My August Working Country Kitchen

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Good Morning, welcome to my working kitchen.

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Summer is such a busy time in a gardener's kitchen. Between our 'mess' from the basement damage, and the garden which is now 'giving up its bounty', I haven't really showed any photos of my house, porch or garden. 

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But Velkommen have a cuppa in my kitchen and we will catch up. I always have blue and white in my kitchen. In the summer I opt for dashes of red and yellow added. 

(The kettle is vintage Swedish enamel, I've always had some pieces of this from my family and I pick them up whenever I see them.)

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Gnomes all year round, thrift store find in porcelain.

You can have tea from the caddy...or...

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Have some coffee at our coffee machine. Yes, that is a big arse restaurant coffee machine. My husband bought this on the sly, and well, we had to design the kitchen around it.

But, IT IS THE BUSIEST

in the morning and also ideal for company. (I can have hot water brewing or decaf and regular...kept hot on the burners.)

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Sugar, sweetener, flavoring, creamer and spoons...it's all here, just pick your cup!

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Hubby also bought the towel...cracks me up.

Monday cup...please!

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And this service area works well, just to the left of the sink and filtered water.

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Another busy spot is the cabinet by the windows I have covered with a vintage tablecloth. I use this location in early spring for seedlings and now it has been full of tomatoes ripening for the last three weeks. We have to pick tomatoes before totally ripe--or the critters sample them.

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Our tomato crop was weird is year...we ended up with tons of small tomatoes, the yellows and the yellow pears.  So, I roasted most of them on parchment paper in large trays by slicing them in half.

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We did have plenty of reds and they are still producing, but only 4 plants.

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NUM!

They really are scrumptious and sweet.

So I CANNED TOMATOES!

3 BATCHES in the last week and a half.

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I put two large spoons (3-oz or so) of roasted tomatoes in each hot jar, added extra lemon juice(2 tsp.) and 1/2 tsp salt. Then added the cooked boiling tomatoes over the roasted  ones, then water-bath processed the jars for 15 min. A bit more than usual, but the roasteds weren't hot.

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I ended up with three batches over a week and a half, or 27 pint jars, of which 7 were made into sauce by cooking for 10 hours. 

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We've also had LOTS of cucumbers...yesterday I cut and seeded two large ones, some radishes, 2 small yellow squash, red pepper, onions, parsley, fresh oregano into a bowl. I added Italian dressing, some garlic oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and a bit of Western dressing for tomato flavor and some sweetness. Num, this will keep until the weekend if we don't eat it all.

Sorry no recipe, I just sort of wing this by tasting. Once it sits for a day, it's even better.

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Last weekend I also made refrigerator Dills. This is a fast, easy and detailed recipe I shared HERE. They stay crunchy in the refrigerator for a year. My mother-in-laws recipe and it's fool-proof.

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This time of year fresh dill is plentiful normally, mine dried up in the hot weather, but the grocery had plenty.

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We ended up with a gallon and a half which I keep in the refrigerator. The sons will come and probably split the smaller jar.

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The island is always in use, but I try and have some fun seasonal decor on the end...what is more summer than a jar of old marbles, antique crocks, an antique French enamel lidded coffeepot and well something yellow to go with the sunflowers, my vintage McCoy yellow shoe.

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PHEW! Now you know why I called this my 

Working kitchen. 

Do you want another cup and stay awhile?

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Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi

Gurgling, Ceilings and Floors.

We started the cabinet end of the kitchen remodel on July 6th.  And on one weekend installed the 

sink cabinetry, HERE.

BUT,  what is that Gurgling?

Once the plumbing was installed in the kitchen we had gurgling---and for some reason---water backed up, sometimes violently into the sink on the porch. 

Icky, stinky, garbage disposal water everywhere. 

It was determined that not enough air was behind the porch sink system...my husband installed a new 4" stack pipe!going through the roof and walls, 

The stack pipe is to the right--where the refrigerator was. Eventually we will put a narrow cabinet there that can be pulled out for access to the pipe. That will be great for bottles. 

The plan had been to use the porch to cook, eat meals and entertain while the rest of the kitchen was gutted.

Running water is definitely necessary for living and eating. 

This side of the kitchen is functional...but....the next stage of demolition, involves, dirt, dust, and saw dust.

Up go the plastic barriers and down with the soffits. All that wasted space. Also huge areas of no insulation and builder electrical shortcuts. You can see the new bead-board ceiling to the right of the old soffit frame

Husband and Buddy work well, both used masks as 42 years worth of bugs and dust were up there.

The metal scaffolding makes easy access to all the ceiling work. The boys, are taking small pieces down one at a time.

This is crazy---the kitchen plumbing vent goes somewhere other than straight up? Turns out it went west 54 feet to vent with the bathrooms? ? ? Why? This will kinda present a problem with our to the ceiling cabinets. DANG!

Above the refrigerator---another surprise. Conduit sticking out and not run in the walls. 

Good grief...a few feet of conduit, builder was that really a savings???

Here is the area where the pantry will be- hopefully the switches won't have to be moved far. 

At this point, I'm so excited, the space carved from our old pantry and a bit from the front closet, will give me a 30" built-in pantry. Plans are pasted on the old cabinets for measurements. We have about 6" play on this wall. 

Wallboard is placed over the new holes for behind the built-in pantry cabinet that goes floor to ceiling.After removing all the soffits and carving the new pantry hole, Hubby and Buddy begin finishing the bead-board ceiling. The panels have been primed and painted one coat. 

Each slotted panel is glued and nail gunned in place. Here is the stack of panel boards ready to go.

Here is the stack of panel boards ready to go.

Our poor island has become a work station, but it has to disappear soon for the floors to be finished.

 A Box frame for the pendant lights laid out for over the island. We really don't have this figured out yet, but are working the exact measurements and finishing as we go along.

Once they get going the ceiling goes up without a hitch

Every piece is glued and nail-gunned up.

Hubby shooting the very last pieces in, around my roaster collection. That shelf on the right will be gone. We will be keeping the pegboard wall by the stairs and a shelf above it. Old roasters are too big and too cool to hide.

It looks great! Finishing trims will be put up later.

Here is the pendant light box for over the island, temporary fixtures are up as this is the main source of lighting for the kitchen during construction, and pendant lights would never survive all the moving, boards, heads, etc.

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We decided on Beadboard behind the Refrigerators, we are still waffling (I am) on the treatment on the backsplashes of the cupboards. I'm wary of all the white? 

Temporary cover up for the ducting for the stove. The existing ducting simply went into the attic. Another builder short-cut causing hot and cold condensation in our poor attic. Hubby will do it properly with a vent.

Okay new ceiling, soffits gone, and new floor. The island has been removed. This was week 6-7 from our start on July 6th.

Keeping my eye on there prize. Cabinets, hardware, and countertops are all ordered! We are attempting to live in this kitchen, but other than coffee very little is prepared. The weather is in the 90's everyday, so the porch isn't an option either. At this point we are eating out, or carrying food in, and giving away all our garden produce. But, I am freezing tomatoes and shredded zucchini for baking. 

Next coming soon, the IKEA cabinets ARE due to arrive the 19th of August. 

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

I will be posting at these fine parties:

Vintage Charm
Celebrate Your Story
Share Your Cup Thursday
Share Your Style
Best of the Weekend
Creative Mondays
Inspire Me Tuesday
Make it Pretty Monday

Sandi

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