No Resolutions, but I'm determined...

Spectrum
Friday, February 7, 2003
Maturity-Senior Moments
Terri Andersen
No resolutions, but I’m determined to put the kitchen cabinets in order
I was not going to make any New Year's resolutions because I know from past experience that I'm not very good at keeping them. I didn't lose 10 pounds last year (or any other year since reaching adulthood), I didn't get all the photographs from the past 10 years put into albums, and I didn't organize all my closets. This year, however, I am determined to put at least the kitchen cabinets in order. The first priority would be to do something with the cabinets that hold my pots and pans, all stacked in sixes or sevens. In order to reach whatever pot I need, the noise level has gotten completely out of hand. Ditto for trying to put a pot back where it belongs. It doesn't help that kitchen corner cabinets are constructed in such a way that there's a large area extended to the right or left of the door that can't be reached without removing everything that's in front of the door. “Why don't you just throw out some of the older pots?” my husband asks, feeling that's the logical solution. Actually, he's the reason we have so many pots in the first place. A little scratch here or there and he buys a set of new ones, while the old pots are just fine as far as I'm concerned. In fact, very often a new pot doesn't make the food taste the same as my old pot does. That big old red pot with one handle missing is the only one that makes my pot roast taste right. And the pan with a few scratches on it is just fine for cooking bacon or other things that I don't want to ruin the new pots with. I do like the new teflon pan for cooking eggs, but I didn't need a new set with three different sizes (for when we have company for breakfast, maybe, but how often does that happen?). Then there are the “once in a great while needed” pots, like the one with three little tin cups for cooking poached eggs, the pot with an insert full of holes for deep frying, the pizza pan, and the cookie tins. (I think I got those when we were newly married 48 years ago and I thought cooking was going to be such fun!) Those are in the part of the cabinet that can't be reached, so I haven't cooked any of those things in quite a while. There's also the big white enamel pot that I bought in some insane moment when I thought I'd be cooking soup or pasta for an army. It would also be good for cooking a dozen or more ears of fresh corn, but once I discovered little ears in the frozen section of the supermarket, I gave up all the mess of pulling threads off corn on the cob. All of the above is in the cabinet at a right angle to the left of the sink. I'm not sure what's in the back of the cabinet on the right side of the kitchen. I know there are some pots and tins and serving dishes, but all I see are the bags that I carefully fold and store in the front of that cabinet. Why I save all those bags, paper and plastic, I don't really know, but I have a few friends who said they do that, too (probably a trait of those born during the Depression, when everything was saved, “just in case" a need arose). Now and then I do get rid of some bags, but hardly ever the ones with handles — you never know when you'll need one of those. - Why, just last Christmas I used two big red Macy's shopping bags to cart all the presents to our daughter's house, where we were celebrating Christmas Eve. It so happens both bags ripped when the presents were being pulled out (the kids sure teased me about my 10-year-old matched luggage), so that's two less bags in my cabinet and a new resolve to go for it and get rid of the rest. I'll probably leave a few there though, because old habits die hard, and I'm sure the minute I throw one out, that will be just the kind of bag I'll need for something or other.
Terri Andersen is a New Milford resident.