If you’re a fan of the long, warm summer days, you might be feeling a little sad that autumn is right around the corner. But for those who like spending time in their kitchens, cooking, and baking, the cooling air is a great way to return to the trying and testing of several different recipes.
But before you can get into that, it would also help to consider giving your kitchen a little bit of a makeover to welcome the new season. While spring is the time of the year typically associated with cleaning and renovations, autumn is also a time of significant transition.
Before you know it, it will be upon you, and you may regret not preparing your kitchen accordingly. If you’re ready for this project, here are some of the things you should consider.
New Cabinets
A new season can also be a reason to invest in new cabinets and cupboards. If yours has been getting a little shabby and you’ve been looking forward to making some changes, there’s no better time to start than right now. If you want to ensure the whole process is smooth and doesn’t take you a lot of time, flat pack white kitchen cabinets are your best bet.
They are a budget-friendly option, so if you don’t have a large budget at your disposal, you can rest assured that these cabinets won’t dent your finances, which will take months to recover from. The fundamental characteristic of these units is that they’re very easy to transport due to their compact packaging.
The best news is that these cabinets have multiple uses and are not just solely designed for kitchen-specific requirements. If you want to get new kitchen cabinets in a few years, you can simply delegate the flat-pack cabinets to the bathroom, laundry, or utility rooms.
Decluttering
Even if you are a mindful shopper and don’t have a liking for going through endless aisles in stores or spending several hours online shopping, you’ll definitely notice that clutter tends to accumulate over time. It happens to all of us, but it’s essential to keep it under control, or you risk making cooking a very frustrating experience.
Going through several drawers to find the things you need while making a new dish can leave you more tired than the work itself, so if you feel like your kitchen has become a place where a lot of items you no longer use have gathered, it’s time to declutter.
If you start early, while autumn has not yet arrived, you can take things slowly and clean out one cabinet per day.
Spacing out your tasks allows you to feel more relaxed about the whole process so that you can take your time and actually think more carefully about the things you’re going to keep and the ones you’re tossing away. Make sure to check out expiration dates on boxed items or canned foods, and discard the ones that are out of date.
Clean the Oven
Cleaning the oven is a household chore that nobody is in any hurry to claim for themselves. It can be uncomfortable, it takes a lot of time, and by the end, your arms will feel absolutely exhausted. However, if you want to keep your kitchen clean and safe, it is something that you simply have to do.
Your oven has most likely got a lot of rest over the last few months, but it’s time to turn it back on now. The best way to have a fresh start is to give it a good scrub that will make it squeaky clean and ready to bake pies and casseroles.
Stock Up
Right before autumn starts, you should go through your pantry and decide which items you should keep and which you need to discard. Wipe down the shelves to get rid of the flour dust, rogue grains of rice, and other residue that may have accumulated over the months, and then start working on your ideal pantry wishlist.
The essentials depend on your personal taste and the recipes you want to try, but you should definitely restock on pasta, cornmeal, lentils, couscous, and chickpeas, as they are essential items. Cinnamon is the quintessential autumn spice, as it is an ingredient in pies, cakes, crumbles, and even warming beverages and puddings.
Ginger is another versatile ingredient that offers several health benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties. It can be incorporated in both sweet and savory dishes, such as sticky pear and ginger cake, or a filling stir-fry of prawns, spring onions, and ginger.
Onions are also used for pretty much all umami meals and are a key ingredient in all kinds of warming soups like spiced lentils and butternut squash, courgette, potato and cheddar soup, and a classic vegetable soup with cheesy toast all feature onion as an ingredient.
Maple syrup is great as an ingredient in recipes, as well as a drizzle over pancakes and other baked goods. You can also integrate maple syrup in savory recipes, such as a sausage and maple swede bake.
Canning
Preserves can be a little intimidating if you’ve never done them before, but if you develop your skills a little, you can become proficient at making your own jams, pickles, and chutneys. You only need basic cooking equipment. Make sure to wash all the jars, lids, and bottles with warm water and soap and rinse them thoroughly.
The boiling water-bath processing technique is arguably the safest, as it ensures long shelf-life and guarantees you only have good bacteria in your jars, not the kind that can lead to illness. There’s an endless amount of fruits and veg you can preserve, so you can really get creative and focus on the things you like.
When autumn arrives, many start feeling a little depressed. The days get shorter, the weather gets gloomier, and the skies are overcast. However, there are many ways to enjoy this cozy and relaxing season, and turning your home into a warm and welcoming safe haven is at the top of the list.
