Ways to Love the Kitchen You’re With
I hope you enjoy Starting from Scratch, my second book, published each week online, one chapter at a time. Before the book’s final publication, I hope to sprinkle readers’ thoughts, opinions and advice throughout. After all, you each have helpful systems and solutions in the kitchen worth sharing. By making a contribution, your comments will be printed, crediting you and/or your blog, and you’ll get free copies of the book. In addition, for each section, I’m consulting an expert blogger – for this excerpt, it’s Shaina Olmanson, home cook and author of Food For My Family.
Over the years, I have had a variety of kitchens, small and large, old and new, dishwasher and dishwasher-less, plenty of storage and no space whatsoever. It is true that kitchens can impede your ability to move around, work efficiently, store what you need and enjoy your cooking experience, but the reality is that you have to love the one you’re with, regardless of what it looks like and how it functions.
Flashback to the Past
The first time I ventured North of the Mason Dixon line to reside, I moved to Montclair, New Jersey. I lived in a large 1-bedroom apartment affixed to a larger home, with a decent kitchen and inefficient electric heat. That winter, thee state had record snowfall and cold temperatures, and I nearly froze to death despite my $400/months heat bills. One night when I had a dishwasher leak, I placed towels on the floor to soak up the drips. It was so cold, by the next morning, the towels were chunks of ice. For a native Southerner, a sub-zero kitchen, not refrigerator (I wish!), was quite problematic.
Fast forward ten years when I moved to Boise, we lived in a lovely Bungalow with a tiny kitchen. What little counter space I had was covered in small, red tiles with dark grout between them. No matter how much I scrubbed and bleached, it still looked like I hadn’t cleaned the counters in years. We had a portable dishwasher, which admittedly is better than no dishwasher at all, that wasn’t exactly convenient for our baby who was crawling around a the time.
Great Expectations
Do kitchen tales like these sound familiar? With all the HGTV and Food Network shows, we are led to believe kitchens without stainless appliances and granite countertops are not worthy. Layout and functionality trump color, texture and stone type, in my opinion. So as you spend more time in your kitchen, my advice is to make the best of the situation, improve what you can with the cash you have on hand, then chop, cook and be merry.
Feel the Love
Here are a few simple and inexpensive ideas to boost your kitchen love quotient.
Get a portable island. My primary obstacle with the Boise kitchen was a lack of counter space. I felt like I was chopping, stirring, reading recipes and mixing all within a 1’ diameter of space. One inexpensive solution which really helped the situation was a portable kitchen island with a chopping block on top. I placed the island in the middle of the kitchen when I was cooking dinner, so I could utilize my “new” counter space with easy access to cabinets and stoves. When meal-time was over, I’d push it back against the wall where it was out of my way.
(Napa Style has islands to die for!)
Use a rack to hang your pots, pans and skillets. These large cooking utensils take up lots of space in cabinets and drawers, so it’s nice to pull them out of storage where they’re easier to grab. Some people think hanging them out for public view leaves a kitchen looking disorganized and cluttered, but I find that convenience far outweighs any negative ramifications. Not to mention, pulling them out for full view forces you to take inventory of those items you rarely, if ever use. In these cases, get rid of them!
(Another beautiful creation from Napa Style. And no, I’m not getting comissions).
Keep the counters clear and free. Unfortunately, our current house lacks a mud room, so our kitchen counter becomes a free-for-all, the place where mail, keys, and any other junk immediately land when anyone walks in the back door. This is one of those things that drives me nuts! This said, it’s also easy to get carried away with placing too many appliances on the countertop – from the coffee maker to the toaster to the microwave. Do your best to put away items you don’t use every day. It will keep the kitchen looking pristine, and will also give you more free space to work your magic.
Light it up. Though you may illuminate smudges or crumbs on the counter, you’ll be happy to see what you chop and stir. In my little Seattle kitchen, I hung a string of inexpensive halogen lights that I bought at Ikea. Not only did the kitchen look nicer as a result, it was much more functional, too. And it cost very little for a significant improvement (praise the Ikea gods!).
Get rid of stuff you don’t need. I’ve already mentioned the importance of trashing food that is really old, but it’s also nice to get rid of appliances and utensils you can live without as well. Rob and I are still arguing over the bread maker, which I have not seen him use in the 8 years I have known him. (I did succeed in getting it moved to the garage, however, where it is buried beneath a layer of dust). Get rid of skillets that are scratched and peeling; and by all means, it it’s broken and can’t be fixed, it’s time to say good-bye.
Arrange your cupboards so everything is accessible. Shaina suggests the following: “Chances are, if you can’t reach it, you won’t use it. Put the things you use every day close at hand so they aren’t difficult to get out or put away. Likewise, if there are certain spices that you enjoy using, consider placing them near the front of the cupboard or on a separate spice rack above the stove so they are always close at hand. You’ll find you enjoy cooking more when it’s easier to do.”
Improve kitchen flow. There is the whole theory about the kitchen triangle whereby you can easily move from the stove to the sink to the refrigerator, and back again, all without tripping over trash cans, children’s toys or dogs. Of course, there are no assurances that household items won’t sneak onto the kitchen floor, and also no guarantees the kitchen you inherited is perfectly arranged in a triangle, but you can attempt to organize work stations (e.g., for baking, prepping, serving, cleaning) that improve flow and movement. Also make sure you can reach the things you need often, and know where they are when you try to find them.
And while you’re at it, keep it clean. I feel so strongly about this one, I decided to write more about this topic for next week.
Do you have any tricks to love the kitchen you’re with?
About Shaina Olmanson
Shaina Olmanson is a freelance writer and photographer and also the home cook behind Food for My Family and the food channel editor at Lifetime Moms. She fell in love with the art of cooking while spending countless hours hanging on her grandmother’s apron strings, and as a native Minnesotan, growing up surrounded by farms served as a daily reminder of the importance of local and seasonal food. Raising her four young children with her husband, she strives to teach them the importance of growing, preparing and eating and enjoying real food.
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