Ann Leach

"How do you reheat foods?"  "I'd die without my microwave." I hear this regularly when I share that we don't have a microwave in our home.  And it's not by accident.  We intentionally sold it about 5 years ago.  Why?  Two reasons: First, I figured we were really only using it 1 or 2 times each day; and second, it took up too much counter space. But selling it happened in steps.  Once I had decided it was time for the microwave to go, I had to get K on board.  He would use it to reheat his coffee from the pot he had brewed first thing in the morning.  That had to be addressed.  We bought a keurig with the reusable capsule. Well, he still wasn't convinced so I said ok.  How about if we just try it for a month? Let's just move the microwave out of the kitchen for a month and see how it goes. Well, that was all it took.  It was moved out and never came back in. But how do I reheat foods?  It used to be with either ...

If you had the opportunity to start with a clean slate in your kitchen and purchase only essential items, what would they be?  Would your kitchen have in it exactly what it has now?  Or would you do it differently? A year ago, when we arrived in Australia, I did have this opportunity, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  Most of our kitchenware and tableware came from the thrift stores and the local buy/swap fb page; although I did get a new set of cast iron pans from the camping expo, and a few bakeware items came from a regular retail store. The only item that I would have like to have was a food processor for weekly chopping of onions and grating of cheese.  But that said, I didn't lose any fingers doing it manually, so it's not so much a necessity as much as a strong like. Searching "kitchen essentials" on pinterest pointed me to some websites like this one:    http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/2012/08/essential-equipment-supplies-for-firstcol...