Inside My Home: Living Room/Dining Room/Kitchen

Hey y'all,

I have been wanting to invite you into my kitchen -- at each house -- for some time. But as we all know well, getting pictures of a spotless kitchen is hard. Especially when that kitchen is conjoined to the dining room and living room like mine is; because then in order to get pictures simply of the kitchen, all three rooms have to be tidied just to introduce the one room *takes deep breath* and so these rooms in these pictures are less than spotless. 

(Also, my kids were faithfully going behind me and getting messes out as I was doing my best to do a quick tidy the other day in order to get these pictures for you. You're welcome.)

It has also been stormy all this past week; and I at least know that interior pictures always turn out better when you have natural light. That being said, I clearly did not pay attention to the rest of the lighting. (Messy kids coming behind, remember?) But I have done my best.

So without further adieu, welcome to my kitchen/dining room/living room. lol 

This would be your view coming in from the back porch.

To your left is our living room.

I love the idea of open-concept houses. But I've also realized how much more snug a living room feels when it is somewhat confined. I have done my best to be creative with those two mindsets in putting the piano in both rooms. Also, maybe if my piano is in the middle of the room, I'll play it more. (Which actually, that theory does work. I know, right?) It is a piano that has always and continues to live a well-loved life. Now it acts as both sofa table and entertainment piece. Also an escape that simultaneously drowns out toddler screams. Get you a piano, y'all. 

My wall decor situation in this room is less than desirable at the moment. Tbh, I went through this phase when we moved in where I just needed pictures of our family on our walls, however much they don't match up. 

I'm planning on painting the wooden cabinets white and possibly taking off some of the doors in order to turn them into bookshelves. Thoughts? Also, the countertops have never been put on top of the lower cabinets, so that's still a work in progress. But I absolutely adore my cedar fireplace and mantle. 

Yes, I realize that my rug is completely off-center. It drives me crazy; and I promise you,
I move the piano AND the sofa AND the coffee table every day before remembering that my
problem isn't the furniture, it's the rug. Cue facepalm.

There's my actual sofa table acting as the toy cabinet. 

Next I'll invite you into my dining room. At the Old Farmhouse, we had a separate dining room with French doors to enter the living room. It was beautiful. I have a front room that I sometimes dream of using as a formal dining room complete with a long table to seat our large families; but for now, I have basically a breakfast nook. But that's ok, because that's another space that I've kind of always wanted to play with. 

This is to your right as you enter from the back porch.

 More cabinets that I kind of want to put glass doors on at some point. These ones I may keep unpainted, just to have an accent corner since, as you will see, there are so many cabinets in this house. (To recap: my father-in-law built the house and he loves woodworking. Especially cabinetry. And my mother-in-law is a total genius about storage needs.) 

Speaking of my mother-in-law -- she got us our very own family dining table at an estate sale. She and her mother are estate-sale-gurus, and I swear they attend (and invite me to) every single one for miles around. During the painting stage of moving in, she brought me home this extending table and bartered with another woman who had originally won the bid on the matching chairs. Y'all, I almost cried when she brought them to me and told me they were mine. It is exactly the set I had in my mind's eye for this corner. I have a red tablecloth that really pops with the blue walls, but, ya know, messy babies.

As you've probably noticed, I have no window treatments. All of the windows in this house had been tinted. Hubby and I promptly removed the tint to let in the sunshine and we plan on getting shades just as soon as we can put enough coins in the piggy bank. Honestly, I kind of love my windows even with no curtains. And who could say otherwise with the view that my back yard provides? I mean, seriously, y'all.

Also, my ginormous clock on the wall tells me what day of the week it is. Just so you people really understand how clueless I am sometimes.


OHMYGOSH IT'S MY KITCHEN. FINALLY.

And no, it's not clean. If you look closely, there is dried cheese on the counters from making mac n cheese the day before. But don't look closely.

What did I tell ya? All the cabinets. My mess clearly has every place to hide.
Also, that doorway on the left leads into my front room. And the one on the
right leads to the master area, garage, and laundry room. But we'll get to
those another day.

I'm in love with the genius of my father-in-law and my husband who installed under-the-counter lights in this kitchen.

I know you can't read it here, but I'll get to what my chalkboard says in the next
blog post. If I remember. (What day is it, again?)

So, this kitchen is really the only place where the not having window treatments is obnoxious.

At the end of the day, twice in one brief hour, the sun starts setting right at eye-level in that window. And it is flipping blinding. 

That being said, the cat and I can normally be found on the floor sun-bathing. So don't walk into my kitchen in the late afternoon during nap time and assume that I finally died of salmonella poisoning from all of the raw cookie dough that I consume. (Why do we even need that warning label? We all eat it anyway.)

Yes, I buy a lot of bananas. Yes, we grew that pumpkin ourselves. Yes, I have two paper towel stations in my kitchen. I'm a mom with babies, remember? (But really, I think that's a thing that everyone needs -- two paper towel dispensers in their kitchen.) 

Jacob hung that chalkboard for me to write menus on. Ha ha. I draw on it (no, seriously). And usually it ends up with inspirational sayings or Bible verses on it. Because I'm that mom. (Full disclosure: last week I had "Attitudes are contagious, so make yours worth catching" because I'm an angry person. And then said angry person just got even angrier by walking into that message every minute of the day. So it got changed. Quickly. Before the chalkboard got ripped off the dang wall.)

I'm going to leave you die-hards with a special gift: my mother's passed down from generations secret homemade pizza recipe. My childhood friends always wanted to spend the night at my house on the weekends because they got this pizza on Friday nights and her special chocolate chip pancakes on Saturday mornings, without fail. I love you, Mom. Because of you, I had friends. (ha ha -- no, really.)

I can't wait to teach Katie and Mason how to wow their family and friends by making this special dough; but since you're visiting my kitchen today, I'll pass it on to you. It's so easy.

For ONE pizza (it took me until recently to stop making enough dough for four):

Let 1/2 teaspoon of yeast dissolve in 3/4 cup of warm water. Not hot, not cold. Warm. I let it sit a sec and then stir it with my favorite baking spoon (do not use a wooden one lololololol) It's fun to see it activate. (Oh, Sam...)

Next add a Tablespoon of sugar and a Tablespoon of olive oil. 

Finally (yes, I said finally; it's that easy), add in anywhere from 2-3 cups of flour. I don't really know exactly how much I use each time, tbh. Probably somewhere around 2.5 cups. Stir it until it's mixed, then flour up those hands and get in there and knead it for a minute or two. Don't over-knead!!!  You want your dough to be slightly sticky, but not get stuck to your hand. (My husband has a hard time at this point.) Then poor a little olive oil in the bottom of your bowl (see? we hardly dirtied any dishes, to boot) and gently roll your dough ball in the oil until it is oily all over (ew). 

Now here's the trick I actually came up with and shared with my mom: place plastic wrap over the bowl and get it good and tight. I keep masking tape in my baking drawer to help secure mine in place. Then put the bowl wherever it's warm and humid and you will have wonderfully puffy dough within an hour or two. I usually set mine in the garden on my patio table to catch the afternoon sun. 

Obviously the dough can make the pizza; but the go-to staples for my family as far as the rest of it goes? Hunts' roasted garlic tomato sauce can NOT be beat. And obviously freshly grated mozzarella is a must. I know it sucks, but buy the block and grate it yourself. You won't be sorry. (Food processor, anybody?)

So here you are. Treat yourself to some amazing pizza that you actually made yourself, and save your money from the Hut. Where they don't even know how to cut a friggin circle...