I need some help. It is starting to sink in that in just a week or two the ripping will officially begin. YAYYYY, oh wait. What do we eat? where do we eat? how is this going to happen???
I am learning that slow cookers and the microwave will become my best friends. My problem is that I am pretty limited in the cooking department and don't want to fall back on the same 3 or 4 meals. It may come down to that but I want to at least try some new things. I know a lot of you will recommend doing the back yard cookout, but the sad news is that our bbq died this spring and we will be building a new deck ASAP with a new exterior gas line for the bbq that will be installed when our new oven line is moved. So we will be waiting to buy the new barbeque until it can be installed too. Already it is apparent that our lack of foresight (which I can only attribute to pure elation that this freakin' kitchen is actually happening!!) is catching up with us.
Honestly, any tips, ALL the tricks and any advice you can offer as far as meals go will be much appreciated.
New purchases for the kitchen in the last week or two have been focused on the sink and plumbing.
The first was our sink. Kind of an important part. One 'must have' item on our list was an apron sink. Those run $1000 and up (and up and up and up if you want dual basins). And we don't want to go up. So we went to Ikea, where you can bag an awesome country sink for under $400.
This thing is HUGE. I think I could defrost 3 or 4 turkeys in this thing while simultaneously washing MungKee. It is going to eat up a lot of counter space, but I really love that it goes all the way back to the wall so you don't have to clean that grimy little inch of counter behind the faucet (maybe ours is just grimy because I don't clean it enough...).
With the sink safely home we turned out attention to the jewellery, aka the faucet. I only have what I am now deeming a minor hiccup on my hands now.
This faucet jumped out at us immediately. It is the perfect traditional touch to contrast our clean cabinet lines and the price at efaucets is within budget, so the green light flashed on!
The hiccup? This manufacturer doesn't make a matching pot filler for the range wall. DOH! I decided to pull the trigger anyway, get it home and see if I can perfectly match the chrome in person to another manufacturer. I will have to drag it to a few showrooms to find a suitable match, but when I do I will head back to ebay or efaucets to order. I am definitely seeing the savings add up when I order online versus local vendors.
So that is the status of our water fountain, as Wren calls sinks/taps.
Stay tuned on Tuesday for the cabinet style/layout breakdown, which may or may not change between now and then depending on our meeting with the designer on Monday...
27 comments:
Lovely Holly. I really adore the faucet! I am so very excited to see your kitchen as it progresses!
Get cooking now! Freeze a bunch of portion sized meals in flat zip lock bags that way they are easy to label. You can pull them out and microwave them. If you're busy put a crock pot on now. Chili, soups, stews what ever your family likes. Fry a bunch of skinless chicken breasts chopped up put it in zip locks then thaw and make wraps with fresh salad or veggies. You'll need everything to be fast and easy. With no where to prep, plus you'll be too tired to cook anyway. Make double or triple portion sizes for the next two weeks and freeze as much of those as you can then you will have at least two weeks done. Curry meals freeze well, and sweet and sour meals. It will probably take longer than you expect...prepare for it! Good luck! We have been avoiding doing more reno's because of the disarray.
Hugs Giggles
Wow, this takes me back. When we remodeled/gutted our old farmhouse, I used our laundry room as a kitchen. ( It was one of two rooms that were finished, the other was the master bedroom.) And this went on for about a year - our first child was born and we still didn't have our kitchen finished.
I did have a very nice farmhouse sink and a refrigerator, and we did eventually fit a stove in for cooking. But before the stove came, I used a single electric burner.(They are pretty cheap at Wal-mart) And I had an electric skillet, microwave and crockpot.
So, I wish you well on this adventure! You will get through it and the new kitchen will be so worth it!
A Three burner camp stove from Canadian Tire which runs on propane will let you create stove top meals. But for crock pot, request all of Leanne Ely's recipe books from the library--she has a crock pot meal a week! (And all her books is divided into the four seasons, 6 weeks worth of recipes per season. She is my stand-by go-to for all our dinners.) By the by Ely also taught me to cook and, in time, plan meals and shop for a month at a time! Good luck on your reno. It'll be great.
Oh--and just a thought--you might want to borrow a toaster oven.
Hi, Holly!
I love reading your blog and wish I didn't live too far away (Southern Cal.) to buy some of your beautiful furniture. I got my kitchen taps on Overstock.com and saved hundreds of dollars. And they ship to Canada! I don't know the cost, though it was $1.00 in the U.S. (Maybe they could ship to your mom and dad?) They don't carry Cifial which is the brand I originally wanted, too, but I love my Kingston Brass taps even more. It isn't installed yet, but feels heavy duty, and is beautiful to boot! I am including the Overstock page with the kitchen taps: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Kitchen-Faucets/3235/subcat.html
Best wishes for a quick reno!
George Foreman solves a lot of grilling problem in our home! Raining? No problem...no outside grill *we do have one but reacting to your situation...plug in dear Mr Foreman. You can fold it up into a nice thin little appliance and break it out almost anywhere you have an outlet! Good luck and can't wait to see your progress!
Hugs~
Am waiting patiently for your next post. I love butler sinks too (had one at our last kitchen that we did up and then we moved - don;t you hate that!). We had just decided to go ikea at our new place too.Can't wait to see the rest!!
I spent six weeks during our kitchen reno with no cooking equipment except a microwave and camping stove. We lived on fresh salads and grilled meat and fish, and when it all got too much, we headed to the pub for dinner! Best of luck!
I was in the middle of my first pregnancy when we were doing our kitchen reno. We moved our fridge and long dining table into the back office and covered it with a sheet and that became our "kitchen workspace". I set up our toaster there for quick bagels/frozen pancakes in the morning. I would also ditto the toaster oven, as I think we ate a lot of Stouffer's french bread pizzas for lunch :) And for dinner, I used my George Foreman grill TONS. It was great for cooking chicken and burgers, etc. And now they have all sorts of steam-in-bag veggies, so don't have to worry about your stove as much.
