A Very Uncommon Cook

This post is more for me than it is for anyone else, but that would be why my name is in the URL.
I’m hoping that this move will be my last for at least a year, maybe two. Because seriously, I could give up having refined my pantry list to its most elegant, eloquent form if it meant that I could stop packing up my kitchen and moving house. Ahem.
In no particular order, this is what you will find in my kitchen on any given day (and if you don’t, and you’re visiting, yell at me until I go grocery shopping). (What do you have in your itchen, and consider a necessity, that I don’t? Give me a peek!) » Read the rest of this entry «

Oh my God, I hate moving.

Yeah, I know, no one likes moving. But oh god I am sick of it. (I have moved house twelve times in the last six years, and that was with living in the same place for two of those years. Two of those moves were transatlantic.) I have at least two more ahead of me, but one of these days, I will (a) stop moving, and (b) stop losing my stuff in moves.

What happened to my cookie sheets? Where is my damn nonstick pan for scrambled eggs? I know I had more saucepan lids than this!

So I spent a profitable hour or two (or three, or four…) in Bowery Kitchen Supply, which contrary to its name is located in Chelsea Market, and am now the gleeful owner of several things without which I can’t really function.

Every now and then, the foodblogosphere posts about outfitting the minimalist kitchen or how a no-frills kitchen still cooks or My Essential Kitchen Tools or build your own $blogname kitchen. (This is not meant to disparage any of the posts linked or even the genre of post itself; I love those posts. I bookmarked them!) And now it is my turn!

Writing this post is like writing that particular genre of science fiction which David Hines calls a much-maligned, much-loved genre which, for lack of a better name, I call “Man Builds Stuff and Gets Lots of Pussy.” Technical details about which no one cares but oneself and a very small, self-selected audience! It is awesome.

photograph by Charles Haynes

Ahem.

Things I bought:
• whetstone
• three wooden spoons
• Pyrex loaf pan
• set of three bamboo steamers
• carbon steel wok

Seriously, this is like 85% of what I need in the kitchen. (The other things which spring to mind and which I did not have to purchase include a cutting board, decent chef’s knife, mid-sized saucepan…)

Okay, I didn’t lose my wok in the move. That is because I did not own one. I had been getting by with a really big saucepan, but that was just not cutting it anymore. Carbon steel, you guys. A carbon steel wok. I own it. It is ALL MINE.

And now I’m going to go season it in the oven. I’m going to scrub it and coat it with canola oil and put it in a warm oven and scrub it again and coat it with oil again and put it back in the oven, and then I’m going to do that AGAIN, and then I will have a seasoned wok. Yeah, I know, you’re jealous.

There is a host of half-finished posts in the admin area here, but they all require a little more research.  So here, go pay attention to other smart people for a while; I’ll just be over here with some tea and a legal pad to take notes on.

1. David Lebowitz was kind enough to instruct the internet in making ricotta cheese; figs in the U.S. ripen in July/August, so clearly figs and ricotta and honey are the appropriate response.
2. Nicole’s crustless quiche was a lifesaver for me this summer, I will not lie. I have made it with broccoli, with turkey sausage, with mushrooms and onions, with zucchini and sugar snap peas, and every time it has been delicious.
3. Sugar snap peas are so good raw or with hummus or in pasta or raw that I have not gotten around to pickling them the way I have wanted to ever since Deb posted about them. So you should do it and report back.
4. This broken glass jello is gorgeous, even if I am not really sure I would want to eat it; sweetened condensed milk is not really an ingredient I use much, if ever. But seriously: so pretty. It would probably be perfect for a child’s birthday party, or visiting someone after surgery.
5. Lemon poppyseed muffins are one of my fond childhood memories; the bakery in the grocery near my house, growing up, always made them in mini-muffin size, which was perfect for the wee me. But lime poppyseed muffins are an inspired idea, and I can’t wait until summer cools down enough for baking not to be insufferable.
7. If you’re anything like me, you are currently drowning in zucchini and summer squash. Try chicken breasts with zucchini pappardelle to get rid of some of it; if that doesn’t work, maybe turn them into a lifeboat? I’m not sure how buoyant they are, but at this point, I’ll do anything.