The Final Leg of Our Kitchen Renovations

 Kitchen Countertop, Sinks and Faucet

March 27, 2015

I have been battling some type of persistent virus for the past few weeks, right on the heels of renovating a spare room into a small home gym.  Every time I think I'm over it, another symptom hits with a wallop, knocking me back down.  Ginger, green tea and water have been my constant companions.  Finally, I caved in an saw my doctor who ordered numerous tests.  While ongoing, I am feeling much better ready to get back into my routine!

Just to keep things a bit more interesting while I was under the weather, our kitchen was torn apart once again for a full weekend in preparation for the granite countertop installation making it the third year in a row the kitchen has been torn apart.  While the main installation only took a day, it actually took a full week to get the kitchen back functional.  The new sink could not be plumbed for 24 hours but hubby couldn't get to it for a couple of days.  Then, the installers had to return to add the backsplash as we decided to keep the old tile on the wall.  During the first install date, they installed new sinks and granite countertop in the upper bathroom as well but plumbing went a little south.  Hubby was able to get one sink fully functional but we had to have a plumber in for the other. 

We replaced the microwave oven, faucet and sinks at the same time. There are still a few smaller projects to finish in the kitchen but this should be the final time for any major renovations. The only remaining features of the old kitchen are the floor, wall tile and refrigerator.  Everything else has been upgraded or changed in some way.  This past week the kitchen joined our home automation network adding to both function and aesthetics.  All in all, we are pleased with the kitchen renovations thus far!

A Brand New Year for Culinary Pleasure

Dear Readers,

Thanks so much for baring with me during 2014.  It was very much a year of change that oddly affected my desire to blog.  It wasn't like I didn't have anything to blog about it was more that my focus was elsewhere.  I've seen so many food bloggers go down the same path but after much soul searching concluded that this blog is a fundamental part of me.  It is written for my enjoyment and the fact that others enjoy it, is reason enough to keep writing.  So, here I am ready to start another season of sharing our culinary adventures with you.  I have a lot of ideas but in the meantime it is back to the kitchen...

Our Vacation Home Kitchen

We are incredibly blessed to own a vacation home in sunny Florida where we try to spend three months a year over three trips.  This past year we also bought a co-op in Aruba, so in essence we have three fully equipped kitchens.  We are very much firm believers of eating healthy, home cooked meals even when on vacation.  The only difference in our eating style on vacation is we tend to eat out more.  While discovering new restaurants and revisiting our favourites is a wonderful culinary experience that we truly enjoy, we also enjoy home cooked meals.
 

Our vacation home is a two bedroom with den, two bathroom manufactured home (2007).  We bought it in 2010 after it had sat a year and a half empty.    The house is in a 55+ retirement community with a lot of nice amenities.  The club house is very nice, a place to meet up with other members of our community, enjoy a bit of entertainment or a meal.

Our vacation home kitchen is fairly similar in size to our home kitchen with a similar layout except the vacation home kitchen is open to the small family room.  It is an eat-in kitchen.  The patio doors lead to the lanai where we often enjoy morning coffee and meals.  The cabinets are standard white, nothing fancy.  The counter tops are basic formica but the backsplash is ceramic tile.  There is a bit less actual counter workspace  than our home kitchen, not significantly less but enough to be noticeable.  The appliances are Whirlpool with the stove being electric and the next step down from the natural gas Whirlpool Gold range at home.   The sink is a heavy plastic double sink with food disposal.  We replaced the original taps with the set pictured last spring.  The floor is a textured sheet flooring in a tile pattern.

The refrigerator wall of the kitchen has a narrow but deep pantry.  A door leading to the small utility/laundry room separates the refrigerator wall from the sink wall.  The refrigerator has an ice maker but other than that is fairly basic especially compared to our home refrigerators.

Our vacation home kitchen is light, bright, quite functional and easy to maintain.  It has the distinct disadvantage of being what you see is what you get.  That is the entire storage available for food, kitchen appliances and kitchenware.  There is no extra storage space in the rest of the home to store extra kitchen equipment or food although larger pots and pans could be stored in the golf cart shed.  In all honesty, longer stays require being a bit more creative but we will never be living there full time and we will likely continue to rent our vacation home out from time to time so the kitchen more than meets both needs.

Our vacation home while considerably smaller than our home still requires interior maintenance, repairs and updating.  This is fairly consistent with any vacation home or cottage.  As mentioned we have already replaced the faucet set as the old one sprung a leak that continued to get worse despite repairs.  We are planning a few upgrades to increase the value of our vacation home while adding more durable, lower maintenance materials that will withstand the intended purpose of our vacation home.  We are planning on replacing existing carpeting with laminate flooring or ceramic tile next spring.   Ceramic tile is likely our best choice so we would end up tiling the entire house at that time.

Now when I note we are at our vacation home or show a meal prepared there, you will have an idea of what the kitchen there looks like.  Our vacation home kitchen is equipped with the basics - blender, slow cooker, toaster, coffee maker (mainly for tenants), Keurig (our use only), can opener and hot air popcorn maker.  I took the stainless steel Lagostina pot and pan set we recently replaced from home to the vacation home so we are set that way.  So, it is fairly well equipped suitable for any of the cooking and baking we will be doing there.  We also have an outdoor grill that just as at home gets a lot of use.  Tenants at most will be there a total of 3 months but that is very rare.  So far, we have had tenants stay a month or two, most commonly one month.  Next week I will share some of our foodie highlights during this portion of our fall vacation.

