Ten Days...Still Incomplete DIY Kitchen

Distractions like mushrooms, transplants, work and baby chicks aside, our DIY kitchen still isn't completely functional. So much for the ambitious schedule.

But we have been working day in and out. The IKEA cabinet delivery was a disaster but we're working with them to make it right.

We do have double ovens, sink, dishwasher, a vent hood, and many cabinets installed. The newly installed bamboo floor puts our house-original oaks to shame. I painted, some walls twice, and still am not convinced that 'Homey Cream' is the right color.

The cook top comes in Thursday, if all goes as promised. Zinc sheeting is flattening in the basement and ready for building the counter tops.

The poor pets and child are ready for the noise and disruption to be finished. So are Alex and I. We're hosting Easter dinner on Sunday for twelve, so I guess it's time to get back to work!

Ten Days...Still Incomplete DIY Kitchen

Distractions like mushrooms, transplants, work and baby chicks aside, our DIY kitchen still isn't completely functional. So much for the ambitious schedule.

But we have been working day in and out. The IKEA cabinet delivery was a disaster but we're working with them to make it right.

We do have double ovens, sink, dishwasher, a vent hood, and many cabinets installed. The newly installed bamboo floor puts our house-original oaks to shame. I painted, some walls twice, and still am not convinced that 'Homey Cream' is the right color.

The cook top comes in Thursday, if all goes as promised. Zinc sheeting is flattening in the basement and ready for building the counter tops.

The poor pets and child are ready for the noise and disruption to be finished. So are Alex and I. We're hosting Easter dinner on Sunday for twelve, so I guess it's time to get back to work!

BIG Plans {Friday Five}

What's going on behind the computer these days? Planning, saving, measuring, and more planning. In the coming few months, our little homestead will undergo a lot of changes. Here's what's going on:

Kitchen Renovation Underway - When Uncle Leonard, our personal contractor-like friend, suggests moving up the start date for the big gut and replace kitchen project, we had to say yes. Mid-April is now early April, which means supply purchases begin now. In four weeks we will (pending no big surprises) be cooking with gas! Gas! I can't wait to fix our dysfunctional kitchen. I'll share specific plans and our strategy for quick renovations soon.

Mudroom Finishing - Uncle Leonard will tease us endlessly unless we finish the mudroom before he arrives in a few weeks. Afterall, he was instrumental in building it...in July... We'll be drywalling, painting, and adding gutters this weekend. Oh, and clearing out the garage so we have room to store the kitchen supplies as they're purchased

Ponds and Swales - The front plot where we'll plant Swainway Urban Farm produce has some water issues. We debated an agricultural tile system but that seems to be throwing away a potential resource. Instead, we're going to try digging two small ponds with a series of swales to direct and hold water. We will plant the edges in water-loving habitat flowers and grasses.

Move the Chicken Yard - Our chickens need more space to roam further away from the main garden. We're going to give them a big portion of the yard in a shady area that isn't ideal for planting. I think we're finally going to invest in portable electric fencing so that we can change the shape of their yard as other projects reveal themselves.

Low Mow - Alex is thrilled that I want to mow a lot less this year. We'll keep enough grass mowed for kids to run in and baby trees to survive, but we want to let a lot more grow wild. The wild will be managed be seeding flowers and incorporating native transplants. Less fuel wasted, more wildlife habitat, and less work - why didn't we think of this last year?

Of course, we're still seeding greens and roots in the hoop house, potatoes and peas outside, and tending seedlings inside. And celebrating Pi Day. And teaching classes, working with Swainway Urban Farm, and occaisionally tending shop at City Folk's. And making freezer food for the week or so we'll be without a kitchen. Busy days.

What are your BIG Plans?

BIG Plans {Friday Five}

What's going on behind the computer these days? Planning, saving, measuring, and more planning. In the coming few months, our little homestead will undergo a lot of changes. Here's what's going on:

Kitchen Renovation Underway - When Uncle Leonard, our personal contractor-like friend, suggests moving up the start date for the big gut and replace kitchen project, we had to say yes. Mid-April is now early April, which means supply purchases begin now. In four weeks we will (pending no big surprises) be cooking with gas! Gas! I can't wait to fix our dysfunctional kitchen. I'll share specific plans and our strategy for quick renovations soon.

