The kitchen, the beautiful beautiful kitchen.

The kitchen is a huge focal point in our home. It's basically in the dead center of the house and it's part of one big room with our family room. When we purchased the house the kitchen was a huge eyesore. The sellers painted it the worst brown possible and it was just FILTHY. We contemplated just painting the cabinets and maybe just upgrading the appliances but it just wasn't going to work. We were already going to have a contractor come out and repair and paint the inside and outside of the house and we decided to have him re-do the kitchen as well. 

Here is the original kitchen to refresh your memory:

It may not look as bad in the pictures but trust me. TRUST ME. It was gross. 

First step was gutting the whole thing! 

We were making some slight changes in the kitchen. First, getting rid of the double oven and getting a slide in oven/stove combo. As much as I LOVE the idea of having a double oven I decided having a larger pantry is something I wanted more since I would only need a double oven a handful of times throughout the year. We also decided to move the dishwasher to the opposite side of the sink so it wasn't so close to the oven. Also the kitchen had some random lighting. Two fluorescent lights placed very strangely and I believe 3 can lights also not placed evenly. So we got rid of them all and had 5 new can lights put in. 

The next step was picking out granite, and the cabinets! 

We went with white cabinets. I've been pinning like crazy on pinterest lately and I love the white farmhouse kitchen look. 

It was so exciting to see it in progress. I knew it was going to look amazing. 

Then this morning we went to check out the progress and it was DONE! (With the exception of a couple cosmetic things.) We were blown away. It looks so beautiful. Just perfect!

(Lazy Susan that way the deep cabinet is more easily accessible)

As slight "ledge" was created that way it would block any possible liquid from going into the windowsill. 

We are in LOVE! It's so crisp and clean! I still would like to add some knobs to the doors but we will revisit that at a later time. For now, it's perfect. 

 

Mom's Famous Strawberry Bread

When I think of Christmas growing up and the things we did or the foods we make, one of them that stands out most in my mind is strawberry bread. My mom made it every year for as long as I can remember. We only make it at Christmas time and I look forward to it every year. Of course it can be made at ANY time during the year. Its funny because every time I mention this bread to someone they always get a confused look on their face and say "strawberry bread?!", it may not be a commonly made bread but it seriously should be!

Serving Size: 2 loaves

Ingredients:
2 containers of fresh strawberries, slightly mashed with a potato masher
2.5 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/3 cup canola oil (or any oil if your choice)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 cup walnuts (I have used pecans too)

Directions:

Grease loaf pans and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium/large bowl mix strawberries, eggs, and oil.

In a stand mixer combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nuts.

Add strawberry mixer, stir until blended. 

Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. 

Bake for one hour or until bread passes tooth pick test. 

Your welcome. Don't blame me when you become highly addicted to this stuff! :)

Quick & Easy Pesto Pasta with Peas & Tomato!

I love cooking, love it. My love for it has developed over the years and its something I've really grown to enjoy. Now, with that being said, since becoming a mom my time has become just a tiny bit limited-as you can imagine-and I don't mind it one bit! BUT, it has put cooking on the backburner a bit. We hardly EVER go out to eat, 1-because have you taken a 5 month old to a restaurant before? Enough said. 2-Its 'spennnnsive! $$$ 3-fast food makes me want to hurl. So I have to get creative in the kitchen! Lately, I've been making really quick and easy recipes most of the time otherwise we won't eat until 9:00pm (yes, its happened before, more than once!). So tonight I threw this together and it was great! Definitely a hit, and something I will continue to make. I've TRIED making homemade pesto once in the past and wasn't a huge fan. Trader Joes has a great pesto I've found, and that's what I used tonight. 


Ingredients:

*1/2 lb pasta (so half your bag of rigatoni, or any pasta you like basically)
*Pesto- however much you like, I ended up using about two large spoonfuls of it
*Small tomato, diced
*1/2 onion, diced 
*3/4-1 cup of frozen peas (however much you like)
*Salt & Pepper to taste
*Grated Parm for topping

Directions:

Boil your water for your pasta.

Add pasta and cook according to package directions. 

In a small saute pan, cook your onions. This ingredient is absolutely optional if your not a big onion fan. I am, and I pretty much put them in everything, ha! :)

When your pasta is about 4-5 minutes from being done, here is my secret trick. I dump my frozen peas in the water with the pasta and let it finish cooking. Peas end up being perfectly done and I didn't have to dirty another pot! 

Strain pasta and put back into the pot, add your onions, tomato, pesto, salt and pepper.

Combine and your done! Enjoy!