1. Experimenting with new recipes is for people with real kitchens
I haven’t cooked anything that wasn’t part of the standard repertoire. That interesting recipe from the Wednesday cooking section. Clip it an put it in that big pile of clips and printouts that I’ll never get around to mining properly.
(What about that one-pan spaghetti recipe? Okay there was that one. Just one.)
(What about the Tater Tots? That was just testing the air-fryer function of the Toaster oven.)
Okay, mostly no experimenting.
2. Dish cloths can do a lot more than dry an occasional dish.
No sink? That’s a problem if you have stuff on your hands. So use the dish towel. And later use it to clean the workbench top. And then to clean up that spill. And then put it in the carrying bucket or tray with the dirty dishes and run it though the washing machine. I’m using lots and lots of dish towels.
3. Toaster oven!
Hey, I already bragged about how useful these new toaster ovens are. There’s the link.
4. Induction cooking is whole new thing.
I never liked electric stoves—the kind with the spiral heating elements, or the ones with flat glass tops and heating elements built in. They relied on resistance heating, stayed hot for a long time even if you turned them down. I never liked them. But induction cooking is very different. You have very precise settings and the “burners” seem to respond instantly. My induction “hotplate” has been a good way to get ready for the induction range to come.
5. You can cook pasta right in the sauce.
Before the temp kitchen, it was heat up sauce on one burner and put pasta in water and boil it on another burner. Then pour off the water through a colander. You know the routine. But why? If the sauce is hot, why not just cook the pasta right in the sauce. Then the sauce will penetrate the pasta and it will be even more saucy. Especially if you are using “fresh” pasta. It works great.
6. I can’t do paper plates.
I bought big stacks of them. Good ones. But a proper dinner requires a proper plate. Even if it means an hour or so every day in the basement hand washing dishes. (I will have lots of paper plates to contribute for this summer’s block party.)
7. The 80/20 rule applies to utensils.
I’ve got lots of utensils—a vast assortment of scrapers and whisks and knives and all that kitchen utensil stuff. But in the process of putting things away in my limited space in the temp kitchen, I can see that I use some utensils ALL the time and a lot of others almost never. So I am re-thinking my drawer allocation and some of the design for the pot rack. It’s been enlightening.
8. running water is a great luxury.
Professor Google, PhD. Informs me that about 74 percent of the people in the world have safe running water. That leaves about two billion people who don’t have running water. Umm—two billion and one for the time I’m in my temporary kitchen. Hey, Joni said it: “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.”
9. Poland Spring makes a great one-gallon water bottle.
Since I knew I was going to be carrying water to the temp kitchen, I tested out the offerings on the supermarket shelves. Poland Spring had these round plastic containers with a hand grip that are excellent. They pour well. Very well made. What’s kind of crazy about them is that they are, on the one hand, so good, and on the other hand, they are supposed to be thrown away after one use. I bought three and have been refilling them with West Orange Township Spring Water, and they work admirably.
10. Lasagna is worth the bother.
I made lasagna the other night and it was a big job with lots of cleanup. And you know what, it was absolutely worth it. We had a good dinner, for sure. And then I carved up the rest of the dish into similar sized servings, quick froze them, and then bagged them in pairs. So, at least four or five more dinners. A little sauce from a jar (I’m not very picky). A salad. A glass of wine. Mangia!
Anon.
Ridge