It is just over two years since we moved house. There are still boxes in the garage and it’s only recently that we have reclaimed mother-in-law’s garage so she can fill it with her own rubbish without ours getting in the way.
I have resisted the urge to do yet another car boot sale. That in itself was more traumatic than moving house. Arriving on site at 7.30am on a Sunday morning to a barrage of abuse for a) being late and b) being a car boot virgin, then before I’ve even removed the keys from the ignition a hoard of professional ‘booters’ have flung open the doors and started to scavenge through the boxes. Panic rising, I managed to regain some control but not before a lady made off with a hastily purchased trouser press which I found the attachments for about an hour later. Ha – that’ll teach her.
However, I digress. Our ‘new’ house is very different to our ‘old’ house and nowhere more so than in the kitchen. My old kitchen was a high ceilinged farmhouse kitchen with double sink, Aga, and a table big enough to seat twelve for dinner. There was a fitted floor-to-ceiling larder cupboard that small children have been lost in for weeks playing hide and seek, and enough additional storage to never have to say no to a kitchen gadget.
The new kitchen is small but perfectly formed and I have had to learn to cook neater, with less space and less gadgets. I even had the dishwasher taken out so I could have a pan cupboard!
Along with this new way of life has come a new attitude. I have always enjoyed preparing and cooking meals and have been known to spend days in the kitchen quite happily making everything from scratch, but recently I have discovered that if someone has done the work for you then why put them out of a job? Grating cheese – pah! – it comes in a resealable bag. Roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Yorkshire puddings – but what will Aunt Bessie do with her Sunday if I revert back to the do-it-yourself queen? The days of poor quality convenience food are long gone and if it’s good enough for the likes of Delia and Bezza, it’s good enough for me.
There are, however, rules about this new way of shopping – I only buy the items I can actually produce at home so my change in habit shows a laziness but not an ineptitude. Totally justifiable, I think you’ll find. And as if I wasn’t blessed enough, ‘embracing the lazy’ in the kitchen has allowed me time to reignite a love of gardening. Now – do Aunt Bessie’s do hanging baskets?