Category: Kitchen

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Free Up Your Counter Space With a Mixer Lift

Guest post by my friend Linda Bradshaw

After watching cooking show after cooking show and seeing all of the fancy gadgets they have, I’ve decided that I would like to find a mixer lift to install in our kitchen. I have one of those high quality Kitchen Aid mixers that I just love. The only thing I don’t love about it is that it takes up a lot of space on my counter. I use it all of the time but I really want a place to put it away and still make it easily accessible.

I’m asking my husband to redo one of the cabinets in the kitchen so that we can install a lift for the mixer so that it can be hidden away and then slide out and up when ever I want to use it. This way I’ll have the best of both worlds and get to use it all of the time and still have the counter space free.

I wish I would have had it earlier this year for all of the holiday baking that I did. It really would have come in handy because I barely had enough room for the mixer because my counters were covered with all of the ingredients and baking pans. I can’t wait to get it and have it installed. Hint, hint, oh husband of mine.

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I Want To Brag A Minute

Okay, I want to brag for a minute or so. I’ve been working really hard to keep my new year’s resolution to work out 3 times a week and so far I’ve been doing great with that. But, That’s not what I want to brag about. I want to brag about the fact that my kitchen has been spotless for the past 12 days.

My sink has been spotless every night before I go to bed and the dishes haven’t piled up because I do a load every night as soon as the dishwasher is full. Then in the morning I empty while I’m making myself coffee so the sink never has a chance to have a dirty dish left in it because the dirty dishes can go straight into the dishwasher as soon as we are done with them.

It has felt absolutely amazing to go to bed and wake up with a clean kitchen. I don’t know what inspired me but I hope that I can continue it because it feel s amazing. I suppose it will just take some discipline and determination to keep going and to not give up.  Why would I want to stop doing something that makes me feel so fantastic?

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Mac & Cheese Makeover

Mac Cheese by jspatchwork
Reproduced under Creative Commons 3.0

Mac & Cheese is a favorite comfort food of many.  I love to eat eat plain with just macaroni and cheese, but I also love to give it a little makeover and change things up a bit.  Just a few additions and you’ll have a new dish to sink your teeth into.

Here are a couple of ways to give your mac & cheese a makeover:

  1. Add some chicken.  You can slice it, dice it, grill, or bake it.  I like to mix in chunks of grilled chicken or serve it in slices along the top of the dish.
  2. Add some broccoli.  I usually steam the broccoli until it is just tender and toss it in with the mac & cheese at the last minute.  I’ve even been known to blanch the broccoli in the same water the macaroni is cooking is in.  I just scoop it out after a minute or soo and let the macaroni continue to cook.  It saves time and an extra pan, and adds a little flavor to the pasta water.
  3. Add some tuna.  I think about 5oz. per cup of mac & cheese is a nice ratio.  It gives a nice protein portion and really fills you up nicely.  It kind of reminds me of a tuna melt sandwich and I love it.
  4. You can really go wild and add some lobster.  It’s nice to go fancy sometimes and add a tasty treat like this.  Trust me, you’ll love it.
  5. Add some pureed winter squash.  You won’t even know it’s there and you’ll be getting loads of added nutrition.  My kids and husband don’t know that I regularly sneak in butternut squash to our mac & cheese.  It’s the perfect color and is nice and creamy.  To make it easy on you try adding a few containers of baby food squash, it’s the same thing and all of the work is done for you.

I hope you’ll try out some of these ways to make over your mac & cheese.  What’s your favorite way to eat macaroni?

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On A Hunt For Organization

This afternoon after I got off work, I planned to meet someone to pick up a baker’s rack that I found online in the classified ads. I’m going to use it in the garage as an extra storage area for the larger boxed items in our pantry. This will make a lot more room in the kitchen and make it possible for me to shop sales more frequently and stock up when there is a really good deal. I got out my notes that had the address scribbled on it  and read the address signs  on the street as I tried to make my way to the correct location.

It took me about fifteen minutes of driving up and down the street before I finally found the place. I eventually gave in and called the guy that I was purchasing the rack from because I was reading every one of the address plaques and couldn’t seem to find it. He came outside and said he was wearing a red shirt. As soon as I saw a man in a red shirt I turned the car around and headed in his direction. No wonder I couldn’t find the place, the address plaque was obscured by a big tree in front of the building. I paid the man, loaded it into the back of my car and came right home.

I’m really excited to have the extra storage and organization space in our garage.  I bet I won’t have any trouble at all filling it up with everything I have planned to buy this weekend to restock the house.

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Kitchen Cabinet Make Over

After spending the weekend organizing my kitchen pantry, the rest of the cabinets seemed jealous and were screaming to be made over too.  I started the same way I did with the pantry by taking everything out.  I found these great wire shelving units that I used to sort out all of our cups, bowls, and plates.  Now when I want a plate I don’t have to dig it out from underneath the bowls.

A handy lid sorter helped to keep all of the lids to my pots and pans in an easily accessible area.  I mounted it to the back of the cabinet door and it didn’t take up any additional space.  Instead of putting all of the baking pans in the cabinet laying flat, I got another sorter from the organizing store that helps me put everything away vertically.  It has a bunch of dividers to put things like cookie sheets and muffin pans in and not have to dig them out from each other.

After organizing my kitchen I’m feeling inspired to tackle other areas of the home.  I don’t want to go overboard but walking into my kitchen now and being able to get anything in a second is a breath of fresh air.  I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.

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Kitchen Pantry Organization

Organizing our kitchen pantry has been a chore I’ve been putting off doing for awhile now.  I hate opening it up and seeing stuff everywhere and not being able to find what I’m looking for.  Here’s my plan to have a headache free pantry.

First, I’m going to start by taking everything out the pantry and sort them items into similar types as I remove them.  This pre-sorting will save me time when i go to put everything back.  Once I have everything out of the way I’ll take the items I have sorted and put them in some type of box or basket.  I haven’t decided if I want to use wicker baskets or plastic boxes to be honest.  Either way the purpose of these bins will be the same.  Each bin will house each category of items.  This will make it easy for me to find items in the pantry and will make putting things away much easier.

I also want to get a few shelving units to organize all of my canned foods and spices.  I’ve seen some really neat can sorters that make it so you can hold up to triple the amount of cans in the same space.  As for my spices, I want to make them all visible so I’m not pulling  five and six bottles out at a time trying to find the right one.  A tiered shelving unit will make them all visible but I’m also concerned about it taking up a bunch of space.  I think I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of unused space underneath the tiered organizer to make getting what I’m searching for not only easier but faster.

Finally I’ll label all of the bins and shelves.  I’m going to use a combination of pictures and words so it helps everyone in the family regardless of reading level.  This will hopefully make unloading groceries and such easier for my husband and kids.  I won’t have to hear, ” Mom where does this go?” or, “Where is the peanut butter?”  Everything will have it’s place and I will be headache free, at least from the pantry that is.

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Homemade Cleaners to the Rescue

So after I realized my bathroom needed some extra cleaning, and I didn’t want to use harsh chemicals I did some research.  I found that I can use white vinegar to clean my bathroom and most any dirty surface.  Mix 1 cup of white vinegar with 1 cup of  water and out it in a spray bottle.  I just put this is an empty spray bottle and will use it to clean my bathroom and kitchen.  It’s supposed to cut through soap scum and hard water deposits, not to mention dirt.  This will be good for the counters and floors.

For tougher areas like the inside of the toilet, I’ll use the vinegar undiluted and straight from the bottle.  I’m also going to soak my shower heads in this to remove all of the gunky build up.  I bet once it’s been soaked for a few hours they fixtures will brand new.