Welcome to my kitchen!

Penny at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen is hosting her second annual Kitchen Reveal. I'd love to peek into your kitchens to see where all of you come up with the wonderful recipes I see on your blogs and thought it would be fun to participate this year. So, welcome to my kitchen... where Karen cooks!

Here's the kitchen from the dining room. This is a one-butt kitchen. More than that and it gets crowded real quick.

These stand-alone cupboards and microwave stand were here when we moved into the house. They were white and my gardener painted them green this summer. They sure do help with storage, but one of these days, I'd like to have some built-ins in their place. 

The ivory refrigerator was also here when we moved in, and eventually I'll replace it (and the microwave) to match the other appliances. Yes, the front of my refrigerator is always that clutter-free. I keep a calendar, a freezer inventory and a few pictures on the side of the fridge. The only thing on the front though, is a little rooster magnet that my former boss brought to me when she visited Portugal.

This bottom cabinet holds most of the things I need for baking... salt, corn meal, brown sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, dried fruit, honey, oats, raisins, etc. The top shelf holds my gardener's crackers and snacks.

This top shelf holds pasta and rice. The bottom shelf is for beans and canned goods. I don't really buy a lot of canned goods, as you can see. I would rather buy fresh fruits and vegetables. I have recipes and tips that I've taken from magazines taped to the inside of the cupboards.

This top corner cupboards holds all my spices on a turntable, which makes it so much easier to find what I need. An inventory of the spices is taped to the door, so I know what I have. You can see we keep the toaster here and also the coffee. I think we're the only people in Montana who drink decaf!

I love these pull-out drawers. It makes fighting with the pans a little easier.

And because there's no room in the kitchen for appliances, I keep them on a shelf in the office. My mixer, dutch oven, blender, food processor, mini-chopper, salad spinner, extra serving pieces, and way down at the end are where I keep my cookbooks.

When we moved into this house, there was an electric stove. We had a gas line run up to the kitchen and bought this stove. I love it. It has two power burners, one simmer burner and two regular burners. I keep my Wusthof knives above the stove for easy access. No, my counters are not always this clutter-free :)

My Mom always liked Martha Stewart and how particular and organized she was. So, like Martha, she kept her dish soap in a decorative bottle on the sink. I do the same. Yes, I always buy green dish soap so it coordinates with the kitchen. Hehe. Love my gooseneck faucet that makes it so easy to wash big pans.

I keep the sugar and flour containers handy by the microwave. Since I spend so much time in the kitchen, I keep pictures of my family there. From left to right, the small picture is my daughter at 4 years old. Behind that is a picture of my daughter and son-in-law. The middle picture is my now 4-year-old granddaughter Kayla and is my favorite picture of her when she was about 7 months old and found her toes! The picture in back is a favorite one of my gardener standing on an abandoned railroad track in the desert. And finally, the picture on the right is of Emily, my now 8-month-old granddaughter.

And because no kitchen is complete without a kitchen gadgets, here's a peek at one of the kitchen drawers with every gadget imaginable. I would organize it, but I think I'd rather go make some cookies.

Thanks for coming along on my kitchen tour. Be sure to visit Penny's blog on December 1 to see who else participated!