Life is about changes and I’m going through a big one. My wife and I are now empty nesters. Our oldest is a fully formed adult, living and working in New York. The youngest is off at college in California. We’re one year into this new phase in our lives and rediscovering our joy of cooking.
To celebrate, we’ve moved into a small apartment, walking distance to America’s Test Kitchen. We raised our children in a small house with a huge kitchen—including two gigantic islands and enough cabinet space for four families. For more than 20 years, our kitchen was easily the biggest room in the house.
But we’re now living in a 700-square-foot, loft-like apartment that has a “kitchen” along one wall of the living room. Cabinet space is precious and the counters measure 3 linear feet (that’s not a typo!). After a year of cooking in a small kitchen, here’s what I’ve learned.