When you go to a friend’s house, you can easily see what tools they keep on their kitchen counters. But pulling out their drawers to check out their cooking gadgets probably wouldn’t be too cool. It is an unspoken rule. No snooping in other people’s drawers and cupboards, without their permission, of course. But you don’t ask. It’s just not done.
So today, I am giving you a full disclosure into my two main tool drawers. Check them out and compare. I bet we have a lot of the same stuff. We’re cooks, after all.
Here I am, four months into my fourth year of blogging and so much has happened during that time. Places I have gone and people I have met, plus the great friends I have made in the blogging community. I am so thankful for these wonderful people in my life. My dear blog, Cook & Be Merry, has surpassed anything I could have imagined when I first started. Today it has 235 posts and over 711,000 pageviews. My most popular Twisted Cookie post has 36,000 pageviews and 80 comments. That is so amazing to me and I am really glad I could give you a recipe that would make you all so happy.
Dear readers, I don’t think I have ever asked you for anything, but today I am going to ask you to do me a favor. Leave me a comment, would you? You know who I am, but I don’t know you. I don’t know your names or if you’re men or women, and I really would like to, just this one time. Just plain old Hi would be fine. Thank you so much!
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi! I’m a long time reader. Thanks for sharing your kitchen drawers with us. I see a lot of familiar things in there! -Kelly
Hi Lynne, I’m Renata from Brazil. I’ve been a reader of your blog for a long time and I love your food and photography, just beautiful!
Kitchen tool drawers of a REAL cook! Lovely!
Hi,
I’m in WA. Private Piano teacher. Married to a dear for 45 years. Mother of two daughters, one grandaughter. Love Baking. Have loved cooking and baking my whole adult life.. my hubby now cooks too. My grandaughter likes to stir, whisk, get stuff out of the fridge, taste ingredients (especially butter), and knead, cut, arrange on plates…we have fun. The kitchen is the center of family life.
I love your recipes and photos. Keep up the quality work.
Lynne, here’s a plain old Hi from Thunder Bay Ontario. Thanks for all your amazing yummies you have so kindly sent to us all.
Hi from New Zealand, where kitchen drawers look just like yours, but the seasons are topsy-turvy! It’s autumn now, and your archive is just great for selecting seasonal food. I’m going to try the cinnamon-sugared pumpkin donut holes.
Congratulations on your blog, thank you for the entertainment and inspiration I get from it and best wishes for its continued success.
Hi Lynne.
I love these pictures! Technically the photos are very nice – pleasantly lit and composed. But really, the pictures are like puzzles – where’s Waldo and the apple-slicer?
This post really tickled me because I am an incorrigible snoop. One of my favorite things is cooking with friends in their homes or out and about – even in hotel kitchenettes. I confess, I am not so shy about opening drawers and cupboards as you might think – and I ask about the tools and ingredients I find.
I had a great evening once when a friend invited me to go with her as she entered her new home for nearly the first time after she took over her aged uncle’s house. The house and contents were hers and the place had just been fumigated. We opened the windows first and then every drawer and door in the place. No skeletons – nothing too surprising but we were amused by the large coffee pot collection. That snooping evening was an ice-breaker. It helped my friend over a threshold and into “ownership” of the house.
If you come to my house, I will likely want to show off my kitchen drawers because after living in homes with catch-all drawers for more than fifty years, I recently did a remodel. I re-arranged my kitchen and breakfast nook and loaded up on modern cabinetry – drawers and pull-out shelves, all on sturdy runners. I also added foam shell liners so that contents don’t shift around when a drawer is opened or closed. Drawers within drawers mean that everything is in one layer. Less rooting around but you do have to pull-out two drawers to get to my knives. (That was a spot of bad planning that will one day be corrected).
If you are interested, I blogged the remodel – click through to Downstairs on Cashio and look for the kitchen/bath project tag.
But all of that is hard-scape. On the food side – I like to cook from the fresh produce I get at neighborhood farmers’ markets (different ones on the westside of L.A.) and I am more and more interested in the exotic, complex and saturated flavors of North African and Indian cuisines.
