and kat, don't you cook somewhere, too?

I have become obsessive and a little insecure about making sure my English spelling, punctuation, and grammar are always correct. I am sure that they are not, but since I am now a teacher and taking colored pens with flourish to everything my kids write, I feel obliged to hold up my end of the deal and be damn good at English. At any rate, I am particularly aware of commas and am trying to use them appropriately and when grammatically correct, but I suspect that I often over- or under-do it (not that that's a word). Also, my brain is a little fried as I have graded 54 papers, 36 tests, 36 test corrections in the past 5 days and still have 18 papers to go to finish out this batch of assignments and get new ones in on Friday. I now understand why teachers desks are always full - I have three full trays of papers, stacks for each section and assignment, plus a range of textbooks that I use for lesson planning and fiction books that I have for my students to check out from me for outside reading. But this isn't my personal blog, so let's get back to the kitchen.

In the previous entry, Katie posted pictures of her kitchen so I thought I would do the same. I also think I might follow this up with another entry reflecting back on SK recipes that I have made and linking up. My sister commented on a post asking for more of my actual recipes, so I edited some posts and added a couple at the bottom of them (Courtney's scone recipe and Pia's tomato sauce), and will be sure to include recipes or links to future posts.

Here are some images of the Pink House family kitchen. I love the house that the school provided for the 4 of us on campus, even though my room has the quasi-faulty heater. It is a very homey space and I am instantly at ease and comfortable as soon as I cross our threshold. I really love our kitchen and while I miss my granite countertops from Morocco, both for utility and aesthetics, I like this kitchen much more for its wealth of appliances and the space and presence of our dining table in the kitchen. Without further ado:

Our kitchen... 

pretty straightforward - electric oven/stove, sink, microwave (to my left on my roommate's shelves), the dryer is the appliance opposite

the housekeeper came today and I cleaned up especially well after dinner for the picture, but it generally looks fairly nice but maybe with a little more evidence of our cooking exploits (each of us has a dinner that we cook one night a week plus Abby and I often bake)

Pantry that I share with Kristina - 

top two shelves are mine and in the fridge, I have the second shelf and left bottom drawer

My pantry shelves house things like:

• flour
• oats
• dark brown sugar (light brown isn't available here)
• dried papaya (for snacking)
• rice cakes
• honey
• homemade jam from Koprivshtitsa
• chai tea
• sugar
• yeast
• rice
• pasta
• granola

My fridge has:

• butter, several unsalted for cooking and 1 salted for my toast (oh, what an indulgence!)
• jelly/jam
• greek yogurt
• eggs
• mustard
• pesto
• cyrene cheese (Bulgarian cheese similar to feta)
• fresh basil, sage
• parmesean
• bread

I don't really keep that much in the house - I shop once a week and buy only what I need to make my weekly dinner, anything I plan on baking, and my daily breakfast and lunch. I keep flour, sugar, oats, and honey stocked so I can bake, but most things I buy on an as needed basis.

Another view of the kitchen, from my pantry (my GRE study book on the table, *sigh*)

Like I mentioned above, we have an electronic stove and oven (I think I am a bigger fan of gas, but I am adjusting), microwave (though I rarely use it and don't plan on starting, I found it easy to live without), and a lot of appliances after years of single girls moving in and out of the house - immersion blender, a variety of knives (though I generally stick with the ones Courtney sent me in Morocco), a rolling pin (I bought it because I cook enough with dough that using wine bottles was driving me crazy), slotted spoons and whisks and spatulas, four cutting boards, an electric tea kettle (I never would have suspected that I would use it so often), and many other little doodads that I find thrilling after the dearth of appliances in Morocco but no one else would be as excited to see.