Week 10 – and the kitchen nightmare is over

Finally our kitchen is finished. Starting on 16 November, I was starting to think the building work would never be over. Originally we’d planned to complete everything by mid-December, so that was completely unrealistically optimistic, but I still didn’t expect it to take this long.

But not only are we finished, but we’re delighted with the results of our seemingly never-ending project. So at least even though it took a long time it was worth the wait.

Andrew chose three things in the kitchen: the television, the wine rack, and the American style fridge-freezer. The rest was left to me, and it really is a dream for me to be able to cook in here … and for Andrew to watch telly in here.

I always wanted a proper range oven, and this beauty is everything I had hoped for. I haven’t even had to use the smaller oven on the right yet, but I am loving it already.

(apologies for the non-styled kitchen shots … I will try and take some fancy ones of the whole place when I don’t have washing on the radiators and am not in the middle of cooking dinner!).

My pantry cupboards are huge, and perfect for storing my ever-expanding stash of cooking goodies.

The fridge freezer is not only perfect for Andrew’s ice-making escapades (the perfect excuse for him to drink more rum and coke and baileys over ice!) but also it’s big enough to keep our weekly shop inside and still feel like there is room for more food.

With our new dining table in the conservatory, we have the space we always wanted for leisurely meals and chats. Our kitchen was used properly for the first time when our Canadian friends came for dinner – a mere 30 seconds after we finished building the table. Would it surprise you to hear that by the end of that night Andrew had tipsily spilt a glass of red wine down our newly painted wall?

Luckily it’s not so difficult to re-paint a wall which is freshly painted anyway, so we quickly remedied that little mistake … fingers crossed we won’t have any more little accidents (Andrew!).

Pottering in the kitchen has always been my favourite hobby, and whilst we have had working elements for some time, it’s only now that I can use the kitchen as it is meant to be used. So I have been able to bake (peanut butter and jelly cookies):

Stew, with a St David’s Day cawl:

Brunched, with bagels, cream cheese and salmon:

And regressed to childhood treats with some cornflake cakes (wow, great to remember how delicious these treats are!):

This week my menu reflects the additional time I can spend de-stressing in the kitchen. For packed lunches this week I’ll be making cauliflower and macaroni cheese thanks to fellow blogger Dannii Martin’s new book ‘Hungry Healthy Happy’ (review coming soon):

And then the following each evening:

• Monday – cheese and chive burgers which we picked up in Sainsburys as an impulse purchase (£90 of ‘impulse buys’ at Sainsburys is why I usually shop online) with homemade chips
• Tuesday – fish cakes (another impulse buy) with vegetables
• Wednesday – baked med cod from Danni”s book
• Thursday – sausages (guess what … impulse buy) with jacket potatoes and vegetables
• Friday – plaice with capers and lemon
• Saturday – as it’s England v Wales at the six nations, Andrew wants Welsh food, so we’re going for Anglesey eggs (bumped from last week due to too many late hours at the office) and gammon
• Sunday – I think a roast dinner has to be in order although it does depend on how hungover Andrew happens to be (which will depend somewhat on the results of the match.

Any nice plans on your side?

(Andrew’s wine rack, with Trampy eating his dinner)