Sense of Home Kitchen
After years of working full-time, first as a Children's Librarian, then managing my family's health food store, I now work very part time with my husband and we are living as simple and sustainable as we can, we love the freedom this choice has provided us. I enjoy experimenting with food and recipes and prefer our food be as homemade as realistically possible.
I have an expanding garden and preserve the produce I grow and that which I can pick up at the local market or from friends and family. I keep a well-stocked pantry so that I can make dinner without having to run to the store first, and so that we are prepared for an emergency or a turn in the weather.
I have a very small galley kitchen where I try out new recipes and reinvent old ones, proving you don't need a large, beautiful kitchen to cook your meals from scratch, though that would be nice. I have an inexpensive wood cart that I move around the kitchen to become extra counter space where needed, it is indispensable.
I started reading Bon Appétit at my local library when I was in high school, jotting down recipes and trying them at home. Over the course of many years I have collected recipes in notebooks and journals, five to date. I am enjoying cooking my way through these recipes, as well as, my collection of cookbooks and cooking magazines. I now have a collection of Bon Appétit magazines that stretches back to 1977 with a few issues missing in between. I learned to cook reading the pages of that magazine and working alongside my mother in the kitchen. I started collecting cookbooks back in the early 1980s and I haven't stopped since, though space and money limit that collection. A few of the books I've collected are in the photo to the left. I use cookbooks and cooking magazines for inspiration and occasionally strictly follow a recipe.
There are several items in my kitchen which I have collected over the years that I really enjoy and use often, among them being All-Clad and Le Creuset pots and pans, a 7-inch Santoku Wusthof knife and a Kitchenaid mixer. I have a love for odd bowls and it is probably a good thing that I don't have much space because I would collect way more than I could reasonably use.
There are several items in my kitchen which I have collected over the years that I really enjoy and use often, among them being All-Clad and Le Creuset pots and pans, a 7-inch Santoku Wusthof knife and a Kitchenaid mixer. I have a love for odd bowls and it is probably a good thing that I don't have much space because I would collect way more than I could reasonably use.
What is my favorite kitchen item you ask? I would not want to be without my 9-quart enameled cast iron Le Creuset Dutch oven, it holds heat and is perfect for slow cooking a chicken or beef roast, simmering marinara sauce, and making a huge pot of chili or applesauce. However, I would beg for two favorites and also choose my Wusthof knife. These are the two items I would spend money on in a heartbeat.
I find chopping and sauteing while sipping wine and listening to music very relaxing.
I find chopping and sauteing while sipping wine and listening to music very relaxing.
We are mindful of the how our actions effect the environment and at times I will write about our efforts to minimize our environmental foot print.
