Kitchen Reno Idea: A Window on my Alley

Snippets of the Kitchen Design

This post might be a bit of a stretch for ally gardening, but I swear there's a connection.







Here's our kitchen now.

It's okay. Like most of our house, we can certainly live in it. With limited funds for improvements (and limited man/woman-hours available, too), it's definitely not at the top of the priority list.

But here's my issue. This wall is on the alley side of the house! The south side! The side with light and warmth in this cold, dark, bitterly cold northern land.

Why is there no window???!!! Clearly a case of no one thinking about the environment the home would be positioned in.

For urban dwellers, we are immensely lucky. When considering buying this house, I was worried the alleyway might be a big draw back. Now I can't believe how short-sighted I was!

For an Urban Area, What a Great View!

It's like having a corridor of parkland right in our backyard! And that's the basis for the kitchen reno idea: convert the southern wall into a long window so the alley becomes the backdrop for the kitchen.

So here it is! My kitchen reno idea! My husband has had a few choice words...not appropriate to this blog...for the colour scheme. So that's probably a no-go. But the window? Definitely!

The Kitchen After . . . Someday

It's Raspberry Season! Make this Raspberry Recipe!

The Best Raspberry Pie

It's my favourite raspberry recipe from my childhood -- my mom's raspberry pie with meringue crust.

In reality, I think this pie arrived on our plates very few times. Although big raspberry bushes lined the south side of the garden in my very, very early childhood, within a few years, the patch had been reduced to just the wild brambles along the west fence. Later (I think) there were virtually no raspberries at all.

I doubt I was much more than a toddler when I had this pie for the first time, but I remember it clearly. Of course, human memory is ridiculously imperfect. Most of what we "remember" is just our logical brains manufacturing and filling in the numerous blanks. But who cares! My memory is of taking a big bite of fresh raspberries, cool whipped cream, and this luscious and completely unexpected crust, and thinking, "Wow! This is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted!!!"

Put this Raspberry Pie at the top of your To-Do List.

Every summer after that, I hoped and pined for raspberry pie, and I'm sure it did occasionally arrive again. So this summer, with a bumper crop of alleyway raspberries dropping to the ground, my mother's raspberry pie went on the to-do list.

Now I must admit, I had only a list of ingredients for this pie, no directions. So I believe I made a few errors. I will try to guide you away from doing the same. Here's what you need to make this pie, too:

6 soda crackers
1/2 c. walnuts chopped small
1/4 tsp. salt

3 egg whites
1 c. white sugar (I used 1/2 c. of brown sugar, instead, and it was still PLENTY sweet, but yielded a softer, chewier crust)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

small carton whipping cream
1 T. powdered sugar
2 1/2 to 3 c. fresh raspberries

The walnuts  really make this crust!

1. Roll soda crackers to a fine powder. (Tip: Place them in a sandwich bag and roll with rolling pin.) Combine with walnuts and salt and set aside. (This is where I believe I erred. I combined all dry ingredients at once. Instead, try following the method in step 2 below.)

2. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar and baking powder.

3. Fold together the cracker mixture, egg whites, and vanilla.

I should have beaten the sugar into the whites.

4. Spread this mixture into a pie plate, pushing slightly up the sides. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. I lightly greased my pie plate with non-hydrogenated coconut oil (we don't use hydrogenated oils in our house), but I'm not sure this is necessary.

Prepped crust

5. Let baked crust cool 15 minutes, then refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Crust out of oven.

6. Whip cream and powdered sugar until peaks form and cream does not slide out of bowl when tipped. But don't turn it into butter!!!

7. Very gently fold raspberries and whipped cream together being careful not to mash your beautiful raspberries.

8. Pile the whipped cream - raspberry mixture into chilled pie crust. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Ta Da! I hope you love it as much as I do!!!