We're back in the 1930's once more with this kitchen. I just thought it was a very pretty room and wanted to share it with you all. It is an advertisement for another linoleum company. I think this one might be Armstrong and a Hazel Dell Brown design. She did many of these sorts of kitchens, well suited to an old farmhouse or historic homes. We most often see her modern day, cutting edge designs. This ad is attributed to the Country Gentleman magazine.
In my fridge at the start of this week:
Green Beans
Cooked Broccoli
1 serving of slaw
Saturday: Katie and Caleb came out to the spend the night last night. Katie's AC went out at her house and since none of the windows can be opened, it seemed best to have them come here. We all slept poorly and we were all up very early. I knew it was going to be one long day for all of us and it was.
Katie left Caleb with me while she went to get Taylor. The meeting place is 1 1/2 hours from my home and Taylor's daddy drives just as far as Katie. They meet up right in the middle of the two houses. I also had promised to keep the three from across the field. That was planned much earlier in July.
I think this photo dates from the mid-1940's. It is a very compact kitchen. I don't believe it is an Armstrong kitchen although there is definitely a linoleum floor used in this room. It's the absence of other linoleum elements that makes me think it's by a different company. That floor pattern though has been around forever hasn't it? I think they recently reintroduced this particular pattern in brick color waves. I suppose some might say it's timeless.
Quick analysis of the kitchen for you starting on the left. Obviously there is a bumpout wall here at the far left, and we can just see the food scales on that counter. It seems rather far from the food prep area to me and it's not near the refrigerator either. I'm a little confused about what that cupboard is there at all except to serve as extra counter space in a kitchen that has at best, a very scarce amount.
Gathered Fragments:
Chicken and Grape Salad
Steamed cabbage, potatoes and carrots%
3 slices cooked bacon
5 slices taco pizza
2 ounces of green chilies
Saturday: I did not have Caleb yesterday evening, so I took time after supper to go through the house and do a little more clearing up. I folded the clothes John had hung to dry and put away the last of the supper dishes that had dried. I swept the kitchen floor and sorted out my desk and then cleaned out my purse. Do any of you make that a habit? I try to clean mine out each time I walk back in the house with it if I've been shopping or visiting but this week I simply hung it and moved right on to other things.
I use the Emilie Barnes method of keeping my purse neat and nice. I have three little zippered pouches. I have Diabetic test kit and hard candy, masks and hand sanitizer in one. I have one to keep my lipsticks, an orange wood stick, nail file, and nail clippers in. I have a third one to hold pens and a notepad and a tape measure. Then I carry my wallet and a glass case with my sunglasses in it. I clip my keys to the zipper of the inner pocket where I can easily find them. I have a pocket for my phone. It makes finding things in my purse super easy and less stressful.
I was busy in the kitchen this morning and decided to pare and slice three wrinkly looking peaches. I know those peaches were perfectly good for eating even if they weren't pretty, but John will not touch a fruit that looks even a bit past it's prime. He also won't touch my homemade jelly voluntarily, either. But that's his own little food prejudice Anyway, back to the peaches.
As I stood there paring the peaches and planning out the cobbler I meant to make with them, I thought about how much I like peaches...and that's when I heard a slight echo in my mind from my past. A quavering voice saying "I LIKE peaches!" It was the voice of Miss Willette...
What do you all think of this kitchen?
It's another Armstrong Kitchen, from 1949 this time and another of Hazel Dell Brown's designs. I'm going to start right in the middle where they've put the kitchen sink and then we'll discuss the rest of the room. Its that sink 'nook' that is the feature of this kitchen for sure. You can tell not only by how they arranged it but by the floor pattern being different in that space.
Saturday: We had breakfast with Katie and the children today and enjoyed it very much. Breakfast is not a meal we typically eat all together. Taylor was quick, however, to remind me that 'tomorrow is Gramma's Fried Chicken Day!' John reminded me this evening to go ahead and put in an order for some to insure they had it. The store has been sliding on that score once again and ordering ahead is absolutely necessary.
