The Uncluttered Kitchen

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently working under very simple conditions in my kitchen. We have a variety of my favorite things in route in our air shipment, but for now, I am trying not to duplicate what I have coming. My cooking utensils include: a medium frying pan, a very large pot and a smaller one, a slotted plastic spoon, a cutting board and knives and a pyrex-type glass dish. I also bought a disposable oven sheet, which I cover in foil and use over and over (I have not yet found anything resembling cookie sheets). It’s amazing what you can do with that short list. I have learned to cook quite effectively. I have no measuring cup, but I have a plastic cup that I know is 500 ml, so I use that and guestimate. I have started to finely chop instead of shred ingredients. As many of you know, it IS possible to peel vegetables with just a knife. I am becoming quite skilled at popping popcorn in a pot on the stove. I cook in batches. I cook ahead and reheat vegetables in the microwave. I mix vigorously by hand. I drain pots with the lid or the slotted spoon, which by the way, is passable as a spatula. I do a lot more prep work. But it is so simple.

It makes me wonder why I have a kitchen back on the Big River full of items for specialized purposes. Granted, it takes me more time to chop my onion with a knife than if I had my handy Pampered Chef chopper. A spatula would be useful, as would a scraper, a steamer, a colander. I miss my food processor. I am sure they would all save me time. But do you know how much time I spend digging through the utensil drawer looking for an item? ZIP. None. There’s only 3 things in it.