It’s almost that time again. Out with the old, in with the new, creating resolutions that may or may not change your life, or at least your habits for three weeks. All that jazz. My cooking resolutions include a complete redo of my pantry, creating a full kitchen inventory system, learning to make pastry cream, committing random acts of cupcakes, taking some more cooking classes and perfecting a barbecue sauce recipe. I also intend to not burn down my kitchen.
I know what you’re thinking: she’s kidding. I am, of course, but only mostly; after all, we (and by we, I mean Josh) did melt the counter a little bit once while brewing beer. But besides that, as I’ve been cleaning up in preparation for my pantry renovations, I’ve realized just how much crap I keep in my kitchen. And not just normal cooking and baking supplies, but general stuff. Paper-y stuff. Letters and coupons and tear-outs from food magazines and receipts and bills and vet stuff for the dogs and packets of info from all of Josh’s commitments and blah blah blah. It gets stacked on the counters or on the table, or stuffed in the third drawer by the doorway (lovingly dubbed the appliance manual drawer).
Going paperless is a big deal these days (just ask Evernote guru Jamie Rubin) but I often think of that in terms of my office, not my kitchen. But there’s a lot to be said for being able to sort the mail that comes in and gets trapped, or finally organizing all those appliance manuals that you swear you’ll read every time you get a new gadget, or protecting Grandma’s beloved handwritten sour cream pound cake recipe from the inevitable splatters and food sprays of the kitchen.
So I’ve begun taking back my kitchen from extra clutter with one tiny device: a portable scanner. I only have to sacrifice a tiny bit of counter space and in return, I get an organized life, cleaner drawers and tabletops and less fire hazards in my kitchen!
Don’t you feel more organized already?
One of my kitchen goals is to cook more easy, healthy dishes.
My kitchen goal is finding a way to fit a good Juicer and other proper adult appliances into my teeny tiny apartment’s kitchen. A teeny tiny portable scanner would be a great way to condense lots of recipes and stuff.
My kitchen goal, now that I’ll be living alone, is to continue to make a good meal on Sunday, every Sunday, like I do for my family now, even if it will just be for me.
Life’s too short to eat nothing but takeout and macaroni and cheese.
I just painted my kitchen cabinets and love them! My goal is to keep the bar decluttered from papers, backpacks, school notes, coupons, etc. I am also going through the drawers and getting rid of anything I haven’t used in a year.
My kitchen goal is to allow my newly retired husband to do all the cooking!
To start experimenting more with the crock-pot. That’s probably a terrible thing to admit here, but my wife and I both work, and like having a hot meal when we get home.
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I dunno about anyone else, but that makes total sense to me. I LOVE our crockpot for the exact same reason, especially in the winter time…
I love it! Let me know how it works out
Good for you! I just inventoried my whole kitchen this morning…oy vey…the “get rid of anything you haven’t used in a year” bit is a good advice!
Amen to that.
Proper space utilization is definitely key in a small kitchen. You want to get a lot of oomph out of very little room
I just want to find the time to get my kitchen cleaned up, organized, and try not to let anything in my fridge go bad before I have a chance to use/eat it.
Also, I will never be able to fully articulate how much I love my slow cooker; soups, roasts, chickens, dog food, (he loves the homemade stuff) it makes everything so much easier.
Damn that Josh trying to burn your counters…
Can my goal be to be a consultant in your barbecue sauce perfecting?
Otherwise, I have a new icecream maker that I need to figure out how to use and start creating wonderful icecreams with. (Is the plural of icecream icecreams? Icecreami? Icecream?)
My goals–not sure, I never set goals, I set ideas. This year’s theme is my big garden. We moved and left our raised beds behind, but let me tell you about my 20×40 garden to be!!!!!
I am very excited about this–I’ll send you some dried produce to experiment with!!
Maybe I’ll think about my crock pot usage, too. I don’t love most of the recipes I have for it because most use cream-0f-soups-that-are-banished-from-my-kitchen, so I have to think more about this.
And, you’re right, I should use my Evernote more. Both to organize my kitchen and life.
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A 20×40 garden? Wow, that’s impressive!! I bet it will be AMAZING!
Slow cookers are amazing. Do you have any particular go-to recipes?