's right, he said, "The basement is flooded."  And so it was.  The new tank had done its weekly back flush and apparently it was considerably stronger with the new tank and the drain couldn't handle the flow.  So the floor did.  Down the hall, into the family room, into Dan's office, the laundry room, and all over the Culligan Room itself.  Even into the closet of the guest room.  Oh the joy.  

So, we gathered up towels, laid them down and began. Thankfully we have a good shop vac and Dan went to work with that.  We hauled out boxes from the downstairs pantry and the guest room closet and as we mopped and vacuumed, we'd take a break and look in the boxes.  Hmmm . . . who knew we still had . . . and as the water disappeared, so did quite a few of the found items.  So, the flood did have its upside!  We had a plumber friend of ours send over one of his workers and he used some kind of pressure thingy to blow out all our drains, but we're not sure if there was a clog that might have contributed, so the Culligan guy will come tomorrow to test and re-calibrate if necessary.  

We still have more cleaning and sorting to do, and we definitely have to replace the carpet because this latest flood was just the last straw for it.  (My long-time readers may recall the floods our old washer caused a few years ago.)  

And just to change the subject and harken back to my last post, here's a picture of me with my first loaves of bread!  In the little tiny kitchen of our little tiny 8'x35' trailer, our first home sweet home.  

It was the start of my love of bread baking, and I still have those wedding present Corningware loaf pans.  ♥

Of Bread and Knives

I think it's already established that as a modern career-oriented young woman of the late twentieth century I was a, well, not a failure, but not a die-hard, either.  I modeled myself more after my great-grandmothers than I did the roles being touted.  I loved and still do, all things home, knitting, quilting, baking, big pots of soup, and so on.  

This morning as I was cutting my latest loaf of bread, I pondered.  I wondered how many loaves I've sliced over the years. I made my first bread when we were newlyweds.  I made bread off and on for a number of years, but then Dan gifted me with a Kitchenaid mixer about 1980 and I began to make all our bread. I did this until I got a bread machine and used it to continue.  So, lots of loaves of bread.  

When we emptied out my parents' house, there weren't many things I said I wanted, but there was one thing I was adamant about: my dad's bread knife.  No one fought me over it; I think they knew I was serious. Dad had taken over most of the cooking years before and making bread was one thing he really got into.  He did it using a bread machine.  Dad was a true lover of gadgets--and a sharp knife.  

I used it this morning. Whenever I use his knife, I can see my dad's hand so plainly, holding it, slicing.  ♥

My Kitchen and Me

If you've read my blog for very long, you know I'm a kitchen person.  Notice that I did not say that I'm a wannabe chef, or even a cook.  I do cook, and I do bake, but I claim no expertise in either area.  But I do love my kitchen and all the things a kitchen holds--tools for the job so to speak.  

When we bought this house almost twenty years ago, I was thrilled that it had a pantry.  I'm not certain that it was originally meant to be a pantry, in fact, I think it was meant to be a utility closet for brooms, vacuum, etc.  There's even a light in the ceiling, or at least there was until we took the bulb out and taped cardboard over the hole.  Some other owner installed shelves and of course, that made the light useless as the only part it illuminated was the top shelf.  

Collector of kitchen tools that I am, a good portion of the pantry is dedicated to hold them.  Waffle iron, Instant Pot, toaster (not enough room on my counters to leave it out), snackster sandwich maker, and so on.  Then of course there's the actual food storage including containers of different kinds of beans and pastas. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a total lover of different shapes of pasta??  Hopeless addiction.)  

Several weeks ago I decided it was time to clean out the pantry and once again find out just what lurked behind those closed doors.  Here I begin to take things out. 

And I began to fill up a counter with the goods.

Maybe more than one counter.  And the floor...

And here we are after careful sorting, consolidation, and judicious replacement.

I don't think I threw away anything but some empty containers after consolidation, but that just shows that I do use what I have.  Which was a relief.   

Appearing This Week in the Kitchen

Some time ago I wrote a blog post that mentioned my trusty bread machine.  We got it probably twenty-five years ago after spending a skiing weekend with some friends who had one and enjoying several loaves of bread with them.  It was an Hitachi and it worked wonderfully for many, many years.  Then I kind of got out of the habit of using it, and when I hauled it back out recently, it seemed it had, well, run its course.  

While I really like to make bread with my Kitchenaid, it takes some care over the next four or so hours to get it into usable form, and sometimes I'd just like a loaf of homemade bread that makes itself.  I realized I was thinking, "Yes, like a bread machine does!"  So I investigated the possibilities, realizing machines have changed over the years.  Christmas was approaching and it would make a good item for my up-to-that-point nonexistent list.  

BUT!  A major problem arose.  Where to put the one if I got it?  The one I decided upon was larger than my old one, and much heavier.  I'm to the point where I don't relish hauling a twenty-five pound appliance out of a cupboard and heaving it up on the counter.  And I don't have a lot of counter space to just leave it out.   I thought I was going to have to squash the idea and told Dan as much, but as I wandered back into the kitchen, an idea came to me.  With a little rearranging, it looked as if it would work and I told Dan it was back on my list.  

