Life Altering

I just had to share with you my current obsession - my Le Creuset Dutch Oven that I got for Christmas. To say that this thing "Rocks my Food World" would be an understatement.

Not only does it look drop dead gorgeous in this red colour and makes me as happy as I can imagine fashionistas are about new Manolo Blahniks, but it also it cooks like a dream. Just looking at it makes me want to bake, broil, braise and sauté. Since I took it out of the box, its never been put away. I have it sitting on my stove top all the time, just waiting for me to whip out another recipe.

The first thing that I made in it was my Chunky Beef Chili recipe and it was amazing. The fond that it created was incredible. So much flavour and such consistent cooking. Visions of soups, stews, sauces, roasts and casseroles are dancing in my head!

I look at this pot and just picture all the meals that I'm going to make it in my lifetime, for friends, family, future hubby, kids, grandkids, you get the idea. This is the kind of thing that you pass down to people because you love it so much, like the worn out aluminium baking sheets that my mother got from her grandmother - they still bake the best cookies in the world. And I think its the women in my family who have given me this appreciation of good cooking. Food = Love, and, boy, do I love food that comes out of this thing :)

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 3

After being without a kitchen for a couple of weeks during this whole renovation process at my family home, my parents are glad to finally see some progress!

Here is the nook with the new tile floor. We still need to put the baseboards on and then lug all the furniture back in. The fireplace had to be removed so that the new base could be tiled.

 

But thankfully it was fairly easy to put back in place. Just missing the actual fire part....

I love this tile. The pattern is so subtle and yet interesting at the same time. And it really has spruced the place up. The only one who seems to be missing the linoleum is Whiskey - he used to get so much more traction when he was chasing Shadow and now his little legs go all over the place. But he'll just have to get used to it.

And here is the tile going from the nook to the kitchen and then extending out onto the landing. The best part is that the section in front of the sink is heated. I can see this becoming Shadow's new favorite spot to nap.

 

The tile was extended right up to the wall in the kitchen so that the cabinets can rest on it. I can't wait to see how this is going to look once everything is back in place!

 

For the past sixteen years almost everything in our house (and our cottage) has been painted some variation of this yellow colour - or as our mother corrects us all the time - "Butternut Cream". (With the exception of my dad's office which he painted this bold "Ox Blood Red"...he's colourblind so it was the colour that "stood out to [him] the most". Lets just say that it is VERY red). Its time for a change, so to go with the new flooring they choose Benjamin Moore's "Kangaroo" (left) for the kitchen and "Natural Linen" (right) for the nook. This picture doesn't really do justice to how beautiful these colours are. Sorry, I was having colour balance issues.

Be sure to check back next week when the kitchen starts to come back together (Having a sink and stove again! yay!) and the paint goes up on the walls. Plus a few little last minute surprises.

An you can read Part One and Part Two to catch the progress that's been made so far :)

Egg-cellent!

Today I learned a nifty little trick that I just had to share with you.

You know when you crack an egg and you accidentally get small bits of the eggshell in the bowl and spend ages trying to fish them out?

Next time take the empty shell half and use it to scoop up the small bits. I don't know why it works, but the shell seems to attract the smaller bits, unlike your fingers or spoon, which seem to repel them.

I tried it this morning while making an omelette and it worked! Woohoo!

Photo Credit: Shuttlestock

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 2

Last week I posted about the renovations that my parents wanted to do to their kitchen and nook area - the most used space in our family home. Now that the game plan was all laid out, it was time to start dismantling everything to start the work. I called dibs on the crowbar :)

First we had to remove all the furniture so that we could prep the room for the tile to be laid. The space looks so much bigger without the couch and chairs. That oak table in the middle of the room is one of my favorite pieces in our house. My parents purchased it from an old neighbour in their small town on Georgian Bay many years ago before they moved to our new hometown. The woman who owned this raised twelve kids around that table. Don't worry, they weren't all crammed around it like that - it has leaves to expand it.

 

In the bottom corner you can see where we started to pull off all the baseboards and quarterround. The tile will be adding additional height to the floor, so we will have to reinstall the baseboards afterwards, which will be a great time to repaint them and replace any sections that need repairs.

 

It feels weird to be able to look out the big window without sitting on the couch. I love the view of the river from here. Its Whiskey's favorite spot too - he sits on the top of the couch and guards for squirrels in the ravine.

 

Thats our little river at the bottom of the hill. See that big tree with branches on only half of it? Victim of a sneaky snowmobiler who hit it while he was trying to use our yard to get up to the road. Breaks my heart to see it so bare, but thankfully the ravine on the east side of the property is lush and offers lots of shelter to the wildlife around here.

