1. Scour your pots and pans.

Yes, I’m actually telling you to scrub your dishes when you haven’t cooked anything in them — and we’re talking the kind of work that requires elbow grease. Even when well-washed with dish soap, frequently used stainless pots and pans get patches — especially along the sides, edges, and exteriors, where cooked on fats tend to stubbornly cling.

Steel wool can scratch, so instead pick up a non-abrasive sponge and a mildly abrasive product or baking soda, and get in there for a thorough scrub.

2. Clean or change your stove vent fan filter.

Whether you have a fancy range hood or the classic apartment vent fan that blows exhaust directly into your face, it could use a fresh start. The good news is that a fresh start requires little more than a kettle of hot water, a dish brush, and some soap. If you don’t remember the last time the filter was changed, it’s probably worth picking up a new one at your local hardware store or online. Check your owner’s manual. If you’re in a rental and there’s no manual to be found, look up into the range hood; there’s likely a sticker to tell you the serial number of the filter you’ll need.

3. Clean your oven.

Whether sputtering grease from a Christmas goose, overflowing pie filling, or bubbling green bean casserole, there is likely something spilled onto the floor of your oven right now. You can, if your oven has this option, run the oven cleaning cycle or use a combination method that pairs a solvent and some scrubbing. Pick up some all-natural grill and oven cleaner, baking soda and vinegar, or — in really tough cases — ammonia.

4. Treat your wooden tools.

Think of this as massage time for some of your most beautiful and beloved kitchen workhorses: your wooden spoons, cutting boards, and wooden-handled knives. Wash them by hand and towel dry them thoroughly; then apply mineral oil or, in dire cases, equal parts mineral oil and food-grade beeswax, melted together and allowed to cool until thickened. Rub either into the edges of your boards and tools and allow them to sit overnight. Buff any excess oil or balm away with a fresh towel the next day and your tools will be glossy, smooth, and ready for anything.

5. Deal with your drawers & edit your tool collection.

The drawers closest to the kitchen counter tend to catch crumbs, and pulling everything out to clean them is a great chance to assess your kitchen tools. Before you return things to the drawer, be honest with yourself about the last time you used them.

Chances are that the pastry blender, julienne peeler, candy thermometer, and cherry pitter probably don’t need to be in your most easily accessible storage space. There’s nothing wrong with storing these occasionally used tools elsewhere — even out of the kitchen. Garlic press you never use? Duplicates of anything? Donate them. Your drawers will be less cluttered and your tools will be more of a pleasure to use.

6. Change your water filter.

The first week of the year is a great one for updating things that need to be done periodically, like replacing the filter in your water pitcher, and giving the pitcher itself a thorough wash. Recycle the old filter, get a new one going, and set a reminder on your calendar to do it again in three months.

7. Clean or replace dishwashing tools.

Freshen your scrub brush with a trip through the dishwasher, or soak the bristle end in distilled white vinegar for an hour or two and then hang to dry. While you’re at it, boil your dish rags and then wash and dry them as usual. If you’re still on team sponge, this is not the time to microwave. Get a fresh one and resolve to squeeze it dry after each use. No matter what kind of dishwashing tools you use, assess them honestly and replace them if it’s time. Having a clean slate is a great incentive to keep things nice beyond January.

8. Clean your dishwasher.

If you’ve got a dishwasher in your life, it likely saved you from hand-washing countless plates after parties this holiday season. If so, you owe it some spa time. Deep cleaning your dishwasher isn’t even an arduous task: Clean the filter, give forgotten spots a good wipe-down, and run a cycle with some vinegar.

9. Clean your garbage disposal & microwave.

What’s the best way to clean your microwave? With a lemon, some water, and a dishtowel. What’s the best way to clean your garbage disposal? With a lemon, a few ice cubes, and a handful of salt. Get the most out of that lemon by completing these two tasks in succession for a kitchen reset you can cross off the list on a weeknight.

10. Deep clean your refrigerator & freezer.

Perhaps not the project to take on after a long day — this is a tedious one with a big payoff. It’s time to tackle your refrigerator: Pull everything out of it, stowing any truly temperature-sensitive items like meat or dairy into a cooler. Throw away or compost tired leftovers; condiments; and forgotten half-empty jars of jam, pickles, or anything else you won’t actually eat. Be ruthless. Then follow our guide to truly clean your refrigerator. Repeat this process with your freezer. Treat yourself to fresh boxes of baking soda to keep in the doors of each to absorb aromas.

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If you’re planning to entertain at home this holiday season, you’d be wise to bear in mind the words of Julia Child: “Never apologize. Never explain.”

