Monday, December 17, 2007

8 Things from the Kitchen

All Things Hold Together tagged me a long, long, time ago... and I'm just now getting around to posting. Sorry, Charity! I'll try to be more prompt next time. If you want to go read her post about this... just follow the link on her blog's name.

8 Things From My Kitchen

1. Meat scissors. We eat a lot of chicken around here... well, when I'm cooking, that is. I absolutely love my meat scissors that I got at IKEA. I can easily cube, cut fat off of, or thinly slice chicken breasts for all sorts of yummy recipes in seconds without a slow, dull, dangerous knife. Speaking of knives... I really do need some new ones.

Bialetti Dama2. My pink Bialetti Dama. I've already talked about how we do coffee here at the Bee house. I threw out my coffee maker and we ONLY brew our Italian coffee on the stovetop. I love my little pink Dama (a gift from my husband... who uses it more than me, as a matter of fact). Mmmmm! I can just smell the lovely aroma of a fresh-brewed tiny pot of espresso! To make a great 888, you will also need a PRODUKT Milk Frother from IKEA - which you can pick up for less than 2$. Trust me. You need it. Say goodbye to Starbucks prices forever. Truth be known, my husband is the one who usually makes the coffee. He's such a sweetie.

3. Cookbooks galore. I love cookbooks. I have a bunch of them. Right now they are all on my kitchen counter taking up space... but I'm hoping my mother-in-law will give me an old buffet for the holidays that she has in her garage (she already said she would). Once I get it, I'm going to move my cookbooks to the drawers in the buffet. I always save recipes from the favorite things in all my cookbooks right here in this blog... so when I want to make something again, I don't have to search for hours in all the books (there are at least 50 of them). I can just look up the recipe online from where-ever I am. I also have a binder with a printed copy of my favorite recipes sectioned with tabs. That one will stay on the counter!

4. Home-Ec Classes. Each week the kids get to learn how to cook. I really had to learn everything I knew on my own - somehow I missed the in-home training that a lot of kids get before they get married! I don't want my kids to serve their spouses "hamburger helper" the first year they are married, so we try and always have one kid in the kitchen as we cook. They get to see what is happening, help gather up Sprittibee's Measuring Cupsingredients, and learn to cook for themselves. Sometimes they even cook without mom - fancy that!

5. Spices. I am known in my family as the spice lady. I have a ton of spices. I use them every time I cook. I love to use fresh herbs, but I probably have a bunch of things that are old and need to be thrown out. We like to cook international dishes a lot, so I require a lot of spices that aren't very usual to most kitchens: palm sugar, cardamom pods, sumac, Hungarian hot paprika, ginger and garlic paste, saffron... are just a few. I have a HUGE container of chili powder. We use a lot of that since I make home-made enchiladas at least twice a month.

6. Stacking Bee-Hive Measuring Cups. I found them in Fredericksburg at a womens' retreat one year while we were shopping. They are so cute... and so handy on the counter when you are in a hurry. I think I'll cry if they ever get broken.

7. Scripture Verses on the fridge. My kids do their Bible Memory verses every week or every other week on index cards and we keep them on the refrigerator so that they have them handy to memorize. When they come down, they put them in a little index card storage box. It is fun to browse back through them and see how many we can remember later in the school year. I like to let them draw a little on each card, too. I love to have their artwork on display.



8. Grossamole. This is the gross Dean's Guacamole Dip my mom just bought. She gets the nastiest processed, fakie groceries sometimes. She stays with us a few days each week and while she is here there are usually strange items (that we would not eat) taking up residence in my fridge. Aside from the "Grossamole", we have leftover nasty ribs, runny mayo-potato salad from a grocery store, a small bag of fried chicken from some greasy spoon chicken place, and a bottle each of Fanta Strawberry, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Yuck. Yuck and more Yuck!

So there's my kitcheny 8. How about you?

According to Charity, this meme has no rules. So let us know what's living inside your fridge and behind your cabinet doors. Got "slime in the ice machine"? Any magic kitchen tools you want to showcase? Elves in your cupboard? We want to know.

Now, to tag some people (feel free to play along if you aren't tagged here... and feel free to not play along if you are tagged here):

Sheri of Shades of Pink (because I know she loves to cook)
Mrs. Happy Housewife (because her site is cooler than mine)
Elise at Simply Recipes (because "I love her, man!")
Toni at Wifely Steps (cuz she's really sweet)
Farmgirl Fare (because it would give me an excuse to go see her awesome photos)


Shoot me an email if you DO play along. I'd like to rummage through your kitchen with you.


Subscribe to Gathering Manna by Email

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Food and Drink,

4 comments:

Charity said...

Thanks for playing. It was fun to read your 8 things. :)

Toni said...

I'm going to play along! Will post mine after the holidays. :)

I love your bee cups! They're a great kitchen accent AND functional!

Anonymous said...

Okay, I played along...

Your bee cups are cute!

Sprittibee said...

Charity - :) Thanks for tagging me. I like kitchen memes.

Toni - Cool. Can't wait to see your fridge :) Yeah, those bee cups were a gift from me to me!

Sheri - :) Thanks. Link me when you get it up...