kitchen transitions and the traveling pots

Liza lou's "Kitchen"
(click)

There is more than one Liza lou in this smallish big world. And it seems we both have a love for kitchens. I may be able to whip up something in a kitchen, but she single-handedly made that kitchen from scratch. Completely out of beads. I can only imagine how big my smile would be if I had the chance to stand in the middle of it. My eyes would sparkle like those tiles I bet.

I have had plenty my share of kitchens. And in each one I have cooked up a storm. After my rents,  I've jumped from one kitchen to another in Raleigh, never leaving a minute outside of downtown. 

But it was across the street from the Golden Gate Bridge that I really started cooking, in my one room apt kitchen, that had it's own corner. I went to cooking school by day, and at night I cooked. I took the doors off the cabinets and painted them turquoise to match the one in Monica's kitchen on Friends. I'm not joking. (I'm laughing.)

My Friends kitchen on Alvarado St. in San Francisco

After that, there were two more to come on the west coast total, and one was in Canada. Canada eh!? Then across the country my pots and pans went, finding two kitchens in Carrboro, NC and one in Chapel Hill. A tree fell on the Chapel Hill kitchen, again I'm not joking.  So I packed up, and headed home to Raleigh. I found a tiny "one and a half Liza sized" kitchen on Hargett Street. I climbed on the sink to reach things, a Lazy Susan atop the fridge twirled my spices, and the oven was so small that even "Grandma" couldn't fit me in it. Cooking there was such a dance!

Now, the "nicest" kitchen I've ever cooked in was the one at my last apartment, the one that came after the tiny kitchen. Let's call it the Apartment Complex Kitchen.  But I hated, "extremely disliked" it.  The glass top stove made no sense to me at first, the cabinets were too tall to even reach on my stool, and there was only one corner to chop. I was always in the way, even in my own way.

So thank God for this kitchen. 

I may not have made it like Liza lou did, but I sure as heck will make this kitchen!

See a year ago I would of snubbed it. It's electric! There's no counter space. But, this is my new home, because really my home is in the kitchen. In the next few days I will be moving my pots and pans in. Let me get settled in and I will be back in about two weeks, and here's will I will be cooking. I guarantee I will be smiling, and I can't wait to share it all with you. And I'd say finding a jar of pickled okra in the pantry...is a very good sign!