MoFo 13: Official VE&T Kitchen Tour!

Over at Cake Maker to the Stars, Miss Kittee Boo Boo had the idea to do a kitchen tour... and then asked her blog readers to do a mofo tour of their own kitchens. WELL. It's pretty damn hard to compete with Kittee BB's amazing kitchen of joy and exuberance - but I'm going to forge ahead anyway.

Our kitchen is a weird little L-shaped joint... it's not perfect, but I have made my peace with it. In this picture, you can see something very special:

Up high, you can see our awesome tin mango that we got in the Florida Keys from a very kind Cuban man. We bought a bunch of cool things from him, and so, when I admired the mango he said "Mango free!" Except, we thought he was saying "Man Go Free"... and we thought he was getting pretty deep with us. When we finally figured it out, we accepted his gracious offer - but it still makes us chuckle to this day.

 Here's the view from the back door... looking into the kitchen

 And here's from the living room looking in. Oh! Hello, Dottie Bonkers! 

Also, you can see my reflection in the hallway. :)

So, now you have a lay of the land.

I don't have a super-awesome kitchen full of anthropomorphized apples like Kittee does, but I do have some pretty cool magnets. I have little a magnet of my favorite Goya painting, some little yoga poses, many dog & cat magnets (duh!), a smiling cloud magnet, and a couple of cool magnets that I got in Ukraine. These magnets are currently busy holding up some important documents: photos of my nephew, a recipe, a list of crazy stuff in my pantry that needs to get put to use, my mom's campaign flyer (she is running for Santa Cruz City Council right now), and... most importantly...

This excellent little document that shows all the tricks that our doggies know. This is mostly for our housesitters, in case they want to spend some time doing tricks with the pups. Dottie is the smartest, and she loves doing tricks, but Stevie Wonder is pretty into it too. As for Snoopy... well, let's just say there's a reason we call him "Baby Dumb-Dumb."

Where the magic happens! When we moved in, we had a pretty crummy electric stove/oven. I made the most of it, but I was NOT sad when it finally bit the dust and needed to be replaced. I love my gas stove! Also, you can see my two most beloved cast iron pans that I use for just about everything. I don't even bother putting them away, they live on the stove top.

Here's "Where the Magic Happens, Part two." This is my super awesome gi-normous butcher block. When we bought our house, the previous owners were using this as a desk area to pay their bills. I was having none of that! I had this excellent prep area put in (and there's storage under it for my cookie sheets and such). Also - you can see some other special things in this picture:
      - my Vitamix (xoxoxoxo)
      - my toaster oven (true love forever)
      - some canning jars on the counter for some upcoming projects
      - my delightful Hindu alphabet chart that I got at a stationary store in India. I love that thing!

Two more things we had put in, right behind the butcher block: a big pantry and an overhead rack for hanging my pots and pans. Honestly, when we moved into this house, there was hardly a single drawer big enough to store a can of beans. It was quite maddening. I don't think the people who lived here before us ever cooked a single meal in this house! Where did they keep their pots!? Where did they keep their cans of beans?! I will never know.

Right under the pots is Pantry Section #1 

- this is mostly canned goods, prepared stuffs, noodles, and treats.

 Right next door is Pantry Section #2: 

this is all my baking supplies 

- various flours, beans, lentils, rice, sugars, and liquors. The raw ingredients!

Such a special drawer! My beloved knives, all snug in their little blade-protector pockets... with dreams of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

If you remember last year's MoFo theme (31 days of spices) - you won't be too surprised by my overwhelming spice zone. This is the counter top display...

 Plus there are two more drawers FULL of more spices right below. Ha ha. I am a spice acquisition addict.

Kittee and I have discussed our great love of vintage pyrex before, but she has really outdone me. None the less, I have a few beauties in there. Plus I have some really excellent mugs that I quite delighted with. I think I even did a favorite mugs post in a previous mofo. Also, you will notice that we don't have more than 4 plates that match... We have a little hodgepodge of various sets.

Last but not least - any time I'm in the kitchen, there's at least one dog in the kitchen with me. The kitchen is where treats are officially handed out (not to mention where little scraps land on the floor by accident) - so they are all quite well behaved in the kitchen! :)

Thanks for stopping by!