Because something is going to go wrong. Something always does. But that doesn’t mean you need to tell the world. Her philosophy was simple. Embrace the disaster, do what you can to fix it, but tell nobody. Just serve it as is and chances are good no one will notice or care. Did your souffle fall? Call it a pudding cake instead. Are your cookies overcooked? Crumble them over ice cream.

Make a Gingerbread House from a Mold

Find a mold like this. While most of the work is done for you, you can still say it’s 100% homemade!

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House on a Milk Carton

This is the recipe my friend made for our toddler play date last year, and it was perfect for little ones. I know my friend had a hard time collecting milk cartons for all the children in our group, but once you gather the milk cartons, they’re easy to assemble. From Martha Stewart.

Make a Gingerbread House from Scratch

Mama Smiles shows us how she made her house with a toddler (no small feat!) from scratch!

Make a Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

Kelley Moore shows us how to make a beautiful graham cracker gingerbread house.

Tiny Gingerbread House Perched on the Rim of a Mug

Oh my goodness! These are most definitely not for making with little kids, but what a show stopper!

Gingerbread House from a Kit

Or, take the easier route with a store-bought kit. A Spoonful of Sugar Designs shares their Ikea kit. Lovely. These kits are easy to find in many stores during the holiday season. In case you want the ease of shopping online, this gingerbread house kit is the #1 Best Seller on Amazon (affiliate).

Gingerbread Matzo House

Not exactly gingerbread, but we made these jelly bean matzo houses earlier this year and I couldn’t resist sharing, just to show that with some icing and candy, you can turn just about anything into a house.

1. The dreamy location

The small stucco cottage is located in the south of France and sits on a hillside close to the town of Grasse, about a half-hour drive from Cannes.

2. The custom fit

The entire kitchen was custom built by her husband, Paul, just for her. For instance, the counters sit higher in the “La Peetch” kitchen to fit Julia’s tall 6-foot-2-inch frame.

3. The guest lists

Apparently Julia and Paul entertained the cream of the cuisine crop at “La Peetch,” including James Beard and M.F.K. Fisher.

4. The pegboards

The walls are still lined with pegboards Paul lovingly installed for Julia to hang her cooking tools. To keep things organized, Paul and his twin bother, Charlie, painted outlines of each individual piece of equipment on the boards, which have been preserved and are still there today.

5. The oven

The gas range once used by Julia herself would be a treat to cook on. Not to mention all the delicious tastes you could whip up on that big old six-burner gas stove.

6. The storage

Julia was able to really pack quite a bit of equipment into her little French country kitchen. From the built-in spice rack to the slots made for holding cookbooks, everything was obviously carefully considered and given a place.

7. The lighting

Not only do we love the light fixture, but the sun bathes the kitchen in light during the day.

8. The price tag

Julia and Paul built the cottage on the property of her bestie, Simone Beck, who was also her co-author for her bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simca, as Julia affectionately called her, reportedly gave them the property in a casual handshake deal with one condition: The Childs would return the house to Simca once they could no longer use it. They visited yearly for 30 years — from the ’60s through the ’90s — until Paul’s health would no longer allow him to travel in 1992. They then returned the home to Simca.

9. The green tile

The green tile backsplash gives this predominately utilitarian space a pop of eye-catching emerald green. Those tiles are probably antiques you couldn’t find anywhere else.

9. It’s food history

After the Childs returned the cottage to Simca, it was turned into a a cooking school, which is closing because Kathie Alex, the American who ran the school, had to retire due to failing health.

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Tiling your kitchen can be a bit daunting – especially if you want to inject some character but don’t want to put off potential future buyers.

If you’re in the throes of fitting or designing a new kitchen, the chances are you’ve probably forked out a fortune on cupboards, appliances and a stylish sink. So it’s tempting to try to cut back on features such as tiles.

But they’ll actually be the key to your new kitchen’s whole look and feel.

Kitchen wall tiles not only look clean and cool but they’re practical, too – creating the perfect splash-back for your sink and hob.

And opting for quality kitchen floor tiles – from the simplest metro designs to intricate Moroccan patterns – can really add that wow factor to your cooking and entertaining space.

1. Should I go for a patterned tile? And if so, how do I choose one?

Moroccan and Moorish designs have a timeless appeal so they’re equally at home in contemporary and more traditional kitchens, making them a fail-safe buy.

2. How do I choose a colour for my kitchen tiles?

It’s difficult to go wrong with blue and white patterns, since they’re such a classic combination – and they have a particularly fresh feel that’s perfect for kitchens.

3. Where do I start with shaped kitchen tiles?

If you’re slightly unsure about opting for patterned tiles, then shaped tiles – for example, hexagonal or Arabesque designs – are a really good compromise, since you can use them to create beautifully subtle, easy-to-live-with patterns.

