If You Give a Cook a Cabinet

If you give a cook a cabinet, she’ll need to get countertops.
If she gets new countertops, she’ll have to pick out a new sink.
A new sink means a new faucet too!
The new faucet needs to coordinate with the new oven, microwave, and fridge.
The appliances sit in the new cabinets which are going to need knobs and pulls.
If she gets knobs and pulls for the kitchen, she’s going to pick out new ones for the new bathroom cabinet as well.
When she sees that the knobs and pulls match the bathroom faucet, she’s going to realize that the door handles throughout the entire house are a dated, 80’s polished brass and she’ll want updated burnished bronze lever handles.
The new door handles won’t match the (shudder) polished brass ceiling fan, so it will have to go.
The new ceiling fan will have to match the new light fixtures.
The new lights should probably include one for over the sink as well.
A well-lighted sink will look great with the under-cabinet lighting.
But wait! She can’t have under-cabinet lighting unless she gets a new cabinet.
And if you give a cook a cabinet….

And We Have a Winner!

My favorite Frazzled Mom wants to celebrate Easter. She’s going to have some fun planning when she gets her new cookbook, Paula Deen Celebrates!, and her new cookbook holder. (Send me your mailing info and I’ll get it right over to James at CSN Stores. ) Thanks to all who helped me kick off my very first giveaway. I hope there are more to come!

Have a blessed day tomorrow. He is risen!

Hugs,

Renee

Hey Y’all, It’s a Giveaway!

I’m not doing any cooking in my now-packed-up-waiting-to-be-demolished kitchen. I can’t wait to see what the new kitchen will look like; it’s pretty exciting! Cabinets and countertops are only the beginning…I’m looking at kitchen tables, dining tables, even  home bars. (Aren’t these beautiful? Knowing us – a home coffee bar would be just our thing! ) One thing I do know, as soon as I’m up and running again, I’ll be getting out the cookbooks and planning something wonderful to celebrate!

How would you like to plan a celebration? I’ll help! Thanks to the good folks at CSN Stores, I’m hosting my very first giveaway. Enter to win  Paula Deen Celebrates!  Let’s throw in  a wrought iron holder as well so you can keep that recipe for Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes close at hand.

 

Required entry: Leave a comment telling me about something you’d like to celebrate.

Extra entries (let me know in separate comments):

*Link to the giveaway in your own blog.

*Follow my blog

Winner will be announced on Saturday!

How About a Giveaway?

Hey Y'all! I'm learning how to do a giveaway and you can help. Check back early next week for the announcement. Since my kitchen is about to be torn-up big time, I would love to help someone else get cooking. I'm emptying out my fridge and won't be buying any butter or cream for a while. My cooking is about to be put on hold until the remodel is finished. Hmm...I wonder what I'll cook first? Southern fried chicken? Peach cobbler? Meanwhile, I'm having fun planning my first blog giveaway. Talk to you next week!

Hugs,
Renee

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: Review

My shelf space is limited so my cookbooks have to earn their spot. The real favorites? Pages steamed and a little warped. Sauce drizzled and stuck in spots. Don’t need to use the index because the page opens automatically, revealing the family favorite. Thanks, Jaden Hair. Steamy Kitchen is hot stuff!
No disappointing recipes, no colossal failures, no missteps that leave me  as frustrated as a shopper with a wayward cart. Her book lives up to its promise of “Asian recipes simple enough for tonight’s dinner.”
I thought the ingredients would be hard to find. My daughters and I enjoyed our trip to the Asian market, scouring the shelves for exotic items with which to begin our far east foray. Guess what? The next week I saw the same things at Kroger. (Except for spring roll wrappers! I learned this lesson the hard way: Authentic wrappers are worth the trip!)
So far we’ve made, and made again:
Shrimp Pad Thai (Why pay for Pei Wei?*)
Mom’s Famous Crispy Egg Rolls (Made these at least 5 times!)
Quick Vietnamese Chicken Pho (Pho-bulous!)
Healthy Chinese Chicken Wraps (Chicken salad minus the mayo. Moist & delicious
Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce (shh…I left off the seaweed shred garnish and no one noticed.) The sauce has 3 ingredients and couldn’t be easier!
Chinese Beef Broccoli (Ever wondered just what’s in that sauce? Now you’ll know.)
Thai Coconut Chicken Curry (This is not like Indian curry. What’s more, you can keep the ingredients on your shelf and throw this together in an instant.)
Thai-style Chicken in Sweet Chili Sauce (Oh my goodness! Colorful, fresh, easy.)
Pan-Fried Tofu with Dark Sweet Soy Sauce (teen girls loved this one)
Chinese Sausage Fried Rice (I didn’t know there was such a thing, but now it’s a favorite. You want authentic? Chinese sausage is the new bacon.)
Ready for a taste? We had these last night and there wasn’t a single bite left over.
Healthy Chinese Chicken Wraps
Honey Mustard Yogurt Vinaigrette: 3 T. honey, 1 T. dijon mustard, 2 T. plain yogurt, 2 T. rice vinegar, 1/2 t. sesame oil, salt
Chinese Chicken Salad: 3/4 lb. cooked chicken in bite sized pieces (I cut up a rotisserie chicken from the deli), 15 or so red seedless grapes (halved), 1 diced celery stalk, 3 T. almond slivers, 1/4 t. Chinese 5 spice powder, salt and pepper

