Hello sweet friends! I've had a busy few days, as I decided that some cabinets in my kitchen were not practical, so they weren't working smoothly as I would have like them to. Therefore, for the cabinet I store my everyday dishes, glasses and others, I bought a couple of plate racks and my life has gotten so much easier as I take out plates to serve the table, or out of the dishwasher, or back to store them with ease. I also cleaned like a mad woman and organized my pantry closet and replaced old and ugly containers with brand new plastic ones to store food. Although it's not a beauty as some of yours I've seen in blog land, I am very happy the way it turned out.........so clean and organized, finally! I even acquired lots of space, after throwing to the garbage old and useless stuff and giving away the better ones.
A friend of hubby's is coming for dinner Friday night so I will make Italian food and we will eat right here in the kitchen nook. I will share that next week. I really haven't stopped cleaning for almost a week the entire kitchen as well, cause once I start I can't never stop, lol!
Please come in to the kitchen and walk with me so I can show you what I've been up to lately. The cabinet at your left contains our everyday china, glasses and dishes. Here is where the new racks to hold the plates are. My grandgirl's artwork at your right wall, lol..
Our everyday china is very organized in the new racks now. Once, several years ago, I picked up a bunch of plates from the dishwasher and where to be piled up in this cabinet; but instead I dropped them right here in the granite counter and broke the entire pile!
Look how great it looks, so neat and organized. Love it!
Here is another cabinet I organized dishes with a new rack too... and wow, it's so much easier for storing them.
These are dishes I use almost on a daily basis too, while cooking, for serving onion soup that we love and plates I always need for preparing food.
The big pantry in my laundry room was the worst! I threw away so many old and ugly containers and some I had for 40 years, (I'm very sentimental this way) and so piled up I couldn't see a thing that was hidden all the way in the back...geez!
This pantry took me about an hour to clean and days to store the products inside my new Rubbermaid containers.
Since it's a wall pantry it also has two doors for smaller things, which is very practical too. It's very high as well, all the way to the ceiling where I have bigger kitchen appliances; some more pots and pans and machines.
This little pantry that's right in the kitchen was also cleaned thoroughly.
The one at your right is such a 'slit' cutie and it's right in the kitchen at arms length of the cook top and ovens. I pull it out to reach everything I need for baking, except for the flour which is in the back pantry.
I love the big 'San Marzano' Italian tomato can I placed on top of the hood and because it looks so old fashion... and by the way, the best tomatoes for Italian sauce, ever. The oil and vinegar Italian cruet set with ceramic caddy and salt and pepper pieces in red is at least thirty years old.
While shopping for some Rubbermaid plastic containers for the pantry I fell in love with this wire fruit basket.... is that cute or what?
I love this silver tray I bought last year cause it has such a pretty vintage look to it; but it's not.
The flower pot with doves and the salt bowl were made at our former ceramic company and it's a set with the spoon container in the bottom pic.
The slits you see next to the tablecloth are to contain the cutting boards. Very practical idea Mr. Living had.
The table setting for three, right here in our kitchen nook will look like this tomorrow night. There's a great view from both windows by the table, so it's fun.
Our eating nook by the window and the stain glass skylight.
Although this one is not a big kitchen, it's just perfect for us two. Very practical and with the latest state of the art custom cabinets Mr. Living had it rebuild almost 5 years ago.
Hello sweet friends! No! I'm not implying you give up on summer in the middle of August; it's just that I ran into a Better Homes and Gardens magazine from last November 2014, where this lovely cake was on the cover and I just couldn't help but make it, easy and simply delish! I'm sharing the recipe right here in this post, so you can make it once Fall really officially comes, lol.. I did set a little tea just for Mr. Living and me, right on top of our den's coffee table, in sort of a 'Fall fashion,' (I couldn't help it). I simply love decorating for Fall. With that said, here is my tea table for two.
It was such a pretty sunny afternoon here in our family room, so we had some tea with hubby to try the new 'Dark Chocolate-Pumpkin Swirl Cake' recipe I just made.
I used yellow plates and teacups for this table as in real life this rooms looked so bright and sun bathed all around it!
Cute daisies orange straw weave placemats. Polish yellow with birds teacups and of course, sunflower plates.
Here is the cake... really pretty and delish The recipe plus tip at the end of this post, if anyone wishes for it.
This entire room is yellow, plus it was such a sunny afternoon.
My vintage Dutch pewter tea set is always good to go with any china I choose.
My DD Alex gave me for my birthday several years ago two adorable Polish made teacups with a little bird on one side and another bird on the other.
My cake didn't come out to 'swirly' because I noticed the recipe says to divide the batter in two parts 'equally' to mix with the chocolate in one; but I immediately thought this wasn't right, that it should be a cup of batter 'only' for the chocolate mixture, to be able to do a swirl pattern and show against the light batter.
Thank you sweet and friends for your kind visits, you always make my day! Thanking the lovely hostesses for having me at their great parties. I specially would like to thank the generous and supportive hostesses that have featured me last week. The Round up Before and After Wednesday www.thededicatedhouse.com A Return to Loveliness www.adelightsomelife.com The Round up Before and After Wednesday www.thededicatedhouse.com A Morning Cup of Joe http://thecottagemarket.com
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9x5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper and coat the parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl whisk together eggs and sugar. Add melted butter, buttermilk, and vanilla. Whisk until combined. Fold in pumpkin.
Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients and whisk just until no lumps remain.
Divide batter in half. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder to half of the batter; stir to combine.
Add the two batters to the loaf pan, alternating between pumpkin and chocolate. Using a table knife, swirl through the batter. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove and cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
In a small bowl stir together the powdered sugar, half of the orange peel, and enough of the orange juice to make of drizzling consistency. Spoon over cooled loaf. Top with remaining orange peel.
MY TIP:Where it says to divide the batter in half...DON'T divide in half, but in a quarter only, because the chocolate part of the batter needs to be less quantity in order for it to swirl into the light batter.
