This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

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top to bottom:: fresh elderberry lemonade on a hot day (and silly boys drinking it), blooming tea, strawberry rhubarb goodness, gift making for Winter 2014 Tend Magazine, GF/DF Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, fresh ramps, eggshell saving for the garden, Blue-Banana Mocha Maca Smoothie, my kitchen, and what I've been doing most of this week.

This week finally warmed up and we have been outside planting planting planting. My kids love our new hammock and will lay in the shade reading and chatting while I work in the garden. I love chatting with them, hearing their stories, all while I dig. They help out when they are in the mood and they squirt me with the hose in between. Ahem. We have been saving eggshells and coffee grounds from the kitchen all week for the garden, and are using them as we go!

I wasn't in the kitchen as much this week. So much planting. And the looming deadline for the Winter Edition of Tend Magazine which means wrapping up all of the loose strings and taking photos of holiday gifts and goodies. It has been hard to think WINTER when it is 86ºF outside. But also, my husband has been on a business trip all week. That means I find myself not really wanting to cook anything for myself and craving mostly salads and fresh peas and then cooking fun crazy foods and snacks for the kids all week. They struggle when he is gone, so we focus on fun. Of course we also had to make fresh lemonade this week in this heat, and put some in the ice cream maker for slushies. Yum. 

The ramps are in, and have been sitting in my fridge all week. I keep changing my mind about what to do with them.  I think I'm going to pickle them. We shall see! 

And my kitchen. Oh, my tiny, tiny, dark kitchen. Every week people show their lovely bustling busy bright shiny sunny kitchens. Ahhhh. I have not shown my kitchen in what, 8 weeks?  I have lived in this house 10 years and the kitchen was obviously not designed to be used. Ha. I think a lot of modern homes are designed for freezer to oven/microwave living. No room for people in the kitchen. No room for prep and cooking. No real pantry. My kitchen doesn't have any windows and can only comfortably fit one person at a time. Since we cook and can and make together a lot, much of that is actually done in the next room - the dining room! Of course I do realize that many in the world have smaller kitchens, and I am very grateful to have even the space we have. I do dream of a big bright family hanging around the island kitchen some day (who doesn't) with chef level appliances. But what is the saying? It's not what you've got, but what you do with it? So I am showing you my kitchen - a lot happens in that tiny space! And we have adapted many things to accomodate our lifestyle (hallway "coat" closet is second pantry space, extra freezer in the garage, dehydrator/herb armoire/culinary herb cabinet/hydroponics in the dining room, etc.). I feel good that our house uses less energy/water than average, and has less empty lawn than average. The trade off for a small kitchen.  And a smaller kitchen means less to clean, right?

What is your favorite part of your kitchen?

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Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty that Moves to link to everyone on the blog hop this week!