Wanta Look Inside?

Carla over at http://halfdozendaily.blog.com/ had a cute post today showing everyone around her kitchen. What the heck why not, it beats weeding the garden until later in the day. Here is our kitchen and breakfast room as you enter from the front hallway. I am thankful that the kitchen is in the back of the house, when it's in use it's not looking so good. The sewing machines along with my work in progress basket pretty much is the center piece these days. I  have a really nice scrap/sewing room but when the little ones are around I don't like to go upstairs, with the machines in the kitchen I can sometimes sneak in a little sewing during nap time

 
 This is the view coming in from the garage door. Years ago it was a typical late 70's early 80's kitchen with a bank of cabinets on the ceiling separating the two room. I took those down and moved them to the laundry room to open up the space, we also added hardwood floors ourselves I might add, before they were ugly vinyl flooring that I couldn't keep clean looking. We also updated the light fixtures to celing fans soon after we moved in. I know that's a big no no in the decorating world but the reality is when your standing over a hot stove or canner all day you need a sturdy celing fan or two or three.

 This was taken from the Dinning room (now the baby room) doorway, it's a nice big working kitchen.

 Now on the the work horse area's of the kitchen, the low wall of bookcases and baskets are toys and books for the Grands. I had thought someday I could use them for surplus supplies in the kitchen but with the reproductive activity around here it may always be for toys. I'm cool with that I don't need to be buying any more kitchen gadgets!! The Grands bring more smiles to the kitchen than anything Williams and Sonoma has to offer.

 This stove is my pride and joy. For our first 33 or 34 years of marriage I got by with the typical cheapo single oven stove with 4 burners that would catch fire because I hated to clean the burner trays, why clean them when they cost no more that maybe $3.00 each. I would change them out when they got to the point of being too big of a fire hazard. A couple of years back I saved and saved to finally have a double oven and stove with 5 burners. The only draw back of the stove is it has a glass surface, no pressure canning for me with this stove. I know some ladies do it anyway but stove explosions and that sort of thing is not my cup of tea, it's just living to close to the edge for me.

 Way back when I had visions of this cute bakers rack lined with cookbooks and maybe a few home baked goods on top. Over the years it has turned into just another storage area for appliances. I do have a few cookbooks on the bottom shelf (more on my bedside table) But it is mainly for things I use all the time but don't want buggering up the counters. Faves of mine are the electric wheat mill, crock pot and stainless steel colanders, Hubbies is his fancy dancy ice cream machine. The top blue/green box on the top shelf far right is my Grandmothers food/meat grinder. I have no idea how old it is, she would be 119 if she was still with us. I have something of hers in every room of our house execpt the bathrooms, that would just be gross. See the small 1 gallon crock on the shelf and the 5 gallon crock on the floor? They aren't decorations, I use them for sauerkraut and salt brine pickles. When they are in use I have them on the kitchen counter, left on the floor they would be full of teething rings and match box cars along with a few dust bunnies.

 Here is a little fixer upper I did some years back when I got in one of my organizational moods. Stainless steel pull out racks!! LOVE them. They cost more than I expected, we have 9 lower cabinets each needed two drawers but as the ageing process continues they are a back and knee saver. I just purchased them a few at a time on payday's.

 Did you think I cleaned up the kitchen for this post? Na, the kitchen stays pretty clean unless I am in there working some magic. See the dirty dishes in the sink and okra waiting for me to can, told you I didn't clean up first. The drying rack (on the left) for bottles is a life saver I couldn't live without when the little girls are around. There is a cute little organization center next to it that stays full until things start spilling out and I clean it up. On the right side is my compost bucket for everyday stuff, when I can or dehydrate it takes a huge bowl to hold it all, sometimes two bowls. Summer window treatments are always a window full of tomatoes waiting to be canned or turned into Mater sandwiches (tomato sandwiches if your not from the south) The large grey thing outside that show's through the window is our hot tub, in the summer its our swimming pool for the grands and a good place to cool off when this Nanny can't take the heat anymore.

 This is our everyday pantry, I buy many things in bulk that's what the top shelf containers are for, keeps everything fresh and bugs out! The 3rd shelf down is dehydrated foods. I use them all of the time and continue to add to them over the summer and fall. Any excess dehydrated food is vacuumed sealed and stored in a 20 gallon container to replenish the pantry jars with, yes I have a 20 gallon container almost full this year! On the bottom shelf  far to the right is our white wheat berries, the can will hold 5 pounds which will last maybe a week or a week and a half. The bulk berries come in 45 pound buckets sealed in mylar bags, I add a Gamma lid to the buckets so its is easier to refill the pantry can each week or so.

 Our pantry should be a walk in deal but I needed more storage space so I added an additional shelving unit. My go to frying pans hang on the wall, it makes them easy to get to (has nothing to do with the fact the cabinets are overflowing with more pots and pans) The blue container on the floor is AJ the beagles food, it's really a storage container for charcoal but it works great. AJ doesn't seem to get into the cute factor much she just wants to be feed good food and often.

 Our laundry room is sorta an extension of the kitchen, thankfully with a door that says closed most of the time!! No way no how an I going to take photo's in here today, it really is messy but I had to get a picture of the two tools that are in everyday use over the growing season. The Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator along with my canning pot. The dehydrator lives in the laundry room during season unless I have stinky stuff to do I move it to the garage, learned that lesson the hard way. NEVER dehydrate 9 trays of garlic in your house!!

Here are two of my favorite kitchen helpers, Kara and Karsyn. Karsyn is a climber, she loves to climb anything and everything, climbing in the cabinets is an all time favorite. Kara has an obsession with doors right now, open and shut open and shut all day long. Shutting Karsyn up in the cabinets seems to be another obsession.
So there you have it, our favorite place to hang out, the kitchen. If you send me a link of your own kitchen I will post it here to share with other readers. I think taking a peek into real kitchens has much more appeal than the glossy magazine spreads that nobody has ever worked in or the open house model home kitchens that a decorator has staged. I am off to the kitchen to fix my dinner then on to the relentless garden. CRAP, spell check is down, sorry about that