We ended up having chicken curry last night, equally as warm and spicy as the shrimp would have been, but my mom made this and who couldn't resist a meal made by someone else! This photo is actually from another blogger Sarah where we got the recipe from, her food photos are always so pretty. Good job on this recipe Sarah, my mom's made this several times now and we love it every time! Check out Sarah's site for great ideas and wonderful photos of her experiences in the kitchen.

So it's shrimp tonight. What I really have a taste for is rock shrimp. But today we're just having plain shrimp. Maybe with that cajun seasoning. I just found out Aunt Catfish's here in town has rock shrimp on their menu, so we may need to try that soon. The other 2 places I knew about are further away, JB's Fishcamp and Dixie Crossroads. If you like seafood and haven't tried rock shrimp, you must get in your car now and drive to Dixie Crossroads. Do it now. These little shrimp are SO delicious. You can have them cooked several ways, my fave is broiled or steamed. They taste like lobster, but better in my opinion. Check out this site to read the below photo more clearly http://seafoodatlantic.net/products.html

In other news - I'm on the search for a salt jar. If you ever watch the Food Network, you see most chefs have salt on their table in a little jar. One - I'd like to know what type of salt that is, it seems pretty course, but not as course as kosher salt, and Two - I want a countertop salt jar! Not that I use salt much at all, but it's cuter than the salt container from the grocery. I've seen a few I like, but I'm picky. The Neeley's on Food Network have a pig jar which is cute, but not for me. Paula Deen has a simple dish which is cute too. This is probably something like what I look for. Simple and traditional and plain. Or maybe I'll surprise you and try this one. This white piggy is cute, but probably too mis-match for me. I think it's actually a planter. And I just don't know if I like pigs in my kitchen. But now that I'm thinking about it, it's plain enough being white and having clean lines and not much detail that I may venture off and try it. Maybe they have different shapes or something less pig-like. Suggestions?

Sinks

In one of last weeks blogs I mentioned how I like large sinks. I've been checking out farmhouse style sinks, sometimes also called apron sinks. I was surprised to find they make stainless versions. I had always seen the standard glazed porcelain or whatever material they are. I don't know if the stainless apron will be too much stainless being right next to the dishwasher (I'd probably keep the appliances in the same places for the remodel).

Here's a couple examples of a stainless single tub (no divider between the sides, what is that for anyway, I keep moving the dishes from one side to the other!) next to a stainless look dishwasher. I could almost bathe Rufus in that thing! The only issue would be lifting his 100 lb. butt up that high :) The first photo has cabinets close to what we're looking to get.

One important feature we would have to check if we did go with stainless farmhouse would be that it was fingerprint resistant, like our other appliances.
Or we could go with the standard white, which may not look too bad since the sink is below the window and the new window frame will be white.

This photo shows the white farmhouse sink under the window like ours would be. Also has the semi-dark cabinets that I like (I actually like a little darker I think). I've got a lot of spices and am always thinking of new ways to efficiently store them. This shallow cabinet on the side is a neat idea, although I would definitely have some type of cover or doors over that because all of those different jars not matching would bug me right away. If all of the spices were in matching jars, that may look nice there. Anyway, focus on the sink in this photo. The counter top brownish shade may be nice too.

Or we could just go with a larger (36 or 30 inch) single bowl stainless sink. (bonus for stainless, rub your hands on it to help remove food smells like garlic and onion, and it would match our appliances).
I'm not too big of a fan of this first one. The rounded corners just make it look strange to me. But it is a big stainless single bowl sink. It's Lovello.

I love these next two. The 'zero radius' corners just make it look so deep (all 3 of these stainless bowls are about 10 inches deep). I like the dark counter top on the second one.
This shows that stainless sink along with the Adel Medium Brown cabinets from Ikea that I like. I'm not that into the green back splash, but do like the lighting. This is similar to the layout of one side of our kitchen.

Kitchen part 2

After long delay, here is the other side of our kitchen as it currently stands. The first view it taken standing near our interior door to go out to the garage. The large countertop area with the bar stools opens up into the den (and our nice new furniture!) This second photo is with me standing just behind the archway that you see in the first photo. This is where the dining room is.

A few things I do like about the kitchen:

Open feel
Especially as the house was built in 1979, previous owners changed the cabinets, so may have opened the layout.

Layout
That work triangle/square is there in this galley style kitchen, flows very well. I also like the countertop bar area, which we may raise up during the reno to make about a 8-10 inch bar area a few inches higher and seperate from the countertop area on the side by the cabinets.

