While cooking pancakes for my guys the other evening, I happened to take a long, contemplative stare at the appliance that I was cooking them on (could it have been peaceful enough at that moment in my kitchen for such a stare to even occur?). It was because of this “connection” with my plug-in-counter-top-skillet that I experienced an epiphany of gratitude – gratitude for the items in my kitchen-not all of them, of course-but it got me thinking about how much I love that skillet and how easy it makes that aspect of my life. What else in my kitchen,besides my skillet, holds such grandeur that without it my existence might cease? I came up with five of these said items. By the way, these are in no particular order, my heart is large enough to love them all equally.

1. Thank you, Braun Water Heating Device, for not being a tea pot that screams at me early in the morning. You heat up my water to boiling  in less than 60 seconds. You and I will stick together till the end – er, your end – which I hope is a long ways off!

2. Thank you recipe book/magazine holder that sits so mightily on the shelf that my loving husband built over the kitchen sink. When I’m not using you to hold my recipes still and out of harms way with your splash shield, you are displaying my most current issues of Food Network Magazine and Everyday with Rachael Ray, so that when I look up at them, through you, I gain inspiration for my next culinary adventure!

3. Thank you, shelf that my loving husband built above the kitchen sink. Without you, my counter tops would be filled and cluttered to the max with cookbooks, my coffee container, the knife block, occasional Lego mini-figs and matchbox cars, not to mention lovely chotchkes. You may not realize how much stress you save me daily. Don’t ever break, please?

4. Thank you, Aero Press Single Serve Coffee Maker (extraordinaire!). My demise rests upon the day you stop working. But, I don’t worry about that because I know you will always be there for me. You and I are a team, what with the fact that I am the only coffee drinker in the house. I deserve you! You make the best coffee, free of the residue which appears at the bottom of most regular coffee drinker’s mugs. You make coffee muck-free and I appreciate you for that.

(Please note: There will be an entire post devoted to the Aero Press, so stay tuned…)

5. Thank you, radio on top of my fridge that used to be in my bedroom and then the garage…You may not realize it, but you have found your final home, here, in the kitchen where you can be a constant vessel for our musical entertainment. A small grey box you are, but with endless hours of melodies you provide. How you must thrive on witnessing us silly humans dancing and singing about to the service you provide. Please don’t break, again. We take good care of you now!

You see, such important items in my kitchen. What couldn’t you live without in yours?