what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

I've been adding a crap ton of tumeric to everything because I went to the doctor and my uric acid levels were a little too high (so also cutting out wine for now). This weekend I made DUMPLINGS! again but they were tofu, tumeric, scallion, kale. Also did a salmon dhansak which came out well but the salmon had a lot of the properties as if we just used canned tuna.

I've got this new turmeric that is brighter yellow and makes longer lasting stains on everything it touches. but I love it. Night+Market fried peanuts with lime leaves, red pepper, lemon grass, etc. have changed my pad thai game. Long, complicated recipes are never too enjoyable for the person that eats them. So the key to enjoying my own cooking is putting all of the effort into toppings or additives that are delicious and can be added very simply to the recipe in the moment before eating. Or I guess just making stuff that reheats well.

ugh what great summer dishes should i make, help i'm going grocery shopping tonight someone hold my hand!!!!

Hot dogs n potato salad

pffft

Cmon that’s the most summery meal there is

i need to make a side dish for work picnic. no hot dogs, possible potato salad.

How about a cold asparagus rice salad.

I make this Lebanese Lemon-Parsley Bean Salad. vegan and gluten-free!

green papaya salad.

i had to do dinner for 7 tonight with about one day's notice so i busted out this absolutely classic two-hour pork ribs joint:

http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/a-recipe-from-the-chefs-vinny-dotolo-and-jon-shooks-balsamic-barbecued-baby-backs-2378837

y'all this was SO GOOD and SO EASY i just can't believe it, i just used ground pork from the store

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/ba-breakfast-sausage

oh, i like the look of that Lebanese salad up there. gotta remember that. xxpost

on holiday from school and moving in a couple weeks to my transfer school area ( i found an apt. this weekend, YAY!) so am making use of some ingredients on hand. even though it's supposed to be scorching tomorrow, i made a big batch of curried lentil soup, that i think is gonna rule. that's for tomorrow/rest of the week. tonight making eggplant pizza. my housemate has a thing for eggplant.

i made the lebanese salad for guests and have been munching on the remains for like a week. it's very tasty.

I pan cooked a thin-cut porkchop and put it on a King's Hawaiian hamburger bun with mayo and hoisin, A+

I order halal lamb and chicken over rice and cut up tomatoes and cukes for an extra side salad with lemon dressing. One order will make at least two meals for me so it's a good way to prepare lunch the day before.

That's the extent of my cooking in past months.

haha! i regularly do the same thing
although today i made (vegan!) spinach pies (in easy to use country-style phyllo) with onions, berbere, ginger, turmeric

it's my antidote for enduring food poisoning sunday-monday

(food poisoning was NOT from the place i usually get my meat/rice/tabouli/hummus fix)

I'm doing my first and hopefully last kitchen reno.

What are things you'd change about your kitchen layout and why?

Are you happy with your appliances?

Should I get a bright orange wall oven?

Yes to the last.

yes to orange oven
most annoying thing is that the trash can is too far from the cutting area. if i had my way they would be closer together.

Bright orange oven yes. If I could redo my kitchen, I would seal seal seal the spaces between all the appliances and counters and the floors. I hate food particles falling in between. Definitely a bigger double sink (I rarely use the dishwasher), built in wine cellar, prep space for two people, and integrated seating/hangout for when I am waiting for stuff to cook. I'm not really into spending a lot on appliances, as long as I have a gas burner and an inoffensive fridge, I'm good.

Although I do covet Smeg and Big Chill fridges.

most annoying thing is that the trash can is too far from the cutting area. if i had my way they would be closer together.

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, June 12, 2018 5:05 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a good one.

my layout is pretty inoffensive; a big u shape with a peninsula with seating and the fridge on the opposite wall. if i had more space i'd add a center island because it's the best place to do prep. i'd def get a double wall oven if i could.

we added a butcher block in the middle of our kitchen (family heirloom of my wife's), it is slung low so I mostly use it for mortar/pestle grinding but it is extremely handy to put things on when you are in the middle of a project, islands rule

buzzfeed had an article on DJ Zedd's house. Most of it was whatever but I did like his costco room and the vacuum at the bottom of the kitchen cabinets that you can kick dropped food to get vacuumed up.

Trash placement is an excellent point. I was gonna put it near the sink/dishwasher opposite the island where I'd be doing prep, but maybe it should be at the island.

I have decided to say fuck it and put the rangetop in the island instead of against a wall. This is a highly controversial move in the kitchen design world, apparently, but I'm doing it anyway. This means a hood hanging over the island, but I can rig it so that it is over my sight line when I am at the rangetop.

Architect is urging me to put in a speed oven. I've never had a speed oven but it gives some more options than a microwave and could supplement the BRIGHT ORANGE WALL OVEN if for some reason I needed more baking power.

i just read about speed ovens for a minute and they sound like expensive bullshit

I have never heard of these either. I was trying to figure out if it was morelike a toaster oven or those weird mocrowave/oven combos that are all over europe.

yeah sounds like the latter. idk, i only use my microwave to reheat leftovers and melt butter, but it cost like 150 bucks and does those things fine. if you have a good-quality wall oven with convection idk what this thing is getting you.