Mudroom Finishing - Uncle Leonard will tease us endlessly unless we finish the mudroom before he arrives in a few weeks. Afterall, he was instrumental in building it...in July... We'll be drywalling, painting, and adding gutters this weekend. Oh, and clearing out the garage so we have room to store the kitchen supplies as they're purchased

Ponds and Swales - The front plot where we'll plant Swainway Urban Farm produce has some water issues. We debated an agricultural tile system but that seems to be throwing away a potential resource. Instead, we're going to try digging two small ponds with a series of swales to direct and hold water. We will plant the edges in water-loving habitat flowers and grasses.

Move the Chicken Yard - Our chickens need more space to roam further away from the main garden. We're going to give them a big portion of the yard in a shady area that isn't ideal for planting. I think we're finally going to invest in portable electric fencing so that we can change the shape of their yard as other projects reveal themselves.

Low Mow - Alex is thrilled that I want to mow a lot less this year. We'll keep enough grass mowed for kids to run in and baby trees to survive, but we want to let a lot more grow wild. The wild will be managed be seeding flowers and incorporating native transplants. Less fuel wasted, more wildlife habitat, and less work - why didn't we think of this last year?

Of course, we're still seeding greens and roots in the hoop house, potatoes and peas outside, and tending seedlings inside. And celebrating Pi Day. And teaching classes, working with Swainway Urban Farm, and occaisionally tending shop at City Folk's. And making freezer food for the week or so we'll be without a kitchen. Busy days.

What are your BIG Plans?

How To Choose A Kitchen Appliance {Sponsored}

We've made no bones about the fact that we strongly dislike our current kitchen. We're slowly planning a complete renovation to make the kitchen more attractive, comfortable, and functional.

Kitchen renovation is nothing new to us - we've done it from the floor up twice before. In fact, if I'm counting correctly, we've purchased six new kitchen appliances in the last ten years and are searching for round three. We loved some of our appliances and quickly found fault with others.

What Makes An Ideal Kitchen Appliance?

1. Efficient Use of Space - In our last house, we bought a refrigerator with a bottom freezer that we placed against a wall. Even with several inches of clearance on the wall side, the cheese drawer could never fully open and we had to stretch to reach the back of some shelves. My parents' fridge, a french door side-by-side, cannot fit a cookie sheet in the freezer. This is a must for us for freezing sausage, berries, and more. Some dishwashers are able to hold many more dishes just by smart design.

The ideal appliance will take every opportunity to maximize usable space. The Electrolux French Door Refrigerator, pictured above, has adjustable shelves that make sense - they allow you to store extra-large platters or tall pitchers easily. In a fridge, space efficiency is especially important as fuller fridges use less energy. Which brings us to...

2. Energy Efficiency - We only buy Energy Star rated appliances, meaning they are 15% minimum more efficient than the bottom-performing appliances. This saves us money in electric and gas bills and protects the environment. Among Energy Star rated appliances, we read the yellow tag to compare energy usage, choosing the lowest possible for our needs.

3. Classic Appearance - We are far from design snobs, but we do appreciate timeless aesthetics. A green glass covered fridge (yep, I actually saw one in a design article) might look cool today but will soon be dated. Smudge-free stainless seems to be an updated classic here to stay. We like clean lines that will be ageless, despite the current trend.

4. Special Features - Alex is a bit of a gadget geek and likes innovative technology. Discerning controls, child proofing features, and professional-level upgrades are hailed as the next great thing. We like to wade past the lingo and find elements that are actually needed and function as intended.

5. Functionality - Finally, and most importantly, an appliance must function as we need it to. Our cooktop has to be able to bring a large pressure canner up to temperature and hold it there. (Ahem, not our current under-powered glass-topped electric.) A good oven heats evenly. The Electrolux French Door Refrigerator has several Perfect Temp features including a drawer with a customizable temperature zone ranging from 28 - 42 degrees and humidity controlled Crisper Drawers. A fridge must keep foods cool but not frozen.

What Do You Look For In A Major Appliance?

