Even a few months after moving in (I can't believe it's been so long), I keep being reminded how much I like not living in a dorm. It has taken me a long time to get the kitchen in an order I like it, though.
It's a really small kitchen. I had to take the pictures from the living/dining room. Fortunately, it's an open layout, or else I would hate everything forever. I keep my most often used pots and pans on the stove for convenience. The dutch oven and the cast iron pan are probably the top contenders, despite the decided wobbliness of the pan.
It's actually a little too big for the space. I have to move it every time I open the fridge or put something in the oven, but it's a convenient place for pots and pans and bowls and other things, and also makes a nice place for my laptop when I am using it for recipes, and it's really easy to move so it's okay. It came from Ikea. I tried rolling out some dough on it once time and that was absolutely the wrong idea, so if you get one of these... don't. Other than that, it's really useful, because I don't have much counter space.
I need a bigger fruit/vegetable bowl, or maybe a stacked one, because I feel kinda weird keeping onions and apples in the same bowl. I also kinda want a breadbox to keep the tortilla and pita chips and other snacky foods in. The teapot in the corner just joined my kitchen; I accidentally rusted the french press I was using for tea, so I got a pot with a plastic insert. I'll probably get some horrible disease from it, but at least I won't have rusty coffee.
The cabinet over the sink is really deep, but it's not a convenient size for turntables, so it's a little hard. The first shelf has a lot of flours and some cornmeal and grits; the second shelf has a lot of beans and grains, and the top shelf is all canned goods.
This is a much more useful cabinet. The bottom shelf is oils, spices, and other tasty condiments; second shelf is rice, oats, and granola; top shelf has "useful things that I use when cooking" and some kombu. I don't have any spare drawer space, and I hate sorting utensils, so I keep them in a thing on the counter.
Baking things and some thickeners up above the stove, because I have to keep them in big containers that don't fit in any other cabinet.
I had a cooking spree this weekend. The top shelf has, from left to right, chickpea-broccoli casserole from Veganomicon, the tiniest amount of gravy from Isa's site, a tiny bit of wing sauce left over from the wingz I made from lunch today (Don't Eat off the Sidewalk recipe), some applesauce I made from Yellow Rose Recipes, a peach claufouti (Urban Vegan) and some yogurt and tahini. The bacon drawer has some daiya and tempeh and tofu living it in; next to it is about 4 pounds of assorted green leafy things and snap peas. On the bottom shelf, salad greens, celery, carrots, apple juice, apple cider, and some spare maple syrup. In the crisper drawers are some cooking wine and soymilk (I always forget about vegetables in crisper drawers, so I just stick drinks in them).
The butter drawer holds maple syrup,and the shelf next to it has EB and tomato paste. Below it, a bunch of jams and peanut butter, lemon and lime juice (citrus attracts fruit flies in my place), soy sauces, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and hot sauce. Bottom shelf is all drinks (including pumpkin spice soy milk <3).
This weekend, I decided to cook all the things. Hiding under the loaf of bread are some biscuits and also a bowl of ice. On the right, some chickpea-broccoli casserole, leek and bean cassoulet (veganomicon) and some butternut squash soup (color me vegan). Aside from the black beans and pintos, there's also a container full of gravy, chili (vegan with a vengeance), and some creamed corn (color me vegan).
The only interesting things in the door (aside from the ridiculous excess of corn, I promise I am using half of it this week) are the yeast and the bag of flaxseed meal (I haven't gotten a spice grinder yet).
Because I forgot about mofo, because my life was rather hectic for the last month, I'm going to try to do some sort of cooking challenge involving cooking a lot of things that I normally don't make. This impulse was inspired by a couple of my friends doing a vegetarian challenge for the month. I've got a couple of things lined up for this week, that hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of: sugar & spice snap peas (vegan yum yum), spicy pumpkin soup (vegan comfort food), corn chowder (color me vegan), pumpkin pudding (candle cafe cookbook), kale colcannon (color me vegan), and also a breakfast cereal (30 minute vegan).
(It seems a little silly to do all that cooking when there's so much in the fridge and freezer, but I made all the freezer meals because I've been having a lot of bad days lately where it's impossible for me to even order take-out. Hopefully having some things on hand will make those days a little better, so I'm not keen on eating them when I'm feeling okay.)