Thursday we saw rain out of the east due to the hurricane but today rain came in from the west. Granny used to say something along these lines: East wind brings the rain and west wind brings it back again...I'm not complaining. The rain has brought a flush of buds to the coral rosebush on the front patio. It will do the hydrangea a world of good and will only help all the rest of my plants to flourish as well. I might not have had success with flower seeds this year but other things are doing quite well.
Hello dears. Let's have a glass of iced tea and sit a spell. July is meant for sitting and chatting and sipping tall icy drinks. I'll provide you with a fan just in case the breeze drops and gnats want to be a pest but gnats are not such pests this year. The flies are the pesters this year. The flies pester because some of them are biters.
And here's a tip you might want to try. JD told me that when on coast guard ships they used spray bottles with pine oil cleaner in them to keep flies at bay. I can say assuredly that when I tried this last week with a diluted spray (half and half), I had fewer flies hanging about. Bonus for me was that the porch smelled absolutely lovely, since I love the pine oil scent but Maddie wasn't half so keen. Since Maddie smells anyway, I wasn't sorry that it kept Maddie at a distance. Double bonus, lol.
I'm beginning to think that gnats and flies are cyclical insects like cicadas.
I was watching a cooking vlog the other day that centered around pantry staples. It was about how to build a pantry on a budget. I couldn't help but think about my own pantry. I've been working to bring it up to a certain level but I can say honestly that I've not done it without making some mistakes. I thought I'd share some of those with you.
First let's look at the word 'pantry'. It is derived from the French word 'pain' which was their variation of the Latin 'panis' which is simply 'bread'. A pantry was the room in which the bread was stored. Over time, a pantry came to be a room in which foods were stored and prepared and in Britain the one responsible for this office in a large household was called the "Pantler". The current definition of the word has come to mean a place where a variety of items might be stored, from food to dishes, small appliances, linens, silverware, glassware and most surprisingly to me, cleaners.
Saturday: It was lovely out Saturday morning, but the flies were 'sticking'. Granny always said that was a sign rain was coming in. I was not interested in sitting outdoors with flies that wanted to land on me and stay awhile. Some of our flies sting and bite. Not all of them are horseflies either, which also sting. Indoors I was finding flies here and there and killing them. I don't mind flies outdoors but I do not like them in my house!
My pleasure this morning comes from the plants on my windowsill and the bouquet on my dining table. I love summer because there is always something I might cut to root and that makes for the most interesting bouquets on my kitchen sink shelf.
I tried to make myself look at kitchens from other eras but just now my eye is caught every.single.time by the 1930s and early to mid 40's kitchens. I confess that Hazel Dell Brown's designs are uppermost as I am drawn in to really look at each design closely and intensely. I feel she made space work HARD and yet she made it look artistic and pretty and inspiring all at once.
Well here we are yet again. There are times I look at these kitchens and think they are so familiar to me. I'd have sworn I shared this one before, but no, once I look more closely at the details I know that I haven't. Perhaps similar color waves or the pattern of the linoleum on the floor is the same as in another room and that's what seems so familiar.
Saturday: "We should start a revolution of being polite. Open a door for someone, a smile, a kindness nod, give someone space. If someone says something offensive or rude to us, look them in the eyes with a kindness look and turn and calmly walk away. Think about this, that person with the intent to offend is left standing there. They wanted a war and you just gave them cookies. " G-Donna
Today John and I went out to eat breakfast. At Cracker Barrel. On a Saturday morning. It was busy and packed and noisy. We waited quite a bit to get our food but it helped a lot to see that many tables were packed with 6 or 10 occupants. I could well imagine the kitchen staff and waitresses were every bit as harried and hurried as they could be.
The year is officially half over. If 2020 dragged and moaned and groaned it's way through to the finish line, 2021 is determined to slide into home plate on a single hit it seems. It could slow down just a teeny bit if it wanted my opinion.
We don't have a lot on our personal calendars for July and for that I'm glad. That's not to say there's nothing to do. There's plenty!
For one thing this month, I mean to do a pantry/freezer challenge. Yes, I'll buy produce and dairy products but for the most part, I hope to save my grocery money this month, clear some space in the freezers and learn to use what I have.