I am going to use an idea taken from Laine's Letters (the website Melissa introduced us to), in my kitchen as I begin to put everything back in place after this renovation work is done (well, almost done).

She created a whole corner of her kitchen for this. I have two sides of my kitchen counters that are at an angle and create a "deep" counter. My husband is going to install a flourescent light under the cabinet directly over one of these areas and I will keep all my measuring spoons and cups, spatulas, rolling pin, noodle cutter and all misc. things needed for baking in my LONG drawer that is there. I will have my grain grinder left out on the counter there.

I have two large turntables in my cabinets in this area - one overhead and one below where I will be able to keep all the mixing bowls, pans, mixer and anything usually used for baking and also my old green and blue canning jars filled with my herbs and spices and the smaller conainers of spices too, right at my fingertips. I plan to have all baking ingredients necessary there also. Baking powder, baking soda, extracts, flavorings and oils will bein the other overhead cabinet in this area. This reminds me of a modern, modified Hoosier Cabinet that I have always wanted :-).

I keep will keep my large bulk supply containers in the pantry my husband will be building and keep smaller containers (pretty old fashioned looking) filled with my flours, sugars, and honey.

She tapes her favorites recipes taped on the inside of her cupboard. I plan on doing this also. Now I just need to find a place nearby for the cookbooks I use most often.

I think she (Laine) has some very creative ideas and I am looking forward to organizing my "baking area" and begin baking for Christmas!

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001

Answers

I've done much the same, and we're still finishing up our remodeling also. In the middle of my kitchen I have an L shaped island counter which is about 9' one way and 6 1/2 the other, counter is about 40" wide. I will have numerous wide, shallow drawers below to keep all the "tool" I use for baking as well as a cupboard or two for the mixer, etc. Overhead in the corner cab. is my mixing bowls and all the measuring cups, as well as all my baking spices and things. Large floor to ceiling pantry holds all my containers of flour, sugars, raisins, etc. Baking pans are a couple steps away over the double oven. It is sure nice to have LOTS of room to spread out and have everything still handy. It'll be even nicer when it's finished! Right now some areas are still a bit disorganized.

Sounds like we think much alike in regards to kitchens. I have always kept some of my most used recipes taped to the insides of the cupboard doors. I found a neat website where you can print out cute recipe cards. I ran some off in a chicken design (my kitchen is decorated in chickens) and after I print the recipes on them, will put them in plastic sleeves to keep them clean, then will stick them up on the doors. It will look much nicer than the usual disarray. I'll list the website as soon as I find it. It has some cute cards, as well as shopping lists, gifts tags. etc.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 29, 2001.

Lenette,

Maybe we think alike when it comes to decorating too :-). I don't have my kitchen decorated with chickens but the wallpaper trim and material I bought to make the curtains for my laundry room are pictures of chickens. I also have a picture (primitive art) of a chicken that I want to hang in there when the room is finished.

I love chickens and my sister-in-law did a watercolor painting, for my birthday one year, of a little girl with a tiny chick in her hand, looking at it lovingly. The background is the inside of a white, wooden barn door and she printed in caligraphy underneath it "Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings! Psalm 17:8. She put it in a Rose colored mat and in a 16 x 20 frame. I have it in our dining room as it is "way" too nice for a laundry room.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt-Tm@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.

Oh Boy!!! My hubby is going to love this posting. lol Now, I want to change the way the cabinets are built in the kitchen to accomodate this baking center. That makes soooooo much sense. Since we are remodeling and the kitchen is gutted, that won't be a problem to change. We're building our cabinets from scratch, with no uppers at all. Some shelves above, but not many. We have a small pantry that fits almost everything, but it would be nice to just reach for eveyrthing to bake with and it be there. Thanks for the idea. What's this website ya'll are talking about?

-- Iris (WatchingWideEyed@peaceful.com), November 29, 2001.

