The kitchen fairy comes to your house

In My Humble Opinion
21

I love my kitchen, my in-laws designed it and it suits me right down to the ground. Except.

Well, except there is a reason they call that pot a Dutch oven and it is that for my mother in law’s generation an oven was apparently not common. My mother in law, who designed this kitchen, never had an oven. She really used a big, heavy, enamelled pot for everything that called for dry heat. So she didn’t put one in. She had a combi-oven, which is a tabletop microwave and convection thingie. Which is what, at the moment, I do all my baking in. Six cupcakes/muffins at a time. One cake layer at a time.

So I could use an oven, thanks.

I would also like a standing freezer as I am really too short to use a chest type deep freeze – anything on the bottom tends to stay there if you can’t reach. I could whack a good bit off my food bills with a bigger freezer.

Other than that, I’m good, thanks.

22

I don’t think it would change at all. I love to cook, and other than storage space my kitchen is pretty much decked out. All my perfect kitchen would do is make things like Thanksgiving easier (double oven!), but my everyday cooking wouldn’t change a bit.

23

My microwave oven would fit slightly better, and there’d be a dishwasher. That’s pretty much it, unless the kitchen fairy has the power to make my kitchen self-cleaning. If so, does she have a sister for each other room?

24

The biggest change in our eating habits, because of the kitchen fairy’s dream kitchen, would be more experimenting/variety. We both love to keep a selection of shelf-stable, non-staples kind of stuff around, to make experimenting more fun. 2 kinds of curry paste, several style of pasta, lots of bottle of sauces and marinates. Sadly, lack of cabinet space restricts what all we can keep on hand.

25

More bench space! A kitchen island would do the job quite nicely. With more bench space I could do more elaborate meals more often, instead of having to confine everything to one small area. The island would also serve to block the kitchen from the view of the living room and I’d be more comfortable entertaining. I don’t like that dinner guests can see me cooking, or that they can see the dishes piling up after the first course.

More cupboard space. Not having to bring out the saucepan and the wok so I can get to the stock pot. Also a giant walk-in pantry. That way I could keep a larger store of non-perishables instead of having to stock up monthly and keep all my spices in pretty apothecary jars that take up a lot of room. Also I’d have enough room for all the appliances I want.

All my appliances would be Miele. The built-in coffee machine, oven, and dishwasher are all incredible. I can be right next to the dishwasher going at full speed and not even realise it’s on. You can do grilling in the oven, which mine can’t do. I miss being able to grill meat.

Basically the changes would mean that I’m able to move more freely in the kitchen, and I’ll be able to make anything I want. No more “oh that recipe looks nice, but I can’t deep fry/justify the storage space that that one obscure ingredient”. I’d entertain more, and do even more leisure cooking.

26

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
I know! I’m telling ya, if I successfully fight all the offspring and get custody of that house once the owners all perish, we’re having the bestest Dopefest ever!

And speaking of mops, I forgot to mention the great tile floor and the whole house vacuum. There’s a bit of wooden molding near the stove that moves aside with a gentle kick to reveal a hole. You can sweep your detritus right into it and it just goes away into the void. (Actually, there’s a dustbin somewhere in the basement, but I’ve never seen it.)

Oh, and I totally agree on the outlets. I don’t know anything about wiring, but if I ever have say over my own kitchen, there will be enough power to run ALL the appliances at once, and enough outlets to access it from anywhere! And I like countertop high outlets - who needs all that bending to the floor and dust bunnies collecting in cords?
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I would just like to state for the record that if you get that house, you may consider this a proposal of marriage.

You pretty much described my dream kitchen.

27

[QUOTE=Eureka]
Serious tip–I don’t know how tall whoever cooks in your kitchen is, but think seriously about having an island (if you put in an island) which is about 4 inches lower than your standard kitchen counter tops (the depth of a standard top drawer in a kitchen shelving unit). If I understand my sister-in-law correctly, the contractor used bathroom inserts or shelving units or something. She’s 5’1" and finds standard kitchen counters too high to make good workspace for kneading bread and such, and the kitchen table a little low (not to mention far away from her oven, and likely to have other stuff on it). Almost everyone who has come into her kitchen and helped cook loves the slightly lower island. My brother is an exception (He’s about 6’1")–he does find it a little low, but since he does a lot less of the cooking, it’s not a major problem.
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This would be a dealbreaker in my kitchen, as I’m nearly 5’10". I have enough problems with stuff made shorter in public facilities as a result of ADA compliance; why would I make things harder for me in my own home?

