personal Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Lovin' From the Oven

My Must-Have Kitchen List

July 19, 2011 by kim 11 Comments

This post is going to be a bit different from the usual. I just moved into my apartment this past weekend (but came back home for my friend’s wedding and will be officially moving out the first), so I thought it’d be fun to compile a list of my kitchen necessities. Moving out, I realized that there’s plenty of accessories that you take for granted, like a can opener or kitchen towels. You kind of forget they’re there because they always have been. Does that even make any sense?

Moving out gave me an empty palette; Start from scratch and buy everything that I need in order to furnish my own kitchen. Here’s a list of the basics that made it into my kitchen:

Rubbermaid 24 Piece Container Set:: This is something I never would have remembered if it wasn’t for seeing a steal online. Where else would you store leftovers?

Pyrex Measuring Cup:: Used for every recipe in the kitchen, pyrex measuring cups are my favorite because they’re durable, made out of glass (no leftover residue, smells, or grease!), and have bold, red lines that are easy to read.

Corelle Dishes:: This set above is actually the exact set I bought online for my kitchen. Since my kitchen’s theme color was going to be a “Tiffany” blue, these fit right in. Corelle dishes are also a favorite because they’re shatter resistant, lightweight, and last forever. I’ve never had any other brand of dishes in my household besides Corelle and that’s for a dang good reason. I can’t tell you how many plates my family have dropped! Good thing they don’t break easily… unless you’re using a hammer or really trying. Plus, since I’ll be living with my boyfriend (who isn’t exactly the most coordinated person, on earth), these will survive. I bought mine from Walmart online and had them shipped to store for free. I’ve found that Walmart has the best selection of Corelle dishes.

Nordic Ware Baking Sheet:: I’ve used many baking sheets before, but these aluminum pans are the ones I have had the best luck with. They evenly bake my cookies with no burnt bottoms or sides. I actually bought these pans in 2 different sizes so that I could bake/cook different sized items.

Silpat Sheets:: Siplat sheets are a lifesaver in the kitchen. They keep your mess from getting all over the place, protect your sheets, and are quite versatile when you need more counter space. They wash easily and can withstand a lot of abuse. Plus, they come in a ton of different sizes to fit your needs.

KitchenAid 17 Piece Starter Set:: Well, this one’s pretty self explanatory. All the stuff you need to cook with in one pack. How convenient.

KitchenAid Knife Set:: Hey, you have to cut stuff up sometimes, too.

Cuisinart Stainless Steel 7 Piece Cookware Set:: I really don’t know anything about pots and pans because this isn’t my speciality, but you definitely need some in a bare kitchen.

Farberware Bamboo Cutting Board:: I’ve always been a fan of bamboo cutting boards over the regular plastic ones. They’re easier to clean, less greasy, and look nicer. Done deal.

Keurig Machine:: I actually got this as a gift for Christmas from my DB’s mom and it’s one of the greatest inventions ever. Sure, it’s a little pricy, but it’s totally worth it. For just my DB and I, there’s no need to make a whole pot of coffee…. one cup will do just fine. Annnndddd, they have a ton of different flavors to please everyone! My personal favorites are the Cafe Mocha (which tastes just like a dark hot chocolate) and Chai Tea Latte.

Black & Decker Toast-R Oven:: I’ve always had a toaster oven in my house and my DB never did until he met me. I personally don’t understand how people can live without one. They’re so convenient! Crisp up some cold pizza, toast your entire sandwich, or make some french bread without wasting all the gas to turn on your oven.

KitchenAid Artisan 5 Quart Series:: And of course… we have the Kitchenaid. How can any kitchen live without one? It’s made my life so much easier. Since my mom wanted to keep the other Kitchenaid I had, I bought a new ice blue one for myself… to go with the kitchen, of course! I did a lot of research debating between the Artisan and the Professional series, but I ended up with the Artisan again because of the price and the quality. Apparently there really isn’t that much of a difference between the Professional mixer and the Artisan one.

Is there anything that I missed/must have? What’s your favorite kitchen item? Feel free to shout them out in the comments!

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins with a Cheerios Streusel for a Cheerios Breakfast Bash!

June 22, 2011 by kim 12 Comments

Remember the Cheerio Snickerdoodles I made a while back? Well, Cheerios caught wind and liked them so much that they asked me if I wanted to have my very own Cheerios breakfast bash, on them. That wasn’t very hard to answer… A week and 8 HUGE packages later, this was what my kitchen looked like (with lots of help from my dad and BYU buddies that came to visit me this past weekend):

Can you believe that the boys actually twirled the streamers?

Everyone that came got to keep a Honey Nut Cheerios bowl, kazoo, recipe flip deck, bee antennas, and a t-shirt!

As for me, I got a sweet robe!

Then, all the cuties came and fell in love with BuzzBee.

Did you know that it would take 3,168,000,000 Honey Nut Cheerios to wrap all the way around the earth? Me either.

And we ate our hearts away…

BuzzBee wasn’t the only charming fella…

It was so cute how into it my dad got. He really went all out and helped so much with the picture taking.

