Hello, Goodbye Kitchen

For the past four years, I've lived in a good-sized 3rd level 1 bedroom apartment by myself. In the next few weeks, I'll be moving into a basement level 2 bedroom condo that my boyfriend owns.  One of the rooms I will miss the most out of my sweet (yet expensive) apartment is my lovely kitchen. I have a love-hate relationship with my kitchen, mostly love because of all the cooking I get to do there and the natural light that shines from the window but also hate because the kitchen is so tiny that I always have to negotiate space.

While most city gals keep shoes in their oven, I used mine to bake and broil everything from corn, ribs, casseroles, lasagnas, cookies, cakes, breads, etc. My stovetop has been a hotbed of many a culinary experiment and it's served me well. My spacious refrigerator has held many goodies and on any given Sunday it is overflowing with an abundance locally grown produce. The natural light and the tiny countertop has served as a studio for my favorite food shots that I've used for this blog.

In the past year or so that I've been writing this blog, I've always meant to do a photographic tour of my kitchen but I never got around to it. Now that it's almost time to say goodbye to my beloved kitchen I want to say hello to it one more time with this homage.

It's a tiny kitchen. If only they had made the living room to the right a bit more narrow I could have added an island. With so many folks having even smaller kitchenettes I can't really complain. My kitchen taught me how to make good use of limited space. Cooking here sometimes was the equivalent of a choreographed dance. 

This is my Microwave Hutch. I bought it unassembled from Target and put it together myself. Above sits the bright red microwave I've used to heat up leftovers, melt butter or chocolate and zap lemons and limes. Below it I keep my Crockpot and my fire-hazard-waiting-to-happen toaster. Below that are all my pots, pans, my grater, a loaf pan and my never-used panini press. This extra storage has been a lifesaver.

My refrigerator boasts magnets from some of my adventures. I also keep a recipe card with the ingredients of my Lemon Ricotta Pancakes (recipe to come) since I make them so often and the measurements need to be exact for perfect pancakes. I also keep a sheet with that week's meal plan on my refrigerator so I can make the best use out of my groceries. This has been amazingly helpful and making a weekly meal plan and only buying groceries for that week helps me save money and always have a game plan for lunch and dinner every day.

As I said before, on a Sunday this would be packed with produce. By the end of the week, it's pretty bare. I keep meat and dairy products in the vegetable bin below because otherwise I would forget about my produce there. Vegetables get the bottom shelf, fruit, eggs and bread get the middle shelf and condiments and beverages get the top shelf. The door gets a mish-mosh of various things and then of course there is my beloved butter dish!

Here is a shot of the workspace. It's not much but I've been able to put it to good use.

My oven/stovetop is electric. I keep all of my spices and my oils above. Keeping this clean has been a never ending battle but one worth the effort.

Everything about this space should be bigger. The sink, the countertop, even the dish dryer. But alas, it is tiny. I made do with it as I could. 

Below the sink I always keep a big jar of rice. I call it my bucket o rice. Every Latina should have one. 

Above my sink I keep dishes, glasses and various bits and bobs in the cabinets. Most of the items were donations from my mom and Carlos and others were bought from Ikea or HomeGoods. I have a set of small coffee mugs and plates that I never use. I have a set of Carlos' bachelor drink glasses. My good friend Kevin even got me a mug from Japan (not visible) that I keep here. You'll see above sandwiched between my serving plate and my baked goods container is a pie-plate. I won that eons ago and still keep it as a treasured item.

So it's time to finish up my Hello and say Goodbye to my lovely Kitchen!