(Here is where I have to explain that I have what is probably one of the most bizarrely laid out kitchens in existence.  We have an angle in our house and the kitchen has walls meeting at strange angles; it's right in the V.  We have three separate counter areas and they are not connected.  It's a pain, but I've lived with it for more than nineteen years and survived.)

So, of course I got to unwrap a new bread machine on Christmas morning.  And I LOVE it!!  My old machine made a tall loaf, nothing like a standard looking loaf, and the slices were large squares.  This one makes a normal loaf.  I've only made two loaves so far, just plain white, but they are delicious.  And one of them is totally salt free!!!  There is a special program for it and an accompanying recipe, so I decided to try and it's a winner.  Color me one happy bread maker!!

Zojirushi Virtuoso in its new home

And here's a slice of my salt-free bread before being slathered with peanut butter and peach jam at lunch today.

It was yummy!!  ♥

Gadget Girl Expands Her Repertoire

So I decided to make pizza for our supper the other night.  Yes, I know, I've blogged about making pizza before and shared my crust recipe.  But!  

You know I love my gadgets.  My food processor, my Kitchenaid mixer, my Vitamix blender.  (Wow, I really am spoiled!) And I do use them all.  So, you ask, how have I expanded?  Well, I'll tell you.  

Ingredients.  Yup, the stuff that the gadgets use to make a meal.  Many years ago, a new catalog showed up in the mail.  It was from King Arthur Flour and I loved it!  I took it to bed and poured over it night after night (and yeah, I also take cookbooks to bed for late night reading, especially when Dan is out of town--no scary stuff in them!).  I've ordered from them over time, things like the bread bags that fit my big loaves from the bread machine, nifty bag clips, and even my beloved Staub cast iron pumpkin colored pot.  But nothing that would classify as ingredients.  

Last Christmas one of my packages from daughter Ann and family was rather heavy.  And when I opened it I was excited!  A King Arthur extravaganza!  Specialty flours! Pizza dough flavoring, special bread salt, and a huge spatula!  My box of goodies even contained a British cookbook on pizza and focaccia.  Oh that girl knows what I love!  

So back to the other night.  I haven't been in a cooking mood lately (after forty-seven years of cooking, it does get old at times), but I finally decided that I would make pizza.  I had some turkey breast pieces from Costco in the freezer and a jar of Alfredo sauce in the cupboard, so I thought I would make my version of a Papa Murphy family favorite we call "chick pizza" (we named it that as a play on words because we thought only the girls in the family would like it rather than the traditional red sauce, super meaty pizza favored by the boys.  We were wrong.  They all, even my dad, ate all our pizza!)

Somehow, making my own pizza dough, chopping all the peppers and olives, grating the cheese, seems relaxing and fun.  And all those new helpers?  They make it super yummy!

The container for the yeast is also from King Arthur flour and I love the special measuring spoon that equals the amount a small packet of yeast contains.  And that huge spatula?  Makes it so easy to take the baked pizza off the stone in the oven and onto a pizza pan for serving.  

This is one happy gadget girl! ♥

A Fun Project

I subscribe to BH&G's American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, so somewhere along the line, I also liked them on Facebook.  Some interesting projects show up from time to time and I'm faithful to download them and stash them in a folder on my computer and promptly forget about them.  But a few weeks ago a cute and simple project appeared, and after downloading, I actually printed out the instructions and took them to my sewing room.  

There was a wedding shower coming up at church, so I decided on a themed gift featuring the project and sunflowers.  I already had an extra sunflower hot pad and I had recently finished a sunflower yellow dishcloth. Enter the project, a tea towel, and I would have a good start on a present.  I machine embroidered an appliqued sunflower on a white flour sack type dishtowel and added the trim from the project, bought a Pyrex baking dish and voilà, I was a happy gift giver!  And no, I didn't take a picture.  

But! When Dan had his knee surgery, our friend Tina came to visit bearing a huge basket of goodies for him--oranges, ingredients for chicken soup, a bag of coffee, and a baguette.  We've kind of adopted Tina since her husband Steve's death two and half years ago, and she wanted to bring her "Dad" some love.  I realized later that I had kept her basket and decided that it needed to be returned with some goodies in it.  So I made another towel and dishcloth.  Here's the towel:

And here's a link to the instructions.  The instructions call for cutting 4 1/2" squares to make the prairie points, which I did for the first one, but I thought they were a little big, so I cut 3 1/2" squares for this one and I like them better.  

When I first found the project, I went looking for flour sack type towels here in town and was dismayed to find they were rather expensive.  Three towels for $15.99 seemed to be a little over the top.  I searched on Amazon and finally found these.  I paid $16.99 for a dozen, but now that I check, I see that they are $21.99! Amazon's prices vary so much from day to day!  But even at that, they are much cheaper than the five plus dollars each they sell for locally.  

It's a fun project, and both the bride-to-be and Tina loved their gifts.  I'm excited to make more.  I can see Christmas themed ones, Americana ones, etc.  The prairie points are a great way to use up small scraps. Let the stitching continue!!  ♥