Rice Pudding and Dining Room/Kitchen Pictures

Good evening!  Following yesterday's frustration over so many errands that have taken me away from home lately, I stayed home and rested today.  I felt so refreshed and renewed after being home!  I am usually so happy to be here which is what tipped me off that I was spending way too much time away if I was frustrated when I was home because I was behind on chores.

I felt so recharged that I unpacked a box and hung up all of my old kitchen tools that were waiting for their place on my walls after remodeling.

 

I have missed seeing these!  I really enjoy collecting old kitchen gadgets and many times use the ones that I have purchased.  I am always fascinated by interesting objects in antique malls and flea markets.  I try to guess what some of them that aren't familiar to me are before I flip over the tag to discover their intended use.  My girls are very knowledgeable about old kitchen gadgets as well.  I have played this same guessing game with them since they were toddlers to help increase their understanding of how things were made in the kitchen and what tools were used compared to our  modern luxuries we enjoy now that make our tasks in the kitchen so much easier.  The girls have fun guessing what the gadgets are for.  While I was hanging these I made a lovely dish of Rice Pudding after dinner.

This was delicious and will be wonderful in the morning reheated for breakfast!  It is a recipe that my mother passed on to me. 

Rice Pudding

2 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. honey
2 eggs beaten
 2 c. cooked rice
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine milk, honey, eggs, and salt.  Add rice in oiled casserole dish and cook 1 hr. on 350 degrees. *Sprinkle nutmeg on top before cooking if desired. 

And as promised... finally some pictures of my finished dining room/kitchen.  I apologize for them being a bit dark.  The flash went off but for some reason they are a touch dark.  The floor is a lighter in color than it looks in these pictures.

This is the other side of the oven that is pictures at the top of the page.  We put in the new door and flooring this summer.  We needed a new back door for many years in this house but first needed to replace the sub floor that was swelling under the old flooring from an old sink that used to sit beside the back door.  Water had leaked there for many years before we bought the house.  It was a very messy job as we had to tear the floor out to the floor joists and put new subfloor down before we could put the new flooring down.  I am so thankful to have that construction mess behind us!

This is the dining room.  The door is just to the right beside the little stand and the door to the garage is to the left.  You can just see the kitchen island in the foreground.  Just after the kitchen island that you can see, there used to be a wall dividing the kitchen from the dining room.  The dinning room formerly was a large laundry room.  By taking out the wall and relocating the washer and dryer we dramatically enlarged the space and opening up the kitchen.  We do not live in a large home so this really helped our home feel much larger.  I dreamed of this room being finished for many years.  For a long time it had a broken up old linoleum floor that was impossible to keep clean.  Finishing this room was a dream come true!  My dad came over many times and together he and my husband both have worked so hard on our home.  I love my new kitchen and am so proud of all the work that my dad and husband did to make our home so lovely and beautiful for our family!  The best part of all was standing back and admiring the room when it was finished and knowing that the wait to finish this project like all the others until we had the cash was well worth it.  Our previous home we used a construction loan and when we were finished remodeling we had the drudgery of still paying for what we had done.  This time we decided to pay as we go no matter how long it took.  Six years later we are finally finishing up our home but we do not owe a penny for any remodeling and that has made it all worth while and I guarantee we enjoy our home so much more because of this!!!