Monday, January 23, 2017

Musings on Yellow: Kitchen Colors

I love the color yellow for kitchens.  The first chance I got to pick wall paint colors for the house I was living in I pointed to a soft, daffodil yellow and said “I want that for the kitchen.”  There was no question about it, and the next time I can paint my kitchen - it will be to as close a yellow to that soft, happy sunshine color as I can find.  It can totally transform a drab, dark kitchen to an open, bright space, which is good for me because I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  Who wants to cook in a kitchen where even the walls seem lackluster and dreary?

Yellow only belongs in the kitchen though, as a wall color at least.  Too bright for a bedroom or even a communal space, I fully believe yellow paint should be used sparingly, letting other less brilliant pastels soften the edges of each room in a house.  The kitchen is the room that needs that little bit of extra sunlight, or at least the appearance or feel of the sun streaming through the windows. 

Friday, January 13, 2017

Steak Stew - A bowl of community

2016 is over and gone, 2017 has begun.  I decided to start this year with a recipe post - my own stew recipe that I make once a year.  Stew Day, as it has come to be called in my house, is the day in which I take out the biggest pot I own and make enough stew for a small army.  After about 5 hours of prepping and cooking, family and friends descend upon my house - sometimes with bread or salad or other side dishes - and we make merry until the last of the pot is gone (only once has there been a little left over for the next day, and that was when I made 3 pots of stew and set some aside to give to friends who could not make it).

Stew Day in my house is about community, about coming together to renew our strength as kith and kin over bowls of steaming hot steak stew.  For that reason it seemed like a good recipe to start the year with.