We Set Up Our Kitchen

Today dawned stormy with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Perfect for a lazy morning around the house. We fixed a little breakfast, pancetta cooked like bacon and fruit and yogurt. Pancetta is basically bacon, so we figured, what the heck, we’ll bring a little of the American South to Tuscany and fry it up. It was so good – very, very thin and crispy and light. Not as cured tasting as our bacon, but very salty. It was like eating little crumbly sheets of pork deliciousness. It would be great sprinkled over a salad.

After breakfast I decided to claim the kitchen as my own. We’ve been here two weeks and I really haven’t done that much as far as rearranging goes, so this rainy morning was perfect for that. I got in every cabinet, every shelf, every nook, every cranny and scoured it all and threw out things that others had left behind and put everything where I wanted it. The kitchen is small but very functional. There is a definite lack of cabinet space, and not a drawer to be found, but with a little creativity it works. Now instead of shelves filled with unusable detritus we have everything pretty much accessible and organized. I consolidated all the stuff I was not sure about – things that might belong here for a reason – and put it up on a high shelf out of the way. I took inventory of the pots and pans, the cooking utensils, the cleaning supplies and got everything sorted out. I think this is called nesting. It’s been such a long time since I nested, I forgot what it felt like. It reminded me of being young. I liked it.

We need some stuff, but I have to resist the urge to go out and buy what I don’t have. Part of what I’m doing here is figuring out how to make life work with less. My first inclination is to make a list of everything that’s missing and go buy it. But I don’t want to do that. I want to live with it for a while and see if I can make it work. I want to do more with less. I want to be less of a consumer and more of an innovator. Hey, I’m living without AC in my house and in my car. I’m used to taking a shower and getting all cleaned up, only to walk outside and have pearls of moisture gather along the nape of my neck and feeling every pore in my body open up and glisten. I can get along without zip lock bags.