Are you pining for a new fridge? Now through August 22, visit www.livelovelux.com and enter the Electrolux Perfect Temp Sweepstakes daily for a chance to win your own Electrolux French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator and a trip to a climate with a perfect temp - the sunny Abaco Islands in The Islands Of The Bahamas. For every entry and share, Electrolux will donate $1 to Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) with the goal of reaching $125,000.

In the meantime, practice for beach-drinking with this recipe for a zephyr.

Summertime Zephyr Serves 1 by Kelly Ripa

"One of my favorite warm-weather beverages is a Summertime Zephyr. The combination of cucumber and mint are the absolute epitome of refreshment.

• Muddle two pieces of cucumber, two sprigs of sage, two sprigs of mint and one sugar cube together • Once all ingredients are muddled, add in one ounce of gin and mix together • Add a few ice cubes and top off with a splash of soda • If I decide to make a pitcher for a larger crew, the versatile Luxury-Design Lift Off Shelves in my Electrolux refrigerator allow me to customize the space so my pitcher has a safe, designated area and the designer LED Lighting provides full visibility, even when the refrigerator is full of other party treats."

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Our Dysfunctional Kitchen {Friday Five}

Live in Columbus and want to see the new place? Come to our open house next Saturday, July 13 from 3-5 pm. More details on the Facebook invite. There's one place in our house that I haven't dared to write about yet - the dysfunctional kitchen. It's an ugly space we use often. The back door to the house, the entrance we use most often, walks right into this room. Each time we host a dinner party or undertake a large preserving project, the 'heart of the home' reveals more design flaws. I could go on for days about what's wrong with our kitchen but I won't bore you with all the details. Instead, in the spirit of Friday Five, here are the basics of what we dislike most:

1) Where's the other half? Our kitchen is spacious but only has counters and cabinets on two of the four walls, which leaves us lacking in storage and working space. We temporarily corrected the issue with a large stainless steel table from a restaurant supply store. But why, when there is a perfectly good dining room just through the doorway, did someone not install cabinets on all four walls?

2) The ugly, ill-installed, tile floor - Tile is an abomination in a working kitchen. The hardness breaks every glass and dish that is dropped. It feels cold and bounces sound. Cold + hard = achy legs when processing a mountain of fruit, stock, or vegetables. Ours happens to have been installed by someone either inexperienced or lazy enough to not fully clean off the grout, so we have swipes of now-hardened grout on top of the tiles that collect mud and look dirty at the drop of a hat. On the upside, despite the five (!) layers of flooring, they all seem to be degraded enough that tearing them out won't be much of a problem.

3) The glass-top electric range - I could write a book about how much I despise electric, glass-topped ranges. Instead, how about if I list the things I could easily cook six months ago but now are either underdone or burnt or both every time I make them: popcorn, quesadillas, pancakes, eggs, bacon, grilled cheese. In what I think is an oft-repeated design flaw, this range has the controls on the back of the unit, requiring the cook to reach across steaming pots of water to turn down the heat.

4) Recirculating exhaust fan - Recirculating exhaust fans, the kind that most kitchens have attached to a microwave or just above the range, are worthless. They do nothing to remove heat or steam or smoke from the area. We'll have to move the range to the other wall to install an outside-venting fan but this is the only way that baking and canning in the summer is bearable to me.

5) The too-shallow sink - Our kitchen has a standard two basin ten-inch deep sink. Our needs, apparently, aren't standard because many of our pots didn't fit under the faucet until we replaced it with this number chosen for height. Our biggest cookie sheet doesn't fit width wise. There are always clean dishes spilling out of the drying basin. Large cuts of meat are nearly impossible to rinse and yes, we're still cure-deep in charcuterie. A deeper sink like my beloved old numerar doesn't take up much more space and is imminently more useful.

I feel a little guilty whining about a kitchen that many people around the world would love to cook in. Truly, we could live with this design and these appliances for many years if we needed to. But my aching legs tell me that if we're going to happily preserve the (hopefully) hundreds of pounds of food that we're growing, we could use an upgrade.

Fortunately we're starting to plan a DIY kitchen renovation. Did you know this blog started out documenting the renovation of our last kitchen? We've actually taken kitchens apart and put them back together in our two previous houses, so we're well aware of the effort the project will require. We'll document the process along the way and ask for your opinions too. Because while we're quick to solve the functional issues, we could use help with the finishes and designer-y options.

What bugs you about your kitchen?

Kitchen Tools You Do NOT Need {Friday Five}

Can I ask a favor? I am a finalist in a food photography contest on Feastie. If you have a second (no registration necessary) can you vote for 'Beach Food in the Bahamas'? I would really appreciate it!

Wanting a distraction from client work and house work, I sat down last night to spend a gift card at Williams Sonoma earned for participating in the Foodie100.

Very quickly I was ranting to Alex about unnecessary kitchen gadgetry. The proliferation of tools that are single use, duplicate a function a simpler tool can perform, or plain don't work is exasperating and not at all limited to Williams Sonoma. It's no wonder people think cooking is difficult when stores sell so many confusing kitchen tools.

That is not to say that our kitchen isn't full of utensils. We own at least a half dozen spatulas for different uses. Our drawers contain several duplicates of tools we use most often. And yes, in the dark bottoms of cabinets you can find a few cutesy or single use tools languishing until I get a chance to donate them to someone who might want them more.

At any rate, here are five of the non-essential tools that caught my wrath:

Vertical chicken rack, i.e. beer can chicken holder - Pssstttt...the beer can will hold the chicken upright just fine! Don't spent $30 (or $175! for a Staub version) on a piece of metal that will just get grossed up with chicken juices!

Flexible silicone spatula in the shape of anything - Star Wars, Cars, Snow White and other characters were not created to be smooshed flat, cut out of silicone and slid under pancakes. You know what they do in protest? Ruin your breakfast.

Mustard scoop - Who has no thumbs and doesn't do a useful thing except clutter up the utensil drawer? <---that guy

Waffle tongs - See above. Who creates these things?!

Measuring spoon that says 'pinch' - Look how cute it is? It says pinch or dash or smidge! Seriously, if a baker can't pinch two fingers together to hold a smidge of this or that, they need help beyond what a set of measuring spoons can offer.

Avocado/watermelon/egg/banana/potato/tomato/jalapeno slicer/knife/cutter - If it is designed to cut one vegetable or fruit in one precise way, great. How many varieties of produce do you buy in a year? How big is your knife block? My guess is those two numbers don't match and a single sharp pairing knife can do the job of all these tools.

I must say that the Williams Sonoma catalog actually made me search a good long while to find all these unnecessary utensils. I enjoy how the site populates recipes that search terms. The list of tools I want to buy (big wire strainer, vegetable/nut hand chopper, le creuset terrine, oversize mortar and pestle, fluted bundt pan, all clad anything, le creuset anything, etc.) is much bigger than the goofy tools.

It's possible that some of you own and use what I consider non-essential. If it works for you - enjoy. But in the interest of simplicity and functionality, I try to fill my drawers with select highly-useful tools and I encourage you to do the same.

What odd tools do you love and use often? What have you seen or been given that are a complete waste of time?

In My Kitchen Cupboards

Friends were recently discussion kitchen cupboards.  A well organized kitchen thrills me, so I offered to photo-document what's going on in my cabinets. When I designed this kitchen in the fall of 2008, I centered my thoughts around working zones and storage. I'm a 'everything in it's place and a place for everything' sorta girl, so I designated space for what we use where we use it.  Primarily I selected IKEA drawers because they keep things organized.

In the photos below, I decided to keep it real and not style a thing.  That means some cupboards are messier than ideal. Here goes:

The sink and dishwasher are in the washing zone along with most of our serving dishes.

The counter on the pass through holds the Kitchen Aid Mixer on top and baking supplies in drawers below.

Surrounding the stove is open storage for pots and pans.

Pantry items and mixed drink supplies are in skinny cabinets along the wall opposite.

Cooking tools and more pantry items are in drawers below.

So there's a quick and dirty tour of my kitchen cupboards!  What's in your kitchen?  If you would like to join the bare-all party, leave a link to a post about your kitchen cupboards or pictures in the comments.