03.15.21 Quarantinewhile* - The Kitchen

I'm pretty sure I've spent more time in my kitchen over the last year than in the previous seven (when our youngest child went away to college, and I started this blog).

Early on in the pandemic I realized I needed to clean out the pantry. I'll spare you the list of things with "best by" dates from the late 00's to the early 10's that went straight to the compost (and their containers to the recycling)...let's just say it reinforced how little cooking I'd done in that period.

It also rapidly became obvious that a lot of things in the kitchen were worn out. It wasn't long before kitchen appliances - large and small - started failing. 

We replaced the mixer, toaster oven, microwave, a refrigerator and two hot water heaters over the course of the spring and summer...just a couple of weeks ago, we had to have the "pilotless ignition" on the stove replaced...and this morning, as soon as I get this post up, I'm shopping for a new dishwasher (the panel on ours is now blinking like a pinball machine).

Despite all of that, I realized I was enjoying cooking and baking again...but, like my office, the contents of the kitchen needed to be sorted, purged and updated.

I started with baking pans.  Instead of sourdough, I baked muffins...but the pan I had dated to my days as a student. It was flimsy and rusty, and needed to be replaced.  I also bought some really nice (and just plain fun) odd sized measuring cups and spoons.  I think it's worth noting, that I am still baking several times a week, so these were good purchases.

From there, I moved on to cabinets and drawers...that was almost as big an undertaking as the office.  For years I'd just shoved things in where I could find space for them. There were threadbare linens that should have been tossed on the rag pile a decade ago, cheap bakeware with dented bottoms (metal) or chipped glaze, as well as sippy cups and plastic juice boxes (did I mention that my youngest child - referenced above - is in the third year of her PhD?). 

One of the most satisfying outcomes of this process is that now, when I open the cabinet that contains plastic storage containers, not only does nothing fall out...but I know every piece has a matching lid.

Last, there were the bookshelves...like the cabinets and drawers...they were overloaded.  I pulled everything off, and gave it all - the books, the tchotchkes, and the shelves themselves - a thorough dusting and wiping down.

I recycled years' worth of magazines that I had kept - for reasons I could no longer remember (or, because they contained a recipe that is now online) - which freed up a whole lot of shelf space, and made it possible to line the books up properly, with nothing stacked on top of them.

I don't think it's much of a leap to guess what I did with some of the newly available space...

...I upgraded!

Dented baking pans and cheap plastic utensils (from the same era, with melted spots on the handles) were replaced with deep ceramic pans and silicone untensils.  I traded frayed, faded linens for new, bright colored ones...and all those new tea towels (both the ones sent by friends, and those I purchased) fit in the drawers.

I'm really glad to have gotten rid of things I wasn't using, and not feeling any buyer's remorse about the new stuff. I'm going to be serving up three meals a day at home for the foreseable future.  This is the new normal - at least as far as dining goes - and it's nice to have things that are pretty and functional.

Now, you'll excuse me while I go whip up a marble pound cake.

Until next time.

*again, the disclaimer that I totally stole this term from Stephen Colbert.