Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Kendahl, author of Our Nourishing Roots.
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: Our Nourishing Roots
Kendahl
This week we travel to the beautiful state of Arizona to tour the kitchen of Kendahl, author of Our Nourishing Roots.
Over the years, Kendahl was always an active commenter on my blog, and many of the Real Food Media blogs. When she told me she wanted to start a real food blog, I had a feeling she’d be a natural.
And I was right (I tend to know about these things). She started her blog in October of last year — that’s less than 6 months — and it’s already grown to 15,000 visits per month.
This, by the way, is totally awesome.
Blog Name: Our Nourishing Roots
Blog Author: Kendahl
How Long Blogging: Several years on a personal blog, then started Our Nourishing Roots last year
Location: Tempe, AZ
House or Apartment: House: we bought it last year at an excellent time in the market, we love the layout, the location, the backyard, and especially that we have a gate that opens into the school field so our sons can walk to school with us. It’s perfect for us!
Size of Kitchen: 10 feet by 12 feet
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: It’s gorgeous. We were lucky enough to find this house right after the previous owner redid the kitchen with granite counters, black and stainless steel appliances, and new cabinetry. And then when we moved in, we painted the whole house and put in new floors. I also love the space, which I didn’t fully appreciate at first. But then when I moved all my things into the kitchen and had room for ever jar, I was ecstatic! I also love that the pantry off the kitchen is so large.
Things You Would Change: I would add some outlets to the bar side of the kitchen, so that I could use appliances there where there is more room and I can see more than just a wall. I would also move the washer and dryer out of the pantry and add more shelving on the other side and add an extra fridge.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: I really love my dehydrator of all things. It keeps bread dough warm, cultures yogurt, and dehydrates 9 trays at a time of soaked nuts, seeds, or sprouted grain berries. Plus I still haven’t even tried making jerky or fruit leather in it! The other item I love most is probably my slow cooker. I love being able to put dinner in it in the morning and have it ready at night. Plus I can put it outside during the hot Arizona summers.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: I think it’s mostly being able to puzzle-piece together food to be the most economical and green-minded. For example making butter and then using the buttermilk to soak pancakes for the next morning. I need to get better at using all the parts of my food together in a whole food mindset that is nourishing and easy on the food budget.
Current Favorite Family Meal: We’ve been loving soaked quinoa cooked in beef stock and then flavored with herbs and cheese, alongside steamed veggies with lemon butter and various meats.
Favorite Cookbooks: I am really loving Mastering The Art of French Cooking because I like the challenge of transforming those rich French dishes to be real food friendly (whole grains, . I hope to put some of my hybridized recipes up on the blog soon. I also love my newer book The Flavor Bible, which is giving me all kinds of ideas for flavor combinations and spins on tried and true recipes that I have been making for years.
Kitchen view from dining room
Fruit basket, filtered water container, stove, sink, window that looks out over the pool in the backyard.
Kitchen, long view
Blogging at the Countertop
Stove, stainless steel tea kettle, cast iron skillets, spoon rest
Inside of the chest freezer
Grass-fed beef from our purchase last September!
Inside of my fridge
Lined with cod liver oil, probiotics, maple syrup, milk, peanut butter, lacto-fermented mustard and ketchup, Bubbie’s pickles and sauerkraut, and a HUGE block of cheese on top!
My wire rack for kitchen appliances
Mixing bowls, bread pans, cookbook stand, Le Creuset French oven, Emile Henry ramekins and gratin dishes, cast iron skillets, food processor, blender, Kitchen Aid mixer, Excalibur dehydrator, and LOTS of cookbook.
My spice and tea cabinet
Organic rooibos tea blends, organic fair trade coffees for my husband, Teeccino for post-GAPS, bulk herbs and spices in bags.
Spice cabinet
Tea and spice cabinet, the whole thing!
On top you can see my mortar & pestle, kitchen scale (handy for things like cocoa butter), syrup pitcher, large bags of fine and coarse sea salt.
Baking cabinet
All my extracts from vanilla to mint to hazelnut, baking spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and clove, Cultures for Health starters, glass measuring cups, large mixing bowl for soaking and straining broths.
Pantry
Top shelf: soaked and dehydrated nuts and seeds, homemade coconut sprinkles
middle shelf: coconut flour, almond flour, cocoa butter wafers, late harvest olive oil, chia seeds, coconut oil
bottom shelf: apple cider vinegar, white beans (GAPS-legal!), canned seafood, condiments
right side: buckets of oats, spelt berries, kamut berries, sucanat, supplements (cod liver oil and butter oil blend, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, magnesium, medicinal tea).
Bottom shelves of pantry
Top shelf: bonito flakes & seaweed for making quick fish stock, apple cider vinegar, white beans (GAPS-legal!), canned seafood, condiments.
Bottom shelf: organic canned soup, arrowroot powder, olives, tahini, roasted bell peppers, applesauce, mineral water.
Cookbooks
Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2 volume set by Julia Child, Internal Bliss GAPS cookbook, Almond Flour Cookbook, Nourishing Traditions (of course),The Best Casserole Cookbook, my collection of recipes from my mom, grandmother and aunts.
More Cookbooks
Various cookbooks, including Irish Traditional Cooking (I’m 1/4 Irish), The Mood Cure, First Meals (babyfood book), Real Food.
Last Stack of Cookbooks
The Flavor Bible, GAPS Guide, Paleo Comfort Foods, Pasta, The Beautiful Cookbook for both Thai and Italian food (I’m also 1/4 Italian).