Anyway, on to things that would make a kitchen ideal for me:

[sub]I’ve been to IKEA far too many times in the past two months; their displays give me so many ideas:[/sub] Efficient use of space is really key to a good kitchen for me. This means that everything has its own place and can be easily reached. Drawers instead of in-cabinet shelves for pots and pans, customized rack for spices and seasonings, proper “work triangle” setup, big island, a hanging rack/shelf system for most-used kitchen tools that is right near the stovetop, and refillable glass or ceramic containers for often-used dry goods.

Details: undermounted farmhouse style sink, separate eat-in dining table area, pull-out cabinet doors (the shelves pull out with the door and make organization/finding things easier), walk-in pantry with option for safe root vegetable storage, nonabsorbent counters for baking, hood over the oven (as opposed to the fake “hood” that we’ve got with our over-the-oven microwave), plenty of tools and a few new gadgets.

Right now, some of the major stuff we’re missing is a food processor and a stand mixer and some tools that are integral for making certain ethnic foods (like a sushi rice tub and boxes for pressed sushi). If I had access to the proper ingredients* and had everything I needed, I’d cook more different ethnic foods at home and we’d be eating a lot more fresh items. I just don’t have the kind of schedule that works well with going to the grocery store every day or every other day to pick up things to make meals with.

*This, along with the handful of items that I don’t have yet to make food with are my biggest hindrance to making food. I can’t get a good portion of the ingredients I’d need without driving 40 minutes to get it or finding someone who imports the ingredients at a reasonable cost. Preservative-free baby Atlantic shrimp are hard to find in this area without paying through the nose for them.

28

[QUOTE=WhyNot]

And speaking of mops, I forgot to mention the great tile floor and the whole house vacuum. There’s a bit of wooden molding near the stove that moves aside with a gentle kick to reveal a hole. You can sweep your detritus right into it and it just goes away into the void. (Actually, there’s a dustbin somewhere in the basement, but I’ve never seen it.)

[/QUOTE]

Oh. My. Og. Whoever thought of that deserves the Nobel Prize AND sainthood.

The kitchen fairy might have to be in league with the remodeling fairy (or the space-time continuum fairy), because the kitchen in a 1937 house was never meant to be a gathering place. It is strictly utilitarian. I want a kitchen where people can hang out with the cook, but no one has to took at the monumental mess of a preparing a feast while he/she is eating.

29

Does she also change heaters? My flat currently has individual gasoil heating, which is a PITA to get the fuel for it. The water heater is in the kitchen, the gasoil deposit in the pantry, so those actually qualify for her domain, don’t they? Since the other radiators aren’t in the kitchen, I’ ll take “gas ciudad” (which is piped into houses, the pipes are already in place) instead of the all-electric heating I actually would want, ok, don’t want to overwork her.

What would change is better heating damnit, being able to wash the dishes with hot water every day and more pantry space. I’d also like a smaller fridge, since I don’t really need a full-size one; there’s some half-sizers which are perfectly fine. The space on top of the current fridge has sides so it looks like a small pantry, but it doesn’t have shelves: the top of the fridge is the “shelf”, which means round and cylindrical objects can fall on the back. This would be replaced by actual shelves, but not reaching as high as it currently does. Other than that, one of the things I liked about the flat was the kitchen!

The ground-floor kitchen/garage (not connected to the flat) needs a better heater and I’d like tiles on the floor and lower walls for the part that’s kitchen, as well as better lighting and more electrical outlets. An “official” water connection would also be nice; currently all the g-f k/g in the building share a pipe taken from one of the first floor flats. Who, me? Officer, I promise I never set that up! It’s how it was when I bought the place!

Hey, I’m easy! :slight_smile: