The Winter Kitchen

In my winter kitchen:

• There is almost always a pot of bone stock simmering.  Some is immediately used for a dinnertime soup, the rest is either placed in the freezer for later or directly put in enchilada sauce (if we are running low), or to used to make rice for the week.
• The oven is frequently baking a batch of muffins or slow-cooking a roast of sorts.
• Dirty dishes are always waiting in the sink for cleaning, and the window above is letting in more wintertime sunshine then usual.  The windowsill plants are happy about that, and I try to enjoy it and not worry too much about the lack of rain during what should be the heaviest month of rainfall.  I pray for rain. A lot.
• A long, wooden bowl at the center of the kitchen table holds the last of autumn's apples and bright, fresh, citrus fruit (California-grown, of course), ready for the taking.
• A little ten-month-old keeps busy on the floor with a bowl and several kitchen utensils.
• One child asks what is for dinner while an older one helps prepare a smoothie for everyone's afternoon snack and another rolls cookie dough bites for dessert and future packed lunches.
• Taking advantage of the dark, leafy greens that are currently in season, I am washing/chopping/tossing/putting together a big salad to feast on for the week.  Some nuts, bits of apple, a diced avocado, and how about some some cheese and sausage tossed in?  It sounds like lunch to me!
• We are getting close to a hundred seedlings, growing away in their trays.  They move all around the kitchen with the light, and they turn toward it.  I'm waiting for the question of how many seed starts do you plan to grow in this little kitchen of ours?  But until then, I keep starting more and dreaming of the day they go outside.
• I'm thinking I want to add more plants to my suculant collection and decorate the kitchen table with them for our February centerpiece.
• We drink lots of freshly-made orange, carrot, lemon juice to ward off the sickies.
• Collecting the kitchen scraps and egg basket, we stick on our boots and head down to the chicken coop to exchange daily treats.  Scraps for them, eggs for us.

What have you been up to in your winter kitchen?

I'm sharing this at Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Fight Back Friday.