Chest freezer
Juicing/Toasting
My juicer I’m borrowing from a friend until I can buy a Breville, toaster for morning toast.
Cutting board station
Set of knives, cutting board, pitcher of spatulas, spoons, and strainers, grass-fed butter in a dish, jar of goose fat. 
Savory corner of the kitchen
Produce corner, cutting area, water kefir fermenting.
Coffee corner, produce corner, kitchen sink, dishwasher, stove, new tile.
Coffee Corner
Magnesium, raw honey, coconut oil, single cup coffee maker (also makes tea and cocoa!), sugar jar with sucanat. coffee cup holder, palm shortening, cocoa powder
Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Jody Brantley
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Eating My Vegetables
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Well Fed Homestead
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Farm Food Blog
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Unmistakably Food
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Health
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Prairie Homestead
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Bubbling Brook Farm
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Taste is Trump
Real Food Kitchen Tour: CHEESESLAVE
Real Food Kitchen Tour: GAPS Diet Kitchen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Mom
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Radically Natural Living
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Amanda Brown
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Pamela Montazeri
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Cracking an Egg with One Hand
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Yolks, Kefir & Gristle
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Okparaeke Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Kid
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Artistta
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Nourished & Nurtured
Real Food Kitchen Tour: May All Seasons Be Sweet to Thee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Horting Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Hybrid Rasta Mama
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Granola Mom 4 God
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Devotee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness
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
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the countertops! What nice looking stone! And looks like your order a lot from Tropical Traditions
I love them too!
And I didn’t know white beans are GAPS legal!! Why is this?
I have a few jars of coconut oil from TT, but I actually prefer the Wilderness Family Naturals coconut oil. That’s what I have in those massive gallon jars on the countertop!
White beans are GAPS legal because…I don’t know! But I sure am glad they are
I like to eat them soaked overnight, then cooked in chicken stock (and then hopefully made into baked beans, cuz that’s awesome: http://www.cheeseslave.com/gaps-diet-baked-beans/)
I love “Our Nourishing Traditions”. I read her blog, too. It’s really great…Kendahl’s kitchen is fabulous!!!! I especially liked seeing all of those homemade spice/seasoning mixes. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather
Oooppsss….”Our Nourishing ROOTS”…sorry
I saw the cookbook and got mixed up 
I’ve been wanting the “Nourishing Traditions” cookbook for quite awhile now 
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
Ooopss….make that “Our Nourishing ROOTS”
I have been wanting to buy the “Nourishing Traditions” cookbook for ages now, too 
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
Yay, Heather! I can feel the love
Those seasoning mixes are one of my favorite things too. I need to post the recipes for them…
You have a beautiful kitchen. I really like that rack for all the appliances. That’s exactly what I need except maybe half the height. Thanks for sharing.
I got it at Target. It’s actually cheaper and holds more weight than the same exact ones I found at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Weird.
I am inspired seeing that you live in Tempe! We’ve been talking about moving to the Phoenix area but I’m intimidated by the weather and soil – doesn’t seem friendly. But you make it work so well! Thanks
I’m in the hot Phoenix area, too – and know quite a few people who have successful gardens! I’m hoping to start one this fall.
Kendahl, I LOVE your kitchen! So jealous!
And I didn’t realize how close we lived to each other – well, when I compare you to most bloggers I know who don’t even live in the same state. 
Thanks for sharing! I too love your wire rack, though I don’t know where I’d put one in my small house!
I am lucky to have this kitchen. We got the house for a screaming deal, and the previous owner had redone the kitchen in 2008 with all brand new cabinets, etc. Love it!
So farking jealous!!
This is such a great idea you have, Ann Marie — showcasing real food kitchens!
I always learn something about how to improve my own kitchen. The $$$$ saving take-away (thank you, Kendahl!) is that sturdy but oh-so-gorgeous rack. We can’t afford My Dream kitchen but must do something in order to sell the house. That rack hadn’t occurred to me and it will work perfectly. Also, I really LOVE the organizational tips!
I got that idea from my friend DeDe here in AZ, and I love the wire rack! If I had a monster walk in pantry, they would line the walls!
I too love this series (thanks Ann Marie!). Kendahl, I am inspired by your kitchen I think more than any of the others I have seen. I like your organization, the sheer quantity of food you have on hand, the layout and “stations”, and well it’s just pretty! I have been thinking about getting a wire rack to hold some of my appliances and big gallon buckets of grains. Yours looks so nice! Thanks for sharing with us! ~Kim
Thanks, Kim! I sort of agonized about where to put everything when I moved in last year, but I really like how much space there is with the big pantry and the wire racks, so I can put everything where I want it.
I too love these tours Ann Marie… it’s nice to have that personal look and connection to other cooks across the country that are just trying to do their best with what they’ve got to nourish their families.
Kendahl… lovely kitchen and nice job of organizing all those bulk ingredients and appliances. I have a big metal rack that someone left behind in a house we bought and I just love it. Mine sits in my cold garage because there is no room anywhere near my kitchen for it but boy is it used… I even bought a handful of S-hooks to utilize upper shelf space to hang pots and miscellany from.
Oh, that’s a good idea. I fantasize about finding a way to hang a rack from the ceiling to hang pots and pans and things from. We also have a beam that goes over the counter top between the kitchen and dining room. I’m thinking I could put some lightweight racks there and hang our cocktail glasses and such.
What a beautiful kitchen…so much of what you have shared looks familiar to me…cookbooks, appliances, shelves, freezer, foods, etc. It’s so fun to see the kitchens of foodie kindred spirits. Cheers! gabi
This is great! I really love Kendahl’s blog!
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