Project 52: the kitchen!

My life as a mom revolves around taking care of Jude, but where we live cooking is a necessity. There is no take out, only one decent restaurant 30 minutes away, and the only frozen dinners are the ones I made last week and stuck in the deep freeze! Before we moved here I thought I liked "cooking from scratch", but my knowledge of such was limited to desserts. As it turns out you can make all manner of breads [pita, french, tortillas, hamburger buns-though that one eludes me still] and other basics [chicken stock, crackers, bread crumbs, caramel sauce, ricotta cheese, sour cream...] completely from scratch, and we do! I'm so glad to have a husband who LOVES to cook! I now know that if it involves anything from a can, and you didn't have to make at least one of the ingredients a day in advance then it's not really "from scratch". Ok, that's an exaggeration. And, honestly, I really love that I've been put in a position to try all sorts of recipes I never would have in America. It's exciting when you make a cracker that really tastes like a Ritz, or you get one of the pitas to properly puff up in the oven. I know more about cooking than I ever dreamed and I bet, one day, after we've lived in the States again for a while, I'll find myself returning to some of my favorite from scratch recipes. The point of all my rambling about cooking is to say that while I was in Kenya in March, Carson did a lot of work on our unfinished kitchen. This post is supposed to be a glimpse into motherhood and this mama spends a lot of time in the kitchen! Check it out:

Chalkboard Backsplash

You might have to look close, but the whisk is drawn in. It's usually dirty!

A great drawer for all my pans.

A handy little hanging cup for toothpicks.

Most importantly, drawers with faces and handles!

The changes, in particular the drawers and drawer faces on the already existing drawers have really made it easier to do little things in the kitchen with Jude. He sometimes tries to get into the bottom drawers, but if we start chanting push, push, push, he pushes the drawer closed and moves on about 61% of the time! It also eliminated the open space under the sink where Jude used to play. It was not a good place for him and hard to get him out because the framing for the drawers were already in. It's also really great to now have all the dishes in the kitchen instead of the cabinet in the living room.

On a design note, I'm still trying to decide what to do about artwork and curtains. I want to add some color and softness to the room, possibly some fabric stretched on frames above the chalkboard? or maybe Tanzanian paintings? And also some sort of window treatment. I don't want to block any of my light and don't really need any privacy, so maybe just a valance? I'm in no hurry really.

Well, if you're still reading this post I do apologize for giving you more information about my kitchen than you could have possibly wanted! You are a true friend to care about such details! I should also tell you in the interest of complete transparency (good friendships have that) that my kitchen is never that clean! I just cleaned up so the pics would really highlight all the great work Carson did. And didn't he do good?!