things to do in the kitchen

I could stay in my kitchen all day. I have a small color TV, cookbooks, a telephone, an iPod boom box, and, usually, my laptop, connected by wireless to the outside world. The chairs are not so comfortable, but I put my feet up.

Sometimes my kitchen has others in it. Sometimes that's a good thing.

Here are the things that ought to be done in every kitchen, in no particular order: cooking, drinking, dancing, singing, laughing, kissing.

I often knit in my kitchen, even though my floor is filthy, and the skeins are always picking up dog hairs and breadcrumbs and splashes of milk. Sometimes I write on nice stationery, even though my table is often sticky with syrup or wet from water.

Yesterday, I did a few of the most fun things I do in my kitchen. I baked a carrot cake and a butterscotch cheesecake with chocolate ganache and cooked three pounds of cranberries into delicious sugar-free (sorry, but even my husband couldn't tell) cranberry sauce (per 12 oz. bag: 1 C water, 1 C sweetener—I use half xylitol, half Splenda; cook till popped and gooey) for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night; and I danced and sang and kissed my husband.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everybody. Don't eat like I will. And don't drive like my father.