TAGGED! THE KITCHEN MEME CONTINUES

Okay, my friend Judith sent this to me. I guess it’s the blog quivalent of tag. The idea is for everyone to answer the same questions about their kitchen. Originally this was started on, and sent to, food blogs only, but now the food blogs must have all responded and it’s being sent to people like me who like to cook and occasionally comment about cooking.

You can read Judith’s comments about her kitchen on her blog HERE .

Here’s the link (in English) to the blog that started it all: http://allitaliana.blogspot.com/

and here are the five questions to be answered:

1) Show us your kitchen ( a picture) and tell us what is it about this place that reflects your own personnality.
2) Open a cupboard (the one you feel to open), take a picture and tell us what we see.
3) Present us your favorite kitchen-based electrodomestic tool.
4) Take out the ingredients you like the most, the ones you always keep stored.
5) My little steel friend: present us to your favorite cooking/baking receipient.

So now for my kitchen.....

I love the fact that my kitchen is large, and that it’s more than “just” a kitchen. I love having the large chair in the corner surrounded by books and family photographs. I love having my large pantry just around the corner, hidden but still convenient. I love the granite countertops and the fact that there is plenty of free counter space.

I love having a fireplace in my kitchen, and being surrounded by so many reminders of my family…..the drawing my grandson made, the tabel-topper quilt my mom made for us, all the refrigerator magnets we’ve collected from our travels, Art’s coffee cup collection.

I do wish that my work triangle was a little more efficient, but of course we all have to work with the space we’re given. The kitchen desinger originally suggested that the sink and cooktop locations be reversed, and that the oven be located next to the refrigerator. I nixed these ideas immediately and configured it to suit me. I need to have counter space next to the frig, and it seemed to make sense to have the sink in the middle of everything, not at one end.

These large drawers are the thing I like most about this kitchen! They are so convenient and hold an amazing amount of stuff….and I don’t have to get down on my hands and knees with a flashlight to search in the back of the cabinet for that rarely used pot! They hold ALL my pots, pans, skillets and baking dishes....amazing.

The drawers under the sink also add a lot a useable space to an area that's typically wasted.
I love having a place to put not only the garbage but also my recyclables. The covered can is for food scraps which are recycled seperately.

Favorite tool? Hard choice. Although I use my food processor a lot, and although nothing beats a good kichen knife, I guess the one I’m most grateful for is my stick blender. I use it all the time when making sauces and soups, and can’t imagine following the directions in some recipes that call for you to pour the hot mixture into the food processor to be pureed. What a recipe for disaster, especially for me! With the stick blender I can mix everything right in the pot.

Favorite ingredients? Hmmmmm. The most used ingredient in my kitchen would have to be flour….I use it for bread, for pasta, for cakes and pies and crostatas. Oh, and for breading. So is it my favorite? How do you define a favorite ingredient? Flour is certainly one of my most useful ingredients, but I guess my favorite ingredeint would have to be my spices. Vanilla extract. Chili powder. Sesame seed and poppy seed for bread. Lemon pepper. Dill. Celery salt. Freshly ground salt and pepper. And don’t forget about the fresh spices just ourside the back door…..fresh basil, parsley, sage and thyme. What a joy to have these!

And favorite cooking utensil? It might have been my cast iron skillet, but honestly, it’s soooooo heavy. It takes two hands to carry it, especially when it’s loaded with food, and that makes it less convenient for me.

It might have been the cast iron griddle/grill, but I don’t use this as much as I thought I would. Once again, weight is an issue. Yes, being heavy means that it’s good quality, but it really does make it difficult to use easily, at least for me.

I think my favorite cooking utensil is the large baking stone that my daughter gave me last year.
I love using it to bake bread and foccacia on, and find that it’s great for ensuring an even temperature in the oven….something that I’ve had trouble with before. The stone is made by Papmered Chef and my daughter swears by their stuff. I had bought a generic stone to bring to Italy but Angela insisted that I return it for the one she bought for me.

So that’s my kitchen, for better or worse. Definitely not my dream kitchen, but as I said before, we all have to work with what we have. My dream kitchen would have an island with a separate sink. My double sink would be larger….much larger, and deeper too. I’d love to have a large, industiral type built-in sprayer. I’d have two LARGE ovens, not these tiny things they have in Italy. One of the ovens would be a convection oven. And of course I’d have a large refrigerator with a much larger freezer. I’d love to know what those new refrigeratro drawers are like. Oh, and maybe I could have a small dishwasher…also in a drawer….I think that’s such a cool, back-saving idea!

But for now, my kitchen is workable and is filled with the things I need and use everyday. It’s usually the only place our guests ever see because we invariably end up sitting around the table talking, even after dinner is finished.