My "Summer Kitchen"

We've been having a lot of fun around here, living over blogging. Though I love the writing, and I often think, oh, I'd like to blog about this or that topic that crosses my mind...but then we get on with living. I plan hope to write more this summer. The word wall above kind of says it all, some of them we've checked off the list, some we'll do again and again, and some we've yet to do! 

Anyways, a fun-though sometimes hectic spring passed us by, and the HOT summer days are upon us and summer around here, is all about FUN. I have my summer reading list, my summer to do list, my summer playlist, summer movie list and now, a Summer Kitchen. What is that you may ask?  

The BackStory

We are very fortunate to have a house with 2 kitchens. Sometimes the basement is rented out to boarder so we haven't really made use of the basement kitchen until now. I guess I need to explain, my house is unique in that our regular kitchen/family/school/etc rooms are on the second floor (and the bedrooms are on the ground floor with a sitting room) of our Chalet style house. I love, love, LOVE my unique house, but the drawback is that the summers are very HOT upstairs, even when it's not hot outside - great for our COLD winters, not so much in summer. We have ceiling fans, but the vaulted ceilings just seem to hold the heat IN. 

So this year, my hubby convinced me to move our kitchen/living space to the basement. Since we're all basically in one big room down here, it feels like we're at a cottage. I'm actually loving it, because even though we're not going away (except to visit my grandma for a few days up north) - it's like we are away from home.

I call it my summer kitchen after a friend reminded me that in the old days (as in a couple generations ago) it was very common to have a second kitchen... I looked it up...

Cooking in an open fireplace in summer can cause the kitchen to become extremely hot, so in Early America it was common for people to build a separate building called a "Summer Kitchen" where much of the food would be prepared during the summer months. The summer kitchen would contain a large fireplace with an oven, and usually a large table which was used as a work surface.

The purpose of summer kitchens were to keep the main house cooler in the summer by putting the cooking and cleaning duties in a separate building.

It has been fun, we've basically "closed" the upper floor of the house (meaning we can turn the AC down or even OFF-yay! I have direct access to the backyard (aka my garden) from here, and canning down here is WAY better. Love to be able to use my home to it's fullest potential.

Here we are, all cozy in our "cool" summer kitchen. Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!