Fire Prevention Week

courtesy of  Ontario Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services

I recently acquired my husband's iPhone when he upgraded to a new iPhone so immediately started customizing with all kinds of fun apps including one called Scanner911.  This app is a scanner for police, fire and emergency.  It just happens to pick up our local fire and emergency so I've been listening to it quite a bit as one of our good friends is the assistant fire chief.  Honestly, within a two day span there were at least five calls to house fires originating in the kitchen!  That is quite scary if you ask me.

In all our years cooking in various kitchens both inside and outside, we have had one small kitchen fire that was totally my fault.  Surprisingly, it wasn't cooking food but rather a flash fire when making transparent soap.  The process involved adding 95% ethanol which easily ignited by a spark from the mixer.  Luckily, I do have rather extensive WHMIS  and laboratory experience so knew immediately what to do.  The lid was on the pot in the blink of an eye without a second thought so there was no damage other than to my ego as I should have known better.   A few years ago, a neighbour fell asleep with a pot on the stove which ignited causing extensive damage and they had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation.  It happened on a cold winter night.  Since the damage was extensive, they had to find emergency accommodations.

Kitchen fires can happen in the blink of an eye.  The sad thing is they are quite preventable.  This is Fire Prevention Week and this year's focus is preventing kitchen fires.  If you click the link under the picture it will take you to the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services site where you can find lots of great tips for preventing kitchen fires.  Please take a moment to check it out...

Happy Canada Day!

146 Years Young
Strong, Proud and Free
Oh Canada!

Normally, a Frugal Kitchens 101 post would appear today because it is Monday.  But this isn't any Monday, it's Canada Day!  I wanted to write something special in celebration of Canada's 146th birthday.

Happy Canada Day to all our friends, family and readers wherever you may be!

Canada is a land of plenty in many ways and especially so when it comes to Canadian grown and produced food.  Our food safety is second to none!  Each province and territory is known for a particular food or foods not only in terms of growing and producing but also one or more dishes (eg. muskrat dinner, poutine,  Quebec style green ketchup, pork tourtière).  Not only are some of the finest beers, rye whiskeys, liquors, and wines produced in Canada we even have our own national drink, the Caesar.  Butter tarts and peameal bacon are truly Canadian culinary creations.  Canada is home to many top notch, world class culinary chefs as well.

We are celebrating Canada Day by hosting an outdoor gathering for a small group of friends.  The food choice focus is on Canadian foods!  Most of the food (eg. hormone-free and grass fed beef, strawberries, watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade bread, cheeses, potatoes, corn) being served was grown or made with food grown within a short distance of our home.  Drinks will also focus on Canadian brewed beers, Ontario wine and Canadian rye whiskey as well as other Canadian produced liquors.  After dinner we will sit around chatting about our next trip to the great Canadian wilderness that we will return home from with a cooler full of Canadian whitefish, wild blueberries and honey.  We will definitely be talking about Dillon's Small Batch Distillers, a new distillery in the Niagara area featuring rye whiskey, gin and vodka.  I'm sure our wonderful 5 course meal enjoyed last weekend at Vineland Estates in Niagara will also be a topic of  discussion.  As the evening fades into darkness, we will still be enjoying the celebrations, tummies filled with a wonderful assortment of great Canadian foods!  I'll be crocheting a toque while chatting about food, listening to the guys chatter about hockey. 

Here's to Canada - 146 years young - the true north strong and free!  Eh!

Getting Closer to Finishing Our Kitchen

When we first looked at this house in 2011, I did not notice the taupe ceramic tile in the kitchen so I had visions of a black, white and grey kitchen with accents of red.  I have a few of the chefs kitchen collectables so I thought is would make for a festive kitchen.  How could I not notice the colour of the kitchen?  This is our sixth purchased permanent residence, seventh if you count our vacation home.  The rule of thumb has always been anything decorative can be changed.  The more important features of the house like location,  structure, layout, size, and design become the focus over paint, wall paper and tile. 

This kitchen has really changed since we bought the house.  We painted the walls a deep burgundy (colour matched to our dinnerware), closed in the bulkhead, added a custom made bookshelf with accessory lighting,  added custom made trim around the ceiling,  replaced the dishwasher,installed a natural gas range and hung panel drapes.   There's still a few more things to do!

The kitchen was originally painted a cool taupe with deep taupe/almost black tones marble floor, warm oak cabinets and a warm taupe ceramic tile back splash and counter top.  There was the absolutely most disgusting white range hood.  By disgusting I mean so coated with grease there was no way it could be cleaned and copious amounts of cold air came in whenever the wind picked up.  I actually placed a piece of tin foil on the filter to block the cold air from coming in!  Not only that, it didn't match the kitchen and I like things to match not just in one room but throughout the entire house so there are no jarring eye moments.  The colours I picked for this house are white, black, deep burgundy, taupe, olive green, navy blue and lots of wood.  Each room flows into the next with elements of each colour in every room or there will be when I'm finished decorating.  Back to the range hood.

We tend to be very frugal even when it comes to interior decorating so are avid DIYers who are quite willing to wait for a sale.  There are times though that I will change something just because it gets to the point of being an eyesore.  The range hood was that and beyond that.   It wasn't that the range hood didn't match it was the thing was so disgusting not to mention cold air poured down through it so costing us heating dollars, I finally had enough.  So, I took the measurements and as you can see we were restricted in width and depth thanks to the way they installed the tile.  Honestly, we found out really early after moving here the previous owners never thought about anything in the kitchen ever having to replace anything!  I went online to find a range hood, settling on a Broan-NuTone HDN64 series.  It isn't a fancy range hood but it vents outside and matches the kitchen decor and we were restricted as to the size of range hood we could use.  It has a high and low setting for both the fan and light.  I would have liked a slim line range hood but we would have been left with a awkward gap between the tile and range hood. 

