Stuff - III - The Kitchen

I've gone through the kitchen and realized that between the house and Laurent's apartment in Beijing we have enough kitchen "stuff" to open an intimate bistro. Do we really need all those pots, pans, casseroles, the two woks, the bamboo steamer? I certainly haven't used them much in the past three years - but then I haven't been entertaining all that often. And when was the last time I used that ginormous wire whisk? As a kitchen utensil? ..... Never mind!

And the dishes!!!! We have Tante Fernande's china (York Rose - a rather lovely set that she collected in DUZ detergent during the 40s and 50s, a cup, a plate etc per box), my Crown Staffordshire (Hunting Scene, "a favorite of horse lovers....") that cannot go in the dishwasher, the old Robertson Stoneworks every day set, the Chinese blue and white set, the.... well you get the picture. And Laurent just bought another set in Beijing to go with those celadon rice bowls we just had to buy in Hong Kong at Christmas.

The one item I am loathed to chuck out is my Cuisinart Food Processor. I bought it when I first moved to Ottawa over 31 years ago - it came with a James Beard Food Processor cook book that included a recipe for Gazpacho. Gazpacho? Thirty years ago nobody in Ottawa served gazpacho - except at 210-1833 Riverside Drive where it became a find-a-boyfriend-for-the-winter-dinner-menu staple. I even got all the attachment - and of course ended up using only the chopping blade. The motor still runs fine, the blade is still as sharp as a newly-stropped razor but the plastic bowl is cracking and finding a replacement is next to impossible. Question is: do I want to cart it all the way to Italy? Something to think about.

As a sidebar: In this week's NYTimes Style section the Minimalist maintain that a good no-frills kitchen can be equipped for $300.00 USD. And he's right - so maybe I'll just throw everything out and start all over again!