The New Dish Drainer

Actually, the new dish drainer is more like a symbol of me relinquishing control.  You see, I wasn't very well, and my mum came to stay.  I wasn't at the stage of being sick where I needed hot soup brought to me or anything, but I was still in the 2 naps a day, when possible, stage.  Normally, I resist change and help, especially when it's in the kitchen.  But I just let it be.  I'm not good at the whole cleaning thing either, but I now have a sparkling clean kitchen.  And a new dish drainer.

The dish drainer is on probation.  There isn't much space on the lower level, and the water collects a fair bit and stops those dishes drying quickly.  It's also smaller than my last one - but this fact I'm counting as a plus.  Plus it's really purty.  So, right now at least, I'm loving my kitchen, mostly, and glad that I let my mum do what mums do, mostly.  (And I apologise for the crooked photo!)

Kitchen Art

This week has been rather domestic.  I've been trying to make my surroundings more Me and less It'll Do.  Monday morning, I started printing out lots of photos of my nieces and nephews, and finally finished that process Thursday morning.  I found a few more arty shots I wanted printed as well.  Two of these were 'kitchen-appropriate' - one, a pear just catching the afternoon light; the other, the remnants of a beetroot salad.  I also bought, several years ago now, a print from Ruby Victoria (find her blog here) at the Salamanca Markets.  It's been propped up against a wall ever since.  I took it along with me yesterday to find a frame.  And, yippee! - Myer is having a sale on frames.  Score.

Without taking massive shots of the whole kitchen, here are the basics:
The hand-cut teapot (Salamanca) is next to the main bench.

The pear is above the fruit bowl (couldn't resist a Hipstamatic photo of this!).

The remains of a salad are still homeless, but right now propped up next to the coffee machine area.

The dozens of nephew and niece photos are now strung up in the living area, and about to be stuck on a wall by the upper stairs.  They make me smile so much!

The Char Grill Pan

I finally bought myself a char grill pan.  I love it.  Well, I actually bought it a few weeks ago, and this new item has necessitated a change in cupboard organisation. 

A char grill pan has been on my list of Things I Would Like for some time now, but it wasn't really a necessity.  Its absence in my kitchen has stopped me from doing a few recipes, though, so when I found a relatively cheap option in Kmart I decided to buy it.  Now, I don't cook roo meat any other way.  And I'm really looking forward to cooking some of these recipes.

The cupboard reorganisation is fabulous.  I feel I should mention here, that I am really particular about my kitchen cupboards.  Not just things like glasses in this cupboard and bowls over here, but the order in which they are stored.  This reorganisation of a cupboard is, then, slightly big for me.  So, for starters, I cleaned out those items that had made their way into the back corners (um, yeah, oil burners...?) which created oodles of space.  Now I have saucepans, frying pans and the lovely char grill on the top shelf, and baking tins and trays, as well as the mini chopper and electric beaters on the bottom shelf.  All of these are now more orderly than before.  And it's so much easier to find all the baking items, and easier to access the electric items.  Win.  I did take some photos but none of them are any good so I'll save you from them.

Kitchen Appliance Reorganisation

A few months ago, Viola Man hosted a quartet night and I discovered we had matching coffee grinders and coffee machines.  His were side by side, which is nice and logical.  Mine were not.  My grinder was to the left of the sink, in the corner next to the stove.  My coffee machine was to the right of the sink, next to the microwave.  This irregularity has been on my mind ever since that quartet night.  This morning, I decided enough was enough.  I would move the microwave to the left of the sink, and the coffee grinder next to the coffee machine. 

After today's gig (playing for the official opening of the North Lakes Day Hospital), I had a snack and a cup of tea, then got to work.  The coffee grinder I moved to the bit of bench in front of the microwave.  The microwave is huge (the reason, in fact, I have it - my old neighbour redid her kitchen and it wouldn't fit in the new one), and it is heavy, so I kind of slid it along past the sink.  There I remembered why it's been where it's been.  It takes up almost the entire corner between the stove and the sink.  Hmm.  Plan B: keep the microwave in its corner, move the coffee machine to the left of the sink (keeping the grinder there, obviously).  This has the added benefit of not dripping water over clean dishes in the drying rack.  The drawback is, if it's to look all neat and symmetrical, it's a long reach to get to the switch on the grinder, but I think I can deal with it.

Yes, I bought a 'cappuccino shaker' about a week ago.  I love it.

Today's Daily Photo:

3 parts of this photo.  1 - it's at a gig (it's Saturday, after all), during the speeches.  2 - I'm wearing my new leopard print stockings, purchased yesterday, and feeling rather daring.  3 - I have my violin back!  Just before the staff concert, the fingerboard started coming off.  Yes, that was 2 months ago and I only just got him repaired (not by my regular violin repairer, who's on leave for a while).  I love having my violin back.  The other violin I play is lovely and I am so fortunate to be able to play her, but she's not mine, and I'm very conscious of her story when playing.  But my violin is my violin, and it feels so right playing him again.  And yes, the other violin is female (a 'strong woman' according to her maker), and mine is male.  A very French male.