March 29, 2006
The Kitchen Meme (from Julie)
I meant to do this one a few days ago, but did not have time.
1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
Almost all of them, except for Thursdays, when Amalia and I eat over at my parents' house, and when I review restaurants (some weeks that means eating out three or four times, other weeks, just once).
2. How many cookbooks do you own?
A lot. It's a professional hazard.
3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Maybe once or twice. I read them through when I get them, then I might look back at them once in awhile, particularly if I am baking or want something to come out in a particular way.
4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
Yes
5. How do you store those recipes?
Haphazardly. I might be wanting to cook some Italian cake, but cannot find the recipe. Then, a month later, I will stumble on five, cut out and tucked in a cookbook.
6. When you cook, do you follow the recipe pretty closely, or do you use recipes primarily to give you ideas?
I generally modify, improvise, change and adapt to seasonal ingredients.
7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking? If so, what is it?
Italiano.
8. What's your favorite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Planning the week's menus.
9. What's your least favorite part?
Cleaning up.
10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
Yes, but I always am flexible in case I see something that strikes my fancy.
11. What are your three favorite kitchen tools or appliances?
Ten inch chef's knife. Espresso machine. Blender.
12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money was no object, and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A gigantic, eight burner professional range with gargantuan hood.
13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
A new coffee grinder.
14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
No, but I would love one.
15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
Usually with Amalia or Melanie. Of course when I have a cart full of cardoni, salsify and sunchokes, I generally have about four people asking me what they are and what I do with them.
16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
One.
17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favorite kitchen colors?
I hate our kitchen, but if I had my way (and budget, space, etc.), it would be rustic industrial, with lots of unpainted metal, concrete, and a gigantic kitchen fireplace with a spit.
18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
I grew up making pasta, which served me well as troop cook for my Boy Scout Troop. My first big solo project was making croissants (from scratch) and cheese souffle for a brunch when I was twelve, but by then I was already making minestrone, pesto, sugo finto, etc.
19. How did you learn to cook?
From my family. A lot of it came from my grandmother (an under five-footer who was not afraid to use corporal punishment on her six-footer grandson if he failed to handle pasta correctly. Toss, not stir. Whack.). I learned some stuff from my mother. Some from books, some from experiment, some from friends (particularly Asian food), even from cooking shows. A lot of what I learn now comes from analyzing dishes that I taste in restaurants. Culinary deconstruction, if you will. And you probably won't. I don't blame you a bitl;