So apparently you have a microwave mode, a convection mode (for baking), and a combo MW/convection combo mode.

I'm like you, destroyer, with the reheat and butter melt. But I guess having a second small oven isn't the worst thing, especially since I do a lot of cooking just for 2 ppl and it would be nice not to have to preheat the big oven all the time.

I'm really into toaster ovens but probably because I started using them at a much later age (when my house wasn't sending enough electricity to my oven so I was relying entirely on my toaster oven). They really can cook almost anything.

if my house didn't have a microwave-sized cutout over the range i probably wouldn't even have one of those b/c you can indeed get a lot of shit done with a toaster oven.

my new oven has a screaming-fast preheat time so i fire it up for all kinds of things now. not the best for energy consumption but it's a nice change after years of having underpowered gas ovens.

i hate our cabinets: they are impractical & all have huge doors thag dont catch properly & that swing so wide you have to stand a foot away for clearance, those would go first.
our counter is tiled & the grout gets soooo grungy. its gross. so i would get rid of the tile & i replace with something solid, even formica fuckit i dont care
gaps between counters & appliances otm
i would put a range over the stove
i like the ones with the built in microwave
and i would replace the flooring with faux wood laminate or something dark & easier to clean than shitty cream vinyl

also this would take serious remodelling but i hate that the kitchen is cut off from the dining room, i would rather it be open & more social.

omg i'm definitely not the cleanest person ever but a tiled counter would actually cause me to lose my mind

My current counters are 2-inch tile. Both surface and blacksplash. Royal blue with white (or used to be white) grout. LOL 80s I guess.

Ppl seem to be into induction cooktops for modern kitchen renos. Not I. Basic 4-burner gas range with one simmer burner and one mega BTU burner (I'll be able to pull off the grate and put a wok on directly! Totally going to end up burning the house down!).

Counter in this place is granite-like but it has widely spaced grooves, they’re not grouted they’re just grooves disrupting the counter surface for no reason. Do not get these counters.

My folks redid the kitchen about 13 years ago, counters are something called Silestone which has I think been bulletproof.

xp that's cool. i like my induction range but only have it b/c gas isn't available in my 'hood.

I found an old kitchen thread started by Jaq (miss u, Jaq!). Apparently I should poll single vs. double sinks. I know which camp I'm in.

Silby I'm gonna do Silestone, glad to hear your folks have been pleased. Actually I'm thinking zinc for the island, but that may be a totally stupid idea i dunno.

i have heard good things abt silestone

i like this topic so here's a little pano of my kitchen (it's open to the dining room which is where i was standing to take this):

https://i.imgur.com/gzKSJz9.jpg

my initial reaction when i saw this kitchen was that the peninsula + open layout creates a dead corner which is clearly visible on the far left. if i did a full remodel (unlikely) i'd consider ditching the peninsula and just extending cabinets/counters further down in a straight line, then adding an island. the peninsula is nice to sit at but still creates wasted space.

other than that i'd replace the counters with granite (prob will do that anyway next year). also to the right of the range is all our trash/recycling...once upon a time there was a steam radiator there until someone realized that having a radiator right next to a stove was extremely dumb. so the radiator is gone but i'd love to custom-build a counter extension with trash under it.

our cabinets are 1940s-era but fine...i don't see much i'm crazy about with newer cabinets that would cause me to replace them.

That's a nice layout! I'm in more of a Euro-sized space, but a prior reno (house is 1916) opened up the kitchen to the dining room--so it feels more spacious but still has some counter/cabinet limitations.

we put in a dark grey quartz silestone and have been happy with it. biggest upgrade in the whole remodel was the big two trash/recycling can pull out drawer. Only option before then was a small bin underneath the sink. there wasn't even floor space for a large bin on the floor in our tiny kitchen space. Could not live without that trash can drawer. I think the newer cabinets are worth it for the hidden hinges, slow close everything, and just maximizing space. For example, the narrow horizontal face below the sink flips down so that you can put the sponges, etc in a couple little baskets there. worst part of kitchen reno is not having a kitchen while it's done.

I have a white caeserstone stone and stainless steel counters. I know caeserstone is supposed to be stain resistant but I find that some red wine does stain it. I'm still a big fan of ikea cabinets. We put some in our first house (a basic lower end white model) and they held up really well for 10 years until we sold the house.

don't think i've ever seen ss counters in a home before. you like? i just got a new apt. that has the exact same kitchen counter tiles as my olde sf apartment of 23 years. hoping that's a good omen. moving in 2 weeks

My first house we got the ss counters made locally. Just double plywood cut to fit and then wrapped at a place down the block. I loved them. It was a smallish kitchen in so it made things brighter, more streamlined. I found it easier to clean than stainless steel appliances (which I don't like, but I somehow end up with them). The apt I am currently in came with stainless steel counters because the guy had just removated. The tap water is pretty minerally and hard here and the air is dry/dusty, so the ss is a bitch to keep looking clean/water spot free.

I really prefer counters to be one color, so I would always go for ss over a granite type of look (which is why I like my apartment that has white caeserstone). I would love to get poured cement counters one day.

our kitchen has stainless steel counter too, as well as Corian. Not a combo I'd have chosen (either on their own would look nicer) but it is practical