Day: January 11, 2009

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Making Better Use of Enough Space

Miranda has only a teeny tiny pantry, definitely not big enough for a full-timer who cooks at home! I ended up commandeering the three shallow upper cabinets in the lounge as extra pantry space. It’s enough. I don’t have room to really ‘stock up’ on anything, but I can’t really carry all that much extra weight anyway! When I moved the food from the house into the RV, it was at the last minute. My friend and I just dumped stuff where there was room and I promised myself I’d sort it all out ‘one day.’

Well, that day has come. 🙂

BEFORE

pantry11pantry2pantry3The issues I needed to solve were:

1) Like items were scattered all over;

2) I had no room for the rolls of plastic wrap, wax paper, and aluminum foil;

3) Items I use frequently weren’t accessible.

First step was to clear out the cabinets so I could start with a blank slate:

pantry4

A mere ten minutes later, I got an overwhelming urge to cook.

AFTER

pantry7pantry5pantry6

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Homey Smells

I have to say that the best invention since sliced bread is… the automatic bread maker.

bread

I looooooove my breadmaker. It was received many years ago as a gift from my mother who felt that I’d kneaded enough dough. 🙂 I tend to use it in fits; going for months without without making a loaf, then eating nothing but homemade bread for a long stretch. This morning, I just had to make a fresh loaf! I started the bread around 9 and had a lovely loaf 70 minutes later! My machine has a setting for the ‘rapid bake’, which is what I made this morning, and for normal baking, which takes several hours. Both methods have their pros and cons. I like the rapid bake because a) it’s fast and b) it’s very yeasty, but, as you can see in the picture, it doesn’t always have time to properly bake all the way through. The longer method isn’t as flavourful since it relies on longer rising time rather than tons of yeast, but the crust is nicer.

Another really nice feature of this machine is that it has a timer. You can throw all the ingredients into the baking pan, set the timer, and have a fresh loaf ready for you first thing in the morning or when you get home at night! I love waking up to a fresh loaf in the morning AND fresh coffee thanks to the timer on the coffeemaker. Technology is lovely! Some people I know use the timer on their machine along with a crockpot to have a meal ready when they get home from work.

Nothing makes an RV smell homier than a loaf of fresh baked bread!

I have just one question: did I bring my wire grills for cooling the loaves or did I forget them???