It Started With Milk

Innocent ideas like, “let’s put a window in the guest bathroom,” have been known to turn into the addition of entire wings, so I suppose I got off easy on this one.

R and I had commented we’d like to get a microwave for the kitchen. They’re perfect for warming a small quantity of milk, or melting butter or R claims, cooking bacon. The Sunset Microwave Cookbook R scored at a yard sale, one of those filled with glowingly optimistic color plates, claims fillet mignon is within the realm of possibility. I almost choked on that one, the notion, not the steak. The book reminds me too much of a menu at Denny’s, and anyone who has dined at Denny’s knows the photos in the menu never bear any resemblance to the grim realities that come from the kitchen.

At any rate, a while back when friends Kathleen and Tom mentioned they had a microwave to give away and wondered if we knew who might like it, R’s hand went up like a shot. The next time we got together, Tom had it in the back of their car and in the dark of night we made a parking lot transfer to my car. We got home, plugged it in and bingo! It was like new and just the ticket. But then we realized given limited counter space, we had no place to put it. The microwave was thus relegated to the garage while we hemmed and hawed on what to do. ¡Carpe mañana!

Every time I went into the garage, seeing the microwave languishing in the corner bugged me. Then one morning a couple weeks ago we had oatmeal for breakfast and it really bugged me to dirty another pan to warm a half cup of milk. Could you maybe guess I’m a Virgo? Finished with the oatmeal I jumped up from the table, got my measuring tape and waved it around in an open spot between the kitchen and dining area asking R, “Sweetheart, how about… here?” And we talked about me building a sideboard table and what it would look like, and made sure we could still walk by with the refrigerator door open and there’d be space below for the cat to eat.

I made a sketch and by the afternoon we were off for the saw mill. Over the past couple weeks, well, there’s no such thing as one trip to the hardware store. But the table got built and is, to everyone’s delight except the cat who at first freaked out, now installed and in service. The microwave has a home and we’ve used it for various pan-less warming duties. Thank you Kathleen and Tom! R christened the butcher block top, cutting an orange into sections on it. And then there’s been pizza and vegetables… very handy.

Through the whole process, we didn’t even get close to talking about adding onto the kitchen, which of course may change if we decide on another countertop appliance.

Gordon Bunker