It took my husband about 10 minutes to replace the range hood at a total cost of $79.99 CDN.  The installation went smoothly.  The total install will be on my homemaking blog shortly.  We discovered that the baffle was missing on the old range hood.  That's something that should not break so we figure they took the range hood off when installing the ceramic tile and accidentally broke the baffle.  That's why the cold air poured in not to mention allowing heated indoor air to escape. 

Next up on our kitchen upgrades:  We need to fill in the gap left on the floor with replacing the dishwasher.  We found tile in the garage to match so our friend who is doing the custom woodworking in the house is going to cut it for us when he is out finishing the cabinets.  We are going to tone done the yellow in the cabinets to match the new bulkhead.  The stainless steel sink and rip off faucet (rip off because the previous owner took the one we actually saw with the house with them) are being replaced.  The sink will be black but I'm not sure what yet.  The microwave oven is a quandary.  It has all the bells and whistles on it for 1100 W power (bought for $69 at a liquidation centre) and is used at most a couple of times a month.  I'd love to go to an over the range model like we have in our vacation home but my large canner won't fit under it.  My husband wants to replace the ceramic counter top with granite.  At some point in the very near future our kitchen may be finally finished!

My First Recipe Contest

As you know we recently returned from our spring vacation spent at our vacation home in Florida with a side trip to Aruba.  I have so many wonderful foodie things to share with you from that vacation alone.  However, on the home front things are in full gear in the kitchen.  I've been busy taking advantage of a pork loin sale at $1/lb, as well as canning mainly in season fruits and jams.  A couple of days ago, I received an email asking me to participate in the Hidden Valley Ranch™ Recipe Challenge.  I accepted and am pleased to say this is my first official recipe contest!  My acceptance letter read that "you've been selected as one of Canada's top online influencers"!  I am beyond flattered!  What an amazing honour to bestow on this humble blog!  Can you tell from all the exclamation points how extremely excited I am?

I am up against 15 of Canada's top food bloggers!  The recipe will be judged by Chef Ned Bell*.  Three runner ups will receive a $100 gift certificate for Williams Sonoma.  The grand prize is a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and we all know how much I love mine!  Plus Chef Bell will do a live demonstration of the recipe at this year's Calgary Stampede and the winner gets full bragging rights!  I was sent five full sized bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch™ and $100 gift card to help buy the food needed to create a recipe for the contest.  Recipe submission deadline is July 1, 2012.

That means between now and the end of the month I will be working on a recipe hopefully good enough to be in the top four of the contest so I will be posting some of my recipes using Hidden Valley Ranch.  At the same time I will be sprinkling in posts about foods enjoyed during our recent vacation as well as canning since for many, it is the start of canning season.   Watch for exciting things from the kitchen over the next couple of weeks plus my ultimate culinary experience at being invited into the kitchen at Matthew's Beachside Restaurant in Aruba.  Now that was an absolutely amazing experience!

*From my acceptance letter:


Arguably one of Canada’s foremost culinary talents, Ned’s new and imaginative dishes are inspired by fresh and local ingredients. He started his career in Vancouver where we worked as a sous chef at Robert Feenie’s Lumiere. He has since enjoyed successful stints as executive chef at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery, Toronto’s Accolade and Senses Restaurant, Murrieta Grill and Hotel Rosewood Georgia in Vancouver. He is host of The Food Network’s “Cook Like a Chef” as well as Co-Host of CTV’s “Its Just Food”. Ned Bell is currently the executive chef of the Four Seasons in Vancouver and will join the Hidden Valley Ranch team at this year’s Calgary Stampede to ring in the Stampede’s Centennial Anniversary.

National Hunger Awareness Week

Yesterday was the kick-off for National Hunger Awareness Week in Canada.  Canada is a very affluent country, rich in foods it produces.  Yet food insecurity is a growing concern in Canada.  The sad thing is hunger affects children the most and quite often it is hidden.   A number of charitable organizations and service clubs as well as churches are collecting donations for the food banks.  We donate on a regular basis to the food banks and I volunteer for the school's breakfast club three times a week.  This is a nutritional program that gives a child a meal, no questions asked.  The pay is amazing - a smile from a child who had at least one meal that day.  The sad reality is that meal may have to last them until the next morning because there simply is no food at home.

I cannot begin to count the number of hungry kids I have fed over my lifetime.  Anyone who knew our kids knew they could always come to our house for a meal. We've had friends that would always pop in at dinner time simply because they could not afford to feed themselves.  We always make do and know how to stretch a meal so it doesn't look like that's what we've done.   In all honesty, I would be very insulted if anyone ever left our home hungry.  I firmly believe that you can eat well and eat healthy without spending a lot of money.  Sure it might take a little work but it is worth it.  And to those who say they can't grow edible plants for whatever reason they give and believe me I have heard them all I have one word - HOGWASH!

While on the topic of hunger, food banks exist because there is a need.  There are three problems with food banks.  First there is a stigma associated using a food bank.  Some feel ashamed admitting they need a helping hand.  Second, a food bank is a helping hand not a hand up and not a way of life.  We seriously have some using the food bank for food so they can afford cigarettes and alcohol.  That's not what it is for.  As adults you make the choice where to spend your money.  I'm not really hard nosed about this though especially when kids are involved.  They can't help what their parent(s) do and can't control the money but they still need to be fed.  The third problem and biggest one with food banks is those using the services do not know what to do with the food they get.  A lot of the food is what I would consider junk food and they don't get the staples like milk, cheese, or eggs to be able to use the foods they do get.  For example a box of KD is rather useless without milk.  Compounding this problem is they don't know how to cook what they do get or they don't have the equipment to cook what they get.  While cooking dried beans from scratch is a lot cheaper it is of little use if you don't have a pot to cook them in.  I'm just saying...

