Apparently, there were some strong opinions on the topic of weeding out the kitchen. Thanks!
Since then, I’ve carted a load of cookbooks to Bailey-Coy and gotten rid of a bunch of non-kitchen-related stuff. I’m even going to sell my ukulele. But I’m still too nervous to face the kitchen head-on.
Iris has caught the bug, too. She keeps bringing things to me and saying, “Can I put this out for free?” Luckily she can’t carry anything too heavy, or I assume I would turn my back and find the couch out on the curb. I’ve noticed, though, that Iris has not volunteered to put out any of *her* stuff for free.
It’s fun to get rid of things we don’t have room for, but it turns out to be even more fun to get rid of things we *do* have room for, because that opens up room for actual new stuff. Maybe a sausage stuffer!
Further updates on this exciting tale as events warrant.
Sausage Stuffer. Cool.
So here’s something a bunch of us have been talking about. We’re all interested in cooking and we NEED the best tools, right? But do we each need to buy one for ourselves? Can’t we come up with some sort of lending library? I mean, it’s nice to have a sausage stuffer at your immediate disposal but don’t we really know a bit in advance that we’re going to be needing it?
Noooooooo! Not the ukulele!
Wow, that’s a really good idea. Like, I have a pasta maker that I’ve used once. Maybe I’ll use it again, after I’m out of grad school. Maybe not. But in the meantime, I’d love to loan it out to someone who has a spare ice cream machine. And if they make pasta, and I make ice cream, I could give them half of what I made! And then we could build dining groups based on this!
Ok, I got a little carried away. But really good idea.
What about something a website where people can register kitchen items they’re willing to lend out?
That’s a great idea? Maybe it already exits as part of Craig’s List or Freecycle. I’ll have to check it out.
Sorry I haven’t chimed in here. I love the idea of a small lending circle. Making it larger would be tricky, though, because of network effects. I think it would have to work something like lala.com, and that would be tough with something like a sausage stuffer. It’s one thing to loan it to a friend, another to a stranger.
And I’d love to share an ice cream machine; we keep talking about getting one but know we wouldn’t use it all that much.
We have an ice cream maker that we used once in three years, but this summer we’ve been using it, like, every week. Even if we only used it a few times a year, I think it’d be worth it for the extreme goodness of ice cream made with cream and a million eggs.
i’m keen on getting one of those “ice cream ball” dealies that’s in every catalog from Red Envelope to Lands End…where you stick ice cream fixin’s in one end of a brightly colored ball, ice and salt in the other, and then, judging from the photos, give it to a five year old to bash around for 20 minutes, and wah-lah, a pint of ice cream.
this way i figure we could make goat’s milk freezy deliciousness in whatever damn flavor we felt like, without the grating wait in line behind hollywood hipsters for laloo goat’s milk ice cream at the gelson’s. though i did see tim curry in the freezer section there, once.
um, and then you could all borrow the ice creamy ball. or something.
Tim Curry: find him in your grocer’s freezer section.