Living in my kitchen

I'm an "open door gazer". You know my type: if you have an open door or window in your house, I'm looking through it. Sometimes I'll even strain my neck as I'm walking by trying to get a glimpse. I know it's rude, but people should expect this when they have shutters wide open, just begging for me to take a glance. You can imagine how well this usually goes over here in Sicily, especially given the fact that everyone knows that we are "the American couple" in the village. I've received more than a few unwelcome glares from little old Italian ladies dressed in aprons looking at me through their lace curtains.

After my first few days of staring into houses in Balestrate I noticed something about the layout of them: most of them have a combined kitchen/living room area and it's usually the first room you walk into off the street. Seeing families in their kitchens, especially on Sundays, reminds me of my home and family in Philadelphia. People crowded around a long table, laughing (and sometimes yelling at each other), telling stories of their day, something bubbling on the stove.

Our apartment has this combo kitchen-living room and I simply adore it. It's got all the essentials of a kitchen plus a couch, a tv and a shelf for cookbooks. I spend a lot of time in there (actually...all of my time) and it's especially great because I don't have to be in there alone cooking while Scott is in another room watching tv. This really is a great thing considering I make lunch and dinner for us both in there everyday (another thing I love about Europe, the 3 hour lunch). Unless we are sleeping or drinking wine on the terrazza, when we are in the house we are in the kitchen.

As I'm living in my kitchen, I will be reporting back on here all of the delicious things that I'm fiddling around with. Yesterday was chicken stock day, soba noodle soup for dinner and chocolate chip cookie dough while I brushed up on New Yorker podcasts. More on the chocolate chips in a later post. Stay tuned.