Category — Kitchen Supplies

Aimee Wimbush Borque from Simple Bites uploaded this amazing recipe along with images for Homemade Blueberry Syrup. Jams and preserves, yes, but I never thought to make syrup! Imagine pancakes and waffles on winter mornings and the familiar summer taste of blueberries to remind you of warm weather past!

Homemade Blueberry Syrup

Makes about 4 cups.

* 5 cups organic blueberries, washed
* 3 cups water
* 1 cup Turbinado sugar, firmly packed (or white sugar)
* 1 organic lemon, whole, washed

1. Using a sharp paring knife, peel three or four strips of lemon peel from the lemon. Skin should be about 1/2 inch wide and not have too much of the bitter pith or white part on it. Then juice the lemon, and set both zest and juice aside.
2. Place blueberries and 1 cup of the water in a medium pot. Don’t worry about stems or leaves; they will be strained out later. Using a potato masher, crush the berries.

3. Over medium-high heat, bring the berries and water to a boil, then lower the temperature to medium-low. Simmer berries for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. They will darken considerably.
4. Remove pot from heat and ladle berries into a fine sieve set over a heat-proof bowl or measuring cup. Using the back of a smaller ladle, press on the berry solids to extract as much juice as possible. Discard solids.

5. Wash out your pot, then add the remaining 2 cups of water, lemon peel (not juice yet), and the sugar. Bring to a boil and boil rapidly for about 15 minutes until the mixture thickens (or reaches 225°F).
6. Add blueberry juice and 2 tablespoons lemon juice and stir to combine. Boil another minute or two. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Remove lemon zest.
7. Using a funnel, pour syrup into clean jars. Top with lid and store in the refrigerator for up to six months.

Serve the syrup or honey table top with a really chic Honey and Syrup Dispenser.

WMF Kult Honey and Syrup Dispenser.

My husband I gave our kitchen a facelift this year.  We were on a tight budget so we were pretty limited as to what we could do.  We decided to replace the truly ugly black and white swirled vinyl  floor with a beautiful slate grey porcelain tile.  We also replaced the old range with a gorgeous new stainless model from Sears, added a hood that vented outside (the old hood just re-circulated the air into the room), replaced some plastic closet doors with some nice shuttered doors, and generally tried to liven the place up. 

We didn’t replace the cabinets because we couldn’t really afford to.  The only problem is that we still don’t have enough storage space in our kitchen.  So we’ve been shopping for a new kitchen cart that will match our old cabinets but still be able to transition when we eventually do upgrade. 

This is one of my favorites so far:

Kitchen Cart With Granite Top, $499 at Target

I really like this kitchen cart from Target.com.  It has two big cabinets on either side with 2 shelves a piece in them, which are good for storing large items like mixing bowls or your blender.  Plus it has four drawers in the certain for storing smaller items like silverware.  There is also a towel rack on the side and a big granite countertop.  The whole thing is on wheels which makes it perfect if you want to use it sometimes as a kitchen island and other times have against a wall.

I am not certain if we’ll want to go with a dark granite when we replace our countertops, which would be my only hesitation to buying this cart.  However, I think that having a granite top is much nicer if you want to use the cart for prep work.  I’ve seen a lot of kitchen carts with plain wood tops, and I don’t think that’s ideal for food prep.  I am still going to shop around a bit, but I think this cart would make a great addition to any kitchen, and may end up in mine!

Sometimes, people come up with the darndest things. I was looking for some cotton kitchen towels, when lo and behold, I saw this beauty!

Cat Kitchen Towels set of 2

It may be because it’s nearing the end of the week, but I literally burst into a fit of laughter! I love kitties, but the black cat on the cat kitchen towel looks hilariously surprised–I’m giggling as I write this! And Poodle Kitchen Towels–such regal looking animals don’t belong on a towel!

Poodle Kitchen Towel

I didn’t go with those two, but with these Williams and Sonoma Striped Dijon Towels instead, but I wish I would have bought the Cat and Poodle Kitchen towels just for the fun of it.

Williams and Sonoma Set of 4 Striped Dijon Kitchen Towels

Okay, I love corn–so why is it that I had never heard of a Corn Zipper before? I admit this is kind of a wacky idea, but I can see how beneficial this could be for someone like me who would put corn on my salad, and in my soup, and maybe swim in it if I got the chance. OXO makes a nifty Corn Zipper that catches all the kernels so you’re not on your hands and knees cleaning up a corny mess.

OXO Corn Stripper

There are some different Corn Zippers that resemble vegetable peelers. Store your kernels in some sort of food storage set, ’cause you’re going to have a lot of kernels.