Cupcakes

I had to slip to the pharmacy today and while waiting to check out my prescription, I spotted the mini Taste of Home Cupcakes & Mini Dessert magazine.  While I don't buy a lot of magazines, I am rather partial to Taste of Home and Cook's Illustrated so occasionally splurge.  We will be doing a bit more entertaining this summer so I'm looking for a few easy but different, easy desserts.  Now everyone loves homemade cupcakes and the ladybug picnic cupcakes on the cover were just so cute, I couldn't resist the magazine.  All of the desserts are individual serving size which will make it quite easy to serve them for summer entertaining.

Cupcakes are so well loved that some brides are serving them instead of wedding cake.  Special cupcake display stands are available at baking supply shops for this very purpose.  Homemade cupcakes were one of the favourite things our kids loved to help make in the kitchen.  Trust me, nothing tastes better than a homemade cupcake decorated by little helping hands!

Homage to the love for cupcakes goes further than that. Just look at these two delicious cupcakes.  To the left is Oreo Cookie and to the right is Pina Colada.  Don't they look scrumptious?  Surprise!  They are not edible but they sure are adorable and they are regular cupcake size.  They are two decorative soaps I bought for the bathroom.  Despite all the cooking I do, there are a fair number of non-edible products that I make as well in the kitchen like homemade soaps, homemade toiletries and candles (beeswax, soy).  When the kids were young I made goop, playdough, cornstarch sand, and oceans in bottles for them to play with in the kitchen while I cooked.  Of course, we made various renditions of the erupting volcano and various school science projects.  Ah, a trip down memory lane...

A Sneak Peek at My New Kitchen Colours

If you recall we moved into this during the first two weeks of September of 2011, taking official legal position as homeowners on September 15.  We really liked the colours but upon closer inspection it was quite obvious every room in the house needed freshening with a new coat of paint.  Part of the reason for this was the previous owners did soddy workmanship with respect to painting and the other being the colours just didn't flow as they should.

When we first moved in the kitchen was a taupe that looked nice but didn't mesh with the taupe in the living/dining area.  There was a awkward space that should have been tiled above the sink but we added a custom made cookbook shelf.  One of our friends is a fine finish carpenter who does amazing work.  He made us custom drink tables for the games room (will post more on this) and is doing a lot of custom work in our home.

The walls were a taupe that while it looked nice just didn't make the kitchen pop the way it should.  There was an open bulkhead that I considered putting items on for storage but having gone that route in our fourth house wasn't to anxious to repeat the cluttered look.  What I really wanted was something to accent the beautiful marble tile floor in the kitchen.

I went onto the Behr website and chose all my colours based on co-ordinating colours to match the colour I had chose for the master bedroom.  Home Hardware can colour match most manufacturer's colours.   I had a cranberry red chose for the office but my husband said it would look really good in the kitchen.  So off to Home Hardware where they didn't have the code to mix that paint.  I came back home to get the code for the next red but when driving back it hit me the red was too purplish so I headed back home and grabbed a dinner plate.  The kitchen is now custom matched to our main dinnerware.

This was absolutely the most difficult paint I have ever worked with and that is just after painting the main bathroom using the same brand of paint.  The difference was the bathroom paint (Hazelnut Cream) was a white base while the custom red was a clear base.  At any rate after three coats of paint the kitchen eating nook looks rather spiffy.  I just can't help but smile every time I go into the kitchen!

The covering for the exhaust fan literally disintegrated when I accidently bumped it while paint.  Our friend came to my rescue!  He suggested building in the bulkhead that will eliminate a major dust trap in the kitchen.  He is also making custom crown trim.  The look of the kitchen is going to change dramatically with this addition.  I will post pictures once it is finished.

We still have to change out the sink and exhaust fans as well as trim up the new dishwasher but other than that I am very pleased with how things are progressing.  While waiting for him to do the finish work, I moved onto the guest room that is now sporting a beautiful new look (Seal) .  That is three rooms painted in the last two and a half weeks along with custom carpentry finished in the main bathroom.  The crowning touch though is the beautiful, rich and vibrant red in my kitchen!  Oh, and I did find yarn that matches the kitchen almost identical for a new afghan in the livingroom to tie the colours in.  What do you think?

A Sneak Peak at My New Kitchen

We have been essentially living between two houses for the past fourteen days.  Today is the last day of ownership of our old house so basically the only thing left to do there is remove the last of the boxes and vacuum.  We signed all the papers yesterday and gave our lawyer the key so tomorrow we officially own our new house!  Here's a sneak peak at my new kitchen. 

There is a large raised deck off the kitchen.  Out of sight to the left is a spacious area for our outdoor dining area.  There is a gate at the top of the stairs that will be quite helpful in keeping the grandkids safe and sound.  We have a second, smaller deck on one side of the pool that we don't intend on putting an eating area on.  The new dual fuel (charcoal/propane) grill sat in the box in the intended spot for the first week.  We could not get it put together due to daily rain, rather heavy at times.  Then we finally had a break in the weather so my husband started putting it together but about half-way through it rained again.  Thankfully the next day was clear enough he was able to finish the assembly.  We grill pork loin chops on it that night (more on that later). 

We decided on a stand alone breakfast bar.  Originally it came with the two bar stools.  I ordered two more that currently at the furniture shop waiting for us to pick up.  I hung one of the paintings from our collection of original paintings from a local artist.  His work is amazing!  The beautiful, realistic, mesmerizing landscapes draw you into them.  We have four of them at home each bought when we moved into a new house.  We never bought one or even hung the ones we had at our last house, perhaps an premonition neither of us bonded to the house.

