Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

I have been hesitant to say anything about the visitors I have had at the cottage this week.  I was afraid that something would happen to jinx the visit.  But right on schedule (or close to it), the photography team of Gridley and Graves showed up for a photo shoot of my house for French Country Style Magazine.  We are still in the midst of it all, but it has been a very interesting, exciting, and scary experience.  Scary because of my obsessive worry about everything being perfect; not possible.  Exciting because I never dreamed that my house would be in a magazine.  Interesting because the process of professional photograph is amazing.  Anne Gridley and Gary Graves are real pros and very easy to work with.  Their equipment is massive as you can see by the above photo.

In preparation for their visit, I made a Walnut Gateau Breton and baked my Garlic Rosemary Baguettes for props.  They spent most of their time in the kitchen yesterday.  Today they have moved on to the rest of the house.  

I’m not sure when, or if, our Lake Lure Cottage will be in French Country Style Magazine, but I feel honored to have been considered and will be one happy lady when I see it all in print.

Each small accomplishment while renovating a house with the help of an expert like the ones at Archute is a moment to be savored.  I have been making do with a makeshift workstation for the last two years.

My computer has been set up wherever I could find a spot and although it worked OK for me,  I now know what it is like to have my own space again. I’ve also searched for sites and saw https://bi-folding-doors.co.uk/ that can opt with my concerns to easily access physically and visually on the areas needed.

Add to that the joy of seeing all of my cookbooks and I am in heaven.  Actually this is not all of my cookbooks.  We went to our storage building early in the morning to avoid the heat and rescued as many of them as we could find.  Unfortunately over the years all of our boxes have become jumbled and there was no way we could fight our way to the back to find them all.  But my shelves are full and when we finally do get them all, I am going to have to do some serious editing.

As you can see from the above picture, we have work yet to do on the house.  There is no trim around the doors and no baseboards, but isn’t my kitchen alcove great?  I have been enjoying getting up very early in the morning, making a pot of coffee and sitting here with just my small lamp lit and catching up on all of your blogs and writing my own.

We lost our power last night right before it was time to start dinner.  A storm had rolled through and typical of our area,that meant that a tree would fall and disrupt electricity.  It happens all summer long.  Fortunately I have a gas oven and we warmed the leftover flank steak and some corn tortillas.  I made some chunky guacamole, opened a jar of roasted red peppers and dolloped sour cream on top of our tacos. It was a good supper.  Now I want to delve into my Authentic Mexican cookbook by Rick Bayless.  It is inspiring to see it again.