Beauty for your Kitchen

In the kitchen I love natural materials that contrast highly with stainless steel.  Our kitchen is modern meets rustic, and that is the way I like it.  Heavy wood goes well with the modern stainless appliances that grace our cozy kitchen.  I like the JK Adams cutting boards for their deep rich wood.  There are a variety of styles to fit any decorating needs.  They look great, and are functional, what could be better than that. My pots and pans would look great dangling from JK Adams pot rack, but unfortunately I don't have enough room for that.  There are many things that I have found on the JK Adams web page that are calling my name, it is just nice to have such beauty in the kitchen.  While I stand around making dinner after dinner I like to have some nice pieces to look at.  Makes me want to stay home and make great food.  Nothing goes better with great food, than great wine.  A JK Adams wine rack is the perfect storage set up for those precious bottles.  From big to small, floor or hanging you can find something to capture your eye!  Keep cooking, eating and drinking!

Are you a Pastry Chef?

I am not a pastry chef, but I do love fresh made cheese danish. I wanted to try and make a few of these for a fun breakfast treat. I searched the Internet and found and easy to do recipe for great tasting cheese danish. Much to my surprise, with the help of some frozen pastry dough, they were really simple to make. The name says it all Easy Cheese Danish recipe.



I picked up the needed supplies at the store on Friday so that we could have just out of the oven delights on Saturday.
I followed the recipe as written on the food network, but I did put the cheese filling in the frig for about 20 minutes since I forgot to thaw the pastry dough. Once the dough was warm enough to unfold, I continued with the recipe as written. I cut the dough into quarters and filled like this.




By this time I was getting too hungry. I skipped the step that says chill for 20 minutes once the pastry is filled. I just could not wait any longer. So into the oven went the pan, and 20 minutes later I had warm cheese danish. I added a little icing just like my favorite bakery. It is just a quarter cup of confectioners' sugar and a teaspoon of water, but it is so so good.
For a twist you can add a little jam just before baking, and that would be really great too! Next time I will give that a try.

Storing Precious Goods

Moving from a house with a large kitchen, to one that is smaller is always hard. Storage space is at a premium. We have a ton of glasses that need a safe place for storage. I think that a wine glass rack would be the perfect solution. The precious glasses need a hanging wine rack that keeps them off the counter! That way they look nice hanging below the cabinet that stores the wine! Important to have them close to each other I think.

I think I could get a few bar glass racks to store all of my thrift store finds. I have to get creative about my kitchen storage, and I think these glass racks would be the perfect solution.

Replacing Kitchen Essentials

Having unpacked about 19 kitchen boxes in our move I realized that I have enough dinnerware to have dinner for 50 or so people. The plates that I have range from old fiestaware to new plates from Crate and Barrel. I thought I had everything one would need for the kitchen, but it turns out that sometimes those things need replacing. One of the items that sorely needs to go is the blender. We were told in no uncertain terms that our blender is junk. After trying to prepare several appetizers in it for a party for 50 people, we realized it was true! The blender is on the list of things to buy.
The food processor is another item that is essential for the kitchen, and we seem to be without! They make the prep work a breeze when preparing a gourmet meal. Perhaps that will go on to the buying list as well. I love being able to shop and compare online. You get such a better selection and all of your questions can be answered quickly. Shopping smarter!

One item that I would never get rid of is my kitchen aide stand mixer which is still in perfect health thankfully. I use it for pretty much everything. If it ever dies it will be on the replace list too!

The "to buy" list is short, but today we are going to look at a bookcase at the antique shop to house all my favorite cookbooks. I have so many, and I would love for them to be close by so that I can just grab it and get those pots and pans flying!
Cooking is so fun, when you have the right tools and a wonderful recipe! Enjoy your kitchen!

Can Silver be Green?

I just got back from the grocery store. I have been putting off the purchase of tin foil, for many weeks. We always try to reuse the foil if it was just used to cover something, but we were out. I don't use it too often, but sometimes I do need it. I was down aisle 10 looking at the hundreds of boxes of aluminum foil, when one boxed jumped out at me. It was not the regular blue and silver, this box was special, it was GREEN. It was Reynold's Wrap 100% recycled foil. I read the box and not only is the foil made from recycled aluminum, but the box, and the interior cardboard roll were also made from recycled materials! How great is that! I went to the website when I returned home, and got the full scoop on this great new product! The foil feels and looks just like the non-recycled foil, I will put it to the test soon, and I will have an update! I figure, if I am going to use this type of thing in the kitchen, it might as well be as green as can be! This is the silver lining I have been waiting for! Thank you Reynold's Wrap for making our kitchen a little more green.