Tinfoil Chef

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Because I saw some Kohls coupon codes and spent some time looking around the Kohls website for a while I ended up paging through their Kitchen & Dining section.

I think it was about a little over a year or a year and a half or so ago when we discovered the food network and started watching a bunch of it. It was great, they had one really good chef after another teaching all kinds of things from recipes to tips to trivia and things that help you understand the “why” of many things cooking.

The one thing that I think that they’ve all got in common however is that every one of them has the most complete set of pots, pans, cutlery and assorted kitchen gadgets & appliances that you can possibly name. At first there were a bunch of things that I hadn’t the first clue what they were. And some things that didn’t make sense at first… like the mixing device (that I still don’t know the correct name for) that Emeril calls a “Boat Motor”.

Then there’s the rack or wooden block with a full range of ever type, size and shape of knife. Every standard type of pan, pot and skillet and several that aren’t so standard. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year or so mentally filing away assorted tidbits about stuff like this that I hope to one day use when designing (ahem) The “ideal” kitchen.

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Remember Space Food Sticks? They were all the rage back around ‘70 - ‘73 or so. I’ve no idea what they actually had in them and right now I’m feeling a little to lazy to bother looking it up.. maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, they came wrapped in a paper covered foil package and were about five or six inches long. I don’t recall that they were offered in any kind of flavors, although I do remember that they were on the sugary side.

The advertising for them was all about taking advantage of the fact that a LOT of kids (people my age) were seriously into the space program (even if they didn’t want to admit it) and wanted to be astronauts, pilots and so on.

Then almost as quickly as they appeared, they vanished. Right about the same time you stopped seeing ads for Tang I think.

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Someday I’m looking to have what I’d like to think of as a “REAL Kitchen”… Don’t get me wrong, the one we’ve got now is good, and in fact it’s better than many that I’ve had to deal with in the past but it’s still not the really big, open thing like you see on tv cooking shows… heck, even most of the kitchens on tv sitcoms are very nearly big enough to be considered commercial real estate.

Any time you have something big enough that it takes four or five steps to go from one side to another you’ve got a seriously nice sized kitchen. I realize we don’t need something big enough to run a restaurant out of but at the same time, It’d be nice to not have to move one appliance in order to use another one.

In our kitchen now, If we want to use the bread machine for example, The slow cooker and the food processor need to be moved to the table while it’s in use. And while I’m at it, there’s the issue of outlets. A kitchen should have plenty of them and they should be on at least two, possibly three circuits. You need some that are placed for the major appliances.. refrigerator, stove, microwave, freezer… and then you need some along the counter top for use by mixers, crock pots, toasters, can openers, the coffee pot and anything else that needs one.

As for counter space and cupboards, I’m of the opinion that it’s hard to imagine having too much of either. Most of our food prep is done on the table and if I move the food processor there’s a 1 foot square chunk of counter that I use for cutting and chopping.

It works, we get everything done one way or another, but just once I’d like to have a kitchen with a 15 x 20 floor-plan.

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One of the things that I learned from watching Rachael Ray is the concept of the garbage bowl. The idea is to have a good size mixing bowl on the table or counter top you’re doing prep on. One idea would be to use one of those empty plastic ice cream buckets that get saved because “maybe I’ll need it for something”.

Also, if you’re using one of your mixing bowls for this, take a few seconds and line it with one of those plastic grocery bags. That way when you’re done cleanup is super fast. You just lift out the bag, close it and toss it. Same goes for the ice cream bucket. (or, if you’ve been saving them forever and they’re getting in the way, just toss the whole bucket. After a while of doing this the problem will have taken care of itself and then you can think about re-using them)

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One of the shows on the Food Network that My wife and I have enjoyed a lot is “30 Minute Meals” with Rachael Ray.

Each show features an entire meal that can be ready to eat in 30 minutes. It’s delivered with a casual friendly approach that’s more like “just folks” than professional chef. Her directions and examples are easy to follow and she’s almost always got something going that either looks great exactly the way she presents it or can be adapted to individual tastes easily.

Rachael Ray also does a morning talk show and several other shows on the food network, but when it comes down to basics, 30 Minute Meals is just that, coming up with a good meal quickly with a minimum of fuss.

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