Claiming Your New Space

[Rover]

In a recent conversation with a friend about routines and rituals to make your new digs your own, she mentioned a couple of Feng Shui things she does. Mine is roasting a chicken - specifically, Marcella Hazan's Chicken with two lemons. i feel like I've been making this chicken for about a hundred years, but it's an almost fool-proof, fragrant and terrific free-range chicken treatment.

There's something celebratory about roasting a chicken and while I realize that many regard it as a rather intimidating challenge ... it truly isn't.

My "chicken ritual" seems to lay claim in my behalf, to the kitchens in places to which I've moved. For me, it celebrates the new, banishes former ghosts and honours my personal traditions and seems to stake my claim.

Are there other interesting culinary rituals for your new nest out there?

Rover

[fiftydollars]

Roasting chickens is a minor hobby of mine. I do it all the time... when I'm hungry... when I'm not. When I'm just bored.

But I think baking bread would be my ritual, if I had to admit to having such a thing.

Oh, that and I pee around the perimeter.

Edited December 28, 2007 by fiftydollars (log)

[Anna N]

. . .

Oh, that and I pee around the perimeter.

←

You too huh!

[mizducky]

There's an old Eastern European/Russian/Jewish tradition of bringing bread, salt, and wine to a new home for good luck. That's not specifically about the kitchen, but hey, that's where those items will likely hang out, so ...

(I suspect many other cultures have some similar tradition about salt and the local staple carbohydrate and booze ... it feels so archetypal and all.)

For me, this is not so much a formal ritual as a psychological grounding thing, but I do know that the acts of moving my gear in, bringing home the first load of groceries, and preparing the first meal involving heat all have big meaning for me.

[duck833]

How about sex on the kitchen floor?

[purplewiz]

Putting my stuff in the cabinets and rearranging it so it makes sense is how I start. I make the best guess I can when I start, and then tweak it as I actually start cooking.

It's also putting my stuff out on the counters - the coffee maker, the coffee grinder, the toaster - that makes it look like we live there.

I then tend to cook my favorites - stuff that I know inside out and backwards like zucchini fritters and grilled steak and impossible pie and fried eggs - to test out the equipment. Things where I don't have to worry if it's the recipe or the stovetop - I know it's the stovetop. (And our new cooktop is a piece of crap that we're going to replace ASAP, but that's another story.)

Marcia.

[dockhl]

In a recent conversation with a friend about routines and rituals to make your new digs your own, she mentioned a couple of Feng Shui things she does.  Mine is roasting a chicken - specifically, Marcella Hazan's Chicken with two lemons.  i feel like I've been making this chicken for about a hundred years, but it's an almost fool-proof, fragrant and terrific free-range chicken treatment.

MH Lemon Chicken CLICKITY

I love the internet ! What a wonderful sounding recipe, sure to imbue your new space with all the scents that you love being surrounded in. I think that is a great ritual, and one I can relate to.

I moved into my new house 3 weeks ago and am still in the stage of finding where things SHOULD go, rather than where I've put them

Our first meal was a Thai chicken curry and Thai spring (fresh) rolls. The new kitchen is large and allows two people to cook comfortably together, something I've longed for many years.

So THAT, I think, was my ritual. Being able to prepare a meal together, and still like each other when it was time to eat. Not sure it matters what the meal is.

[snowangel]

About 4 years ago, we moved for the first time in almost 20 years. First up -- the grill, some charcoal and some soaked applewood and a smoked butt. (The oven didn't work). Made everyone smile to see me putting the grill in the right place and doing my signature dish on it.

[hummingbirdkiss]

I light a candle in the window