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!

this week's box

It's been kinda a long week for me. The kind where you notice the minutes in the day. Has it felt the same for you?  Maybe it's been that blanket of pollen and the wait for it's washout.

Aside from making pollen bombs, which I can't give you too much more information about over the blog site, I did something new.

For the past few days, I've been doing my usual, and everyone that saw me would probably agree. But in the midst of my routine, something out of the ordinary happened...

A friend of mine turned me on to this website, US Wellness Meats. Now, if you haven't noticed already by reading my blog, I love meat. And the idea of it arriving as a package just for me...I started clicking away! It started with just a beef stick. It looked way too interesting to pass up. I mean, come on it's like a meat power bar. A meat power bar! But they wouldn't let me check out until my shopping cart had reached 7lbs! So I added a lb of butter and 2 salami sticks. Still not heavy enough. I clicked snacked sticks, and beef bones. And after 6 of those "power bars", I made it!

So this week, I woke up to my alarm, I set my alarm again, I worked, worked, worked, I cooked, cooked, cooked, I weighed out hundreds of things in my head. But none of them were as much accomplished and exciting as the 7lb box of meat that was on my door step Wednesday afternoon.

(this is a reenactment)

Looking back, it stands out greater than those long minutes. Happiness in a box, delivered to me.
Oh and when it arrived, you know I had a bite of everything, minus the bones. But not minus the butter!

What would your happiness in a box, the highlight of a long week, be?

over easy

Ingredients: an egg, a spoon, and a big mouth!

slap em' on you

the best place to put those pesky fruit and veggie stickers.

 

every time.