Appliances
Of course! All are new except the microwave which will be replaced when we get new cabinets

Window over the sink
I can look out into the patio and onto the yard.

Sink
I actaully like this sink. It's Kitchenaid and made with some heavy duty material. Not glazed porcelin. I can clean it easily with bleach and any marks from pots and pans disappear with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (which I highly recommend!)

Cabinet drawers and slides
These cabinets are cheaply made, but one good thing they did was to get the pull out drawer shelves in all of the larger base cabinets. That makes it easy to find what you're looking for - I don't have to get on me knees and reach to the back for that turkey baster I use a handful of times a year. The slide mechanisms are also pretty smooth.

Break time for some photos.

Not too crazy about this backsplash or tile countertop, but like cabinets, sink, appliances and lighting.I've thought about this. If we raise our ceiling to match the den ceiling height, we could add more small cabinets like this, but then it may take away from the open feel.

Now some issues I have with the kitchen as it is:

Quality of the cabinets
Like I said, cheaply made. Maybe good for 10 years max. I've got several places where there's wood shavings from the shelves falling apart.

Countertop
Laminate. The color is good for hiding dirt, but I'd rather see the dirt so I can clean it and not just let it sit there because it's hiding :) Also would like to be able to cut on the countertop and place pans on it. Just funcionality.

Window
Don't get confused, I said I like where the window is. We're getting all of the windows replaced in the house. (original single pane aluminum windows are NOT energy effecient)

Backsplash
There is none. When we moved in, my dear friend Missy helped us take down the gastly floral wallpaper and we decided on this cheerful buttercream yellow. I still like a shade of yellow, I may just tone it down or go more tan depending on how it goes with the new cabinets. Yellow just says 'wake up' to me - nice for a kitchen.
Lighting
You can't see it in these photos, but there's a huge (maybe 3x3ft light in the middle of the kitchen. This is one of those tube type lights. It gives off A LOT of light which is good to see, but not too flattering. I'd probably like to go with recessed or track lighting and maybe some under or in-cabinet lighting also.

Kitchen part 1

After visiting Ikea last week, my mind's been on renovating our kitchen. It's a galley style kitchen. Here's the south wall and Rufus of course. The door is to our pantry. I had thought of adding pull out drawers on this but because of the lip on the door inside, I would have lost about 5 inches total of shelf space. The pantry itself is only about 2 ft. deep and I've got it very organized, so it's not a problem to see everything and I like my extra 5 inches per shelf. Next to that is a small 12 inch countertop, then our wonderful Frigidaire double range.

The range that was in the house when we bought it was an older range, which did have smooth top but the broiler didn't work and it was white. DH and I got this range for a great price just before Thanksgiving 2007. The oven is convection and has a speed bake feature where you don't even have to preheat the oven. I can turn it on, put cookies in and 10 minutes later, they're perfect. The lower oven which is usually where the warming drawer is, is still a warming drawer (low to high setting), but is also a fully functioning oven (up to 450 deg). And expandable burners. This cames in handy when we have company over. Next to that is another 12 inch countertop area (cabinets on the top of both this and the other 12 incher).

Then our fridge (insert ahhhh's and celestial music here). The fridge we had before is here on the left. It worked just fine except when you tried to open the freezer door on the left, it hit into the wall and the pull-out freezer shelves were useless because they couldn't fully extend. We ended up giving it to a couple that really needed it. We found our new fridge through Craigslist for about 1/3 of the price it was at Home Depot. It's LG french door and I can open all of the doors and pull out all of the shelves. The only thing I first missed about the old fridge was how excited little puppy Rufus would get when he would hear the ice maker. He used to love to chase ice cubes around the house. The LG fridge has an ice maker, but it's in the freezer. Ruf isn't as interested in ice cubes now which is good because we have the hard wood floors and melting ice cubes aren't good for wood floors.

When we redo the cabinets, we'll get an over the range microwave - either one of these Frigidaire models. The microwave we have right now is amazing (something like 1200 watts!), it just doesn't fit the kitchen look. And the thing it's sitting in is a vent shelf sort of thing that is cool because it holds my cookie sheets and cutting boards too but it's just a pain to keep clean and kind of ackward looking. The one on the right is a newer style with the controls on the door (model PLBMV188HC, one on left is model PLMV178HC). It's about $100 more for that style and the only other difference is it's only 0.1 cu. ft. larger. I haven't seen the newer one in real life so I haven't decided on which one I like better. Hey, they may even come out with a new one by the time we're ready to get it.

That's 1 side of our kitchen. Who know about 12 ft. of a room could be such a chatter topic? Join me tomorrow for side 2!