Is your kitchen showing signs of aging and looking dull? It’s time for some revamping! Since kitchens are the most important room in every house many people want the best of the best for their kitchens. But sometimes you need to make your kitchen look new without even spending loads of money on it. No matter what the event is, your kitchen is the place for the meals and entertaining guests, so making sure it looks new and fresh is important.
This shop and recipe for Oreo dirt desserts or chocolate mint puddings has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias We have been busy planting in the garden and to celebrate this I decided to make some Oreo dirt desserts or chocolate mint puddings. We have made dirt desserts with jelly worms in the past (I was first introduced to them in California) and this time I want to make them a little more adult.
We are now over two weeks in to #Crocktober and we have been making the most of our slow cooker crockpot. As a busy mum I love my slow cooker and it is perfect for family meals. Slow cooker jacket potatoes
Next week is child safety week. What is that you ask, well it is an annual campaign run by The Child Accident Prevention Trust who are the UK leading charity in this field. This year is focussing battling morning mayhem.
I love my kitchen. It is eight years old and starting to show it’s age now. I am sure that the quality of kitchens they put in new houses is not very good at all, but the one thing it lacks is storage and display space. So last year MadDad bought me these fab shelves from Ikea.
I am a simple soul I think. I do not crave expensive diamonds or flash cars. Instead I have things in my life that make me happy there and then. I have learned over the years that the small stuff is what keeps me ticking over. I was recently invited to Twinings and this really made my heart sing. Anyone who knows me will understand why. I love tea. I am a tea monster, but I am something of an old fashioned tea drinker as I still use loose leaf tea (my granddad did and so did my parents). Then something rather serendipitous happened and Sage asked to review their Tea […]
I say boys, but really these tips are great for baking with any child. My children have been helping me in the kitchen from when they could sit in a high chair. I tried to involve them from a young age, even if it was just giving them some pastry to play with. I wanted them to feel comfortable in the kitchen and be involved in preparing their food. Baking is a great exercise for children, it involves lots of different skills such as reading recipes, measuring and weighing ingredients, following instructions, motor skills (mixing), measuring time and also is a great way to connect them with the food that they […]
As I am a Tefal Innovator, I was sent the brand new Tefal Optigrill to test. This is a revolutionary new grill that can detect how thick your meat is and tells you when it is cooked to rare, medium or well done.
steak
We like:
It does what is says it will – We had three different cuts of meat all cooked to different specifications and it was delicious.
It takes the guesswork out of cooking – I love that it has an audible beep as well as a visual identification when your meat gets to a certain specification
The cooking plates are removable and dishwasher safe. _ no mess, no stress and no burning your fingers cleaning it.
Large drip pan – We tried burgers on the Tefal Optigrill today and they were either fatty, but the drip tray more than coped and it fits snuggly to the machine
It is versatile with settings for fish, sausages, burgers, bacon, chicken and a manual setting for vegetables. My mushroom today was divine
We weren’t keen:
At £130 is isn’t a cheep bit of kit, however, I have had three of the competitors grills in over two years. So if this lasts then it will be much better value for money than its competitor
It has a large footprint. I know that this is something we will use regularly, so didn’t want to put it in a cupboard, but it takes up two thirds of the top of my microwave where it now lives!
Overview:
The Optigrill has such a familiar look and feel to me. My mum had a tefal grill with removable interchangeable hot plates for over 30 years. She used it a lot and I am hoping that I get just as much use out of this as she did. The grill plate is a great size and could easily cook six burgers on it and is perfect for a family of four. I am looking forward to trying out tuna steaks on it and fish next week.
Don’t just take my word for it, see what my fellow panelists think of the Optigrill
As I have said I have a love of mid century and Orla Kiely has a great interpretation of it. I love her tins and fell hard for her melamine range. The tray is a great size and the handles makes it perfect for the boys to carry. The containers are going to get a lot of use from storing baking to summer picnics.
I adore Camila Prada’s designs, they are clearly the love children of Tove Jansson and Orla Kiely. We use a Koko storage jar as a sugar dish and it makes me smile everytime I use it. I love functional peices that look good and work for us and rather than having the same things as everyone else I am happy to save up for the item I want or ask for it for Christmas!
Most of you will know by know that I am a tea monster too and when Not on the High Street offered me a gift I decided to get a Linda Bloomfield tea pot. I choose the handmade 2 cup size and it is reassuringly heavy and pours beautifully. It is a delight to use and makes drinking tea even more enjoyable. MadDad things is looks rather breast like and it is delightfully tactile
After losing yet another lamp shade and cup to a ball in the house, we decided we needed some family rules and Find me a gift were happy to help and sent me a personalised family rules print. My rules are: no balls in the house, try new things, use kind words, mind your manners, do your best, laugh out loud, be happy, share, enjoy the little things and keep your promises. What would yours be?
I am planning a video of my updated kitchen as soon as a few last things are finished and in place.
Get the Basics Right in Your Kitchen
We would all love to have a more impressive kitchen but what if you don’t even know where to start? Will you need to spend a fortune on completely overhauling the place?
Before you start splashing out big sums of money on expensive changes it is best to think of the basics which can make the difference.
The Right Kind of Lighting
The type of lighting you use in the kitchen is vital to making it a pleasant room to be in and to cook in. Your first step should be to check out some ideas using chandeliers, recessed lighting, under cabinet lights and all of the other kinds which are available now. Once you know what the options are you can work out which ones would fit in best to your room. In general terms, a mixture of different types of lighting is best, although this might not be the case in a particularly small kitchen.
The Pots and Pans
Of course, the kitchen is a room we cook in and this means that you need think about the basics required for doing this right. A good example here comes with the saucepans from Lakeland. Buying a few of these will give you practical pieces of cookware and will also ensure that you have attractive pots in the room as well. You will find other ideas for useful basic items on the site at Lakeland.co.uk. By stocking up well on these things you will make it a nicer room at little cost.
The Colour of the Walls
There are some highly popular colours used in many kitchens and others which aren’t so highly recommended. The exact tone you would be best using will be determined by factors such as the style of the kitchen and the size of the room. If you aren’t sure which colour to use then a good idea is to buy a few of those little sample pots and paint small areas of the walls with different colours. After you have lived with the different tones for a few days it should a lot easier to work out which one to choose for the whole room.
The Space
One of the most common complaints which people make about their kitchens is around the lack of space. If your kitchen is too small or cramped then cooking is probably more of a problem than it should be. This might seem like an issue without a solution in some cases it could be but there are some tips to help you get a bigger working space in most types of kitchen. The first and simplest one is to clear out anything you don’t use on a daily basis. This can make a lot of space and help the room look better too.
So I was really excited to be sent the Morphy Richards Intellisteam, especially as all my vegetables are ready for harvesting in the garden. The intellisteam is unique as it has three compartments in which you can steam different foods and you can also set the compartments for different times and the steamer will ensure that they all finish at the same time, which means your food will be perfectly cooked and ready to serve at the same time.
