It's not a distress call, it's a celebration of workers!

It’s been a struggle cooking in our kitchen for months now, since I first started hacking bits out of it to install the new kitchen. Today, for the first time, I’ve been able to cook in relative calm and order. I’ve got work surfaces on which to prepare food, a granite slab to roll out my pastry and space so I can put things down, use them and then them not be in the way while I use something else, if you see what I mean.

We’re still managing to get some food from last year’s crops, in fact I’ve been picking chard today from plants that are starting to bolt, cooking it and freezing it for use over the coming weeks. This gives me great satisfaction.

Tonight’s meal is a quiche, its pastry made with a mix of rye flour and spelt, freshly laid eggs from our own chooks, chard and cheese. I’ve been able to access and use the food processor, use my new super-dooper pastry rolling space and assemble the parts of the dish without needing to balance things on the stove, the top of the bread bin, the kettle or anything else.

The Black and Decker workmate is finally consigned to the garage, where it should be.

I reckon that it’s something of a triumph (getting this meal made) in the circumstances, what with the kitchen’s recent transformation and it being “the hungry gap” and all.