How not to design a kitchen

As a couple who like to prepare and cook food for ourselves, friends and family, our kitchen is the most important room in our house.

Having moved around a lot in the last couple of years we’ve had the chance to take a few for a test drive. The kitchen in our hut will have 5 years of planning behind it!

So our top ten kitchen design flaws:

1. Overhead cupboards- as we’re both 6ft tall these are just lethal for us, the chance of an accidental lobotomy is too high.

2. Bench tops too low- again the height factor means we hunch over the chopping or mixing ending up with a very sore back.

3. Visible compost bin- we create a lot of compost- and it’s not a very attractive look is it?

4. Oven- we've had some doozies, one without a seal so we were heating the whole house, a 1950’s original that had 2 temperature settings off or 350°C. The current one has a bottom element so all cakes cook on the bottom before the top, and most frustratingly only has room for 2 racks- no good for mass biscuit production.

5. Extractor fan- what extractor fan? Our current kitchen has a fan so pathetic that we have to open all the doors and windows whilst cooking. Ok at the moment, but in the middle of a Tasmanian winter it requires rugging up for an Antarctic expedition to cook.

6. Not enough space- I know our current home is a flat, but it’s not possible for both of us to be in the kitchen at the same time! Especially if you add the dynamic of trying to get ingredients from the pantry or the fridge (which inconveniently opens the wrong way so you have to walk out of the kitchen to open the door). This usually ends in both of us growling and the exclamation “I was here first!”

7. Surfaces- darling, I need surfaces! Linked to no. 8, but really who thought of textured tiles in a kitchen, annoying grooves, and patterned laminex? Ok so the current kitchen is a 70’s special but still! Easy to clean is our top priority here.

8. Not enough bench space- Although we only keep the essentials on the bench top, i.e. chopping board, compost bin, espresso machine, coffee grinder, coffee grounds knock box, the constant rearrangement of stuff so you can cook anything is starting to get to me. If you make anything that requires rolling out –well it doesn’t bear thinking about. For your own safety- please vacate the immediate vicinity of our house!

9. Pantry- deep shelves- their only good point is that it makes it easier to hide the chocolate stash. But it’s also easy to hide everything else! To find the ingredients for baking sometimes requires a passport as you plunge into the Narnia-like depths of our pantry. We’re constantly buying doubles because you can’t see the lentils, salt, canned tomatoes, cocoa, cranberries etc, it’s just easier to buy another packet!

10. No view- ideally I think a kitchen needs a nice view, so that even jobs as mundane as washing up can become meditative.

So, in our ideal kitchen, all these flaws are sorted. Quite a nice thought actually!

Please let me know if there are any I’ve missed, or any suggestions for the hut kitchen- it’s been quite a therapeutic exercise for me!

Perfection

I found him a couple of months ago at our local fresh fruit and veg shop.
Normally the eggplants are bruised, battered, and starting to fester around the green sepals.
He was sitting proudly at the top, the size of a football, perfectly smooth and shiny.
I snaffled him before anyone else could and ran like a small child to show off my find.
So beautiful, he sat proudly on the table for a few days, reflecting the glow of the candles while we ate.
I sent him off for a photo shoot, but I knew that he would have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
We found a recipe for Moussaka in Claudia Roden’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food, said our final goodbyes and sliced him up.
He was delicious, the creamy grilled eggplant layered with the béchamel and lamb mince mixture.
I still check the eggplants every time we go to the shop- but so far no one has even come close to his perfection.

You have to start somewhere.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for a couple of months. Problem was what about? I thought originally it would follow the building of our hut. Unfortunately that has been delayed a little while, so I was a bit lost for inspiration. Then I’ve become wracked with doubts. Will my writing be of any interest to anyone else? Will I start then lose interest myself? Am I ready to make public some of my thoughts & experiences?

I have become an avid follower of a few blogs and they are usually connected with food. Most of the writers are Tasmanians. I guess I feel more at home with familiar places they describe or topics they discuss.

So what will I talk about?

I do love food and eating out, but there are already several excellent local blogs:
–Rita’s Bite- a comprehensive coverage of Tasmanian restaurants & cafes, thoroughly informative and entertaining- but I don’t eat out enough to warrant an entire blog on this;

–The view from my porch- a look at the other side of the restaurant industry- often amusing and thought provoking, with a steady undercurrent of love of the local produce; well having never worked in the industry I obviously can’t go there;

–Hugo & Elsa-beautiful photos of an idyllic life in the Tasmanian countryside, including plenty of (wickedly) decadent cakes; this one is a favourite, always a refreshing insight into an enviable life- but sends me into a confidence spin- I bake cakes but I’ll need to work on my presentation & photo skills!

–Reminiscence of a Food Tragic-Thoroughly knowledgeable & instructive, describing a life-time love of food- I’ve only just begun my own journey with food, how can my memories compare?

–Food Trail-an exotic ride to destinations with fantastic food along the way- travel? I do enjoy travel and certainly food is always a major factor in where I go and why – but I’m really a homebody so it’s going to look a bit lame!

–Once A waitress, always a waitress-a writer with 10 years experience as a waitress, another insight into food and local eating in Hobart- gulp, a writer? Damn my science background with its near complete lack of training in communication skills!

So as you can see, I’ve nearly convinced myself I should stop before I begin.

But then there is this niggling need to share in this web community, instead of being on the periphery.

So what will I write about?

Food/cooking/eating: sure why not? It dominates my life- and is something that ought to be shared for full enjoyment rather than partaken alone.

Produce, Gardening & plants: I’m a botanist, I live with another one, what can I say? Plants are ingrained in my psyche now, but don’t worry I won’t go too heavy on you.

Nigella: the German Shepherd, not her namesake, well I may not write so much as feature her in the pictures- she certainly the most photogenic of us all, and doesn’t mind if I take her photo (in fact she expects it I’m sure). She’s my fur baby, and ironically enough, a connoisseur of food herself. Her favourite food you ask? Roast duck.

The hut: it has been my home for the last 4 years, even though it hasn’t been built, yet. We’re working on it, got the block, driveway, power & orchard sorted.

So I hope you will join me on the hut chronicles.