My Kosher Kitchen and a Giveaway

You’ve asked for it, and I’m going to deliver!  Welcome to my kitchen!  We keep a kosher home, so some things in my kitchen might be quite different to you!  For a full explanation of kosher, click here.  Basically, we keep meat and dairy products separate (no cheeseburgers!) and don’t eat pork products or shellfish.  We have two sets of dishes, silverware, pots and pans, and lots of other items.

Some items are parve, meaning they do not have milk or dairy in them.  This doesn’t automatically mean that they are vegan though, because eggs are considered parve (I don’t get it either!), and so is fish (again, don’t get it!).

WARNING:  This post is looooooong.  Good luck! I am incredibly lucky and have a really well stocked kitchen.  If you read my blog regularly, you know how much I love some of my gadgets!  Between my mom, and some incredibly generous gifts from our wedding, engagment parties and bridal shower, we are really well stocked!  Up top in the picture below is a panini maker, waffle maker, George Foreman, pizza crisper, ice cream maker, ice bucket and yogurt maker.  It’s kind of obnoxious, isn’t it?  My other appliances (bread machine, crockpot, kitchenaid mixer) aren’t in the kitchen exactly.  They are in our “dining room.”  The truth is, I really believe that I need all of this.  I probably don’t.

My food processor and coffee maker stay on top of the fridge.  The coffee maker comes down everyday (I always make coffee at home!) Somehow, we ended up with a lot of red items and accessories in our kitchen.  It keeps things nice and bright!

Glass is considered parve, meaning you can cook anything you like in it.  Therefore, drinking glasses are parve as well, so we only have one set.  Our regular glasses are from the Impressions collection at Crate and Barrel.  We also have margarita glasses, regular wine glasses, stemless wine glasses and ice cream bowls.

I have glass casserole dishes in the cabinet under the glasses.  I also keep our dairy mixing bowls here.  There’s no rhyme or reason to this, just where I have space!  This is a floor cabinet with a drawer that pulls out.  On the counter above this is the microwave.

Here are our dairy dishes.  We wanted something very simple, so we chose the Maison collection.  I also keep other dairy related items in here like coffee mugs and baking ramekins!  Most of my baking stuff is in our back closet (I have a lot), so there are only random pieces in the kitchen.  Our dairy silverware is also from C & B, but has been discontinued.

We have another big cabinet with a pull out drawer for our pots and pans (and some bakeware).  These are our dairy pots and pans.  The set is All Clad, and we have a few other pieces thrown in there as well.

I also keep a crock of cooking tools (these are dairy) by the stove, next to the blender.

We also have a set of knives for dairy foods.  It is a fairly inexpensive set, but has served us well (first hint for the giveaway!)

Our meat dishes are in another cabinet, along with our mini prep and smart stick, colanders, measuring cups, and a few other odds and ends.  There isn’t much of a system in place.  Our “meat” dishes are Kita from Crate and Barrel, and our flatware is the Twist collection.  Isn’t it crazy that we have to have two sets of everything?  It’s so important for us to have a big kitchen, because we do have so much, but a lot of it is by necessity!

Another cabinet with a pull out drawer for our pots and pans.  This set is Calphalon, and we have a lot of other pieces thrown in there like a wok and roasting pan.  We also keep our meat mixing bowls down here.  That doesn’t mean we only put meat in them, they are just used for meals that have meat in them.  Is this making sense because I feel like I’m confusing myself!

All of our meat tools!  I love having crocks by the stove for all of my kitchen tools, it’s so convenient!

Our knives are really important to us (hint, hint!).  We decided instead of registering for a set, to choose individual knives that we really wanted.  We spent about an hour picking out knives to register for.  We held them, pretended to cut, and really took notes of how the knives felt in our hand.  Some knives are shared, but Solomon and I each have our own Santokus that are comfortable for us (yes, we are really lucky).  We use our knives all of the time, and I really believe having good knives is one of the most important things in a kitchen.

Moving on…spices, teas, and a little bit of everything else.  This cabinet lacks organization and I have no intention of organizing it!

Our pantry is quite large too, and slightly more organized.  The door is stuck open, which is kind of ghetto.  That happened to us in an old apartment and the door fell on me and broke my nose.  Not enough to get a new nose, but enough to give me 2 black eyes.  I hope that doesn’t happen again, that would suck!

A little decor…

A gift from my friend Robin…

Sweet decorations from Ikea!

My duck timer.  Yes, a duck timer.  It quacks.  I adore it.

I have a serious addiction to measuring cups, I keep buying them.  I also collect ducks.  My mother in law found these measuring cups for me, which are only for decoration, I don’t want to dirty them, since I think they are so cute!

Like I said, I have a thing for ducks.  I have tons of rubber duckies all over the house, and this one is a kitchen mascot.  He’s dairy.

A few years ago my brother snuck this Stitch bobble head into one of my bags when I was heading back to Boston from NJ.  He’s been a kitchen mascot ever since!

Of course, a spot for Rufio.  I took this picture approximately 30 seconds after putting his food down.  I don’t know that he has ever tasted his food, he just inhales it!

There you have it, my kitchen.  I feel like this was a really narcissistic post to write! If you have any questions about kosher or my kitchen, please let me know.  Also, if you want to know where I got anything, I can probably let you know where it’s from!

OK, now the fun part.  The whole reason you read this entire post…giveaway time!  I’m really excited about this one, I hope you are too!

As you can tell, I think having good knives is really, really important.  Thanks to my awesome mom, I have a 6 inch utility knife, and a pair of kitchen scissors to give away to one lucky reader (Wusthof is not sponsoring this giveaway).  I tend to use my utility knife most, and find it to be really versatile for anything I need to cut!

I also use my kitchen shears all.the.time, not only for opening things, but for herbs!  I love the rustic look of cut up herbs over salads, and find kitchen shears are the best way to do this!  Both pieces are steel, and I think they are necessities to any kitchen!

(I apologize for mediocre pictures.  It’s hard to get a good picture through plastic and i didn’t want to take these out of their box!)

I’ve decided to keep this contest open until December 31st.  I would rather ship it to the winner after the madness of holiday shipping ends!

I’m giving you 5 ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite kitchen appliance that you either own or dream of owning.
2. Leave a comment telling me something you learned about kosher kitchens!
3. Link back to this contest on your blog and leave me a comment letting me know you’ve done so.
4. Add me to your blogroll or subscribe.  Leave me a comment!
5. Follow me on twitter (@liveloveeatplay) and tweet whatever you like about the contest (include my name!)

GOOD LUCK!