Another option is to create a decorative effect by using metro-style tiles in eye-catching designs such as a herringbone layout.

4. What are the most common mistakes people make when tiling a kitchen?

Always think about scale, since a little pattern can go a long way, particularly in a compact kitchen. Avoid designs that are too ‘busy’ since they’ll make the kitchen look smaller than it is.

Similarly, a combination of decorative walls and floors might have the effect of making a kitchen look somewhat crowded.

5. Can patterned floor and wall tiles put off potential buyers?

If you’re thinking of appealing to a wide range of buyers, it’s probably safer to opt for either a patterned wall OR a patterned floor.

You could then always use a border of the tiles to echo the patterned wall (or floor), giving the scheme a pulled-together yet balanced feel.

6. I’d love to use kitchen tiles with a bold pattern, but worry that they might not appeal to buyers.

If you’ve fallen in love with some really vibrant, ornate tiles that you suspect might not be for everyone, you could always use them to create a splashback, rather than tiling the entire kitchen.

That way, you’ll be able to enjoy the tiles, and potential buyers won’t feel daunted by them – since they’ll be relatively quick and inexpensive to replace.

Sharpen your kitchen knowledge and throw away these old cooking myths!

While learning tried and tested cooking techniques is necessary to gain kitchen skills, some tips passed on from generations are outdated and no longer hold true. Find out what these are below:

MYTH: Sear the meat so that moisture is sealed in.

Many chefs recommend searing meat to keep its juice intact so steaks come out moist and flavorful. However, based on an experiment done by food scientist Harold McGee and Food Network chef Alton Brown, searing meat actually takes the moisture out, according to Cook Think. When done wrong, the meat ends up tougher and harder to chew, so it’s best to no longer follow this cooking tip.

MYTH: Alcohol evaporates during cooking, so you can’t actually get drunk.

The belief is that foods that contain ingredients like vodka, red wine, or rum, should be stripped of its alcohol content during the cooking process. Not quite. It’s all depends on how the food was cooked. In reality, over 85 percent of alcohol remains in the food after cooking, according to Ochef.

MYTH: Microwaving food takes away its nutrients.

The truth is: cooking food in microwave is no different than doing so on a stove top. Microwave cooking actually does the opposite and preserve vitamins and minerals found in food, according to CNN. This is because it involves shorter cooking time and less heat, which causes less damage when breaking down the nutrients.

“The best cooking method for retaining nutrients is one that cooks quickly, exposes food to heat for the smallest amount of time and uses only a minimal amount of liquid,” said food scientist Catherine Adams Hutt in the CNN report.

MYTH: Cool food before putting it in the fridge.

There’s a valid point for doing this, but it’s more because food that’s piping hot can make the fridge work double time, and not because the change in temperature can spoil the food a lot quicker. However, food shouldn’t be left at room temperature longer than two hours because microorganisms can build up and spoil it, according to ServSafe, the guidelines followed by the National Restaurant Association. To quickly let food cool down, it’s best to divide contents into smaller containers.

MYTH: Add oil in pasta and then rinse in cold water after it’s cooked.

Oil supposedly keeps the noodles from clumping together, while the cold water supposedly stops the cooking process so that the pasta doesn’t become soggy. But oil does not prevent clumping – rather the occasional stirring of the pasta in boiling water does – according to Ask Men. Rinsing pasta in cold water after boiling also does nothing but keep the sauce from adhering to the pasta better, according to Lifehack.

“In recent years the trend of open floor plans has been on the rise, and with it comes some innovative ideas to make the whole home work together.

The kitchen is borrowing style from the nearby living areas and is becoming less of a focal point as blurring the lines between rooms becomes necessary.

With these rooms vanishing into each other, we start to see elements from the living/entertaining area merging into the kitchen, such as open shelving and more functional drawer storage.”

Katie Kuiper
Design Studio Senior Designer
MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc., parent company of
Aristokraft® Cabinetry

3 New Kitchen Trends To Consider:

open shelving »
Open shelving is becoming more of a staple in the kitchen. Not only does it make items easier to access, it also puts them on display.

drawers »
Drawers are increasing in the kitchen. Not only are we seeing standard base cabinets being swapped for easier-to-access drawer bases, but also with the open shelving trend, the drawer is needed to take on more functions.

transitional styling »
In blurring the lines between rooms, a new style has emerged, making it the perfect mix of warmth, comfort, clean lines, and understated colors to go with the rest of your home’s décor. Transitional sits right in between Traditional and Contemporary, is timeless and effortless.