Kitchen Refresh

Hello everyone. Happy New Year to you all.

There’s a lot new going on in my house. Well, will be sometime in the next few months which is why there’s no recipe today. As you can see from the photos there’s a kitchen refresh in the works. My hubby and I like to call it a refresh vs. a remodel as we chose to keep the cabinets; solid Wood Mode brand installed by the previous owner that were still in excellent condition. It was a choice made out of economics and ecology. Why cut down more trees? Everything else, with the exception of the double wall ovens is being replaced.

No matter what we chose to call it, it’s still time consuming and stressful!

To help us get through this time, I set up a bare necessities working kitchen in our breakfast area and family room. I was determined not to rely on take out for 3 months. We’ve got our coffee/espresso makers, a toaster oven and a microwave along with our reusable “plastic bags pantry” in the family room. And a minifridge (yes it looks like a Fender amp) and garbage/recycling center in the breakfast room.  We have a large refrigerator/freezer in our garage. We wash our dishes in the powder room sink. The same few dishes over and over again. Sometimes we use paper plates. The odd collection of kid’s birthday party leftovers I saved in case of an emergency such as an earthquake. Well, here’s that emergency!

While it’s been a challenge to design meals with so much less that I’m used to having at my disposal including a garbage disposal in my sink, I’ve managed to keep meals out to a minimum. It’s been a good lesson in appreciating everything I usually do have and learning that I can live with the bare minimum if necessary.

I look forward to creating some recipes for you in my barebones kitchen in the coming weeks and sharing the outcome when it’s completed in a few months.