I was going to clean up my kitchen for its photo op, but I decide that was bad journalism. instead I documented the kitchen exactly as it was today: a disaster zone. still, it’s my favorite room in the house, messes not-withstanding. to get the full experience, click on the photo an following the link to flickr, where 19 embedded notes will give you a full tour of the picture.

Clockwise in a spiral from top right:
1. note blue and white color scheme. when we moved it everything was mismatched wood paneling with an emphasis on the orange spectrum. this job took 3 people about 4 days, but it was so worth it.
2. vintage map of Chicago
3. pastry mat, cornmeal. prepared surface for the loaf of bread that was rising near the heater
4. ben’s corn chowder. It’s awesome.
5. cauliflower and delicata squash roasted with curry for dinner.
6. Ben’s mother’s apple pie recipe that I’ll be making on thursday morning
7. electric kettle is my second-favorite kitchen appliance
8. gas range. electric range is a deal-breaker.
9. magnetic spice jars
10. my “clean room” award ribbon. my irony ribbon is hanging around here somewhere, too.
11. sink full of dishes, because we’re both in tech right now, so no one does the dishes.
12. favorite item in the kitchen: the food processor. essential for so many things!
13. vacuum cleaner because we are battling an ant invasion under the cupboards right now
14. the honey bear has to live inside an oxygen tent (ziplock bag) because of the constant threat of ant invasions
15. plant gnome.
16. pastry scraper. i’d just finished making 3 double recipes of pie crust in preparation for thanksgiving.
17. dishtowels. a clean stack of dishtowels is a kitchen essential.
18. compost. berkeley has curbside compost pickup along with regular trash and recycling. yay, hippies!
19. the entry point for this week’s ant invasion