Rabbit Hill Kitchen

The HEART of our HOME

Welcome to my kitchen at Rabbit Hill …

You might be surprised to learn that this kitchen is my fourteenth or fifteenth kitchen, not counting the kitchens in my university apartments and houses. How did this one become so special? I can only think it was because we made it so. Unintentionally. We built it based on what we had, what we could afford and what we knew how to do without any help.

When we discovered a 17th century brick and stone farmhouse, on a vast piece of neglected farm land, in 2013, I can’t say we immediately saw a kitchen of dreamy potential. In fact, the kitchen consisted of two awkwardly connected rooms in a ‘T’ shaped configuration. The ‘front’ kitchen had two corner cabinets that appeared to be built in. It also had a dilapidated particle board sink cabinet. That was all. But no … it wasn’t. It also had pottery tile floors in bright blue and grey, high ceilings with beams and the most gorgeous, huge, double casement windows. Before I fell in love with any part of that room, I fell in love with the light. And then there was the view… out that window was a 16th century cider barn, and a single standing, ancient pear tree.

The back room, still called the ‘back’ kitchen by our family, had a large double sash window, interesting concrete aggregate floors, another particle board sink cabinet, but on either side of the window were built in pantry cabinets, tall, slender and white and perfectly functional. The challenge of this long narrow room, was to find a slim table that could accommodate our family of five, and still be navigated around to access the pantry and storage cabinets, or even to open a dishwasher door.

The kitchen was the first room that we tackled, even before moving in. We went with a simple bright white paint, that had neither a name or a fancy brand, for the walls. We found an antique solid oak butchers table that we could fit with an inexpensive Ikea stainless steel prep sink. We purchased my first stove, a large stainless steel commercial type, from our local online classifieds. Little by little, the kitchen came together.

You can best follow the progress of creation and design elements of my kitchen by checking my Instagram account. Look under hashtags #kitchenrabbithill #rabbithillkitchen

Inside Our Kitchen

Slow Cooking Sundays at Rabbit Hill.

If it’s Sunday, you know you will find me making a family meal in my kitchen at Rabbit Hill. So excited to be working with Samsung Home Appliances to make the recipe prep and ingredient storage, effortless!

Daily life in my kitchen …

One thing is for certain, if you are looking for me, on most days you will find me in the kitchen or garden at Rabbit Hill. There is rarely a day when I am not creating a meal or testing a recipe. The kitchen is my haven where I am inspired and most alive. Throughout the years we have had different dietary needs and preferences in our family and I have always taken the opportunity to totally immerse myself in new types of cooking, nutrition and health with studies in food allergies and intolerances, vegetarian regimens and culinary wellness. Because of my love of food and creating dishes, I have supplemented my passion with studies in culinary nutrition science courses from Stanford University in California USA. I am always learning and discovering be it about food and culture, the best eating practices for health and deeply diving into traditional cooking methods.

What is a normal day in my kitchen?

I will tell you a secret. I am not the best ‘morning person’ so perhaps that is why I don’t often eat breakfast. I am good with coffee (and no one speaking to me for the first two hours or so of the day). I do love ‘brunch’ or having my first meal of the day around 11 or 12. That means something savory and delicious and most likely with eggs. Our hens, ducks and geese keep us well-stocked only taking a break towards the last part of winter or when molting. So a great foodie day for me could start with a visit to one of our local markets, unloading a full basket of seasonal ingredients and having that third cup of coffee (decaf!) and making myself a big plate of greens, grains and farm fresh eggs.

Typical of the French culture, we do take a longer lunch, but it’s not always multiple-courses. I think the biggest difference since living in France is that we never eat at our desks (with the exception of working on a deadline) and we absolutely never eat in our cars while out and about or running errands. Lunch is a sacred period of the day to stop, eat and connect with your family or spouse.

Our evening meals are lighter, except on the weekends. We often eat differently than our kids and sometimes on work or school nights feed them first so we can have a quiet pause, just the two of us. And even though it’s not my preference, we do eat dinner pretty late. We do our best to sit down to dinner before 8 PM, but in the summer, with the long light in the evenings, we find that sometimes our daylight clocks cause us not to want dinner until closer to 9 PM.

What is a perfect foodie day for me?

I love experimenting and discovering! Whether it is a new spice or cultural dish, a technique or process like preserving or fermentation — I love having time in my kitchen to learn and master! And oh yes! There are plenty of ‘fails’ … and I do burn things and ditch ideas, but for me, that is all part of the fun.

A perfect foodie day would be a trip to the market or maybe a stop at our local epicerie or butcher and creating a meal with my finds. Lighting a candle, pouring a glass of wine and maybe even … dancing around the kitchen! And the only way this already perfect day gets better is that we gather some friends and sit around the table, and loose track of the evening, lost in good food and laughter. Those are the best days for me. (And that someone else does the dishes!)

Cooking Essentials

Rabbit Hill Kitchen - Knife Essentials

Everything you need to know about one of the most important tools in any good cook’s arsenal: kitchen knives. In this deep dive, I’ll take you through what to look for and how to get the most out of your knives.