The (Sometimes!) Serendipitous Kitchen

SSG THINKS she might have used her kitchen for cooking once.  Long ago.  

Lately however, it has seen the same flurry of activity the rest of her house has.  Mad cleaning, purging, rearranging and standing back to hmmmm and haaaaa and hmmmmm again before moving furniture around.  Over.  And over. And then?  Over again.  Which begs the question, how much furniture can a person can have in her kitchen?  Please don't make SSG tell you.

The cleaning crazies are ALMOST done.  Interrupted only by a very much needed trip to San Francisco this weekend.  After which she comes back to finish up the garage and her MOTHER F-ING office.  GOOD THING SSG saved the the spaces that constantly give her trouble for last.

She wants to pull the blankets over her head just thinking about it.

So she e-mailed Digs telling her she might never leave.  And then asked Spleen if she had room for SSG in her carryon luggage in case Digs kicked her out.  Because the beaches of San Diego?  Calling to SSG right now.  Same with the garlic pizza from The Venetian.  Oh and the breakfast burritos from ... anywhere with a Mexican name ending in -erto's.

But I digress ... 

I can tell that some inspiration is starting to rise to the surface.  Bits and pieces here and there.  And so I give you dear readers, a few things that are giving SSG the warm fuzzies right now.

Stacked White Dishes

I love them.  So much so that a girl I work with has a little white ceramic pot on her desk that I think about stealing.  Daily.  I'm pretty sure it probably cost $1.99 at IKEA.  But. Still. SSG. Wants.

Five Ingredient Fix

This is a new show on the Food Network where each recipe has only ... wait for it ... FIVE (!) ingredients.  Has anyone caught it?  The food is right up SSG's alley.  Simple.  Seasonal.  And readers, please.  Homegirl busted out a layered shortbread, carmel and chocolate cookie using ONLY FIVE INGREDIENTS.  SSG almost licked the screen a little.

(P.S. Don't hold the kitchen above against her, that's not what the show's set looks like.)

Check it out here: 5 Ingredient Fix.

This Piece of Food Writing From ...

Don't get SSG wrong.  She loves food blogs.  But somehow they're all starting to look and sound the same.  As if they're all reading the same manual.

• Get an SLR camera.  
• Make something from a recent issue of Bon Appetite, Gourmet or Saveur.  
• Take a picture of the food as close up as possible.  
• Explain all of the ways you tweaked the recipe.  
• Have 100 commenters say only "YUM" or some variation thereof.

They're just not ... pardon the pun ... feeding SSG like they used to.  

But then I read this post from Chocolate & Zucchini and my hope was renewed.  It tells a little story about a French mother, her college daughters, a road trip to the French countryside and a pot that has been waiting patiently for a couple of years before finally being put to work.

SSG thinks the pots in her kitchen know the feeling ... as they sit, waiting just as patiently, for their moment in the oven.  

If SSG would just get her ASS in the kitchen already.