And On Your Left...

Well hello and welcome back to my kitchen. After a nice rest we are going to now turn our attention to what is on the left of the stove. First up going counter clockwise is the "popcorn" holder that keeps all my cooking utensils within arm's length. Quite helpful. Next to it is a gift from Uncle Markie called The Ex. It is a set of knives in a most unusual knife holder. I was recently reminded about the time Rob came over to my apartment the first time with Jodie. They were getting serious and I, in my most fatherly of ways, told him "you do anything to her and well, here is what could happen to you!" Yes, it does provide for more than a few good laughs.

Next up is the battery pack for my vacuum. It is so helpful and a wonderful addition to the apartment (the vacuum I mean!) and then next to that is a wonderful commercial blender. It has not gotten much use until recently. I have discovered that I love, love, love hummus. While I was buying it, I decided one day to see what it would cost to make my own. Well, I can make it for about a 1/5 the price of buying and so now I do and have been experimenting with roasted red pepper and garlic. There are all sorts of options including spinach and feta or how about black bean hummus. A new favorite lunch is cucumber and hummus sandwich = YUMMERS!

Moving along we come to a really cool thing. To most it would appear to be just a ceramic tray with a picture of a bottle of port and a lobster. But to me and my family it is much more. It was in the war with my Mom over in Germany. It was always with her as a reminder of their mobile hospital password which was "port & lobster" and sometimes she would be so exhausted she would need to look at it to remind herself. It hung up at our cabin at Lake of the Woods for years and I did not know the story behind it until oh 10 years or so ago. I do cherish it to be sure.

Oh yes, there is food in the kitchen and bananas are always on the counter. I have one every morning for breakfast along with coffee as I said yesterday and cereal plus what I call a yogurt bomb. It is one of those small liquid yogurts that gives you the good bacteria to grow on. I alternate between strawberry and blueberry during these summer months and then back to vanilla in the winter.

There in the front is the cherry pie Markie made for me last week. It is gone now, but it was quite tasty. You might remember it from the posting I did on Tuesday evening I believe. And then next to that you can make out just a corner of a blue tile trivet that my old high school French teacher made for me years ago. Bea Bea still keeps in touch and we just Skyped a couple of weeks ago. She looks just as good as ever and lives in Norway once again. She retired back to her hometown once she retired from teaching.

On the trivet sits a black metal tray with a fun Pennsylvania Dutch scene painted on it. This tray holds my bar. I kind of patterned it after the one I see often on "As Time Goes By" a British Comedy I do so enjoy watching. And that, my friends, brings us to the no photo of fridge. It has been fun sharing some stories of what I have in the kitchen and we will check-in on some other parts of the apt. to give you a better feel for where this blog comes to you from. Have a great Sunday and Cheers!