Also, special thanks to my DB for taking pictures as well!

Being a recent (errrrr maybe not so recent) college grad, I lived off this stuff. Cereal and milk.. perfect for any time of the day! I enjoy Honey Nut Cheerios so much because it’s the perfect amount of sweet. When I was little, I used to add sugar to all my cereals (go figure). This is the only one I didn’t touch!

Do like them on Facebook and check out their website… it has a lot of great ideas, including a recipe section which I recently just discovered. Did someone say more Cheerios desserts?

And of course, how can we have a Cheerios party without having a Cheerios baked good? I thought the Cheerios flavor would go well with pumpkin, so here’s what I came up with:

They were a hit with the little ones!

I even took them outside and gave them to all my little neighbor kids (along with some kazoos).

The doughnut muffin recipes comes slightly adapted from the Food Librarian, while the streusel recipe was mine. I didn’t completely crush the Cheerios in the topping, but I would recommend doing so next time. They became chewy if they weren’t crushed all the way. Makes 24 muffins.

Muffins

1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk)
splash of vanilla
1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

Cheerio Streusel

1 cup crushed Honey Nut Cheerios cereal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a muffin pan.
In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
Whisk together the buttermilk and pumpkin puree. Set aside.
Using your mixer, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs and vanilla until mixed.
Stir in the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the pumpkin puree mixture. Do not overmix.
Spoon the batter into the liners until they are about 3/4 full.
For the topping, mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a fork until it comes together. Evenly distribute the topping onto each individual muffin.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

It was fun being able to act like a kid again for a morning. Thanks Cheerios for helping me do so!

Help our Dog, Bo, and a Giveaway

May 15, 2011 by kim 27 Comments

This past week has been a little hectic for me. My DB and I have been busy with work, trying to look for an apartment, finding furniture, and now, this…

First off, here’s a little background. My DB and I got a dog about a year and a half ago. He was rescued from the pound and was about 4-5 years old at the time. He’s an Anatolian shepherd mix (we think he has Sharpei in him because of his black tongue and loose skin) and was abused as a puppy. He’s very cautious around new men and is terrified of cables and abrupt, loud noises. His original owner named him “Bojo.” I kid you not. We shortened his name to just “Bo.”

My DB and I knew that we couldn’t take him with us to Berkeley, so we started looking at no-kill shelters for him weeks ago in case we couldn’t find someone to take him. Unfortunately, no shelter was willing to take him because of his age and because they were already backed up.

This past week, we noticed a growth on Bo’s hind leg. It didn’t seem to bother him; he walked fine and didn’t react when we touched it, but we kept an eye on it. When it didn’t go away after three days, we decided to take him into the vet. This was this past Thursday. The vet stuck a needle in it, expecting to draw pus, but it turned out to be blood. We left Bo overnight at the vet to have surgery that same day to have the growth removed.

This is Bo the first day back after surgery. He had the “cone of shame” on him but he could barely sleep with it and ran into everything, so we took it off. He’s not much of a biter/chewer, so it was fine. Seeing him in a little cast seriously breaks my heart. What was the bump? Well, it was worse than we imagined. It turns out that it was a malignant tumor and the doctor couldn’t completely remove all of it. He said they might have to remove a toe or his paw, depending on the lab results. Basically, Bo has cancer… we just don’t know what kind of cancer it is.

My heart seriously feels for him. He had such a terrible previous life and now this?! What did he ever do to deserve it? 🙁 Poor puppy.. He’s even quite young to have cancer.

My DB and I decided to have a biopsy for Bo, in order to find out exactly what’s wrong with him and what we could do to help. The problem is: our total bill is just over 600 dollars now for the surgery and biopsy… not to mention any additional surgery/care that we’ll need to pay for after we get the results back. We are definitely not in a position with that kind of money (especially with having to move out in three months), so I’m asking you guys for your help!

We couldn’t just leave Bo like that, every dog deserves a chance. So I created a paypal donate button especially for Bo’s vet bill pictured above. It’s a click through link that’ll let you donate any amount you wish through paypal. Any amount will help! If you’d like to donate through other means, please contact me at: kim@lovintheoven.com

Giveaway details: I wanted to be able to give something back to you guys for donating, so I’ll be giving away a SIGNED copy of George W. Bush’s Decision Points book. I know, it’s kind of random and totally not related to my blog, but I thought it would be a neat giveaway. Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s kind of fun to have a President’s signature. I’ll be entering anyone’s name who donates over $5 into a raffle and draw a winner at random. I’ll do the drawing on June 11th, 11:59 PM and let you guys know that Sunday.

You see, I work at the Reagan library and we were lucky enough to have him come give a lecture during his book tour a couple of months ago. I even worked the event so I got to sit in and listen to the speech:

Yes, that is an actual airplane at my work. It’s Reagan’s Air Force One, the one that flew Nixon’s last flight as President, and you totally get to walk through it. Kinda cool, huh?

There’s G.B. Jr.

Anyways, we really can’t thank you guys enough for taking the time to read our story, being so supportive, and just being there. After all, dogs really are.. a man’s best friend.

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