HGP 2015 - Week 8 - Kitchen

[HouseElf]

Week Eight sees us down and dirty in the heart of the home: the kitchen. It's Kitchen Week at the Holiday Grand Plan!

This week, we'll clear the decks for the holiday cooking to come with a kitchen clean-up and declutter. Routing out the year's dirt and disorder gives us a fresh, clean start for holiday cooking to come.

In holiday prep, it's Checkpoint Week and time to make plans for Halloween night.

Ready? Let's get organized with Kitchen Week in the Holiday Grand Plan!

 

[HouseElf]

Kitchen Week! Thanksgiving is behind us (for Canadians) and Halloween is quickly approaching. I do not do a lot of extra cooking or baking for Halloween, but I do a themed dinner for the night and a few holiday/fall treats my boys like (caramel apples and pumpkin seeds).

My boys are older and do not trick-or-treat, but do wear costumes if they attend parties or a dance. Costumes are Day of the Dead this year.
Our home is decorated for fall, and this year I will leave the harvest look up for Halloween too! We have a spider theme for Halloween - but with everything that is demanding attention, I plan on carving the pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and calling it done! I am good with it - the males in the house not so much.

Slippers (gifts) are doing well. Plan on going to the wool shop to pick up some more colours on Saturday. The blanket is progressing but getting harder to work on when DH is home, as it obviously is no longer a scarf or something else

We have ordered our half side of beef and THAT will fill our freezer! With the earlier order of Spring Lamb and the whole chickens - we are good for the winter. Our only other 'meat' purchase will be the holiday ham and some fish.
I froze half of our summer CSA veggies, plus we have a winter basket each week from the farm (eggs, winter squash, potatoes, carrots...).
So our food plan for the winter is established and the Kitchen pantry (flours, sugar/honey...) is being stocked.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

I hate working in my kitchen. It always seems to be in the need for a good tidy up, it is the dumping ground for a lot of stuff and always seems to look untidy. Time to spruce it up before I start doing the holiday baking.

 

[AuntJamelle]

Kitchen week is always such a big week!

I will say that as we just moved in this January I can cross some of the cupboards off my list because I filled them with overflow items from the full bar/almost 2nd kitchen we used to have downstairs and I haven't touched them since!

But the drawers and some of the cupboards that see daily use need a good empty, wipe out and reorganize!

The worst part of the kitchen area is really my walk in pantry - it looks like a bomb went off! But THAT is for next week! lol

Kitchen Week Tasks

[ ] Clean off/Dust/Wipe down top of fridge
[ ] Wash down outside of cupboards and appliances
[ ] Clean out inside of fridge
[ ] Clean microwave inside and out
[ ] Empty, clean and refill each drawer
[ ] Empty, clean and refill each cabinet as needed (some can be skipped this year)
[ ] Clean sink
[ ] Deep clean stove top
[ ] Deep clean stove grates
[ ] Clean underside of vent fan
[ ] Dust vent hood copper, etc.
[ ] Clean ovens, outside and inside as needed
[ ] Clean countertops
[ ] Vacuum/Mop

Holiday Prep Tasks

[/] Work on filling the freezer! Make 2-3 meals, batches of cookie dough or meal components (browned meat, etc.) - Got batch of Broccoli Cheddar Soup in freezer yesterday and have batch of Zuppa Toscana chilling in fridge. But I decided to cook up some more potato and add to the soup - it is too heavy on sausage right now and needs more potato to balance it out. THEN I'll freeze it!

Plan to make double batch of our favorite Christmas cookie this week too - Chunky Chocolate Gobs - YUM!

And we'll see what else I can squeeze in!

 

[AuntJamelle]

Well, I've made a few small bits of progress in the kitchen!

Organized the silverware drawer - it's a bi-level with silverware on top and then a catch all area underneath (silverware part slides back). Got the 30 million canning rings that were in there put away and tidied up the rest.

Bought some shallow white plastic baskets, small ones, at the $ store to help corral the items kept there.

Also straightened up items in fridge but still need to actually wipe down all the shelves and drawers.

I also made a start on straightening up the pantry - threw away expired items, moved seldom used items to high cupboards leaving more room for the food, etc. Not done, but looks MUCH better!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

I wiped down the fridge twice last week, it never stays clean. I might have to find time towards the end of the plan to revisit the kitchen because I think it will need another go after the baking.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I'm considering my kitchen officially HGP'd!!! lol

As in - GOOD ENOUGH!

I did all the drawers that needed taming - cleaned inside of microwave, inside of fridge, even polished the silver on display!

I spot cleaned fronts of cabinets/appliances. I think we are good to go!