Kitchen Reno - Before and During

Here I'm letting it all hang out. Here is my kitchen when we purchased the house. The next two pictures are photos taken three days ago. We are repurposing and finding materials. Habitat for Humanity Restore has been a great financial blessing (albeit an extra challenge for size and type).

We purchased two used kitchen cabinets that Pete will be resurfacing the drawers and adding doors. It has been fun to see how Pete and I work together. The last picture is showing the current "functional" cleanish kitchen as it is right now. It is quite a project and we would happily appreciate prayers for all the come together.




After the cabinets are created we plan to ceramic tile the top. This will likely be a fairly long process. And I'm already tired. LOL. I'll keep you posted!

Rice and Easy

I know I twittered that I was sharing sour cream. When I "tweeted" that, I did not realize that we would be without a working dishwasher for over two weeks! As I mentioned before, our new house is great but the one major area that is not updated is the kitchen.

For a lady who is passionate about natural cooking (that would be me), it has been challenging to have my kitchen discombobulated. My wonderful husband has worked on the old dishwasher, installed a free dishwasher from my uncle (which ended up not working), and now finally in the process of installing a new dishwasher. Yay!

So I wanted to share a little idea that seems to make our lives a little easier. We eat brown rice as our primary carb with meals. Okay - one hour is not that big a deal most weeks to cook some. However - I have been very oriented toward "easy" as we moved, traveled and have general chaos in our world.

So I made a big pot of brown rice then dished it out into muffin tins (no teflon - just a little olive oil to keep it from sticking). I froze it, then popped it out, lined zip bags with wax paper and stored in the freezer.

It can be heated directly or tossed into a pot of broth with some chicken and yeehaw - a meal :-)
I'll get back to the sour cream soon - I will do my best!

As promised... Homemade Yogurt

My main guide for making yogurt is one I I found on ehow. But I thought I would share my version and some pictures.

• milk 
• yogurt (yes, it takes yogurt to make yogurt - unflavored with active cultures - Stoneyfield is my favorite to use as a starter yogurt)
• thermometer - The temperature of the milk is very important (learned that the hard way). I have used a meat thermometer, but we now have a real candy thermometer.
• whisk - Getting the "already yogurt" to mix well into the "becoming yogurt" is also very important (another hard way lesson).
• a pot to heat it in (narrow at the base ideally)

This is how I do it:

1. Measure the milk into a quart jar. I fill it a little less than the full jar so there's room for the yogurt & milk together when you go to let it "process." I usually leave about two inches gap.





2. Get your pot and heat the milk to 110 degrees F. I usually tilt the pot to submerge the bottom of the thermometer to get a more accurate reading. I also keep swirling the milk around with a whisk to get a good reading too.

3. Once the milk hits 110 degrees, remove from the heat and whisk in about 1/3 cup of yogurt immediately. Then I pour it back into the jar.













4. Set the yogurt in a warm place (110 degrees) for about 8 to 10 hours. My yogurt mentor, Susan, has said that the longer you leave it, the more tart it becomes. My family likes it about the 10 hour mark. I make it before I go to bed while I'm still cleaning up. Then the next morning, while I'm making breakfast I remember that I left it and then put it into the fridge.

As far as leaving the "milk becoming yogurt" in a warm place.... My yogurt mentor places hers in the oven with the light on all night. I've heard you can use heating pads or a crockpot. I just happen to have two different yogurt making things.

I bought the Salton 1-quart yogurt maker from Amazon about a year ago and paid maybe $25 to $30 including shipping. They currently have this listed for almost $200! -which is absolutely insane. I picked up a single serving yogurt maker which is sort of an older version of this one. It was $5 -sweet!

We are plain yogurt people. We just keep blueberries in the fridge and add as we serve. I also like mine with toasted oat and a little honey. But I'm trying to lay off the honey. So happy yogurt making! I'm off the pack up my house!

Homeowners! (and a peek)

Today we signed and or initialed roughly 50 sheets of paper. It was very pleasant all around. Our lawyer was great. He said that "happy closings" are rare - usually one or both parties feel like they're getting the shaft. We had the crazy notion that we should pay a fair price, the portion of closing costs that we committed to and be flexible about the rest. The "sellers" are not just a line on a form. They are people. They have their own family's needs to consider. I'm just very grateful that they are not only "sellers" but our friends.

So as I ponder creating my home, there are several things we want to do. Most of the house is in excellent shape. Mostly we are looking at wall color changes, etc. I'll be sharing before and after pictures of each room as we "make it our own." The one room that we want to update is the kitchen. We won't be in the house for another 10 days, but I thought I would give you a peek at the kitchen as it is now.

This is one corner - looking up and then looking down towards the floor. I am considering just painting the stove vent for temporary appearance improvement. At some point we may replace it but given the thousands of dollars out of our bank account - it is not high on our priority list. A can of Olympic zero VOC paint in an almond or sage is cheap enough and will really make the kitchen feel like mine. Any natural, fugal ideas?