We love to cook but, like many of us, can’t do it for long on our feet. So we always have a sturdy stool nearby so we can sit longer at counter-height and chop, stir, and toss with less back and knee pain.
Cait uses her stool while waiting for her toast to pop and to steady her arms while refilling narrow-mouthed bottles, such as her vinegar cruette. To wash dishes, she opens the cupboard doors beneath her sink, pulls up her stool and sits with her feet just inside the cupboard.
Our good friend, Lisa Kostopoulos, par excellent chef and owner of The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, keeps a stool in front of her stove to aid the stirring of her always perfect sauces and steel-cut oatmeal.
Maybe you bake fewer birthday cakes or put up fewer jars of pickles or your famous freezer jam. Get yourself a stool and see how much longer you can hang around your stove.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
The stool in my kitchen is usually strategically placed so my gimpy cat can make it up to the counter where he gets fed, and back down without jarring his arthritic shoulder. He occasionally lets me borrow it for marathon culinary projects such as picking gallons of basil leaves off the stems while preparing to make pesto. (I find this an ideal time to listen to public radio.) I will have to remember to open the cupboard doors next time so I don’t have to sit “side-saddle.”
Templeton