| Not the real one of course... but notice the proximity to the potentially stifling hot kitchen? |
Oh my little blog....how I have missed you so. I attempted to write up blog posts on the road on my laptop, but got as far as four sentences and then Microsoft Office crashed. Damn. So, I've done a lot of stuffing. And not the turkey kind.
We've spent the past week at my inlaws. It is an 80's era house. The kitchen is centrally located, and is roughly a 12 x 16 rectangle. There are two breezeway doorways on adjacent walls. There is a window on an opposite wall, and one of the doorway walls also has a patio door that goes out onto a small deck. The house is kept pretty warm - uncomfortably so for us CO folk, so cooking in a hot kitchen in preparation for Thanksgiving is, well, not fun.
I spent the better part of Wednesday and Thursday in the kitchen. I am not complaining - it was pleasant, the kids helped from time to time, and we worked at a leisurely pace. My MIL made cornbread stuffing and prepped all of the cookware she would need for the turkey and the ham, and I made my artichoke heart/spinach dip (to be baked the following day), 6 dozen rolls and a large crockpot meal for that night. It got hot and uncomfortable in the kitchen. So I cracked open the patio door about 4 inches to get a nice breeze flowing through. Aaaaaaahhhh.
Pretty soon, FIL arrived home, took a panicked cursory look around the kitchen, noticed the source of irritation (an opened, unlocked door),and strode across the kitchen, shut the door and locked it.
He left. I opened it.
We repeat the scenario at least three times during the next hour.
Next day... Thanksgiving. Now we have 5 - 6 people in the kitchen. Cooking, helping, or just getting in the way. Let's repeat the door scenario a few more times, just for kicks.