We are a coffee loving household! Well more like me, my husband needs a nice large cup in the morning which he takes with him and I need at least two maybe three cups during the day.  Yes, I know it is a lot of coffee, but I prefer a light brew with a decent amount of nonfat milk. Since coffee plays a large part in our daily diet in take, it is important to me to always have a freshly brewed cup of coffee.  With our regular brewer I often made enough coffee for one cup or two and if I didn’t have the time, I would make instant coffee with Nescafe instant coffee granules by adding a cup of boiling water.  Two months ago our coffee brewer retired, by that I mean it stopped working and my search for a new coffee machine began.  This gave me the opportunity to look into single serve coffee brewers.  I was familiar with the Keurig single cup brewer from work and I knew a brewer like that would work best for our coffee needs and I was not looking to spend $2299.99 for a coffee machine.  Upon searching online and reading customer reviews,I decided to purchase the Bosch Tassimo T-Disc brewer.  There are several brands of single coffee maker, choose one that work best for your needs.  I personally liked how the Bosch Tassimo looked as well how simple the use is and the small amount of counter space it took up.

I’m really happy with this single cup coffee brewer, it is very convenient for my husband in the morning and also for me because I can have a freshly brewed cup instead of one that has been sitting in the pot for several hours.  The T-Disc come in a variety of flavors and they can easily be purchased at Macy’s, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon or at your closest kitchen department stores.

PS: I love Turkish Coffee to, but in the mornings I prefer a cup of American Coffee as said in Turkey.   

Note: This a personal review of a personal purchase.  Bosch is not sponsoring this item review.

If you don’t know this about by now you should, I am a sucker for kitchen china, gadgets & then some.  Often during the weekends, I find myself in the aisles of Home Goods, Century 21 House Section, Pier 1, Crate & Barrel, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Target & my new favorite store Bed Bath & Beyond.  Here is my BB&B tale. 

Last weekend the day after Black Friday, I stopped by Bed Bath & Beyond to pick several gifts for a Bridal Shower my mother and I will be attending in the coming weekend.  The thing with BB&B is that, the store sort of overwhelms your eyes and seriously one can easily get lost inside this store.  Everything and anything can be found here and everything is packed from the floor to ceiling & the store is  HUGE!  My eyes wander up and down and around and my brain can’t decide if it wants to catch up or just give up.

Since I had to pick up several gifts, the clerk told me head straight to the Bridal Registry section for a print out & the BR is pointly located in back of the store. I get to the back and I’m in shock (its been several years since I’ve entered a BB&B), they have a huge Bridal Registry section with several large displays  & aisles of china & serve ware. I find myself in heaven! I don’t want to shop for bridal gifts anymore, I want to shop for myself.

I was a good girl, I held and stopped myself from purchasing anything for me & painlessly managed to purchase the bridal gifts and walked out with several paid, wrapped(free wrapping) & packaged gifts.

I did fall in love with Lenox Simply Fine Amethyst Watercolor Dinner & Serve Ware though.

I love shopping in houseware stores in Turkey too, these two reasons stop me. The weight allowance on Turkish Air & my husband. For this holiday season, be sure to give your loved ones nice Kitchen China believe me it will be much appreciated.

Where do you shop?

Similiar Posting:
Hot Cocoa & Anthropologie
TJ Maxx

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Many of you know that at the beginning of the year my house was under constuction. I can honestly say am I glad those days are over.  Remodeling our kitchen along with the rest of the house took exactly 5 months.  Those were the hardest months I’ve lived through, but our contractor made it look seamless and effortless.  I can highly recommend him and his crew, they were the most professional and hardest working people we’ve ever worked with.  It not his fault that the house took 5 months to complete, the house it self was old and the two floors needed to be completely gutted and reconstructed, Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes would be proud. 