The stainless steel kitchen cart is temporarily in the kitchen.  I really like it as the cart holds a lot of stuff but both of us agree the cart does not really suit the kitchen so we will likely move it down into the games room.  We are debating adding a base cabinet to match our cabinets tiled on top to use as a side server but may just buy a server.  That's up in the air.

The long branch of the counter has double sinks, dishwasher, stove and microwave.  It will see the most changes in the kitchen.  I'm not sure whether or not I will be putting anything above the cabinets so that is just temporary.  We are putting in a garburator on one of the sinks.  The existing dilapidated White-Westinghouse dishwasher has already been replaced with an energy efficient Whirlpool Gold Quiet Partner (model# GU2475XTVB1).  The new Whirlpool Gold free-standing gas range (model# GFG461LVB) blocked part of the patio doors to the deck since Sep. 2 but was fully installed this morning.  The dishwasher was a royal pain to replace and the range was a very tight fit but things look rather good now.  Obviously the previous owners did not consider that appliance need to be changed out from time to time!  The floor is marble tiled.

I really didn't like the gold knobs on the cabinets so have replaced them with smoked mirror finished knobs.  The range hood needs to be replaced.  The microwave oven doesn't match so one of our kids offered to trade their black one for our white one.  The walk-in 10' x 11' pantry holding freezers, small appliances, food and other culinary equipment is downstairs so I'm getting my exercise!  A friend of ours is custom making a shelf with lighting to run just above where the tile ends in the centre of the cabinets.  It will be used for cookbooks, something I will very much appreciate.

The short side of the cabinets ends at the refrigerator (Maytag 26 cu. ft, model# MZD2666KEB).  There is the entrance from the dining and living room to the kitchen to the left of the fridge.  The refrigerator was left with the house as part of the real estate deal.  It is only a couple of years old and still had the protective plastic on the controls.

Originally we wanted to take out part of this wall to create an open concept dining/living room with kitchen and breakfast bar but it is a load bearing wall and it would involve a massive amount of work.  Besides I love the marble tiled floor so don't want to damage it.  We are considering turning part of the deck into a three season room but haven't made any definite plans.

In total there are three dining areas in the house - the dining room that is open to the living room, the breakfast bar and the deck for a total seating for 15.  We have further seating for 30 in the games room on the lower level as well as our full sized, white Whirlpool side-by-side from the old house.  So it will be a wonderful home for entertaining with the first larger event this weekend.  I have a lot to do to get ready for that!  I hope you like my new kitchen and enjoy the foods I prepare in it.

An Update - My Husband and Food

It is not very often over the life of this blog that I have made a simple update post.  I apologize for the messed up posting recently.  If you have been following this blog you will know that for the last week of May and all of June we have be dealing with my husband's health problems.  There are still some unknowns and still more tests but what we did discover is he is officially diagnosed as impaired glucose tolerance aka pre-diabetic.  I grew up with my Mom having Type 2 Diabetes so have always been very concerned about developing diabetes which is reflected in our diet.  Now the good news is we have a very healthy diet that avoids artificial anything including sweeteners, food preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, fast foods AND desserts are not a normal part of our daily diet.  About 90% of our meals are made from scratch using whole ingredients.  So in terms of diet there will be little adjustment.  What it will mean is:

• regular  meals no further than six hours apart
• portion control 
• regular exercise

All of these will be a challenge because even though  we eat healthy foods, we tend to not pay attention to portion control.  And lets face it we are getting up there in age so exercise is not all that appealing and neither of us do breakfast unless traveling.  Watch for a few more health conscious meals on this blog.  Now we are still dealing with a few other other unknowns that we don't think is diet related but in all honesty all health is related to diet somehow.  I really think that many fail to realize that if they eat a cheap diet of processed foods they will at sometime pay for it with their health.  There are high blood pressure problems and trust me that is not related to dietary sodium intake.  I home can and cook without adding salt and salt is seldom on the table so I know we eat low sodium.  There is the issue of unexplained edema and we still don't know what the recent batch of medical tests uncovered.  At the moment, my primary goal is to serve healthy, homemade meals as always.

Having dealt with diabetes for so many years I know how deal with this.  I think with portion control and exercise his blood sugar will return to normal.  I heard of a recent study where Type 2 diabetes can be cured by going on a starvation diet (600 calories per day) for two months.  Six hundred calories is the minimum needed to sustain bodily functions and nothing more.  Being educated in the medical sciences, I do not think this is a good idea as a starvation diet could cause other problems but it is something I will be keeping a close eye on.  Should we decided to try this diet, I will be posting more about the method, meals and the results.

My Apologies

About mid-morning I realized I had not made a blog post.  That really wasn't so bad as I reasoned that posting before lunchtime would still work.  I did have a specific recipe in mind too.  Then the weather got in the way.  I took a couple of steaks from the freezer for dinner then headed outside for a few minutes.  It was absolutely gorgeous outside so I decided to do a bit of yard work.  That turned into cutting the grass (all of it) then playing with the pressure washer (gosh, my windows are sparkling) followed by a quick bath only to realize I still had not posted.  The thing is anyone who has followed this blog has seen on multiple occasions how we grill steak.  The intended recipe with ingredients is still sitting on the counter so I will post that later this week.  In the meantime, I do apologize for not having a new and wonderful culinary dish today.

On another culinary note, oh my gosh would I ever love to have been a fly on the wall of the royal wedding feast!  I heard nothing as to her cake or dinner plans.  I would just love to know what they served right down to the last detail.  I mean every last detail...

