Autumn Kitchen Decor

This is the last room that I decorated for fall, I promise!  I didn't do much, really.  I took these leaves that my Grandma bought me years ago that were never really my taste, but couldn't throw away because they came from my dear, sweet Grandma and spray painted them clean, glossy white.  How is that for one long run-on sentence?  Perhaps it is time for me to go back to school.

Much better, right?  I think Grams would be proud.

 

I placed them around the inside of my china cabinet for a little subtle fall atmosphere.

The little plastic gourds were also a gift from Grandma and painted the same glossy white goodness that makes them much easier on the eyes.

I also switched things up a little bit on top of the cabinet by placing my mini orange trees up there next to my cookbooks.  They were a Pottery Barn winter clearance purchase.  They don't have anything to do with fall, but I like them anyway.  The pots they came in originally were smaller and didn't fit the space, so I placed them in some IKEA pots that I had laying around.  You know, because I can't keep herbs alive in my kitchen, blast it all.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week.  Things have been a little rough around here for a variety of reasons.  The wonderful thing about my life is that I know God has a plan and I trust His plan.  God is good and His blessings are bountiful.

I'm Thinking About Tile

Our kitchen tile currently looks like this.

When we first moved in, the brown tiles were a baby blue color, as were the walls and the counter top.  I cannot even tell you how much we hated that blue.  We repainted, installed the new counter top and sink, but still had those blue tiles.  We weren't sure if we wanted to tackle the tile at that time, so I simply painted over the blue tile with a dark brown color.  I haven't had any problems with the paint and it really doesn't look that bad in the grand scheme of things.  I have seen houses with worse tile than ours.  However, lately I can't stand how it looks.  I have decided that something has to be done.

These pictures are inspiring me right now. 



Via Pinterest

 From this Website

Via Pinterest

From this Website

Via Pinterest

From this Website

I'm not sure how soon this project will be done.  I'm thinking it will be a good one to do during the long winter months we encounter in the Midwest.  We shall see.

Have a great weekend!

Freezing Green Beans

This post might be a little early as far as the time of year, but not by much.  Fresh green beans and other garden produce will be ready for harvest in a few short weeks!  The following pictures are of beans from our garden last summer.  I love having a garden and being able to pick things from it instead of going to a grocery store.  There us something so comforting about knowing exactly where the food came from and how it was grown.

When we harvest our beans, we mainly eat them right away.  However, there comes a time in summer when we've either had our fill after eating them for every meal or we can't just keep up with the bounty!  That's when I freeze them for use in the winter.

To begin, I blanch them in boiling water for three minutes.  That's all it takes!

I then immediately put them into ice cold water to stop the cooking process and help the beans to retain their lovely green color.

I lay them out onto clean kitchen towels to dry.  This process is important!  If you don't dry them thouroughly enough, they may develop a large amount of ice crystals, which could alter the taste.  Believe me, in the dead of winter, you want your beans to taste as fresh as possible!

I then divide them up into quart size freezer bags and label them with the year, just in case they get lost in the depths of our freezer.  :)

That bag on the left doesn't quite have enough, but I added more another time.



These beans are wonderful in soups, stews, or just as a side dish to a meal.  If I didn't have a garden, I would still buy fresh beans from a farmer's market and freeze them.  They just taste so much better!

Blessings on your weekend, friends!

Extra Kitchen Storage

We try to make the most out of the space in our kitchen.  Unfortunately, there isn't much in the line of storage space.  I was browsing Craigslist one night last fall and found a picture of an old "phone stand."  You know, back in the day when people actually had a big ol' phone with an answering machine, phone books, etc. they needed a classy place to hold all of that "stuff."  I'm guessing the man who was selling it had downsized to a cell phone like most people and no longer needed that huge thing to hold his tiny cell.  Well, I saw that ugly old thing and said, "We need that!  For our coffee pots and ugly cookbooks!"  And we bought it.

Wouldn't a couple of Yellow Pages fit so nicely in those cubbies on top?  Not anymore!

I gave it a coat of primer and painted that phone stand a nice, crisp white.

I love you, white paint.  You make just about anything prettier!

Now I use this bad boy as a place to store my cookbooks and our coffee maker.

The pretty cookbooks that get used the most get the prime real estate space on top.

Our espresso makers and coffee press fit nicely inside of this section.

The ugly, awkward cookbooks belong behind this cupboard door.  Sorry, Betty Crocker.  I love your cookbook.  However, the fact that you come in a binder makes it difficult to play nicely with other cookbooks.  Basically, you take up a lot of space.  I also store my Food Network and Cooks' Illustrated magazines in there.

Thanks for selling us your phone stand, sir.  We really appreciate it!  So do our countertops!

Window Box Lettuce

My husband is making me window boxes.  We'll have two in the front of the house and one in the back.  I planted flowers in the liners a couple of weeks ago already so that the flowers wouldn't be delayed.  In my back window box, I planted lettuce.  Weird, I know.  But for some reason I needed to grow pretty and delicious lettuce in that window box.  And do you want to know what is really great?  I can open up my kitchen window and cut myself some lettuce any old time I want to.  (When those window boxes are done, that is).

Here is what I have planted in there:

I snipped off what I needed for dinner,

washed it in very cold water, drained it, and

made some dressing.

I went to the my herb garden and picked three different types of basil.  The purple basil is called "Basil Red Rubin" and the smaller kind on the bottom is from a "Basil Minette" plant. 

I sliced them up real nice.

I also picked two different types of mint:  lemon mint and plain, old ordinary mint.

I sliced them up as well.

I added my herbs to the salad along with some blue cheese.  I drizzled my dressing on top and

voila!  Salad, anyone?

Here is my "recipe" for the dressing.

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best)

a pinch of sugar (or more to taste)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

freshly ground black pepper

Whisk in a bowl or shake in a jar the above ingredients.  Pour over salad and toss to coat just before serving.