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Mix the salad ingredients. Toss with the dressing. Garnish with arugula or watercress, wrap, and serve.

Spring (Break) Has Sprung!

Because I’m told every blog post should communicate something of value, here is what I have learned this week from being “hostess Grandmommy” to Princess Emmeline and her parents.
10. Stock up: Bought diapers, formula, and finger foods.
9. Equip for the trip: Now I own a pack-n-play, stroller, and strap-to-the-chair high chair.
8. Cook in quantity. When you have a house full of company, it’s nice to have leftovers and options. Double quantities of chili, chicken salad, and pastitsio have fed the masses.
7. But you don’t have to do it all! I have a local Greek place where I can pick up pitas and baklava to round things out.
6. Bath time for baby means I get to pick the lotion and bubble bath. Nothing smells sweeter than squeaky clean kiddoes. Lavender Aveeno …nice.
5. If you don’t have a stock of kid-vids on hand, search You Tube. This morning Emmie and I enjoyed Raffi while drinking our morning coffee and milk.
4. I don’t have the toy cabinet stocked, but I do have some rippable magazines and a stash of tupperware. What more do we need?
3. Paper plates and plastic forks come in handy. Who wants to do dishes when there are babies to rock?
2. Part of the fun of being grandmommy is shopping. I found out that HEB (my favorite grocery store) sells adorable grosgrain ribbon bows for $1!
1. Enjoy every minute! Life is full of blessings to be thankful for, no matter what season of life you are currently in.

Kitchen Kapers: Before

This might be the blog-equivalent of really letting my hair down, but I’m all about truth and honesty. (Ok, I highlight. So there.)
Some of you know that we are in the midst of a huge kitchen project. Well maybe “midst” is too strong a word, because last week we found out that our kitchen cabinets were not “in-production”, rather they were “not in production.” What a difference a hyphen makes!
I’ve been warned to expect these little glitches and that’s ok. When our company comes in 6 days, we’ll have a spot to cook and eat that is not torn up.
Why on earth are we undertaking this little face-lift? (Ok, humor me willya? A new canister set is Botox. We’re somewhere between that and Phyllis Diller territory.) As you can see from the pics below we have a serious shortage of space. (I also have a serious “I can’t keep stuff off my fridge door” issue, but I come by it genetically. Hi Mom.) We also have an oven that has broken for the 3rd time, a fridge that will not hold more than a bottle of tabasco and a quart of half-n-half, and a pantry that was made for a bachelor who lives on Kraft Mac-n-Cheese and Cheerios. Nothing else fits!
You want more reasons? I’ll give you reasons! Two words: Golden Oak. Yes my friends, this kitchen is about to come out of the 80’s for good. I missed much of the worst of the 80s because I was busy changing diapers. Well, all 5 kids are potty-trained; 2 have graduated college and have babies of their own. The 3 still at home love to cook and we are out of room!
So what’s in the works for our little cook-nook? New cabinets, granite countertops, new appliances, reconfiguring the layout, taking out the closet pantry and replacing with a built-in, changing the windows, and turning what was our formal living room into a formal dining room.
Stay tuned!

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