Holly, I was without a kitchen for 11 months. We stored all of the kitchen items in the dining room and my stove remained hooked up and even the sink until it was absolutely necessary for it to be disconnected and yes we did move the sink. I had some meals prepared ahead of time in the freezer and when I did cook, I would cook huge quantities. Toaster oven, Microwave are handy. Perhaps you could borrow a BBQ for the time that you are going to renovating. I take from your posts that you are planning on getting this done asap. I managed to host birthday parties, thanksgiving and christmas dinner w/o a kitchen so it is doable.
Good luck
Flash back...we redid a kitchen and hooked up the stove and refrigerator in the dining room with two tables we were good to go! My nephew and his wife just did a kitchen remodel and hooked up the refrigerator and stove in their garage and survived.
Any chance a friend would have a BBQ you could borrow?
You could also ask family or friends to drop off a meal for you and you would reciprocate after the remodel is finished.
Love Giggles ideas!
Easy, delicious slow cooker recipe for pulled pork: put a pork loin roast in slow cooker (I get them at Costco and there's 2 pieces tied together) overnight with nothing else in the slow cooker. Next morning, take it out, remove fat and use 2 forks to pull apart the pork into small bite size pieces. Save the juice. Return pork to slow cooker, add 12 cloves of garlic (I usually leave whole), 1 chopped onion and approximately 1 large bottle of BBQ sauce. My favourite is to use Cattle Boyz BBQ sauce (the large bottle is available at Costco generally). You may need to or wish to add a bit of the saved juice. Cook in slow cooker for at least 3 hours. Serve on buns to eat like sandwiches. GREAT as leftovers too.
I can't wait to see your kitchen progress! I love the Martha Stewart cabinets. Do you have any concerns making sure the Ikea sink fits? I know sometimes there sizes are not the standard sizes as used in the US. I'm asking because we're considering having custom cabinets made and I really am holding out hope for that same sink!
You could always get a portable hibachi grill. They are pretty cheap and all you need is a bag of charcoal to use them. Then if you ever go camping or on a picnic you can use it again.
Looking good so far! I have been eying that Ikea sink for awhile now. Can't wait to see it in your beautiful new kitchen!
Good luck!
We have the same sink! I love it!! Freezing meals is a good idea and using the crock pot. It was not easy living without a kitchen but totally worth it in the end. Can't wait to see it!
Absolutely lovely choices. Good luck with the kitchen reno - share your best recipes / tips for making it through sans-kitchen!
can do lots with a slow cooker, Holly - can even just cook potatoes (in their skin) then fill with sour cream/cheese/beans/whatever you like. Can also do chicken pieces, soups, chilli beans...
You have summer there now, right? Salads are great way to go too - quick and easy. Add some microwaved chicken bits. maybe if you cooked up a chicken (slow cooker) you could make burritos/wrap. You could also cheat and buy some food out (meat items) and add to salad/microwaved veggies.
sharon
Wish I had read this post a day sooner. My bf threw out his "seen better days" but completely serviceable bbq this weekend when we got a new one.
I was so mad at him. I figured we could have off-loaded it on kijiji for a few bucks or even free. If it wasn 't already in a dumpster in Leduc, I'd have him drive it over!
I have an electric roaster that I use as my 'outdoor kitchen' all summer long. Pretty much anything I would normally cook in my oven (meatloaf, chicken, enchiladas - anything) I just cook outside in my roaster - mine is the small one, but the larger one that you can often get on sale for a bout $40 would be even more versatile, cause you could actually put a baking pan inside of it a make a cake, even! Obviously, you wouldn't have to use it outside - but that would keep it out of the way & keep the extra heat outside, too.
Slow cooker meals:
Pot Roast with veggies all in one. grab a seasoning from the store, throw in cut up potatoes, onion, carrots, celery, roast (beef OR pork)throw it on low for 6 to 8 hours and viola!
Mexican chicken. Cut up 2 chicken breast, 1 jar of salsa, can of black beans ( drained) 1 can of corn, 1 cup of water, and 1 package of taco seasoning. Cook on low for 6 -8 hours and serve over instant rice. We usually sprinkle some cheddar cheese and green onion on ours
BBQ Chicken: Easy as it sounds. get whatever chicken you want, mix it with your favorite bbq sauce, add a little water, cook on low 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
BLT sandwiches. Get the ready made bacon that you micowave, a toaster for bread, cut up lettuce and tomato..
Deli style sandwiches can go a long way. Get deli style turkey, ham, etc. All the veggies and serve with potato chips.
We usually eat something similar once a week.
Also, lots of good salads!
Hope this helps!
I used an electric skillet and a microwave...Also a whole chicken does really well in the crock pot. just the chicken...nothing else...trust me...well, ok you can put season salt on it...
You have a sink to use in your laundry room, right? that is essential! and then microwave, toaster oven - you can cook anything in there (you can get one for about $20 if you don't have one already), and either a little electric cooktop burner or camp stove and you're set. But definitely some way to boil things in for salads with eggs, pasta, mac and cheese, etc.
can't wait to see the final result. I am hoping to renovate our kitchen ASAP. still saving! :)
Luckily it's summertime so cold foods should work out well majority of the time! It's amazing what can be cooked in the microwave. This will be a great time to get creative with salads and sandwiches!
Plus, I love that sink! My husband and I are mentally preparing for a kitchen gut and renovation probably next year. That would be the ideal sink! I love ikea!
I have the same sink from IKEA and I love it ... just beware it does scratch easily from pots and pans so gotta be a little careful and not just throw stuff in lol ... LOVE the faucet!
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