Nami Coated Baking Dish Test

My husband is every bit the foodie that I am so that makes things a bit interesting around here.  He is just as likely to spot a new kitchen gadget or bring home a new kitchen item as I am.  What I find most interesting about this is neither of us are into gimmicky kitchen items.  The things we buy for the kitchen tend to fit specific and mainly utilitarian needs.  This is a good thing because it helps to keep kitchen clutter to a minimum.  A few years ago when silicone bakeware became the range I bought 2 pieces, a loaf pan and a round cake pan.  It immediately became apparent that a baking sheet was needed in order to use either.  Still I was not head over hills in love with the silicone bakeware.  I later added a silicone muffin pan with rack.  The rack stabilized the muffin pan eliminating the need for using a baking sheet.  Then I discovered silicone baking sheets.  My first one was from Canadian Tire.  It was a bright neon green and stained horribly the first use.  I had better luck with Silpat® silicone baking sheets that so far haven't stained.  Well, my husband spotted a non-stick glass baking dish when we were grocery shopping so we bought it ($14.99).

I wrote a longer article about this baking dish on my homemaking blog.  The Nami coating is silicon-based, environmentally friendly and has anti-bacterial properties.  The coating give a frosted appearance to the glass.  The downside is the baking dish has to be hand washed and metal utensils will scratch the coating affecting the appearance but not performance of the dish.  I decided to test this baking dish with homemade shake & bake chicken. I normally cook the coated chicken on a silicone baking sheet in a sided metal baking sheet. The chicken is precisely what caused the horrible staining on my first silicone baking sheet so I thought it would be a good test as to this baking dish performance. 

I coated the chicken as per normal then placed the pieces into the baking pan.  Unlike using the Silpat® where the juices from the chicken get in between the baking sheet and silicone sheet the juices stayed in the baking dish.  The juices were very much like au jus so my husband used this on his baked potato.  As far as performance this non-stick glass baking dish gets two thumbs up.  It gives the best of silicone without the downsides of silicone bakeware.  Clean-up was actually less of a mess than using the Silpat® lined baking sheet.  Unlike regular glass bakeware this baking dish required only a light scrapping with a spatula then washing in hot, soapy water with no soaking at all!  There was no discolouration of the coating either.  The next test for this baking dish will be scalloped potatoes.  Anytime I make scalloped potatoes the baking dish has to be soaked before washing so this will be another good test.  I'll report back on the results.

Our Vacation Home Kitchen

Over the next few days I will be sharing some of the great foods we ate while recently on vacation.  This was a bit of a different vacation for us because we were setting up our vacation home.  That meant buying everything needed in a kitchen for home cooking.  While we were on vacation and wanted to eat out we also wanted to experiment cooking at home as well.  This differed from our normal vacations where we are forced to eat out the entire trip.  Don't get me wrong as we really do enjoy eating out and discovering new foods but as foodies doing a bit of home cooking is always welcomed!

Our vacation home is a manufactured home in a gated community located in the southern USA.  This presents the problem of us not being able to bring certain food products that we are used to using into the US either due to Custom's regulations or logistics (especially when flying) and visa versa .  Driving gives us more leeway as to what we can take but the drive itself is long, costing us about 2 days in travel time.  At the same time relying on local foods in our new home away from home gives us an amazing opportunity to explore new foods!

The kitchen is spacious but compact.  The appliances are Maytag and include refrigerator, self cleaning range, microwave oven and dishwasher.  To the right of the refrigerator there is a small counter then door leading to the laundry room.  The patio leads to the only access to the lanai (screened in porch).  The kitchen opens onto the family room.  It is actually a bit larger than my current home kitchen (move still in progress).  It is amazing light, bright and airy so I know I will enjoy cooking in it.

As far as the colour them for the house goes I think we really lucked out!  Most of the colours are the same as our permanent home except the valances highlight hunter green rather than navy blue so anything I bring from home will match right in.  The former owner left the dinette, patio furniture, tv/stand, family room furniture, one bed and a bedroom set.  When we arrived we quickly realized a shopping trip was in order as we didn't even have a glass!  We had been up well over 24 hours and were exhausted from entertaining the night we left so shopping was not a real welcomed idea but it was one we could not put off.

We hit the clubhouse for lunch then headed out to do a bit of shopping.  We picked up cleaning supplies, a lot of kitchen essentials and enough groceries to make coffee and breakfast the following morning.  Breakfast was a simple coffee, eggs, toast and ham steak.

We bought a drip coffee maker which gave noticeably different results from our accustomed percolator so will be buying a percolator our next trip.  We bought a set of non-stick Wearever pots and pans.  If we were going to be the only ones using this house I would have went with stainless steel but we intend to rent the house out from January through March or April so I'm taking that into consideration when making our purchases.

The non-stick flat pan did a reasonable job of cooking the ham steak.  Ham steaks are generally inexpensive coming in around the $4 mark that is enough meat for 4 adults.  They can be used as the meat component for any meal.  We like ham steaks for breakfast or dinner either pan fried or grilled.  This ham steak had the bone in but some have the bone out.  We fried the ham steak in a little butter turning just as it started caramelizing.  It was a simple meal to start our new kitchen in our vacation home.

Happy 101 Blog Award

I would like to thank Chey from Chey Can Cook for awarding me with the Happy 101 Blog Award. Chey is a wonderful blogger and valuable contributor to this blog. Not only does she follow this blog she is a regular commentator for which I am very thankful. Please take a moment to stop by and say hi to Chey. I'm sure you will enjoy her blog as much as I do. Thanks so much Chey for passing this award on to me. It is greatly appreciated!

The rule for accepting this award is to list 10 things that make you happy, then pass it onto 10 other bloggers.

Oh gosh, listing only 10 things that makes me happy is really difficult because there are so many things to choose from. Here is my list of 10 things that make me happy.

