Inventory: What's on top of your refrigerator?

Hey, let's inventory the nooks and crannies of our kitchens, in hopes of clearing them out before holiday cooking gears up in earnest. I'm starting with the "top of the fridge".

Here goes:

Half a bag of tortilla chips with chip-clip applied (stale anyway - trashing it)
Two red potatoes with advanced eye-sprouts, one perfect Yukon gold potato, two baking potatoes still in good condition, one CRAZY old potato (green? Purple? dry, thank god) that looks like Yoda (tossed)
An open package of plastic bendy-straws
One of those hideous lawyer magnets from the front of the yellow pages
A picture of John & I at Kentucky Kingdom when I was hella fat
Two half-boxes of cereal (one each apple-cinnamon Cheerios and one store-brand Corn Crisps)
One half-container of Whisker-Lickins cat treats
a bunch of loose recipes: crab dip, homesteader cornbread, lima bean falafel fritters, blue cheese polenta bites, almond-brie pate, pork rilettes, walnut/gorgonzola new potatoes, pasta carbonara
half a package of paper dinner napkins
one of those metal wire thingies that holds the cork in place on a Belgian beer


Whew. I think I did pretty well, didn't find any true horrors up there. But making the list definitely did make me stop and clear off/clean the top of the fridge.

List your sins, people!

All I have are this lil guys I got years ago at the old Bullfrog Garden in Fern Creek.

PB210168.JPG

All I have are this lil guys I got years ago at the old Bullfrog Garden in Fern Creek.

PB210168.JPG

Doogy, such discipline! I'm envious.

All I have are this lil guys I got years ago at the old Bullfrog Garden in Fern Creek.

PB210168.JPG

Doogy, such discipline! I'm envious.

I think the amphibians keep anything else off the top of the ol' fridge. They seem to be quite territorial. Seriously, I took that pic 2 minutes before I posted it. I have been accused of being the neatest man any woman has ever seen.

My refrigerator is a built-in, so that takes care of the problem for me. Now if you want to discuss all the extraneous "crap" I have sitting out on my kitchen counters, that another matter.

My refrigerator is a built-in, so that takes care of the problem for me. Now if you want to discuss all the extraneous "crap" I have sitting out on my kitchen counters, that another matter.

Gayle, I've been to your house, and I didn't see any "crap" on your counters - just lovely tools and appliances, and the occasional knick-knack (but not too many).

I forgot to mention that some of you will have the built-in fridges....but you can still inventory that cabinet directly above the fridge, if you want to.

Oh Marsha, my sweet dear. I clean up before a party. DId you look in my pantry?

Y'all are funny, and I mean that in a good way.

DId you look in my pantry?

I did! The light comes on automatically when the door opens, doesn't it?

[Robin Garr]

List your sins, people!

HAHAHAHA!! Great topic, Marsha!

Ours isn't too bad. A pot lid rack with about 10 lids on it. An old double boiler that I use for rice. A sprayer that I use to hydrate the oven for baguette baking. And a partially used pak of cheap paper napkins. Some dust. That's about it for now.

Woven baskets.... And a decorative sliding door stopper with ducks in rushes.... I didn't even buy that. I'd ordered a replacement part for an espresso maker and they sent the door stopper with ducks by mistake and then told me to keep it. So there it is, sitting in front of the baskets. And ours is built-in as well, with a cabinet on top, but what with the post-and-beam construction, there's a goodly amount of space above cabinets as well, so,... stuff, like baskets and a bit of pretty glassware and the like.

If you and I were roommates, Marsha, we'd drive each other bonkers, and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night for thinking about all the crap on top of the refrigerator. I worry enough about the darned ducks. I'd like to give them a good home, and I can't bring myself to toss them.... Hey, here,... here's a solution, the top of your refrigerator!

Maybe we could send that hgtv home organizer to your place. I watched about two minutes of that the other day and thought, Boy, that guy would be disappointed if he knocked on my door. The only thing that comes close to being disorganized in my house is a junk drawer in the kitchen, and the basement, which pretty much belongs to Gary. When I was a student, I'd have to clean the whole house before I started a paper. That was the first part of paper writing. The second part was standing in front of the open refrigerator whilst thinking of all the reasons I shouldn't just eat everything in sight.

Off the top of my head, we have a Cuisinart double ice-cream maker, a tagine dish, a bucket of Halloween candy and probably a bunch of other things we don't want the kids to get into. There might be a beer koozie up there too. Please don't mention the cabinet above the fridge as that is where we keep our sushi set with matching tea cups, wine decanter, and God knows what else. It's stuffed up there for a reason, you know.

Gayle, I covet your built-ins!

PIX, let's see pix. That will make this already great topic even better. Don't be shy y'all. Get the cams out and post away. Doogy did.

We recently cleaned the top of our fridge and this is what we found-

Corn Flakes (for Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole)
Granola
Some chocolate-flavored adult cereal that Doug picked out but didn't like after the first bite (this was one of those "I told you so" moments)
English muffins
spray bottle of oil for our very own hurricane victim--the grill
a strange film of pink Crystal Light powder that must float around the kitchen when I make a fresh pitcher
random and probably expired pizza coupons

Now, can we talk about the gap between my stove/oven and the countertop where I just dropped a hot brownie beyond reach.

Well, since I just installed new shelving in my kitchen this week everything is spic and span- except the top of my fridge. I guess I haven't got there yet. Here goes:
3 gallon fish poacher
My grandmother's electric coffee grinder circa 1940
A broken ice tray
Copper double boiler
The Gourmet Cookbook
My prep list from last Christmas
Unwrapped ginger Altoids
Marble rolling pin
Wooden salad bowl I made at 12
And in a stack:
Round Marble Slab
Round Bennington cake plate
Hadley side dish
Soup Tureen
Pudding Basin
Souffle dish
A pen and a pencil

But my shelves are fabulous!!!