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October 19, 2006
Kitchen Shelf
I'm desperately worried, suddenly, that the exciting parts of this story might be behind us. There is great drama in transformative construction, oversized televisions, nocturnal romps with Ikea bookshelves, explosive canine diarrhea. I've spoiled you with plot until now. But today's entry is about a shelf. A kitchen shelf. A small gesture to improve our home. No more or less.
Our space has no kitchen. No running water. No counters or cabinets. Our kitchen is the 6 foot wide toolbench we bought on Craig's List a few years back for the house in Baltimore. It is made from Maine barnwood, apparently. It's rustic and weathered and deeply oiled. It suits us. And fortunately, it works fairly well as a countertop. The shelf below it works fairly well as a pantry.
To the walls we have added a few shelf-like things. See the photo above. On the left is a two-tiered shelf made out of an old Quaker Oats crate. It reads "Eat Quaker Oats" and works very well as a spice rack. To the right is the shelf that is the subject of this entry. She how it has a mantel-like quality? We believe it once hung over a fireplace. It was one of the many treasures we found when cleaning the three decades of stuff out of our space.
In fact, there were two such mantels. The other is now painted the color of the trim and hanging above our bed. For books, contact lens solution, Itty Bitty Book Light, etc.
But this mantel on the "kitchen" wall was needed to clear some space on our countertop workbench. Since we don't have an oven or stovetop, we've had to improvise, making those kitchen accessories that play secondary roles in most households into our staple means of meal prep.
Our quasi-kitchen contains:
toaster oven for toasting
another, larger toaster oven for baking
microwave
George Forman grill
very large rice cooker
Japanese water heater thermos thing (very handy)
crock pot
Of these, the two toasters, the microwave, the rice cooker, and the water heater get a lot of playing time. The Foreman is called in on third down for chicken breast preparation. The crock pot will be brought up from the minors when stew/chili season arrives.
I mentioned the new shelf, but I realize it's not really the subject of the entry. The entry is really about the kitchen at large. The new shelf is but a featured component of this discussion. I'm losing control of my blog. Without meaningful action to report, I am drifting helplessly, away from the shelf and toward the kitchen at large.
Rather than face this reality, I'll radically change the subject. To how sweaty I get on a run, for example.
I mean, yuck. The photo is relevent because it features both the new shelf and the kitchen in general. Otherwise, it really wouldn't fit here.
Another view of the sort-of kitchen before I let you go. Here Robbi and I are making dinner. I know, bare-chested me is just about enough to make you lose your appetite (maybe THAT's what made Tanker ill?), but fortunately Robbi is looking the other way. It looks like I'm making garlic bread, so I imagine we're having lasagna (the only thing I know how to make).
See the crazy little clock above Eat Quaker Oats? A gift from my mother made from a bread pan, two spoons, and other items one might find in the kitchen. It's a cow, in case you can't tell.
See what I mean? The romance, the adventure of the barnstorming is grinding to a halt. From here forward we're mired in the mundane realities of daily life.
I'll try to show a little skin from time to time to keep you coming back.
Posted by bogenamp at October 19, 2006 02:53 PM
Comments
no kitchen? now you've gone too far. i am willing to paypal you money toward a sink. don't even hook up water to it. let it drain into a barrel.
what you need is a wood-burning stove that can double as a cooktop.
Posted by: pipi at October 23, 2006 03:49 PM
I want a 360 degree video of the finished product.
(skin optional)
Posted by: mingy at October 25, 2006 02:36 PM