Small Kitchen Big Taste

For 25 years, I lived in a one bedroom condominium in Washington, DC.  I truly loved living in the city even though I grew up in the small Naval Academy town of Annapolis, Maryland.  I had always dreamed of being able to cook in a large kitchen.  My condo kitchen was not like that; it was tiny.  Not only was there was no room for a table, I couldn't even get a chair in it.

The place was so small that I had to store my pans and cookware on the tops of the cabinets and inside the oven.  The cooking area was less than minimal.  By the time I put a microwave and a toaster on the counter, there was no room to slice and dice vegetables or anything else.    None of that ever stopped me from making some great meals, though.  I made it work.  From my small railroad-car sized kitchen, I was able to create some big tastes: dare I say, masterpieces.

I always had to be careful when cooking anything that had the least amount of steam or smoke, because the smoke alarm would go off at the drop of a hat.  Funny thing, I think I may have changed that alarm battery one time in all those 25 years.  It always went off.  I had to run around looking for a newspaper or a magazine or anything to wave directly under the alarm to get it to stop making that horrendous loud noise.  I always imagined the neighbors running to call the fire department, however, no one ever did, thank goodness.

The whole experience was an exercise in getting big taste out of a small kitchen.  My friends always thought it was an astounding feat that sI could cook just about anything in that space.  Yes. I must say that some amazing meals came out of that miniature caboose.