kitchen follies ~ and a recipe

The organizing and rearranging continues...so on with the kitchen. I went with a clean,

classic look on this side of the kitchen with using a lot of white in the cabinet and on the

wall shelves. Also, that's a new painting hanging on the wall. I inherited it from my aunt

when she moved last fall. I'm not crazy about the red painted frame as it's too stark 

for the painting, but since I have red accents in my kitchen and the painting is the

right size for this wall space, it'll do for now. 

Most of my cookbooks were moved into a small bookcase in my office, but I left a

few on top of the fridge and on the butler's table that you can see in the first photo.

I cleaned out my baking cabinet and my main food cabinet. I don't have a pantry, so this

is where I keep all my dry goods and staples such as grains, dried fruits and raw honey,

 pastas, dried beans, tea bags, and lots of spices. I like having the grains, pastas, and

beans in glass jars instead of all that plastic and cardboard packaging. Much easier

to see what you have and easier to fit into the cabinet, too. As for the spices, I find it 

easiest to keep them categorized by use. For example, on the basket in the left, that's

where I keep all the Italian spices: oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, bay leaves, etc.

The basket on the right holds cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, ginger, nutmeg,

and star anise. Another basket holds spices for chili making: cumin, chili powder, 

cayenne, mexican oregano. And another basket holds spices such as curry powder,

garam masala, lemongrass, and turmeric. When you're making a certain cuisine ~

say, spaghetti sauce ~ it's easy to just grab the basket of Italian spices.

I am making vegetarian tacos for dinner tonight. We eat a lot of meatless meals

and I found this recipe on Pinterest. The lentil-rice concoction is in the Crockpot right

now and the house smells so good. I "cheated" and opened the lid to the Crockpot

about halfway through cooking (I did let it cook longer after I opened the lid - I know

that opening the lid takes off about 20 minutes of cooking time) to see how the mixture

looked and it's nice and thick, just like hamburger meat. I'm going to top our tacos with

salsa, guacamole, and a little bit of shredded cheese. Click here for the recipe. And 

interestingly enough, the name of the blog is Melanie Makes! No, it's not me. It's

another Melanie.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Linking up with Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday.