Kitchen Tour

Jen from Use Real Butter has been doing a great series of kitchen tours on her blog.
She has been showing photos of blogger's kitchens and where it all happens.

Since I do so much cooking, people always assume that I have a large gourmet kitchen equipped with a Wolf range, Bosch dishwasher and Subzero fridge. It ain't so.

You don't have to have a big kitchen to produce great meals. This is proven by
Debra from Smitten Kitchen who shows her small NYC apartment kitchen as well as Mark Bittman's "bad" kitchen in his small NY apartment, and they both seem to be doing just fine with their cooking!

Some of these kitchens I have seen are gorgeous, to die for!
I especially love the California kitchens, where you can see the fruit trees and all the blooming plants outside the windows. Some of these people have professional photo equipment, and special areas where all food styling is done and photos are taken, complete with darkroom!

Jealousy.

I have a small kitchen, and after many arguments, have learned to make friends with it.
Since my house was built in 1928, a small Dutch colonial, there are limitations to how tricked out you can make a kitchen.



I updated the existing horrible cabinetry by spending money on good quality drawer pulls, a good dual fuel oven (now 9 years old), a granite island, & a stainless steel fridge. Other than that, it is what it is.



I have made food for 40 people (catering jobs) in this tiny kitchen, and am used to the ease of just turning around in one motion and being from stove to sink.
I use the island for buffet service and everyone likes to gather in this small space.



It's a bright and sunny kitchen with fresh white walls and nice windows.
I have antique paintings all over the walls and an old wooden sign above the sink that says ANTIQUES.

For a small kitchen, there is decent storage space. There are slide out drawers for pantry items and pots & pans so it is easy to find things. I keep my cookie sheets in the oven!





I have many collections, about 30 cookbooks, a large collection of 18th century English utilitarian pottery and 19th century French pate terrines (pictured with the rabbit and bird heads!). These figural earthenware vessels go in the oven for making game or pork terrines, though I have yet to try one out! (I am afraid of breaking them!).





It's a quirky kitchen for sure, and won't be featured in Architectural Digest magazine anytime soon, but it's mine, and I have come to like it. Hell, I spend half my day with antiques, the other half with food.

Like my grandmother used to say "If there is room in your heart, there is room in your home".