By Jean Steel Venrick (Mrs. Wordwright)

"Come into my kitchen and let's talk about pots and pans." You may be thinking, "What is so exciting about that subject?"

I'm very particular about how my pans look. I want them shiny clean so I use stainless steel with copper bottoms, which of course need an appropriate cleaner each time the pans are used. I do not feel this is time consuming, I just do it. "Copper-Glo"is the brand name I use but it has become hard to find and my husband has discovered another suitable brand, "Bar Keepers Friend" so that is what we use currently.

I have never had a dishwasher so this job has always been done by hand. I do not want to give up my cupboard space to a dishwasher. When our house was built in 1964 a dishwasher was not a necessity in the kitchen, however today a kitchen without a dishwasher is just not a kitchen, or so some think. Frankly I always found dish washing a good time to think and solve the world's problems. Since my stroke in April of 2008, Bill has assumed a lot of my household duties and since he used to help me and we together would talk and "solve the world's problems", now I am the one who helps unless it becomes too tiresome to stand for long periods. Another household chore, ironing, is something I like to do and that gives me another opportunity to think while I press the wrinkles out of clothes (that is, what clothes are not the permanent press kind). And because I have an adjustable ironing board I can set it at a convenient level for me to use while sitting down. But, back to the kitchen!

I have a couple iron skillets in my collection which are seldom used anymore but at one time I relied on them heavily. The iron skillet does make great fried potatoes, crispy edges, you know.

Now to when my "particular-ness" goes out the window. I have two electric skillets that are horrible looking, yet I wouldn't give them up for anything. The small one I wrote about in June 2006 is one of these "horrible looking" ones. See "MR. FIXIT" - This poor little skillet is still working after Bill fixed it three times, replacing the original Bakelite handle twice, once with oak and the most recent was made with maple. It is not non-stick and you dare not scour it with a metal scouring pad because that takes off, I will call it, the patina. Do that and your great fried egg soon becomes a scrambled egg because it "sticks to the pan". You can use a plastic scrubber on it but that's as far as you dare go. This little skillet has been around for years and seems to be like the Eveready Bunny--it keeps on working! I have another small skillet ready "in the wings" when the time comes that Bill can't fix it anymore.

There's another skillet in our kitchen, a large Sunbeam which was given to us as a Christmas gift in 1957 or 1958 (when we were in Hobbs, New Mexico) and it is still working! We only use it for one or two things - making corn cakes or French toast, Bill's favorite. (Since my recent bout with the diabetes issue French toast and Corn Cakes are a rare treat.) Saturday mornings were our time for something special, either the corn cakes or French toast with Mrs. Maple's LITE syrup, from Aldi's. This old skillet makes the greatest with either of these treats. I have a special recipe I dreamed up for the Corn Cakes - not from a mix.

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After starting this missive a year ago I might as well take it out of the can and publish it. Those who know us will recognize our peculiar ways in this story and hopefully those who do not know us will see some virtues of my wife Jean, that have been the impetus to make our marriage work since June 3, 1951. It's been sometime since my wife has appeared on this site so I thought it past time to share some more of her writings. Jean is a disciplined journalist and "pots 'n pans" is only one example how meticulous her routines have been through the years. She has enjoyed a pen-pal relationship with an English lady since entering high school -- that's around sixty years; and she got serious about a regular family journal when we adopted our children. Writing, you can see, is a very important part of life to my wife. The journal was started in 1967 and she has written nearly 6,500 pages (3-ring binder notebook pages mainly).

THE WORDWRIGHT