April 11, 2014

K for kitchen!!!

Kitchen is a woman's paradise. At least for me, it is. That is where I spend most of the time when I am home. My tryst with kitchen and cooking started quite early in life. As mom was a tailor, she would stay late and me being the older, had to cook rice for dinner. When there was no curry, I even ventured out to cook egg curry or potato fry. I think those are the basic recipes most of us have toned our culinary skills on. I would make an occasional french toast, rasna mixes for my sister and the neighborhood.

After starting a family of my own, I always made sure that my kitchen had enough storage. I am a big storage person. I really don't care in which order I arrange my spices or flours, but if someone change their places, then I don't go just mad but wild. Yes, I am finicky about my kitchen. I have a very hard time having my mom or Mil around. Though they are a big help, I would rather do it myself if I can.

Having said that, do y'all think if I have OCD? No, I don't. I don't maintain spic and span kitchen, but I keep my sink dish-free. That is one obsession I have. I like to cook and bake. So, I try to keep all the utensils I need. A friend joked once, that a wedding could be done with the vessels I have. Each time we moved places, S would grunt, do you really need these many dishes?? I warn him, don't you dare to touch a spoon.

After all these years of slogging in my kitchen and having done an extensive secret research on the kitchens of my friends worldwide, I come up with a list only we Indian women can think of:
  1. After the inners of her blouse, the most secret place a woman finds to hide her secret cash, is the spice box.
  2. Use the Coffee grinders to grind anything from ginger garlic paste to garam masala
  3. Your Food Processor mixes a perfect chapathi dough. Chops onions to cabbage
  4. Husband gets a $400 juicer to make juices from bitter gourd to zucchini and you surprise him with a perfect dosa batter.
  5. Only we could cook rice and idlis in a microwave
  6. Pan cake griddle is the new dosa pan
  7. And the variety of upmas we make out of all the grains and flours, no one can beat me at that!
  8. For many of us, our kitchen is the prayer room too.
  9. Surprised if I say that it is the yoga place as well?
  10. For me, kitchen could be a place where I could read, sometimes blog, catch with old pals, chat, text, free counselling on the phone, yell orders at the entire household, tell childhood stories to my kids. For someone who cook out of happiness or depression, what could be the best place than a kitchen?

   Okay, this is my idea of a dream kitchen!! Do y'all like it??
                                                           Image Courtesy: HGTV

26 comments:

  1. This is a lovely post. Kitchen's my favourite place too. And I hope you get your dream kitchen. :)

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  2. Lovely post and dream kitchen :) The central island is perfect for yoga provided one doesnt topple:) Good list too but no: 5 I've seen all over ,many an aussie pal n colleague cooks rice in the microwave :)n tks for ur comment n due to ur Q I realised I hadnt defined Kosha n have edited my post :)
    Kosha is a sanskrit word for Sheath. Here each kosha refers to a more refined layer of existence and the five layers or koshas are like a map with which we can navigate our inner journey.

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  3. hehe your dream kitchen it too clean to be true :P
    But it is true, for a woman a kitchen needs to be the best thing in the house (after a good bathroom though)

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  4. haha..well I'd love to have this kitchen with a person who cooks for me while I laze around in my home library :)

    Latest A2Z Challenge Post-Random Thoughts Naba

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  5. Haha the dream kitchen is too spic and span for it to be true. I dont really spend much time in kitchen because I dont like cooking and I am territorial about the kitchen space. I dont like it when anyone moves things around without my knowledge :P

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  6. I love my kitchen to be as suave as my library and I shout at mom for having a nasty kitchen and she says I wil know it only wen i run the house!! Let's see how nice I will run the house :P *house will run away from me i guess*

    ~S(t)ri
    Participant|AtoZ Challenge 2014
    Smile, it makes (y)our day!

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  7. Kitchen is my haven...no one can mess with it.

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  8. Lovely post. Hope you get your dream kitchen soon :)

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  9. This is like standard work station in US doing duty of kitchen.
    It is most convenient but the draw back is being part of living room the smell of garlic,hing assail the nostrils unlike in India where the kitchen is in a corner and often much neglected space in terms of comfort,design and brightness.

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    Replies
    1. True that, KP Sir. The smells linger on to your coats and clothes with our style of cooking. I also like the kitchen to be separate.

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  10. F in F,

    Could not visit for few days. Caught up with all pending ones. What you say at the end of G is so right. Had a good laugh at H, specially little girl making up her mind on what hairdo to have each day. Very nice poems in I and J. Yes, every girl has a right to have the Kitchen the way she wants. When do I get to taste Upma made by you?

    Take care

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  11. must now google puma - I do rice in the microwave too, and even use my coffee grinder to make flour too :)
    Ida
    Reflex Reactions

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  12. Well said. Even I hav long convos with mom only in the kitchen. Those last points about Indian Women - U nailed it :)
    good one Prudhvi

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  13. Kitchen, my space, and whenever I dont want anyone, i put on the pressure cooker. my son and hubby dread it.. so I get "My" time.. I love the place, my way. No N or MIL can do much about the way I keep mine. :) I wish you and I both get our dream kitchens.

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  14. Well since I am in a joint family there is only one way of keeping the kitchen and that is MIL's way! Of course when we were away for a year or two then it was my kitchen and it was my way!
    Wonderfully expressed and your dream kitchen is every lady's dream I guess.

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  15. I would never buy a house where I didn't love the kitchen

    Loved out ideas

    Carol @ Battered Hope

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  16. LOVE that kitchen! New follower here. I'm stopping by from the "A to Z" and I look forward to visiting again.

    Sylvia
    http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

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  17. hmm, I admit that I dont spend much time in kitchen, lazy when it comes to cooking :)

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  18. The dream kitchen looks divine. I get made when things are moved around in my kitchen too.

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  19. Lol I agree to so many points on the list! I love my kitchen and storage space too :P

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  20. I love kitchens that huge and spacious. A small kitchen garden at the side, bliss!

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    1. Wow..that would be really neat for a kitchen..don't have plans of own gardening though :)

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  21. I was nodding my head in agreement as i read through your points :)

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  22. Your idea of a perfect kitchen is unique. Such kitchens can be managed in USA. In India the servant/maid will turn it into a place for storage.

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