OXO® 10-Piece Pop Container Set.

We just renovated our kitchen not that long ago, and now that we’ve changed the color scheme of the floor and walls, we realized that some of our kitchen accessories, like our pot holders and oven mitts, no longer matched with our new kitchen design.

It sounds kind of funny, but having those items clash and look cheap in our new swank kitchen just seemed wrong.  I couldn’t picture using a busted pot holder to withdraw delicious dinners from my gorgeous new stainless steel range .

So we’ve updated our kitchen accessories now to match our new kitchen, which is blue with a grey slate floor.  Do you like what I picked?

This Calphalon oven mitt is available at Bloomingdales.  For $15 this is a great oven mitt – silicone coated, machine washable, extra long arm and good thumb grip.  Plus you can get the matching pot holder so it makes a perfect set!

I love the anticipation of opening a great bottle of wine, but without the Rabbit Wine Shower Funnel , I have to let the wine aerate and sit for twenty minutes to open up. What a disappointment when I have piping hot food at the table ready to go!

Metrokane Rabbit Wine-Shower Funnel

The Metrokane Rabbit Wine Shower Funnel not only aerates the wine but also catches any sediments. And for about twenty dollars, it’s a simple addition to any wine lover’s collection!

Of course, like the image above, the Rabbit Wine Shower Funnel needs to sit in a type of wine decanter or wine carafe like this:

Spiegelau wine decanter

The Spiegelau wine decanter would make any table setting look great and the Metrokane Rabbit Wine Shower Funnel will make your wine taste great!

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Before summer ends I want to make sure I get to go on a picnic.  What better way to celebrate the beautiful warm weather then to sit in a beautiful park or field with a loved one or friend and eat, drink & relax.

I am a fan of the picnic basket pictured above, The Picnic Time Pioneer Picnic Basket , because it comes with everything but the food.  It includes a tablecloth, dishes, wine glasses, utensils, salt & pepper shakers , napkins, and even a cutting board and cheese knife!!

Here is my recommended menu for a lovely lunch time picnic:

-grapes
-brie cheese
-crackers
-raspberry jam
-curried chicken salad
-coleslaw
-three bean salad

For dessert, I’d recommend something like banana bread or lady fingers - desserts without frosting or chocolate so it won’t melt.

Bring along a bottle of white wine or a thermos of lemonade and you should be good to go!

Just make sure you check the weather before you go, nothing spoils a picnic like rain or 100 degree heat!

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Ever just want one quick cup of coffee with out all the trouble of making a whole new fresh pot?  When I was in the mood for just that, I remembered these plastic gadgets from a trip I took to a cabin run on solar power in St. John’s.  Two weeks of morning coffees made from what I now know to be called, the aptly named, “coffee filter holder” and I’m a believer.

These are great because they’re so easy to use and clean up is a sinch.  All you have to do is put a cone coffee filter in the holder, boil water, put coffee in the filter and pour the hot water through over a coffee cup.  Then you just toss the filter out, give the holder a quick rinse and you’re done.  Hot coffee, no mess.  And compared to the prices I saw online for single cup coffee maker machines from $40-100, this beauty above definitely beats the pack at $2.99.  For less than the cost of one coffee at Starbucks, you could have a kitchen supply that will perk you up for a life time.

Suddenly, eating a kitty cat looks good to me! This was made from one of the cool cookie cutters I found while searching online. It came from Copper Gifts.

Now the dilemma for this and other spooky Halloween cakes and cookies is… how do you make black icing? Beware: it’s not as simple as adding black coloring to your white frosting. You’d have to use so much of it to make it black that it will ruin the taste. Some better ideas include starting with chocolate frosting and adding black coloring, or better yet, black gel coloring. Or you could add Hersey’s Cocoa powder to your white frosting. If you don’t want to mess with mixing, just buy some edible black sparkles. That might be better in the long run because the black icing is sure to turn your guest’s teeth a fowl-looking color. And that would be a real stroke of black cat bad luck!

I’ve been on a mission this summer to organize and beautify my kitchen.  A friend helped me this weekend with one of the finishing touches.  We added brass handles to all the drawers and cabinets.  It was amazing what a small change made to the entire look of the room.  I chose brass to go with the brass pots and pans and the whole French country kitchen look I’m trying to acheive.  But you can find all types of knobs and handles online and at thrift stores and markets.  I found mine at a garage sale.  This weekend I saw a fabulous selection of handles at our local hardware store.  There’s a big price range – from .50 cents to $30 per handle, so look around.  But you don’t have to feel you’ll lose your investment because if you move, you can always take them with you.