Order, Order

My daughter says I’m OCD. I find that a bit of a stretch. I mean, does everything these days have to have a name and a diagnosis and a support group?

I will admit to the fact that I do like to have a certain order in our soul food kitchen. But that’s simply in the interest of efficiency — and, admittedly, a bit of aesthetics. It’s not just the pans pictured here, arranged based on size and usage, so I’m not constantly turning the kitchen upside down to find the right pan.

The steel pictured in the foreground is also there for convenience, hanging just above my prep table. I grab a knife, give it a few whacks (20 to be precise), and proceed to prep. The line-up of implements just to the left of my stove top and oven perform similarly: Slotted spoons, whisks, mcroplaners, spatulas, etc. are right at hand next to the cooking surfaces. The bain marie just to the right of the stove top, also purely functional placement. I could go on and on, but everything has its place, and every place has its reason.

A bit more problematic is an unwritten rule I have for myself: Any new addition to the kitchen means I have to deacquisition something else. But that’s pure self-survival. For one, it keeps me from getting gadget happy and spending money I don’t need to spend. And, the kitchen is very small. I simply don’t have room for an infinite amount of stupid stuff. The in one-out one rule keeps everything sane.

What might raise eyebrows in some circles is the labels I put on everything. In my own defense, I have discovered that if I don’t label everything at the moment of prep, I will forget what it is the next day. Granted, I probably don’t need to label things like “bread and butter pickles” or “ice cubes.” It’s obvious. Still, force of habit, slippery slope, and all that. If I stop labelling ice cubes, the next thing you know I’ve got a soup that I neglected to label, and I can’t remember if it’s vegan or not.

I’ve got a long way to go to hit OCD. My row of hand towels, all clipped to an improvised clothesline hanging just below my cooking utensils, is crooked. The aprons hanging on the rack in the galley space just beyond the kitchen really need to hang a little more neatly. My pots are way overdue for polishing. My space cabinet is an eyesore.

I’m working on it.