I like your blog a lot. You filled an empty space as I had a hard time finding a So Cal voice that I could relate to. Thanks a lot!
Hi Lynne!
Jen from NH here… long time reader… glad someone else has kitchen drawers that look like mine! dont always comment but love looking forward to your posts & gorgeous pictures!!! dont remember how I found you (Foodgawker I think) but I believe it was around the pictures of the carrots in the shot glasses & you being published in a magazine. one of these days im going to try the twist cookies… they are gorgeous!
Hi Lynne, I’m Denise from Woodstock GA! I love your website, a fan from the day I first came across your twisted cookies recipe – Ohhh my are those ever so good!! And a close second are those delectable Twirly Lemon Butter Cookies!! I would love to be your next door neighbor and wait anxiously for any crumbs!! 🙂 Please dont ever stop blogging-you make my day!
P.S. – Hubby loves the Chocolate Pavlovas with Cheesecake Mousse – Mmmm!!
What a great idea. I so enjoyed reading the comments. I love your blog and you are such an inspiration to me.
What a fun post Lynne. I’m happy to count you a personal Food Bloggers of Los Angeles friend who admires your work. I loved to see your old portable Mixmaster. Was discussing whipping egg whites and cream without one of these with my elderly mother-in-law recently who has mostly antique kitchen gadgets in her drawer. Remember the old manual egg beater?
I am lucky to have several kitchen tool (drawers). The two bins on top of my counter + a couple drawers + my orange Home Depot tool kit I started in culinary school to take with me to my cooking classes and catering jobs + a brief case knife kit to take to catering gigs I help out at. It’s gotten kinda out of control!
I work for Grace-Marie at the cooking school. My husband and I are on vacation. Today in the little town of Lead/Deadwood, S.D. It snowed all day and night and right now we are snowed in at 6600 feet. Looks like Lake Arrowhead area. So our sightseeing for the day is on hold. We do have food (and wine). Love to read your blogs. Diane casa947@aol.com
Sent from Diane’s iPad
Adorable post, and you have lots of nifty tools!
I comment often, but hello! Nice to officially introduce myself 🙂 I’m 25 year old aspiring food writer from New England, and your recipes warm my soul.
I’m a lumberjack who looks like the Brawny man, only better looking and more absorbent. I love reading your blog in my red and black flannel shirt with the top two buttons open so the thick, dark hair on my chest peeks through. Oh, who am I fooling! Congrats on your success. Keep up the great work, pal! 🙂
Hi! Next time you come to my house you can peek in my kitchen drawers. Underwear drawer however remains off limits. XOGREG
You can peek in my drawers as well! It looks a lot like yours.
Longtime reader here. I may not always leave you a comment, but I do read everything you write. I love your style and the food you write about.
Hope to see you soon!
[K]
Hi Lynne! I was already a creative-kitchen type of girl, but your blog is so inspiring! This month I made your buttercream bees and put them on lemon tarts for a baby shower – it was the perfect detail to make the shower really special. Everyone loved them! I live near where commenter Diane was on vacation (Lead/Deadwood area of South Dakota). But I used to live in Los Angeles. Thanks for your wonderful blog!
Hi Lynne – thanks for letting us peek into your kitchen drawers! When I read the title of this post in my reader I expected to open it up and find photos of OCD-style, super-organized kitchen-tool drawers. Or at least far more organized than I could ever manage. I’m secretly relieved to see they look no different from mine!
I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of years. I don’t always comment and am usually reading posts long after you’ve put them up but I love coming back here to look at your lovely photos and read your wonderful posts. Thank you for being an inspiration!
Hi. I came to your site again to lovingly gaze at your Twisted Cookie recipe. Today is the day, fingers crossed, that I give it a try. Sophie, my MIL, a baker beyond measure made “German Sour Cream Twists” and one day searching I found your lovely page with PICTURES!! Sophie left us last year and most of her delicious goodies went with her. We miss her and I hope by making her recipes, we are comforted. I love that your children always ask for them, as I requested these every chance I got. Oh, and thanks for letting us take a peek, it looked like home. 🙂 If I never find another recipe online, I will be grateful for this one.