Little by Little

I don't really remember how or where, but I stumbled upon Eat Sleep Move.  It promotes the philosophy that those three areas of our well-being are intimately connected and that small choices can lead to big changes.  You can take a quiz and get a personalized plan, which I did, and I also checked the book out from the library.

Although I'm only on day-five and haven't been super intense about it, I did switch up the location of our healthiest foods and put them out in the open.

Now fruit resides on the counter and the bread is just a little more out of sight.  It already seems to be working because yesterday, I ate one banana, one apple, and zero pieces of bread.

Disposal

The garbage disposal recently retired and was replaced by a newer unit.  In the process of dismantling the old system and installing a new one, the sink area was cleared of its contents.  It looked so fresh and so clean without anything around that I decided to keep it that way.

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Revolution

10 february 2013 . sunday . (day one thousand one hundred thirty-three)

There has been yet another changing of the guard.   Our O'Keefe and Merritt has been pushed out by a Chambers, and I'm officially in love with the new addition to our household.

Before you even consider the broiler/griddle or the thermowell, the fact that we have three fully-functional burners is enough to make me giddy.  If it's possible to be turned on by an appliance... I am.

There are many changes that need to happen in our kitchen, but I am happy to say that the stove isn't one of them.  The Chambers fits right in and is here to stay.

Light My Fire

Not too long ago, J. got our cute O'Keefe and Merritt up and running.  After using a toaster oven to bake and only two burners to cook for over a year, the addition of a proper oven and two additional burners was life changing.

30 december 2012. sunday . (day one thousand ninety-one)

Unfortunately, the burners always required a match to ignite and produced itty-bitty flames at most.  The previous stove was the same way with the teeny-tiny fire and match ignition.

21 january 2013 . monday . (day one thousand one hundred thirteen)

A full size oven was a luxury that we had given up for far to long and were quite glad to have back.  The oven was christened that first night with chocolate cupcakes.*

*They were cute but a bit spongy.  Because the oven was pure perfection, I'm pretty sure it was something I did or the the fault of the recipe.  Either way, I will try a different chocolate cake next time.

Making Room

This past spring, J. and I scored this old-timey 36" O'Keefe and Merritt stove.  I just love-love-love it, but currently it is in quite a state of disrepair.  For far to long, it has just been hanging out in the kitchen's dining area serving as an all-purpose catchall.  I lost my renovation steam, during the initial clean-up phase, upon finding a giant black widow within the stove's innards.  Eek!  Another big hinderance is the fact that there wasn't room to swap the stoves out in an easy-peasy fashion.  

Our kitchen needs a lot of help and may one day move to another room entirely, but in the meantime, I'm doing my best to work with what we've got.  To make room for the "new" stove, I had to remove the oh-so-handy cookie sheet cupboard and knife drawer.  That process began by chipping up 1-inch tiles from the counter.  This was even more therapeutic than removing the wallpaper.  I hate the tile countertops.

Then, I unscrewed, sawed, and pried until the cupboard was set free. 

Albeit off center, there is now room for the O'Keefe and Merritt.

P.S. Yes we have two toaster ovens.  The center oven is a rare dimension and sans rack.  Therefore we make do with the toaster ovens for all baking, broiling, and beyond.

A Whole New World

27 august 2012 . monday . (day nine hundred sixty-six)

The kitchen wallpaper is gone for good.  Aah... what a difference it makes. 

26 august 2012 . sunday . (day nine hundred sixty-five)

All along, I thought that the kitchen and eating area seemed a little dark.  As it turns out, the wallpaper and ceiling used to be creamy white rather than tobacco tan.  Gross.

25 august 2012 . saturday . (day nine hundred sixty-four)