Real Food Kitchen Tour: Mama and Baby Love

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Stephanie Brandt Cornais, author of Mama and Baby Love.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Mama and Baby Love

Stephanie & daughter, Penelope

I love Stephanie Brandt Cornais’ blog, Mama and Baby Love. This week we get to tour her kitchen in Florida.

Want to learn how to cook traditional food in bulk and store in your freezer? Check out Stephanie’s brand new e-book, From Your Freezer To Your Family, Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes. (The page says “coming soon”, but you can order now.)

Blog Name: Mama and Baby Love
Blog Author: Stephanie Brandt Cornais
How Long Blogging: Since March, 2009
Location: Florida
House or Apartment: Two-story house
Size of Kitchen: um, medium? I could use some more space, but I am blessed.
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: It really is the heart of my home. Directly in the center. My daughter’s playroom is right next to it, so I can see her playing in there while I am in the kitchen. I like the layout, it’s got a good working, triangle layout.
Things You Would Change: I wish I had an island for more prep and counter space and a bigger fridge.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: I love my cast iron skillet, it was my grandmother’s and I can feel her love when I use it. And I am so in love with my slow cooker. I want to get like two more.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: At first, it was simply not understanding basic concepts, I had absolutely no cooking skills or foundation to start with, so those beginning steps were huge mountains for me. And now that I know all the things I should be doing, my biggest obstacle, is feeling guilty all the time. I may make chicken stock one week, but then not make any yogurt for my daughter’s smoothies and use store bought. I am constantly feeling like I am not “Real Foodie” enough, never perfect enough.
Current Family Favorite Meal: I think my goulash is our favorite right now.
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions, and Meals That Heal, of course. But I also have this folder of recipes that I have accumulated for years, from different people and magazines. I love using that as inspiration too. Oh and Pinterest. What did we even do before Pinterest?!

Bird's Eye Kitchen

This is what my kitchen looks like standing in my living room. My kitchen opens up to the living room nice. Pre-life-with-baby, I used to watch the Food Network from the kitchen while I was chopping or stirring. And it works great for entertaining, not that we do much of that anymore either!

Kitchen Sink

This is taken from the middle of my kitchen looking out into the living room. Before I went to take pictures for this post, I had a moment where I thought I should clean everything up real spick and span, but then I realized that was no fun at all, and you probably want to see the “real me” of this Real Food Kitchen!

Kitchen Table

Also taken from the center, looking out. You can see my beloved Learning Tower, it gets a lot of use by my 2 year old. And my kitchen table, with my Mac out and a bottle of kombucha. My kitchen table is my “office”.

Kitchen Counter

This side of the kitchen holds my supplements (in the little black bin), my cookbooks, my juicer, and some paper towels. I mostly use old cloth diapers inserts to wipe the counters, but I use paper to wipe up cooking grease.

Kitchen Counter

This corner gets a lot of action, but I like that it feels tucked away a bit. I can’t stand having things on my counter, one of my biggest beefs with Real Food cooking, is that there is always something cluttering up my counter! Anyway, today, I have dinner going in the slow cooker, beans soaking for tomorrow’s dinner and some lentils just starting the sprouting process. That’s a Brian Andreas painting on the wall — love it so much.

Spice Cabinet

On top of my little ferment/soak corner is my spice cabinet. I just organized it the other week and it makes me so happy!

Kitchen pantry

I also just recently organized my pantry. I always kept it pretty neat, but was tired of having to reorganize it every month, because it got so easy dishelved. I added these little $3 bins from the Container Store and it makes a huge difference. If you haven’t noticed, I am a bit OCD, and I love to see things all matchy-matchy, in a pretty little row.

Laundry Room

My laundry room is just off my kitchen and even though I love things in their place, the truth is my house is never perfect. There is always some project I am in the middle of and things are just out.

Flower vase

Another staple in my kitchen these days. My daughter is very into picking flowers for Mama right now, so anytime she is out side she comes back with flowers for me. Makes my heart break a little, I know this age will go by so fast.

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
How about a lovely herb garden?
Kids or pets are always cute!
Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.

Photo credit: A warm welcome Project365(3) Day 10 by Keith Williamson, on Flickr and photos by Memories by Michelle
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5

{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

Jill May 7, 2012 at 4:21 AM

Aw, I love it. Thanks, Stephanie, for being real!

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:51 PM: Thanks Jill!

Carmen May 7, 2012 at 4:42 AM

Stephanie, I so appreciate your willingness to be true to yourself as well as sharing with us!
You have a lovely home and it seems that your priorities are in just the right order.
Blessings on you and your family.

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:51 PM: That is so sweet, thank you so much, Carmen!

Laurae May 7, 2012 at 6:14 AM

Love you kitchen!! What I especially love is the fact that you left dishes in the sink, etc. to show that you actually do live there:)
I love these kitchen tours; I look for them weekly!

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:53 PM: I love this series too! AnnMarie is full of great ideas!

butternutrition May 7, 2012 at 6:47 AM

Thanks for sharing! I love gleaming kitchen org ideas from others

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:54 PM: Thanks for reading and commenting! I just got back from a blogging conference and so many lamented that the art of commenting has taken a down turn in recent years with the ability to just like a post on Facebook, so I thank you for taking the time!

Holly May 7, 2012 at 7:04 AM

Thank you for sharing!

This made my homesick for the kitchen I had when we lived in FL – it was laid out just like this, and it was a great kitchen (although I didn’t appreciate it enough at the time….). I think that design really works.

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:55 PM: Yup, this is totally a classic Florida kitchen.

Molly May 7, 2012 at 7:30 AM

This is lovely. Thank you for sharing.

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:54 PM: Thanks!

amber May 7, 2012 at 8:50 AM

I want one of those kitchen towers for my 2 year old son, he love helping me in the kitchen!

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:55 PM: You must get one. They are amazing. I do not know how I could function without it.

Meredith May 7, 2012 at 1:24 PM

Stephanie – Love your kitchen. Very nice but still normal Two questions: what kind of water filter is that? AND, have you ever made mayonaisse in your mini chopper? I have the same one – just curious. THANKS!!!

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:56 PM

It’s a Big Berkey. I had just gotten back into town from a couple of days of being gone and you are supposed to take it a part and let it air out when you are not using it, so it doesn’t get mold in it.

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 7:44 PM: Oh, and I have never made mayonaise in the small one, only the big one. And I got the big one at a garage sale for $10, works great!

Jessica May 8, 2012 at 11:02 AM

I feel like it could have been me speaking in this blog. That’s one of the things I hate about the fermented foods, too! They’re constantly cluttering up my counters! Of course I make the sacrifice, but it doesn’t mean I like it. My house is never perfect either, although that’s how I’d like it in a perfect world. After 4 kids I’ve learned to go with the flow. I’m happier that way.

Stephanie May 9, 2012 at 6:57 PM: Yes, life with children has enabled me to relax even if things are still not put away and clean but that doesn’t mean I like it!

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Real Food Kitchen Tour: Mama and Baby Love

What’s a Real Foodie?

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Mama and Baby Love

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

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