Phase 1: Week 3--Cookbooks
This is an area in my kitchen that I consider to be useful AND beautiful. Will would be proud of me.
When we moved into this house, this area of the kitchen was essentially a walk through area. The kitchen is pretty small with minimal storage, so I wanted to make use of this spot. I found a thinnish cabinet that fit the bill. (It came from Ames. Does anyone remember Ames?)
I tacked lace on the inside of the upper doors and glued wallpaper to the back of the middle area. There is an outlet behind it, so it became a place to put the coffee maker. I decided to give it a more "bistro" feel (well, it feels that way to me!) by getting some linoleum tiles from the dollar store and cutting them to fit the "counter" area. The fake wood there was starting to show signs of water damage from the coffee maker, so the tiles also provided a cover for that. It's also very cleanable!
Underneath is my often used plastics, blender, popcorn maker, thermoses, etc. They're organized now!
On top is where I keep the coffee accouterments and my cookbooks. I used to have about four times that amount of books. I purged down to half. THEN, with this decluttering phase, I reduced it by another fourth.
Here's what I have kept--the ones I actually use. All other recipes come from the internet. I keep my constantly used recipes in my Home Management Notebook (another time, another post). I'll list what I have in case anyone is interested.
- Nourishing Traditions
- Better Homes New Cook Book (Wedding present in 1985)
- Crepes Cook Book
- The Best of Kitchen Basics (FANTASTIC book)
- Tea-Time at the Inn (Lots of yummy tea recipes)
- The Fat Flush Fitness Plan
- Body Ecology Diet
- Eat Fat, Lose Fat
- The Fast Track One-Day Detox Diet
- The Fat Flush Plan
- Lazy About Grilling
- Healthy Crockery Cookery (A classic)
- High Fiber, High Flavor (Excellent recipes)
- The Fat Flush Cookbook
- Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Get Real Meals (Just got this one)
- Roasting (Another excellent book)
- The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking (For camping)
- The Complete Book of Food Counts (Everyone needs this!)
Wow--I should really use those diet books since I have so many! I lost 23 pounds the last time I did that. I found them again, though...
3 comments:
I love that cabinet! It's so cute! I have one of those teeny 4-cup Mr. Coffee's that I only use for tea water...but seeing what you have going on here, maybe I need to find something a little more fancy for it than my kitchen counter...
That is a great cabinet. I've been looking for something similar to fit in the last little space we have in the kitchen. A little more cabinet space would make a big difference.
Cookbooks are a real problem for me. It's impractical/impossible to really use all the cookbooks I have. And I've managed to winnow the collection in recent decluttering efforts. But I still have more than will fit in one place in the kitchen. Plus, I've got a file of recipes I've clipped out of magazines in the file cabinet. Your neat stand of cookbooks is something to aspire to, indeed.
One last thing...I love the idea of having the coffee in a separate area like your little cabinet. Makes it easier for folks to get refills without having to step into the frenzy of the kitchen.
I love cookbooks. I buy them and then wind up using recipes I found online. I really should stop spending the money. Sigh.
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