It is called Laines Letters and is found at www.lainesletters.com

It is a wonderful site, make sure you have hours to spend before you go there though!! I couldn't stop reading the first time I was on it.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 29, 2001.

Thanks Melissa. I'll check it out. I love things like that too.

Iris

-- Iris (WatchingWideEyed@peaceful.com), November 29, 2001.

Oooh, I'm SO jealous! Your baking center sounds great. A big kitchen is on my wish list for our next house. I think that I would be so much better about cooking from scratch if I actually had the room to do it.

Terry, you mentioned that you have a grain grinder in your kitchen. How do you like it? I've been thinking about getting one someday, but I'm not sure how practical it would be since there's just the two of us. How much baking do you do?

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), November 30, 2001.

Terry, Your picture sounds lovely. I really like those paintings that have a Bible verse on them too. Being a very visual type person, I remember things best when I can connect them with a picture.

My chicken collection came about by accident, one of those things where I just bought one chicken knick knack 'cause it was cute, then found another, and another...then family started giving them to me as gifts and I ended up with a whole kitchen full. And I do mean full. I also have a wallpaper chicken border.

Like Sherri, I would love to know more about the grain grinder. Have thought about getting one but not sure if I'd use it enough either.

Sherri, I have had to put up with my share of small kitchens, no counterspace, no pantry space etc. The house we just moved out of was the first one I've owned that had a huge country kitchen with lots of storage, counterspace, etc. But it is almost small compared to the one I have now. Our current house is an old house we're remodeling, the kitchen/dining area was very large (500 sq ft) but poorly planned with a very awkward traffic pattern and poor storage. We more or less gutted it and started over. I was very lucky to be able to plan it the way I wanted. I thought I wouldn't need a big kitchen once my kids left home, but wouldn't you know, they seem to all gravitate back here on weekends and holidays, so it's a good thing we have the space!

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 30, 2001.

Sherri and Lenette,

Actually my "grain grinder" is a vitamix and I don't like it for grinding grain but it's all I have for now, except a manual one. My dream is to be able to buy a Whisper Mill. I have heard a lot of good things about them. Most of my baking is bread, pizza dough and cookies. I intend on doing a lot more once the kitchen is done.

I thought this was a large kitchen until we had a man out to inspect the chimney and he said it was small for a farmhouse kitchen in this area. :-( . After seeing some other kitchens around here, I agree. Ours was once able to hold a wood cookstove before other appliances were added, like a refrigerator and modern range. We tried and tried to figure out a way that we could get one back in there but it just won't work. I was disappointed.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), November 30, 2001.

Our dining room was originally the kitchen, and it did have a wood cookstove when my dh was a boy.

I used to live in Roseburg on a ranch, and some friends of ours lived in a really unique house on another ranch. The place was originally built as a hunting lodge around the turn of the century. It had nine bedrooms (all with their own sink), a walk-in vault, a dining room big enough for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and a kitchen which held THREE wood cookstoves!! And would you believe the kitchen was so large you hardly noticed the cookstoves! It also had what I believe is called a butler's pantry - a long, narrow room off to one side, both sides of the room had long, narrow counters w/ cupboards below, and overhead glass-front cupboards. Awesome. Now THAT'S a kitchen!

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 30, 2001.

That sounds like my kind of place. I would love to have a place with 9 (WOW) bedrooms and three stoves. Awesome!!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 30, 2001.

All this talk about baking has me thinking again about my outside wood-burning adobe oven. So far, it's just on the "plans" list, but hopefully it will be done this spring. I've wanted one almost as long as I could bake. Something very rewarding about heating an oven with wood to exactly the right temperature and producing wonderful breads. I did it once in an old gas stove without a thermometer and it was really cool when things turned out.

-- Iris (WatchingWideEyed@peaceful.com), November 30, 2001.

I've thought that those ovens looked really interesting and useful, but have been a bit leery of trying one. I can just see me turning out stuff that's raw in the middle and cremated on the outside. Wonder how difficult they would be to learn to use?

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), December 01, 2001.