My Kitchen

I have yet to post any pictures of our "new" house, but we've only lived here ahem...10 months...oops! Anyway, I thought I'd start with the room that's getting the biggest workout these days, my kitchen!

Our home is pretty new (built in 2009 I think) and we love the modern finishes and touches throughout the home. Our kitchen is really nice, with stainless steel appliances (which are a pain to clean, btw) and stone counters. We also have wood floor in there, which I love. The only problem - it's pretty small without much storage or prep space. Now, you'll probably look at the pictures, and say I'm crazy for thinking this is small, but these are pictures when it's really clean, if only we kept it this nice all the time, we'd never complain about it being small, ha!

For reals though, storage space was seriously lacking in this kitchen, we have two full-size cupboards, one small cupboard and four drawers. That's it. So, our landlord purchased this butcher block cabinet (which has been amazing) which virtually doubled the storage and counter space. We also brought in a bookshelf from our old living room and added two large open shelves for our dishes, which we initially thought would only be practical, but we actually really like the way they look.  I have read that some people are concerned with dust getting on your dishes with open shelving, which I can see being a problem, but for us, honestly, it's not. Probably because everything on the shelves gets used (and subsequently washed) on a fairly regular basis, so nothing really has time to accumulate much dust. I also use my swiffer duster every few weeks for the little bit of dust between each item. 

One thing about cooking a lot, is that you acquire a lot of "tools" for doing so. A pot for this, a small appliance for that - especially when your husband is a gadget guy and likes to have specific tools for specific tasks. I tried to go through my cupboards today to get rid of some of the stuff that was taking up so much space. I looked through everything to see if we could donate the stuff we weren't using, but you know what? I could only find one old crock that we weren't using. Well, that and some packaging materials that I have no idea why we were storing them in the first place. That made me feel a little better, we may have a lot of "stuff" but at least we're using it!

I'm gonna get a bit sappy for a moment: I can't say I've ever loved cooking, but I'm slowly learning to love it. It's so therapeutic to prepare a wholesome, delicious meal for your family. Sometimes, when I really start to think about it, I am filled with so much joy and fulfillment and I start to feel so blessed that I can do such a simple, yet meaningful, thing for my little family. For generations women have spent hours in their kitchens taking ingredients and blending them into something nutritious and filling and I'm so thankful I get to do that too. I start to remember how badly I had always wanted to be a wife, to be in love, to have a house with my husband and to do all the womanly things that make it a home. On days when I feel like that, I love to cook. On others, I'm happy to let my husband do the cooking! ;)

Ok, saps over, back to our regularly scheduled programming, this next photo shows a few of my favorite details in my kitchen right now:

It's a bit hard to see, but I love my bright yellow utensil crock, and my little green butter pot that works great as long as you pack the butter in well. One day Ben surprised me with this adorable blue timer and I had no idea I'd love a timer so much (our oven has the most annoying alert ever). My newest, most favorite thing though, is this lovely dishtowel, which matches the apron my sweet hubby got me for Christmas. I love the ruffle detail and it brings so much cheer to our kitchen - it's the little details I love most! Now, I'd love to find two small red and white polka dot rugs for under the oven and sink, how cute would that be?! On top of my stove are two of my favorite things too, my Lodge cast iron skillet (seriously, one of our best purchases ever) and my brand new Le Creuset French Oven.

I have thought these pans were beautiful and classic for a long time, and when Ben got his part-time job at Sur la Table, the only thing I wanted from the store was one of these. But, I'm afraid of spending a lot of money (I can spend a lot of little money like nothing, but big amounts make me nervous) and couldn't justify the expense, even with a discount. But, because he loves me so so much, my husband surprised with this beauty as an early Valentine's day gift. I squeeled as I opened it, especially since it was a Sur la Table exclusive color and hadn't even been released for sale yet (how fancy!), and promised him a delicious meal as my gift in return. He happily obliged.

Well, I think that's about all I can say about my little kitchen. Maybe our living room will stay tidy long enough for some photos as well? We'll see!