Bert's Pizza Oven

A few weeks ago, we decided to 'test' Bert's new pizza oven. He has never, ever made a pizza  in his life and he didn't make it now either. 

The oven is obviously meant to be used outdoors and the fuel used are wood pellets.

A torch is used to light the pellets and when they've caught on you just fill up with more pellets.

 As soon as the pellets are glowing and the oven is hot I started assembling the pizza. Ah yes, I always have a well topped pizza.

If you do this too early, it won't slide off the pizza peel.

Close the oven.

 Ticktock ticktock ticktock ticktock ... x 90  or thereabouts 

Ready !

Next time we won't be putting the oven in such a windy spot. The flames licked the pizza a tad too much. 

Very tasty, nonetheless. 

Patricia xxx...x

A Girl's Gotta Do What a Girl's Gotta Do.

 That girl was me (old hag more like). And what did I do ?

This.

The kitchen counter tops look (almost) like new again.

A good clean and scrub, before I oiled the wood. It is something that should be done twice a year, but we've let one year slip by.  It was high time.

We use Woca Oil from Denmark and it works very well.  So far we've had no stubborn stains from normal (and more intense) kitchen use. 

Since our worktop is Douglas fir and I don't want it to turn yellow or orange I use the white oil, which gives a nice patina.

The weather was fabulous and I worked with doors and windows open.

The dogs enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. Millie had been lying most of the day on that spot, looking, relaxing and sleeping. I say 'most of the day' because she had a break when Bert took them out for a stroll over the land.

And that was my weekend. Now I can look forward to a relaxing week ahead ;-)

Patricia xxx...x

A Kitchen - The Reveal

This kitchen in our forever home (for now, at least) had to be a place where I wanted to be in, cook in, entertain in, relax in. And it had to open up the house to the stunning view outside.

Stunning view. Tick.

Want to be in here. Tick. Like to cook in. Entertain in. Tick. Tick.

Relaxing. Tick !

When we moved in (April 2013) the kitchen was much smaller. And while maybe trendy and in vogue it wasn't the kitchen for me. You know, me being the serious cook that I am !

Not enough cupboard space or work surface. Not to speak about the positioning of cooker/sink. 

Having to manoeuvre, with a pot full of boiling hot water and potatoes to be drained, from stove to sink, no fun !

The porcelain floor tiles of a highly polished and super white nature where not only a dick to clean, they felt cold and made me feel as if I was forever on an ice skate rink. Lethal !

Never mind. I've kept a tile. And this is what I use it for.

After drawings being made up by the architect and planning permission granted the works started in earnest in July 2014.

The ground works were the scariest part, I found.

The walls went up, roof on, windows in. Plasterers came and went. Flooring in. And the painting could get underway in November. Clémence and Hugo, our fantastic French volunteers at the time made short shrift of that job.

Not only did they do a great job with the painting, but they assembled all the IKEA cabinets, while a friend of ours, who is a joiner/carpenter placed them and added the worktops.

We went for IKEA cabinets, because we like IKEA and we've had plenty of IKEA kitchens before.  

IKEA ? Can I have my bonus now ?

Our choice was the LAXARBY door and drawer front because it has a solid wood frame with a wood veneer panel.

I didn't like the white stained look that seemed to have a pink tint shining through and thus I set to work and painted the whole lot with Autentico Chalk Paint - eggshell. I used Swedish Blue for the island cabinets and Ice Cream for all the others.

In the above photo collage (top right) you can see the difference in colour. The two top drawers are painted, the bottom one is not.

The worktop came from the local sawmill and is Douglas Fir.

I oiled this with white Danish oil, suitable for kitchen worktops.

The floor tiles are Travertine, laid in a Versailles pattern.

I am the proud owner of a double sink under the window to throw dirty dishes into  The one on the island is extremely well positioned to drain boiled potatoes with ease. I also use it for washing vegetables, etc.

And there you have it. Our kitchen, which I started using fully a couple of weeks before Christmas last year. 

Hope you like the result.

Patricia xxx...x

Glimpses of a Kitchen - Follow Up

Revealing just a little more of our almost one year old kitchen. You can find the first preview here

The cooker has moved with us from Belgium, where we were going to install it. But then decided against that plan, as moving house and country was on the cards again.

The cooker hood was a stainless steel contraption that we reused from the 'old' kitchen here. We boxed it in and painted it, to fit better with the style of cooker and kitchen as a whole.

The kitchen island

The worktops are Douglas fir from the local sawmill, treated with white Danish oil, suitable for kitchen surfaces. I would hate it if it turned into a nasty yellowy orange hue.

The place where I spend most of my time. The kitchen table, fabricated from a slab of macrocarpa  from same sawmill, but bought way back when we lived here first time round.

The coffee station. Ahem  Don't you just hate it when your interior is being photobombed by  electrical cables and dry dog kibble.

Where the kitchen used to be, behind door included.

Which is now the pantry. Yes, I tidied up for the 'photo shoot'.

Make sure to visit again for the great reveal.

Patricia xxx...x

Glimpses of a Kitchen

The view from our kitchen is its best feature.
This is not the kitchen that was here when we moved in two and a half years ago. Oh no. I hated the kitchen that was here. It was style over substance and even then, it wasn't my style. The layout was clumsy and was only meant to attract potential buyers who never cook a meal from scratch.  There was a wine fridge, though. Says it all really (well, it does to me).
Last year, in August we had an addition built to the existing house and we opened up the kitchen considerably. It was late November before we could actually 'move in' and start using the extension.
The kitchen is spacious and the panoramic view of the estuary and mountains make it feel even more so.

Not wanting to reveal this room from the onset, I will give you some glimpses of my cooking paradise. In the photos above are the fruit bowl and my quick-grab ingredient bowl that grace the kitchen island.

The chalk board. It is my shopping list for the things I might forget on a normal shopping trip.

The spice drawer. For the small spice jars.

Two more drawers with larger jars and pots of spices, but also for flour, lentils etc.

We've got 41 drawers in the kitchen , besides a few cabinets with doors,  That seems like a lot, but look how easy it is to get to a mug for your tea or coffee.

Be it in a drawer or cabinet, the plastic containers are always a mess. 

The food processors. No they are not hiding at the back of a cupboard. They get used a lot.

Millie's favourite drawer.  The doggy treats. If she could open it by herself, she would.

Ah. Butter wouldn't melt..

Till next time.

Patricia xxx...x