How does one set up a new kitchen?
This has been my fun problem over recent days. Our remodeling is 95% done, with only a smattering of small tasks – the infamous ‘punch list’ – remaining. I have tried to be slow and patient in my arrangement of the new space, so that everything is placed in the most functional and efficient location. Sometimes, I admit, this thinking and planning goes on too long – I am simply paralyzed. (What’s that work expression – ‘paralysis by analysis’?) My spices, for example, are in shoeboxes in the front room of the house, where I have had them since the remodeling began – I am thinking too long and too hard about where they would best be placed.
The work of setting up my new kitchen took one giant step forward this past weekend when I decided to bake a cake for a small backyard gathering at a neighbor’s house.
Here ensued my remodeling/new kitchen version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie –
If you decide to make a cake,
you will remember your dear neighbor Leta and her yummy pumpkin cake…
you will search for the recipe you will hold it in your hands see her handwriting remember, remember, remember how Leta and Joe would be outside early morning when it snowed shoveling our shared driveway my goodness, they were shoveling into their 80s oh, how she tended to her garden divided up plants in the autumn shared them with us how they loved our boys how kind and generous they were such great neighbors it seems like just yesterday though it has been more than fifteen years since they lived next door
Then you’d know, YES, you have to make THIS cake.
When you decide to make this cake, you are going to need to find your mixer…
which means you’ll have to go up in the attic crawl space work your way through box after box things stored for the past many months which means you have to change clothes put on your grubbiest ones because you will be walking on your knees and while you are in there you need to make sure you don’t open any of the memory boxes you will start reading and devouring and never leave the attic crawl space time’s a wastin’ so stay focused please be sure to watch your head you don’t need to smack yourself on the low ceiling.
Even though you promise to stay focused, you will find so many other treasures that you really should bring downstairs, too …
there’s the rest of your plates and bowls oh my, more drinking glasses yes, let’s bring these down wash them up while the cake is cooking don’t forget the mixing bowls measuring cups stirring spoons more
Gather all these treasures …
you will make countless trips up the stairs and down the stairs alternating between standing and crawling and bending like Houdini you will decide that this is your exercise for the day you will feel tired though you haven’t even started to bake the cake or wash any of the items
and as you begin to bake and wash…
you will collect dry ingredients from the front room where they’ve been stored since the remodeling began you will realize that you shouldn’t put them back there it is high time to put them on shelves, in drawers, in cabinets which means you should measure and cut the shelf liners you bought earlier in the week
As you begin to measure and cut the shelf liners …
you will see your neat, sterile, brand new kitchen now covered in a melee of things the flour and sugar the bowls and mixer the scissors and liner there is barely a free spot and it is awesome to be here all by yourself singing planning moving creating playing
When the cake is mixed, you will realize you never retrieved the bundt pan…
which is in that darn attic crawl space so there you are again bending crawling finding up and down those stairs washing drying oiling the pan pouring in the batter the oven will be preheated the cake will begin to cook the kitchen will smell like autumn you will smile as you work to corral all that still needs to be done in that busy new kitchen and see you have everything you need to set up a baking corner
As the cake is cooking, you will realize in horror that you don’t have the cooling rack…
…so it is back up those stairs one more time…
…into the dark crawl space…
and finally, finally, finally, you don’t need to go up there anymore today. Though, there are more things you’d like to bring down for your kitchen. No, not today…you have made giant strides in setting things up in the new space, and you can leave the rest for other days.
When the cake is cool, you will frost it and slice it …
remembering to make a special plate for the fabulous neighbors who now live in “Leta and Joe’s house" so that they might savor a bit of this neighborhood memory and magic. you’ll bring the rest to the backyard party everyone will share their memories your heart will be full
If you decide to make a cake…
It's Tuesday and I'm participating in the Slice of Life. Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this supportive community of teacher writers.
