Kitchen Impossible

It’s been a couple months in the food blogging world, and I think it’s going pretty well so far. One Tastespotting spot, a Kreativ Blogger award, photos that have gone from ‘meh’, to ‘less meh’,  and lots of delicious new recipes, with only a few that were too awful to write about (twice baked sweet potatoes – do NOT try this at home people)

When you start really investigating food blogs, you discover all these creative recipes, with combinations and presentations that you would never in a million years have dreamed of putting together, accompanied by incedible food photos that looks so delicious, you wish you could crawl through your computer screen, put the plate on your table and dig in.

And you picture your favorite food bloggers that create this recipes and photos – you paint a picture of them in your head, using your imagination (or seeing their picture on their  ‘about me’  page).  You envision them in their pristine kitchens, with mahogany floors, cabinets apon cabinets full with every All-Clad pan that has ever been created, kitchen gadgets that seem like they shouldn’t be legal in the U.S, and sprawling granite countertops as far as the eye can see.  And they’re perfectly primped and pressed – their aprons are so cute and stylish that you could probably wear them as part of an outfit, and there’s not a spot or stain on it.  Their counters are never cluttered.  Their dishes never dirty.  They are the epitomany of food blogging perfection.

I bet her pictures are amazing too

Dave and I’s world is somewhat different however.

When we first moved in, we thought our kitchen was HUGE! “GREAT for entertaining” our realtor told us.  We stood there with him, envisioning dinner parties with friends, wine flowing like water, laughter and music and 5 course meals – not realizing that there was about 2 square feet of counter space and all of 4 cabinets in which to fit our entire kitchen life into.

Initially this wasn’t a problem:  Dave had a set of 8 white IKEA dinner plates, all with chips and cracks in them.  We had a smattering of random appliances, pots and pans, and most of our ‘gadgets’ had been bought from the clearance bin at the Christmas Tree Shop.  But then, we got engaged – we registered – I had 2 showers – we got ALOT of kitchen stuff – real life adult kitchen stuff.  And we thought “Where in the world is all of this stuff going to go?”.

We’ve done pretty well improvising with storage, but cooking on the other hand can be a real challenge.  Our stove, sink and cabinets are shoved into a small ‘galley style’ area of the kitchen, along with the 2 square feet of counter space.  So if Dave and I are wanting to have a romantic night in the kitchen, sipping wine, cookin’ up something delish together, it usually turns into a night of clever maneuvering around each other to avoid 3rd degree burns from bumping into the stove.

And our cooking attire?  My cute Vera Bradley apron has more grease stains than paisley flowers, and 9 times out of 10, it’s tied over my gym clothes or pajama pants, which I think I’ve had since my Junior Year of high school.  And if Dave’s not standing over the stove in his Stanley Cup Sweatpants, it’s usually a pair of tattered jeans that I’ve tried to replace with new ones that still have the stickers on them, or an old under shirt, such as the one pictured below.

So there’s the ugly truth of the Schoon Kitchen.  It may not be as glamorous as the likes of Ina Garten, or any other all-star food blogger, but after almost two years, we’ve figured out ways to make it work, while still being able to produce some pretty decent meals.  In our next house, perhaps we’ll have the endless granite countertops we always drool over when watching the food network, or a collection of appliances only seen in an Iron Chef kitchen.  But for now, I still get excited every time I get to use my KitchenAid (even if I do have to balance it on a kitchen stool) and after replacing our IKEA plates with Crate and Barrel ones, I think we feel pretty hip!

As for the rest of the clutter?  Well, that’s what Photoshop is for!