Abasket, check this out:
Thanks BB, I pinned that to my gardening board - I might try it for a few of the bulbs!
I store my garlic in one of those little garlic pots with holes. I keep the pot in the same space as my frequently used small appliances. My kitchen cabinets have a counter level compartment (door folds up) to hide appliances. The only items in plain site are the coffee maker, coffee grinder and knife block.
My garlic lasts a long time. Bananas are a different story.
@abasket I had one of those garlic pots linked in your post (until it broke). It worked well but I stored it in the pantry instead of on the counter.
Bananas can be refrigerated once they reach your ideal ripeness. The skins will blacken but the fruit will hold better/longer than left on the counter. We also freeze them if we can’t eat them all and they are smoothie ready.
Only appliance out is the Keurig. Only other items on my counter are a fruit bowl, and hand soap and a paper towel holder by the sink. I would have the paper towels mounted, but I don’t have a good spot. I’ve gotten to where I can’t stand anything on my counters.
Toaster oven, coffee maker. Ceramic vase holding cooking utensil, knife block and bottles of olive oil/balsamic vinegar/hot sauce, red wine, etc., that I use all the time when cooking right next to stove. Another counter has a few cookbooks. a basket I keep bread in and a pretty cernamic tea pot.
Island has a big bowl in middle where I keep some fruit, onions, garlic, etc. I use garlic all the time so it never has a chance to go bad. One of my dogs can now jump from one of the sofa’s onto the island so I have to put the bowl on another counter when I leave the house.
I keep roll of paper towels under the sink but mostly use dish towels for most things.
“One of my dogs can now jump from one of the sofa’s onto the island”
Wow!
I’d like to push the sofa back a foot or two and see how that goes. >:)
Cant. It’s as far away as possible without making family room look lopsided (I have another larger sofa across from it.)
I am inspired to try to use more cloth towels for cleaning up. I like using dish clothes for dishes more than sponges these days. I am just thinking about the times I clean up raw chicken juice or raw eggs etc. I have no problem having a bunch of plain towels and just tossing them into the wash. As long as they don’t get disgusting in the hamper!
I use a lot of garlic, but it seems I am cooking less. Usually it lasts for a few weeks to a month or more, but on occasion I have to toss some cloves. Make sure to buy fresh heads. I have always kept garlic in an open bowl on a shelf or the counter, as I like items for stove top cooking to be quick to grab and use. Usually it is in a dark corner of an open shelf or counter. Today I felt some heads in a store that were already dried out, though looked perfect. Smash whole cloves with the side of a cleaver and then they are easy to peel. Also, avoid the bleached chinese garlic with the roots removed. http://www.spicesinc.com/p-3758-why-we-chose-california-over-chinese-garlic.aspx
On occasion, I chop more than I need and put it in a glass bowl in the fridge covered with olive oil, but use within a few days.
@surfcity As a heavy user of dish towels and rags for cleaning, I do wash them more than once a week, probably 2-3x. Laundry room is next to the kitchen so easy to run a small load. If it gives you comfort, dish towels are what professional kitchens use predominately.
They make terra cotta orchid pots that have holes on the sides as well as the usual hole on the bottom. Would make a great garlic holder, one that is larger and cheaper than the commercial ones. I bought one at Home Depot last week for an orchid and I think I’ll go back for more!
My ex had worked in commercial kitchens and wiped everything down with towels. I was initially appalled, as was brought up to see dish towels as something to be treated with respect. I got over that, and now use old or funky dishtowels for everything, and just throw them down into my (unfinished) basement to later wash in hot water. The nice ones are hung for dish drying.
Fun thread. Thanks @abasket.
On my counters: a bread basket on the long end of the L. On the short end: the KitchenAid, electric tea kettle, french press, small grinder, jar of loose leaf tea, jar of coffee beans, and a half full bottle of wine. It annoys me to have this stuff on the counter but we use it every single day and we don’t have much cupboard space so on the counter it stays. Plus it all looks nice.
Garlic: I keep it loose in the pantry with the onions. I prefer fresh garlic and I love garlic but I also keep a jar of minced garlic in the fridge for when I just don’t want to be bothered with chopping.
So back to appliances… When we remodeled the kitchen several years ago, I refuse to let them take away my appliance garage. It may be "out of style) but it holds my smoothie maker, the small toaster , keurig, etc. The Regular coffeepot ( which rarely gets used) and the toaster oven are the only appliances on the counter. There is a basket for fruit ripening, and today there happens to be several bushels of fresh fruit from the farm we visited yesterday.
We remodeled our kitchen two years ago. The knife block was thrown out and I now have a knife drawer. I was tired of that thing tipping over all of the time. The knife block with steak knives went to charity since we hadn’t eaten steak in 20 years. It seems odd I kept cleaning around it all those years.
For other stuff I have a container of cooking utensils, a paper towel holder, and a very sad looking basil plant.
Thank you upthread for the uses of a toaster oven. I didn’t know they got hot enough to make pizza. I prefer to make calzones.
No one else has a scale on their kitchen counter? I use mine almost every day to cook. I always weigh ingredients rather than measure when I bake.
We still have the knife block out. Forgot to mention that.
@abasket wrote
thank you for starting this thread-it’s so fun to read about what other people do-it’s like a peek into houses :). I think I’m going to put the toaster in the pantry-I can’t remember the last time we used it!
@lookingforward wrote
In our house what we affectionately refer to as The Bowl Of Death resides on the kitchen table. Typically it has avocados, bananas and citrus fruit in it, along with a tomato if they’re in season. At least half the time the fruit will go bad before I can eat it all, hence the name.
@greenwitch wrote
Aaaaahhh! OMG! faints. When we lived in Miami in an old duplex I was afraid to open the lower cabinets because it was like Bourbon street for cockroaches under there-party 24/7. Ugh, I hate roaches so much, I’m so glad we don’t have them in this house (it has an in-wall pesticide system. Die bugs, die!).
@doschicos wrote
I use ours constantly. It’s a good one from costco, and you can cook a 9x11 brownie pan in it. I have a big gas viking range, and in the summertime when it’s 97 degrees out, I don’t want to heat up the whole house, so I’ll bake in the toaster oven instead if it’s simple stuff like brownies. I also make tuna melts in them (my husband’s favorite sandwich), reheat pizza, and toast bagels.
I also have paper towels but rarely use them. I save them for the true gross-out things like hamburger juice and dog accidents. Mostly have towels that I toss in their own basket, which goes in the wash on the “sanitize” cycle with bleach. My laundry room is just off the kitchen, which I love and if I can possibly manage it, every house I live in will have laundry near the kitchen.
@VeryHappy wrote
If you cut me open I think I might bleed garlic, I like cooking with it so much :). I buy the elephant garlic (I like the flavor better and it’s less peeling) and I keep it in the fridge in the original natural wrapper in the butter drawer. I pull out a clove, peel it and chop it when I need one. Once I bought the giant jar of minced garlic from costco-it smells SO GROSS to me that I had to throw it out. My MIL thought I might have gotten a bad one and I smelled the one in her house-nope. It’s whatever they use to preserve the garlic in that makes it smell super wrong to me!
What’s on my counters?
Appliances:
Land line (stupid jack is on the counter wall, so I’m stuck with it there until we eventually ditch the land line for good)
Toaster (I think I’m going to put it in the pantry, we never use it)
Toaster oven (use it constantly)
Electric tea kettle (like @thumper1 , it would go with me to a desert island since I use it constantly for tea)
Kitchenaid mixer (or as I call it, the Carb Enabler). I make a lot of banana bread (see Bowl of Death, above), and waffles.
Non appliances:
2 pretty plates stacked behind 2 cool looking Pfaltzgraff containers (I love the Pistoulet line so much!):
http://images.replacements.com/images/images2/china/P/P0000205154S0493T2.jpg
a retro “Bread” container where bread goes to die.
a ring holder by the soap, and a soap dispenser by the sink.
Knife block (although like others I really don’t like it-gets dusty).
I like clean surfaces, like Patsy says on Absolutely Fabulous: "Surfaces, darling! Surfaces!!!
My new refrigerator dispenses hot water so I don’t need an electric kettle.