{Upcycled Play Kitchen}

I spent the summer watching Chuck play in the kitchen area of our local Children's Museum.  We went weekly in the morning for "member hours", so the place was basically empty giving her free reign of the kitchen.  She loved opening and closing (and opening and closing, and opening and closing) the oven door.  She loved putting things into the refrigerator.  She loved turning knobs, and pretending she was doing something.  Somewhere around August, I decided I would get her a play kitchen for her Christmas this year.

I did a little bit of searching to see what I could find/afford in the vast world of play kitchens. This play kitchen was - more than likely- going to be front and center in my living room.  What I could afford, I hated (sorry pink plastic play kitchen).  And, what I loved, I couldn't afford.  One sleepless night, I was clicking around on Pinterest and I discovered the bold new world of DIY Nightstand Kitchens. 

This was perfect!   I could do this! I went to Salvation Army, found a nightstand, and drew a diagram of how this magical transformation was going to take place.  It was August, so I had four months to make this happen!

And, I did.

I use the term "I" here loosely.  Really, my '"team"* helped me pull this whole thing together in the week leading up to Christmas. And, by the week leading up to Christmas, I really mean Christmas Eve. Secret crafting with power tools is hard to pull off during nap time.  Stenciling at ten o'clock at night is not something I would recommend.  The good news is Chuck absolutely loves it!  She doesn't see the imperfect cuts or the paint smudges.  And that's why I love her.

Here's How I Did It . . .  
1. Find an old nightstand or two
2. Remove all hardware, and sand it down
3. Paint and prime

Here's the fun part!  You can get creative with how you want your kitchen to look.  I scoured Pinterest and blogs for some inspiration.

I painted some wooden circles black  and glued them onto the top of the nightstand for burners.

What REALLY brought this project to life was this awesome set of stencils I purchased at Michaels from Handmade Charlotte and the little details.  I purchased some kitchen utensils to keep in the drawer, and some towels to place on the hooks.  Chuck's aunt gave her a set of awesome pots and pans for her birthday. I have been working on some felted pasta for her for a while.  I absolutely love watching her stir her little felted pasta in her pot!

This is still a work in progress; I hope to one day add an oven door and some knobs for the burners. Maybe one day, we'll even add another nightstand and make a sink.

The other day, I watched Chuck look at the stencils on the back splash  and say "apple, birthday (aka cupcake) kettle, apple", and it made me feel a fuzziness I can only imagine as pride.

 

*Team Shout-Out
Thank you Tracey for knowing how to paint things.  Even when the paint that I have applied that was supposed to go over EVERYTHING decided to bubble and peel off in giant strips of latexy goo.

Thank you John for all the times you said you were going to come over and help Brian.  I don't know if you really helped, but I thank you for giving me a reason to order pizza. 

Thank you Brian.  Thank you for putting up with my crazy ideas.  Thank you for being Chuck's reluctant Elf this year.  Thank you for constantly reminding me that "this is your idea, why am I doing all the work?"  Thank you for making my little drawing on a scrap of paper come to life.

Thank you mom for telling me the story of the thing your dad made for you that you still remember today (even though, I clearly do not remember what that thing was).  You may not realize this, but your story was just what I needed to re-motivate me to finish Chuck's kitchen.

{Project: Everything Tastes Better with Butter}

Full sensory learning has staying power and what better place in your house to engage all those senses than the kitchen! 

This weekend’s cooking endeavor was pretzels with homemade butter. Lucas has been obsessed with LuCk Dough lately so I thought it would be the perfect time to get those little hands into pretzel dough.  Playing with dough, whether its for play or edible, is a great way to develop those fine motor skills. Pretzel dough is a little tougher than play dough, so it has all those little muscles working extra hard. Cooking in the kitchen is quite the workout for those little ones!

After we popped the pretzels in the oven, we took out the Kitchen Aid to make some fresh butter! Originally my plan was to shake the heavy cream in a jar, but after looking online and realizing it was going to take 15 to 20 minutes of shaking we went with Plan B. Butter in a jar will have to wait until Lucas is a little older and we recruit a bunch of helpers. 

Pro Tip: Make sure you remember to use the splash guard on the Kitchen Aid (unless you want to redecorate your kitchen walls with buttermilk)

Lucas loves to add things to the mixer and turn it on, but he lost interest after the heavy cream turned to whipped cream. It took about 10 minutes to separate into butter and buttermilk. I strained the butter in a cheesecloth and Lucas came back to help squeeze out the excess whey. He was, not surprisingly, way more interested in the end result than he was the butter-making process. 

The fresh butter on the warm pretzels was absolutely divine! Now I am wondering what to do with this leftover buttermilk…

Pretzel Recipe

• Dissolve 1 package of yeast in 1 1/2 cups warm water.
• Add 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbls sugar and 4 cups of flour (we used 2 cups white, 2 cups whole wheat. Next time I may try 3 cups whole wheat, 1 cup white)
• Mix and knead the dough until smooth. 
• We chose to roll our pretzels into snakes and worms but you can make any shape you’d like! 
• Lay the pretzels on a cookie sheet, brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.
• Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown