Big changes in our kitchen!

Finally we are (mostly) unpacked and things have been put in cabinets and drawers.  It's amazing the things you collected over 30 years in a home.  You find many items that were dupicates or not needed so...off to the charity shop.  Here are some before and after photos of the kitchen.

I tried to get photos taken at the same spot so you can see the changes.  The inside of the house is T 111 paneling and while it would look good in a mountain cabin, it's rather dark for a Florida home. 

After - this is so much brighter and modern. We kept the brick floors.  Love the brick.

Before

Wooden panel to separate the livng room, a fluorescent light and stainless divided sink

After

The back wood panel wasn't removed, it was tiled over.  Also a cabinet was added and a lovely pendant light. Replaced the divided stainless sink with a farmhouse sink.

The former countertop was butcher block laminate. This was replaced with a light colored granite.  

Also, under the cabinet lighting made a huge difference.

There was one sorry light in the ceiling before.  That was removed and replaced with LED recessed lighting.  The photos do not capture just how light it is in here now. Amazing transformation!

We had been using a cart as a coffee bar, storing other items in the small cabinet.   Of course I needed more space for additional casserole dishes and the giant microwave. By the way, that microwave was massive and about 20 years old!

This is the new coffee bar.  They did an excellent job on it and now we have loads of storage space. The old microwave is gone and replaced with an over the stove model. 

The red casserole dish sitting there was a birthday gift from our son.  He sent a beautiful Le Creuset ceramic baking dish which was put to use right away.

I make this easy chicken dish quite a bit because you don't need much prep and it's fast.  

By the way, the remodel was done by H & H Construction in case anyone in our area is interested. Highly recommended :-)  I may post the bathroom remodel photos upcoming as those were pretty big changes as well. 

Sharing with

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking

Sherry's Pickings for In My Kitchen

Reading, watching, cooking and unpacking

Goodbye to Seminole State park and hello to Havana Florida. What I will miss is the lake, the birds and the lack of traffic noise. It was mostly peaceful chatting with like minded people who like to camp and RV.

Loki found these enormous shells near the water.  He had a great time and was fascinated by the fox squirrels.  We didn't see a single gray squirrel the entire 6 weeks.

Reading / I very much enjoyed News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Planning to get more by this author, once I catch up on books around the house. I'm trying to catch up on series so I finished The Moth Catcher,  a Vera Stanhope mystery, by Ann Cleeves. 

Watching/ We just picked up two PBS videos.  Looking for Life on Mars and biography on Hemingway.  Ken Burns produced the Hemingway video so it ought to be good.

Food /  Something we enjoyed from Donalsonville Georgia was the abundance of fresh tomatoes and field peas. I can’t find field peas in the Tallahassee area and the grocery store tomatoes are fairly flavorless so.... this was a treat. 

A few posts back I mentioned Doug was getting good use of the Blackstone griddle.  The  breakfasts are great but so are the grilled sandwiches. The crust was toasted and delicate for this ham and cheese with mustard.  Now that we are home the griddle is set up on the porch.  Guess we will buy another one for camping and storing in the RV.

Upcoming I will share photos of the kitchen remodel as it was a complete transformation.  Still uploading photos :-)  

Sharing with

 Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday

Marg at the Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking series

Deb at ReaderBuzz for Sunday Salon

 

Chicken Stew for a One Pot Meal{ Because of course you eat a hot meal with a 102 degree heat index!}

Almost time to go home and sort through the boxes of kitchen ware to put up in the "new" kitchen.  In the meantime, despite the heat of south Georgia, I made a stew one evening.  It was a camp stove meal and I can tell you, all the work was in the prep.  

Once it was chopped and measured it went together in under 10 minutes.  I love one pot meals!

This is a stew of chunks of chicken, black and red beans, sauteed onion and yellow peppers, half a can of tomatoes and chicken broth.  It's very thick and I imagine it would be great over rice but we just ate a bowl as it is for dinner. We had leftovers too :-)

Since I didn't measure much of it I can't share a recipe except to say I used roughly a pound and half of chicken, half an onion and an entire pepper. Both cans of beans were the El Ibro brand (so. good.)

