Here I am again, feeling very bad that I've been missing things like people and recipes and foodie-related conversations during this past...oh, I dunno, SEVERAL WEEKS while I've not had a laptop on which to keep connected. It's driving me crackers, frankly, and I'm not sure how much more I can take. Right now I'm using my son's while he's at work. With permission. of course. But of course, none of my 'stuff' is on this one, and I can't subscribe to any new feeds while using it.

Color me frustrated.

My sights, hopes, and dreams are set on the end of January, by which time I hope to have tax refunds in hand to allow me to replace my old laptop. It was an Acer, and while I don't want to label a manufacturer as...wait a minute, yes I do!...want to put you all wise to an inferior brand of laptop, and I owned one. From Day One, I had trouble with it. The battery was definitely substandard, lasting only about an hour, tops, on battery power, and only got worse as time went by. By the time it finally died, (after a prolonged period on hospice), the battery lasted only long enough to flash the window about needing to switch to outlet power. After only owning it for two years, one port went bad and thereafter needed a thingy that acted as a multiple outlet, kind of like an extension cord. Then both ports started acting out and I'd have to switch ports every time they flagged, which was about every time I used the laptop. Great, huh?

The end came mercifully quickly after that, and I had the abismal task of pronouncing the death.

I've been alternately grief-stricken and pissed off ever since.

So...for a quick update:

I baked my brains out during the past three weeks, turning out batch after batch, dozen after dozen, labelling and freezing the results. I didn't count, but I believe I made about a dozen and a half different kinds of cookies and truffles, almost all of which were quite edible. Of course, there were a few stinkers, recipes that will vehemently NOT be repeated in this kitchen or any other in which I have influence. But that's to be expected when you're blazing new trails and sifting through new recipes.
I will share the successes in future posts.

When I first started this blog, I intended to call it My Bitchn Kitchen as a symbol of my hopes for the future, designing or finding my ideal food prep. room. In the past I have had spacious kitchens but with ...wait for it...shag carpet in it, kitchens so small they could only charitably be called kitchens and not closets, kitchens with literally no cupboards or insulation (and I live in Michigan, with winters that often drop to single digit temps), and kitchens with cupboards so elderly that they no longer close snugly because of the hundred or so layers of paint on them. I've had to deal with pantries that were outside the kitchen, refrigerators that still had the vertical, slot-machine-type handles and ovens that made the electric meter outside the house actually spin like a taxi's. Vastly inconvenient, inefficient, impossible kitchens.

But you know what?

I made do.

That is a woman's strength: she makes do in whatever ridiculous situation she finds herself. I grimace when I remember baking my own bread every week and canning bounteous amounts of garden produce in a kitchen WITH NO COUNTERS! Today, I still can't figure out how I did that, but I did. And I'm sure that you have or had similar obstacles to overcome. And I'm sure you have similar crazy stories about them.

Tell me about it. Share your pain, your psychic trauma of the constant struggle to turn out a decent meal in the most adverse of situations.

I'd love to hear them. It would create a kinship, a bond with fellow-sufferers.

And it might just make me a little more patient for that day when I finally get My Bitchn Kitchen.