1. being with my husband who is my best friend
   
2. being with my family and friends
   
3. grandbaby hugs with butterfly kisses
   
4. cooking with good ingredients
5. quiet, reflective time
6. watching wildlife
7. sunsets or sunrises
8. a full moon
9. kodak colour dreams
10. blogging

I would like to pass on the Happy 101 Blog Award to the following deserving recipients:

1. Top Ten Blog Tips
2. 3 Sides of Crazy
3. Cannine Jars Etc.
4. Crazy Lady's Cookbook
5. Everyday Living
6. A Year on the Grill
7. Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink
8. Lola's Victory Garden
9. Smoky Mountain Café
10. Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Fond Kitchen Memories

I close my eyes and can recall in vivid detail every kitchen we have had since being newlyweds. That's no small feat considering including this kitchen and not including the RV kitchen the count is 15. I can easily tell stories about each kitchen as well. Our first kitchen was a very small kitchenette suitable for boiling water and making toast. Our second kitchen was a small eat in with my signature dish being a hamburg based casserole. I discovered my new husband did not like peas as he picked out every pea from that casserole. Our third kitchen, a small U-shape apartment kitchen, was where I learned to make chili and almost gave up after a small flash fire. It's where I perfected our Sunday dinner of shake & bake chicken, mashed potatoes and frozen corn. An elderly neighbour gave us cherries so I learned to make cherry pies aka cherry soup. Our first baby survived my adventures in making baby food in that kitchen where I learned that babies turn into green volcanos if fed blended up brussel sprouts. Our fourth kitchen was a small apartment kitchen with cream walls that we added two huge racing stripes in bright orange and brown. It was a rather daring look, quite uncharacteristic for us and something we have never attempted again. A lot of good food came out of that kitchen. The fifth kitchen was a big farm kitchen with little counter space, crooked floor and my very own wringer washer that seemed to go all the time for diapers. Our sixth kitchen signified our coming of age with a spiffy new microwave oven. The kitchen was a pale green somewhat fitting to how we felt after eating my first attempt at duck al orange.

Then we made the big move across a few provinces to the seventh kitchen. It was the official cookie kitchen with a seemingly endless plate of cookies always on the counter. Our kids played with the neighbour kids in the adjoining dining area while the neighbourhood women and I enjoyed endless pots of coffee during the morning. Our eighth kitchen was a small apartment kitchen for only a couple of months. I was expecting so we did a lot of home cooking and a fair amount of entertaining. The kitchen was always busy.

Making our way back to our home province our nineth kitchen was a small apartment kitchen, a temporary one of one month until our tenth kitchen. It was a small eat in kitchen with buit-in appliance and our very first purchased refrigerator. My husband's aunt gave us dozens of ears of corn so we sat on the front porch husking them then my MIL came over to show us how to freeze them. That same year she taught me how to can relish, make spaghetti sauce from scratch and several more of my husband's family favourites. We finially made the leap into home ownership with our eleventh kichen. Joining our very own fridge was a gorgeous circa 1950 about 40-inch stove with warming oven. It was a real beauty! We welcomed our youngest and last child to our family there. The signature dish from that kitchen was quiche and it has remained a family favourite. That kitchen saw a dramatic increase in canning and freezing. We bought an old chest freezer to store our first quarter of cow and have been buying meat that way ever since. We also bought our first dishwasher, a used portable that cost us $50 but with a houseful of kids it was very much appreciated. Our twelveth kitchen was a real beauty. It was a large eat-in kitchen in a turn of the century home we renovated. By renovating I mean renovating - all new electricial, new plumbing, new kitchen, siding, roofing and so much more. That kitchen was the hub of the house. We kept our fridge, replaced the stove with a brand new stove (actually brand new!), added a second freezer and replaced our old freezer with one generously given to us. The kitchen was always filled with our kids and their friends. Opening onto a deck to the pool it was our entertainment area always overflowing with people. During the summer when the pool was open our friends gathered so the kitchen was always busy. During the winter we put in an ice rink and our friend gathered. Shortly after moving into that home we bought a large travel trailer. I discovered the cooking shows which brought about a lot of interesting cooking. The kids did their homework at the kitchen table and after they went to bed I spent many and hour doing my homework. Home cooking was a daily activity and canning as often as possible even though I was a full time student. Between the two kitchens there was a lot of good food, good times and some not so good times but all of them very precious memories. After several years we tired of the turn of the century home aka virtual money pit so moved onto our thirteenth kitchen. It was a smaller L-shaped kitchen where we splurged on ceramic tile flooring. I painted the cupboards white with matching white walls trimmed with a muted pink, blue and silver border. The floor was a mottled blue ceramic and pulled from that was the matching blue for the countertop. It was that house we learned you can indeed paint laminate countertops. That kitchen saw us become empty nesters as well. We began experimenting with more gourmet foods but the staple of the kitchen was always homestyle cooking. Moving to our fourteenth in a cottage turned into year round living on the water allowed us to be whimsical in decor. We painted the kitchen pink! It was during this time that this blog came to be hence the pink that remains part of this blog's design. Onto this our fifteenth kitchen where we have enjoyed doing a small renovation while watching the amazing water view. Despite the small size of this kitchen it is a real workhorse. The focus remains on home style cooking combined with a touch of gourmet experimenting. Such memories are a testimony as to how our kitchen regardless where it has been is the centre and heart of our home. It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for the sixteenth and seventeeth kitchens.

End of an Era

Some of my kitchen appliances have been around for so long that they have become like members of my family. I knew for quite some time or at least suspected my food processor was seeing it's last days. In preparation for this time I bought the slice/shredder attachments for my KitchenAid® stand mixer. Still when I set up the food processor the other day then heard that noise when I turned it on I was a bit shocked. It couldn't be!