Sharing with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday and Marg at the Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking.

The Blackstone Griddle

 Doug has been wanting this Blackstone griddle for a long time.  During our six weeks of "camping" we decided it would be nice to get it. Oh....it was so worth it.

The burgers and home fries were excellent.  I can't believe I liked it better than a grilled burger which is how it's usually done.

Breakfast has been amazing. At home when he makes pancakes  he puts some in the oven to keep warm while he cooks the next batch.  With this griddle all of the pancakes are cooked at once and we eat at the same time. 

Is it wrong to eat three pieces of bacon? 

French toast is also cooked at the same time.

Yeah, we had bacon again.  We need to cut back a little on that....maybe once we're home.

Doug spent quite a bit of time seasoning this griddle once it was set up and it hasn't had a sticking issue at all.  I would highly recommend this as a birthday gift if someone in your home likes outdoor cooking.  Looking forward to kebabs and a stir fry soon.

Soon we will set this up at home as the remodel is almost complete.  The trip has been mostly fun but I'm looking forward to cooking at home again. :-)

Sharing with Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking series.

Cottage time is over - only nine days until we head home!

Cottage time is over and we are back in the RV.  Actually we like it better in the RV and while the screened porch was nice, we'd rather "tough it out" in limited space.  Loki is less nervous now as he knew the RV as a home base. Sometimes it's hard having a rescue dog who was abused and has low confidence. That being said, he's made enormous improvement with us these past 4 months.

New to us / Doug has a very cool new griddle.  It's a 22 inch Blackstone and runs off propane.  So far we are loving it.  More on that upcoming as we've had some great meals cooked on that bad boy.

Reading / In May I finished five books. One of the fun ones was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.  I still like his first book The Martian best of his three publications but this one was pretty good.  I can see it  being a movie.

Normal People by Sally Rooney was interesting as well.  Set in Ireland and delves into personal relationships and drama.

So far for June I have only finished News of the World by Paulette Jiles.  I loved it.  Can't wait for the movie.

Watching / Greenland with Gerard Butler (cool disaster film), Pixie with Alec Baldwin (very quirky, setting is Ireland) and Chef with Jon Favreau (a favorite and I always want Cuban cuisine after watching this gem).

Upcoming / We go home in 9 days and I am looking forward to that, unpacking and filling the kitchen with all the pots and pans in boxes.  It will feel like a palace with so much room after living in the confined space for 6 weeks. 

Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.

June in South Georgia

 I wanted to start off saying how sad I was to learn of Kim Bultman's death.  She wrote at the blog A Little Lunch and it was always a pleasure to hear from her and visit her blog. Too young to go.  Kim, you will be missed.

Well, it's now June and we have been in our RV since May 10th.  We aren't completely tired of it and have enough room but it lets us know we never want to a full time RV people.  Nope.  I like our house.  Last post I mentioned our awning broke during high winds just as Doug was about to retract it.  Seriously, he said "I think I'll pull the...." that's as far as he got and the awning arm ripped off and flew on top of the RV.

With that kick to the gut Doug thought it would be nice to rent one of the cottages for a few days. 

Here is cottage, it's one of 13 available on the lake.

It's nice to sit on a screened porch and also nice not to hop around to different camp sites when our reservations are up.  

I have a full kitchen in the cottage and I was thrilled to cook using the oven again!  Doug came through and saw me with pots simmering and a dish in the oven and said I looked so happy.

Behold roast chicken with tomatoes and onions, rice and field peas. 

I made use of all of it!  The microwave, oven, stovetop....we brought in our own winegalsses and some utensils as it's not completely kitted out as you'd need. Bliss.

Today is my birthday so I am waiting to open these gifts my friend Mary Margaret sent.  They have been riding around with us until today so...later on I'll have a surprise. One thing I wanted was cheesecake and that is also for later on.  It's been a good day.

Loki guarding my gifts.

In this post The RV "Kitchen" Update I shared some of the meals we made last week.  Ought to have saved that until the In My Kitchen post here.

Sharing with Sherry's Pickings for In My Kitchen and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking.