The Happy Kitchen

Today I'm taking you into my happy place, the place where I go to cook and bake and dream up dishes with anything and everything in my refrigerator and pantry.  I call it the Happy Kitchen, and it's possibly one of my favorite places to be on any given day.  When I spend time eating out or grabbing food on the go, I'm always so sad that I can't be home in my own kitchen cooking up something delicious or trying my hand at a new dish.

Truthfully, I started cooking as soon as I moved into my first off-campus apartment.  Never having had access to cooking utensils or a kitchen while living in a dorm, I jumped right in at the first chance I had to create meals of my own.  I think the very first meal I ever made was spaghetti with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella (the kind that comes in liquid in little balls. The best).  I actually just found a photo in my old facebook albums from the meal (though it doesn't show the mozzarella cheese which I definitely remember... maybe I added the cheese later?).  Scott was living in Chapel Hill that summer so he celebrated my new apartment with me that night over this meal.  Food memories are some of the best.  Life lived around the table is a good life indeed.

First dinner in what we called The Little House in Chapel Hill

Through the years, I've continued to grow and learn in the kitchen.  I've never thought of myself as the best chef, by any means, but I am surely a brave one.  There aren't too many types of dishes that I haven't tackled, and though my dishes may sometimes turn out looking haphazard and a little concerning, I am always one who wants to try to make something new.

I think one of the oddest ventures I've taken so far has been in baking a cheesecake.  The particular recipe that I was using to bake a cheesecake instructed me to leave the oven door open for several hours while the cheesecake baked.  My roommates were good to me and stayed clear of the kitchen while I was following preposterous baking instructions, but my pumpkin cheesecake didn't turn out half bad, and I've always said that I hope to someday make another.  

It doesn't take much at all to get me started in the kitchen.  I'll see a picture of something online, or I'll taste something at a restaurant and think to myself, "Oh, I can make this."  I'll experiment several times before finally getting it right, but I've learned to appreciate the process and to be grateful for each way-too-salty-soup and need-way-more-sugar-brownies.   I just love creating and re-creating dishes.  The memories that I have of how I made food and who I enjoyed that food with with are so important to me.  I have memories of a Thanksgiving with turkey and sushi, making peach cobbler every year in Myrtle Beach with my in-laws, baking cookies with my grandma at Christmastime, learning how to make a fondant cake for my sister's birthday, and extensive memories of a two-hour kitchen clean up after trying to make homemade coleslaw without the proper ingredients.  

To celebrate the Happy Kitchen, I thought I'd give you a mini-tour of it as part of writing about it today.  Here's a little bit of what you'll find inside. 

Our stove

This is one of my favorite places in our kitchen.  It's not my most favorite, which I will reveal to you in the next photo, but one of my favorites.  It's where all of the sautéing, frying, grilling, toasting, baking, and boiling takes place.  It's where things go after all the grunt work is done-- the chopping, pureeing, mixing, kneading-- where things start to look a little more like a meal and a little less like fragments of one.  

My favorite place in our kitchen

Now this is where I really love to be.  My Kitchenaid stand mixer is my favorite kitchen tool, without question.  I use it at least twice a week and will find ways to use it as much as I possibly can.  I love the color, love what it produces, and love the person/couple who gave it to me.  It's where some of my favorite pumpkin breads start off as little mounds of dough and where our homemade mashed potatoes start to really take shape.  This part of our kitchen houses my measuring cups and all other baking supplies (flour, sugar, etc.), a painting with one of my favorite Bible verses-- painted by my lovely sister-- our Ninja (where Scott makes all sorts of wonderful smoothies and protein shakes for us), and the knife block that Scott has dreamed about since he was 12 years old.  Maybe he wasn't quite that young, but it's definitely a knife set that he was interested in using in our Happy Kitchen.

My hedgehogs

Lindsay and Landon get major props for supplying some of my favorite kitchen items.  First the Kitchenaid and then these hedgehog measuring cups.  These little guys are part of what makes the Happy Kitchen such a warm place.  I like for things to be bright and fun in the kitchen, and I think these guys just look like they're ready to party, wouldn't you agree?

The Coffee Station

This is where beverages go down.  You can see our wine rack on the left wall (a wedding gift from sweet Shannon and Bryan) and the main attraction, our coffee stand, on the right.  You'll see our 12-cup coffeemaker, our new addition-- the espresso maker-- and all of our other coffee supplies on the middle shelf!  There's mason jars filled with tea, containers of sweeteners, our coffee grinder from dear Chancey, and anything else you might possibly need on the coffee front.  We just got the espresso maker this week as an early Christmas gift to ourselves and we're already becoming homemade cappuccino and pumpkin spice latte experts.  Here's the PSL Scott made for me this morning.  Out of this world.  Watch out, Starbucks.  

The reason I tell you all about the Happy Kitchen is because I so want to invite you into it.  If we didn't live in a 650 sq. ft apartment in downtown Indy, I'd insist on having one of those giant wooden farm tables to fill with family and friends every week for "family" dinners.  I'd have book club here and host holiday baking parties and Thanksgiving dinners.  And even though we don't have the space or the big dining room table, I want you to know that you're always welcome in our home and in our kitchen.  I'll wake up early to brew coffee for you on your way to work, and I'll stay up late at night baking cookies when you've just broken up with your boyfriend and need carbs and girl talk.  These are the things that matter to me, life and fellowship around the table and in our homes.  It's about getting your hands dirty and being vulnerable and saying, "I don't have much to offer, but I'll give you what I have."  Whether it's toast with jam at 3AM or leftover pasta after work one night; the heart is there, and the desire to serve is ever growing.  

If Jesus and the disciples could break bread around the table and love one another through fellowship over a meal, I don't see why in the world we can't do the same.  

"It's about a spirit or quality of living that rises up when we offer one another life itself, in the form of dinner or soup or breakfast, or bread and wine." -Shauna Niequist, Bread and Wine.  

Lot of love, sweet friends.

Cristina