Broken

The food processor is at least fifteen years old and it has served me well so I can understand it might be a little bit tired. Still it would have been nice if it had given me a bit of notice before simply failing to shred given I was prepping for our Superbowl Party. No there was just the noise!

Apparently the centre portion of the disk that holds the blades for slicing and dicing broke off (red arrow) meaning the spindle doesn't latch properly. The end result was a lot of noise and not much grating. All is not lost though as the chopping, whipping and blending portion of the food processor still works although likely not for long. It's sad to see an old kitchen friend on its last legs!

Various Shredders

It is funny that I'm sentimental over losing the food processor for grating and slicing. It isn't like I don't have a lot of shredding options ranging from the KitchenAid® attachments (electrical) to several mechanical means of shredding. So I should not be mourning the loss of the food processor for this purpose yet I am. It has been such a faithful, dependable performer in my kitchen. How could it leave me in the lurch like this?

I have not decided whether I will buy another food processor yet. Basically between my stand mixer, blender, knives and shredders there is no real need. I have looked at the KitcheAid® Pro food processor but haven't made a decision yet. I think I will try going without a food processor for a couple of weeks to see if I really miss not having one.

A Look Back At Cooking in 2009

My gosh, looking back at the cooking done in our kitchen in 2009 it is difficult to say where the focus was. Home food preservation was definitely one of the priorities with canning coming out in the lead. There were a lot of interesting foods coming out of the kitchen as well. Not so surprisingly more comfort foods and soups were made somewhat reflective of a year filled with not the best weather and a slower economy. It did become the year of the mixes and I even shared a neat way using a mason jar with your blender when making homemade mixes, sauces and dips. Over all pork was the central meat of the year thanks to the H1N1 misinformation resulting in pork dropping to rock bottom prices. However this year we did a lot more experimenting with wild game such as venison, goose and moose. It also became a year for experimenting with making gourmet tea and coffee drinks at home. One of the most interesting things we did as a couple in the kitchen was hold a contest called He Said/She Said during the month of October. It was a lot of fun!

The biggest change in our kitchen in 2009 was the return of my beloved garden specifically the herb bed. While we only put in two beds rather late along with our container garden is was wonderful being able to go out and pick an abundance of fresh produce minutes before serving. I'm so looking forward to the changes that will come with the garden expansioun this year that will see the growing space more than double!

The second biggest change in our kitchen was my downdraft system was finally hooked up. This is a necessary component to use the indoor grill cartridge on my Jenn-Air® range. We moved here in June of 2007 but plumbing issues quickly overtook our lives. I kid you not after dealing with over 3-inches of water in our house several times, major plumbing reconstuction including digging up lawns to run new lines and using a porta-johnny for a week I hope you understand when I say I really don't want to see my plumber anytime soon! Oh and the plumbing issues were not quick or cheap to fix either but they were quite disruptive. So the downdraft system kept getting pushed back mainly because we had to drill through an 18-inch concrete wall. Since we grill outside year round it just ended up not being a high priority.

During 2009 we continued on our eco-friendly kitchen trend removing as much plasticware and disposable wraps from the kitchen as possible. At the end of 2009 we are about 85% plastic free when it comes to food storage containers. moved away entirely from buying any pre-ground meats other than what comes from our bulk meat purchases. We also returned to making buttermilk, ricotta cheese and sour cream at home to further reduce food containers coming into the house.

Overall 2009 was a wonderful year in our kitchen but 2010 promises to be even better!

Bon Appétit!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

My Christmas Foodie Gifts

I just love gifts that say hey I understand you as a person! To me they speak volumes beyond the gift itself because someone has taken their time, trouble and money to gift me with something they know I will use and cherish. I am extremely fortunate in that the majority of the gifts I receive fall under this category. This Christmas was no different.

How to be a Better Foodie

Well now I didn't know I could be a better foodie but How to be a Better Foodie (ISBN 978-1-84400-641-0) by Sudi Pigott is going to tell me how. Can you think of a better gift for a foodie? According to the title this book offers a glimpse into the rarefied world of the expert gastronome. Oh my! A quick peek through this book promises to be a good read. I'm looking forward to becoming a better foodie in 2010! I promise to share what I learn with you. Many thanks to the gift givers for this wonderful, thoughtful gift.

The Cook's Garden

The same gift givers also gifted me with Canadian Gardening The Cook's Garden (ISBN 1-55278-347-2). This book promises to be a wonderful gardening and cooking resource in a unique presentation! A quick peak through shows various garden fruits and vegetables arranged according to season. Each fruit or vegetable is then discussed in detail with varieties and tips on growing. Following each discussion is several recipes using that fruit or vegetable. The book is "lavisly illustrated with more than 200 colour photographs"! The photographs of fruits, vegetables and recipes are quite stunning. Expect to see more on the recipes on this blog and the gardening aspect on my gardening blog, Garden Gnome Wanderings. Again many thanks for such a wonderful and thoughful gift.

Café Italia Coffee Set

Part of the enjoyment of indulging in espresso, cappuccino, lattes and other specialty tea and coffee drinks is the specialized cups to serve them in. A couple of gift givers gifted me with this adorablecappuccino set. There are 4 porcelain cappuccino cups with saucers, 4 small porcelain spoons and a coffee canister. The cheery deep reds, black and checks fit nicely with the other red accents in my kitchen. I can't wait to enjoy a morning cup of cappuccino in these cute new demitassse cups! Thanks so much to the gift givers of this wonderful present that I will be sure to enjoy for many years to come.