Kitchen is the most important and # 1 in my heart, everything little design and detail was left up to me and no decision was made with out me.  Aside from the kitchen, the bathroom was also completely remodeled.  Again the bathroom design was left up to me, since this a food blog, the bathroom details can be viewed from here .   Since I’m a big fan of simple, clean and functionality, I made sure that kitchen and bathroom reflected that.

As you can see from the before and after picture the kitchen was completely changed into a different direction.  Since the previous kitchen was oddly formed and the eating area was towards the back, relocating the kitchen toward the back U shape opened up a lot of valuable space. Which was key for me, because the house does not have a separate formal dinning room, moving the kitchen towards the back was a great benefit.  Instead of getting a china cabinet and/or a buffet, we added in a small pull out pantry  and additional cabinet space.  Which worked out great!!

If you don’t already know, I’m a neat and organization freak.  It comes from my mother, she loved to clean and its something she in embedded in me from a young age.  If you are wondering if my cabinets look always this neat and clean, the answer is YES!

Kitchen Details:

1. Kitchen Cabinets – ordered from Ipex Cabinetry – Manufactured in North Carolina – Deep Walnut Stain
2. Kitchen Marble – Italian Marble from Ipex Cabinetry
3. Kitchen Sink – deep sink Park Slope Plumbing Supply
4. Kitchen Faucet – Delta Faucets
5. Cabinet Handles – Liberty Hardware
6. Kitchen Back splash – BuyTile.com
7. All Appliances - Frigidaire Professional Series – Stainless Steel
8. Dinning Room Table – Paula Deen Furniture
9. Blinds – Levolor Blinds
10. Dinning Room Chandelier – Framburg Lighting + Along with additional spot lighting.

My dear friends, I first of all want to start out by saying thank you,for sticking with for the last 6 months.  So much had being going on, even at times I was lost, but now finally everything has settle down and everything is in place. Thank god.  Now my little angle is 5 months and counting, shes growing so quickly and each day I love her more and more.   She is the apple of eye rather of our eyes, she has many friends and admirers already.  She has become our little social butterfly.  I believe she just can not wait to grow up – when she sees children running and playing she watches them with deep admiration.  Silly girl, mommy does not want you to grow up.  More like silly me, wishing such wishes.

Well, if she wants to grow, she much eat and drink lots and lots of milk, which is something she is really good at.  I wanted to make this return post a bit special, something authentic and very Turkish.  Well nothing says it better then two jars of homemade yogurt.  I had described in detail on how to make home made yogurt, lets make these an addition to that posting.  Instead of fermenting the milk in a pot, this time I fermented the milk  into two jars purchased from Ikea.  Plus it takes up less space in the fridge and looks incredibly irrestible. 

If you think you have made too much yogurt, which I highly doubt.  In any case, if you think its too much yogurt for you, try these delicious orange and yogurt cake or this olive oil and yogurt cake.  At one point in time, I made these cakes severals times during the week.

 Whole milk creates a butter like texture on top of the yogurt. Go ahead & spoon it!
It does look delicious doesn’t it?

Or maybe you would like to take the whole jar and start spooning away!

HOMEMADE YOGURT

Recipe is available here – just a few notes to make the yogurt in the jar.

Note 1:

1. Once the milk has cooled down, spoon the created layer of buttery goodness to a plate.
2. Pour milk into the jars.
3. Add in your starter (fermenting) yogurt and give it a stir. DO NOT COVER WITH LID.
4. Dividing evenly, place back the spooned layer of buttery goodness on top.
5. Place in a warm (draft free) area of your kitchen and cover tightly with kitchen blankets.
6. Leave over night or day on kitchen counter.
7. Place into the fridge again WITHOUT THE COVER for 1 (one) day.
8. Place cover after one full day in fridge and serve!

Note 2:

1. For this recipe I used 1 gallon of milk and doubled my yogurt starter.

I make my yogurt using 100% whole milk it can also be made with 2% milk. Visit these websites for various recipes of how to make yogurt at home.
AZ Cookbook – How to Make Yogurt at Home  &  101 Cookbooks – Homemade Yogurt Recipe