 

While we were clearing the rooms, anything valuable was to be put on top of the upper cabinets....including our beloved Whiskey. My little brother (yup, he's in a faux fur trappers hat) put him up there so that he could survey the situation.

 

Don't worry he was only up there for a second, and I swear that he loved the attention. When you're only 18" tall I'm sure you appreciate being able to look down on everyone else for a moment.

 

Adios, linoleum. See you soon, cupboards.

We moved all the drawers and furniture to the other room...

 

...and it was a task and a half to get it all to fit. Geez Louise, we have alot of stuff in there.

And of course the most important thing was to convert the bar into a coffee / tea / hot chocolate station for all the hard workers to reenergize. As the non-coffee drinker in the family, I can say that the amount of Tim Hortons coffee that goes through that maker is unheard of.

I'll have more on the progress next week, and don't forget to check out Part One of the renovation.

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 1

Sixteen years ago my parents unexpectedly sold their house within four days, and suddenly they had to design and build a new house bronto, with two little girls and a four-month-old baby in tow. It was rushed to say the least. Now they are in the process of updating their house, and the room that needs the most work is of course the place where we all spend the most time - the kitchen/nook area. Its a small kitchen that opens up into a larger eatting/sitting area that gets a lot of natural light with great views of the river behind them. People naturally seem to gravitate towards this room and it always feels homey, but all of the traffic has had some wear and tear on it. Their main goal is to replace the linoleum flooring with ceramic tile and update the rooms.

The fireplace was actually built by my father just over a decade ago using plywood, decorative molding and a gas fireplace kit. In order to have all the tile lie flush with the molding, the entire unit will have to be dismantled, along with the baseboards and quarter-round. In the mirror you can see the heavy pink/burgundyish drapes that cover the french doors leading to the porch. Those are going to be replaced as well, in something closer to the new colour palate of the rest of the room.

The flat screen television used to be where the antique wicker chair is now, resting in a stand on the little sideboard below it. This created a dark corner there, and limited the amount of seating that we could have. However, mounting the tv to the wall was no small task. It took my father two days this Fall to get all of the cables for the tv and surround sound wired through the walls, as well as anchoring the wall hooks for the tv. The weekend that he did it was the same weekend that my sweet little cousin was visiting. And she was going through her 20 Questions phase, and wouldn't stop pestering him with questions: "Uncle, what are you doing?", "Why?" (I'm sure that he was asking himself the same questions!)

Over the past couple of years my parents have been slowly replacing all of their appliances with stainless steel ones to create a more uniform look. They plan to keep the same oak cabinets, but will be replacing those that have suffered from water damage (those ones that are just left of the stove). On the right side near the top you can see where my mother and sister went to the paint store and fell in love with a light green shade, only to discover that when they got home with a sample, it was more of a minty green. A good reminder to always check the colour with your own light before you commit to having a minty fresh kitchen! They've opted for a more neutral colour palatte instead, and plan to paint after the tile has been laid.

When I took these photos they had already started removing some of the drawers so that they could dismantle the cupboards. Although the countertops are in great condition, they are hoping to replace the countertops soon with a nice dark stone surface.

After sixteen years, three dogs and lots of kids, this linoleum flooring has seen better days. The cermaic tiles that they have chosen to replace it with are gorgeous, and will be able to handle the wear-and-tear of our busy family. There are also a few little perks that they are including, like a heated section of the flooring right here in front of the sink.

And of course our kitchen wouldn't be complete without keeping the Tim Hortons' coffee maker, complete with two sugar containers (we have a problem) and a cute little coffee jar. I don't even drink coffee and I know the EXACT measurements that go into making their favorite blend.

Next week I'll post about the demolition work that we all chipped in on, and the progress that has been made so far.

How to clean a stubborn stovetop

After a massive cooking session last Saturday (French Onion Soup, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Roast Potatoes...the list goes on), my stovetop was looking a little worse for wear. What a great opportunity to show you my eco-friendly tip for cleaning my gas stove!

(my apologizes for showing you this photo, but it was necessary, I swear)

This is a remedy that has been passed down 3 generations in my family. All you need to do is put some baking soda in a little bowl. I like to use the container that I have in my fridge to absorb odors, because I'm not going to be using it for cooking anyways.

Add in a little bit of water and mix it with a fork to make a slightly watery paste.

Take off the burners and pour the baking soda paste all over the stovetop. Let the mixture soak in for a few minutes.

Take a rag, or even a piece of papertowel and scrub the whole stovetop down with the mixture. Wipe all the baking soda mixture away and you're good to go!

Just look how it sparkles!

Oops, and remember put back on the burners!