Welcome to My World
Martha Stewart makes my ass ache.
The craft projects, the centerpieces, the soul destroying detail — the designer chicken coops. Together with the unrelenting tastefulness of it all, they conspire to suck every bit of fun out of cooking and socializing.
Think about it. Would you enjoy having Martha over for a cup of coffee? Can you imagine sitting with her in a crappy bar and having an increasingly drunken debate about whether the Beatles are more important than the Stones (they are not), the best champagne for under $20 (Gruet) and whether it is realistic to expect your in-laws to leave after a week? (Not if they’re European.) Well neither could I.
So why are you looking for lifestyle advice from her and her ilk? I don’t know either.
OK, I’ll admit it. In the early 90s I bought a hot glue gun. Enthralled with the pristine spreads and glacially clear prose of Martha Stewart Living, I believed. Believed I could reupholster furniture in my miniscule city apartment, turn pipe fittings into works of art at the dining table, and whip up elegant four course dinners for ten, sober and in a galley kitchen that barely accommodated my own ass. All of this and more – much, MUCH more – I believed I could do with a job, a husband, a mortgage and eventually a child, without losing my mind. I wasn’t laughing then, but I am now.
I’m laughing because I’m slightly drunk. I often am. But I’m also laughing because I am free, free from the tyranny of rigid perfectionism; I have embraced my inner slattern. By that I mean I have found the easy way to do anything that needs doing around the house, and whenever possible with a drink in my hand. With far less effort and anxiety, my parties are more fun, my husband is still around, my child is alive and reasonably healthy, and that fucking hot glue gun is buried in a landfill somewhere.
I don’t have to endure Rachel Ray or Emeril or that emaciated blond chick who makes lasagne with tomato soup. Gone are the days of being mesmerized by Nigella and Giada and Ina. I am a boozy floozy with a bad attitude and have become infinitely happier – and more productive – for lowering both my expectations and my horizons.
So why not throw off your shackles and give the slatternly approach a try?
Party over here!
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Kitchen Slattern is a writer, hausfrau and mother who lives in Brooklyn, New York and tries to spend as little time as possible at the stove, preferring to devote her leisure time to Scrabble, socializing and the Boston Red Sox. Her husband and daughter are very, very patient.
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Kitchen Slattern (c) copyright 2011 Wendie Winslow. All rights reserved. No reproduction in any medium without prior written consent of the author is permitted.
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Comments 53
I don’t think you take awards, but I’m sending you a ‘valentine’ tomorrow.
Thank you! I take and deeply appreciate all awards, but am far too lazy to take it much farther than that. Actually, I’m usually just too over-served, but that’s a conversation for another day. So glad to have you aboard!
You’re welcome! No pressure. It’s just for fun.
I’ve been getting to know Ms. Snarky Pants–sounds like you’re good friends :)
Well it’s more of an armed truce, but don’t tell Cristy that. ;)
Excuse me. What were you saying about an armed truce?
The Slattern’s just jealous that I can drink a quart of vodka, then shoot a speedball immediately afterwards…and that’s before I head out for a night of partying.
Yeah, I made all of that up, but it’s just part of a ruse perpetrated by Kitchen Slattern and me in which we pretend to not like one another, even though she’s one of my blogging besties. In fact, she’s the one who can shoot a speedball after drinking vodka. I’m a sad little amateur compared to her, sucking my Long Island Iced Tea oh, so slowly through a straw.
I was just trying to get your attention, you know that. And I thought we were keeping that speedball business on the QT.
What about that night with the dwarfs? Are we keeping that on the down low too?
Well we WERE. Thank God you can raise bail.
Hello! I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award when I received my award today. Here is a link to my page with the instructions should you accept. I have very much enjoyed reading your posts and they have made me laugh at work when I am supposed to be working. :) Here is a link to my page with the rules of acceptance:
beadstork.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
So here’s my question: Did one of your patients snap that photo of you while she was in the stirrups or did you just make it look that way? I don’t know which option is more genius.
THANK YOU so very much for this lovely award! I actually got two in the same day, not to brag or anything, but…oh what the hell, yeah I got it twice in the same day muthaf**s!
Mostly I’m glad to have found your site. It is very very funny, and I am now a committed follower.
Yay! The story on the photo is, it’s the first thing the babies see! :)
So I have a rum and coke in my hand and a muscle relaxer in my system. And i just found your blog- the night just keeps getting better. Good stuff
Clearly we were separated at birth.
I had to stop by and say hello to a fellow Red Sox fan and I’m glad I did. Just found out you are living in NY, deep in the heart of Yankees territory, a feat not for the faint hearted Sox fan!
I’ve got a Sox sticker on a car with New York plates. It helps when I’m back in Maine — a little. You’ve got to ride with pride. How did a Sox fan get so far down under? So glad you stopped by. Love your site.
Thanks W – have a son who plays baseball and have been into it since. Took our first pilgrimage to Fenway last year – loved it, sat in a box along the first base line! We adopted the Sox as our team at the same time as we adopted Curt Schilling’s bloody sock.
Just wanted to drop you a quick “thank you” for stopping by and liking a recent post on my blog. Now… here it is over an hour later and I’m still here! I grabbed myself a Cayman Jack Margarita and settled in to enjoy a sampling of your work. I’m sure you hear it all the time but I have to say your blog is fabulous! I’m looking forward to reading more. Thanks again for the “like”. ~Cheers~
From one Wendie to another (Wendy), thank you so much for stopping in — and bringing your own refreshments. Now that’s a good guest. Love your site — so glad I found it today!
Thank you for coming by Jack Straw Lane today because if not I would have missed out. Your ‘Welcome to My World’ is the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks! You’ve got a fan.
Right back at you. I loved your post about shopping with your kids and am looking forward to reading more. Glad to have you aboard!
Tag, You’re it! Come see what mess I’ve gotten you in. Love, Vickie