kitchen, again

Since I’m finally feeling better (and slept all night last night) I thought I’d do one more post of structural pictures for the kitchen and then leave it for my Saturday food posts in the future. I’m ramping up my cooking and it feels good to want to cook and be excited about the tools I have at my disposal again. Heck, I even bought three bottles of wine tonight after a trip to the store, I must be happy already!

One of our strongest desires was to hide the garbage can. But where? We live in an apartment building so most of our trash goes through a chute about 3cm square on each side (ok, I’m exaggerating a little) but it’s important that our trash bags be small and not over stuffed. Thus we use up those grocery sacks I keep trying not to bring home. E finally decided upon a 3 gallon trash rack. The installation was simple and it’ll take either those bags-on-a-roll or any of our grocery bags. We’ll see how long it lasts but I like how easy the various parts look to clean. It has limited some of our under sink storage, but I like it thus far. I am a large fan of the little bag holder seen to the right of the garbage can. We had a large unwieldy plastic thing from ikea and were determined a) not to have that many bags in the house and b) save space. I think we have.

This little breakfast nook makes us both very happy. We’ve always thought that this small space in the kitchen was wasted in it’s prior life as pantry & microwave rack (replaced by the corner cabinets and OTR microwave). The shelf which akepa is on is fixed, the other is on two drop leaf supports and seems sturdy enough for our needs.. Shown on the table is a surprise gift from my friend B who picked it from my Amazon wish list (on the side bar, I’m also adding to the google one; I’ll add my wist shortly). It was a pleasant surprise and made me smile.. Now I have to plan how to surprise him back.. Anyway, we like this table and I think it’s the reason I actually ate lunch today. I had a nice small spot I could eat at and not deal with all the hassle of eating at the table (not that it’s different, but well, a table for one vs a table for four.. which would you prefer for a quick lunch?).

On the table is a small “green house” of herbs. I’ve forgotten already what they are (I have the packets somewhere). I think parsley, basil, and ?? (something “italian” but not rosemary). 2/3 have sprouted which surprised me. I don’t often start from seeds (I last gardened when I was ten so er.. it’s been a while) so we’ll see if they mature past this to become anything more than expensive compost food. Does anyone know how long I should keep them in the greenhouse before transplanting? Anyone want to guess how long until I either drown or forget them?

• Category: tools