Our Kitchen Evolution: Part One

Reid and I met on a Monday night.  He came over for a dinner party I was having two days later on a Wednesday night.  And on that Friday night he called me Kathryn Bussey...Filipiak. 

So on my first visit to Washington a month or so later I had no qualms to go ahead and get started on what we were both pretty sure was my future kitchen.  I am not the best at what they call "home maintenence" but I do love a big home project.  (I think they probably have some diagnosis for people who really like organizing things but then don't follow their system so it's still...unorganized?).  And his kitchen was a really big project.  Luckily Reid trusted me because he willingly took five trash bags to the dump of things I deemed not fit for the kitchen without even asking questions.  This included the usual like going through the fridge and pantry and tossing anything expired.  It also included a massive plastic elimination-I hate anything plastic in a kitchen.  (You shouldn't heat things up in them or use them scratched so I just use glass for any storage containers/leftovers like Pyrex or Anchorware).  And all the butter tubs and yogurt containers?  Tossed. 

I then ran all the surviving dinnerware through the dishwasher (many loads) and separated them.  After a good ShopVac on the remaining space we had made great progress.  Reid eventually finished the job after I had gone back home and it was a big step in the right direction.

A few months after that I decided to host a Fourth of July party at his house.  I ended up with a five day weekend so we had fun getting everything together for the party.  I replaced some of the things hanging above the cabinets with patriotic flair which was another improvement.  (This is also the trip when I put the first coat on the bathroom to cover up the wallpaper because as they always say "If you have a clean bathroom and clean kitchen people will forgive everything else.")  The only caveat to planning the menu for the party was that I couldn't make anything that would have to go in the oven.  Because Reid didn't have a working oven.  (He said he would just dig a hole in the ground if he needed to bake anything..you know, like squirrel.) 

Well a little while later on Labor Day weekend we got engaged and any of my kitchen/house renovating projects went on the backburner planning a wedding. 

So when Reid lifted me over the threshold into his our house, we had no oven. For the first month or so I cooked using a plug in skillet and a toaster oven.  Luckily we had gotten a great bread maker and a panini press for wedding gifts so we pretty much just ate fancy sandwiches for dinner most nights. 

We started looking at ovens as soon as I finally got everything moved in.  After a couple romantic trips to Lowe's and hours searching online we found exactly what we wanted:  5 burners, warming drawer, gas, professional level but not a huge commercial range.  We ordered it from a place in New York and I was sooo excited when it finally arrived.  Then bummed when it had a dent in it and the warming drawer didn't work.  The people told us to just start using it and they would send a replacement.

So we did.  And this was the first oven we used to bake for the very first market!  

A few weeks later, our replacement oven came.  When the delivery guys from New York dropped the new one off, they conveniently didn't take the other one.  We were ecstatic even though we were still pretty sure someone would show up at the house to get it but after seven or eight months I don't think they're coming for it...

Next stage:  Crazy upstairs kitchen and Southern Scratch in boxes...