Recycle In The Kitchen

Most of the recycling that we do from the kitchen ends up out here in our Dirt Mixer. All those scraps and bits and pieces get put in the Dirt Mixer and after a few months they emerge as beautiful dirt ready for the flower pots or the vegetable garden.

What doesn't end up in the Dirt Mixer gets tossed into one of these:

All those boxes, newspapers, metal cans, recyclable plastics, and glass jars go into one of  these handy bins. From these colorful containers the fancy contents get dumped into the special roller bin that goes out to the curbside once a week for pickup. Just like this:

We do our best to make sure everything that can go to the curbside actually makes it out there. Other things go to the Salvation Army, The Goodwill Center, or to a friend's garage sale. 

There are, however, the Kitchen Recyclables that start and end in the kitchen. These are the real treasures!

The best of the Kitchen Recyclables are the recipes that have been handed down through the generations, sometimes in the script of the original cook, but more often scribbled on a piece of paper as the cook shows and tells us how to make that special dish in that very special way. 

My Mom sent me off into the world well prepared to face just about anything. Before my husband and I left for the hills of Utah as newly weds, my Mom gifted me with The Joy of Cooking, one of her family's cast iron skillets, and the belief that I could do anything if I put my mind to the task. I still use that skillet, have passed on the cookbook to my youngest daughter, and still firmly believe that I can cook just about anything. I know that I can do it if I put mind to it and just keep trying till I get it right! An example of that is in the photo below. I have been trying for three months to make the perfect poor-boy bread. It has to have a thin, crackly crust and be airy and holey inside. This is what it looks like right now:

One of the other great gifts my Mom gave me was sharing her recipes . She would write to me in Salt Lake City almost every week to give me more ideas of what to cook. She had a lot riding on these letters - I was the daughter who never really cooked much, or at all, actually. After about the seventh grade I just concentrated on the eating part and left the cooking to someone else. By sending me recipes each week she kept me in touch with the daily life and customs of my home place, New Orleans. Not only that, but she also instilled in me the curiosity about the local foods wherever I was. I also learned to ask those local cooks to share their recipes and show me how to make the wonderful things that they cooked.

This is what my collection of recycled recipes looks like on an ordinary day, although it usually is NOT all over the floor like it is here:

 I make the resolution every year to put them into some sort of order, but as soon as I start cooking all of that organization flies out the window! I made that same resolution this year - want to work with me on this? Let me know how you organize your recipes.

Around The Kitchen

I really enjoy reading about kitchen design. During my days at design school I didn't really spend much time on kitchens and way back then it wasn't even really all that much of a design arena. However, today there are so many exciting innovations to consider when you have a kitchen on your "to-do or re-do" list. And Kitchen Design has developed into an accredited design profession so there are so many more resources available to us.

Beyond the generally acknowledged plans for the kitchen work area such as the galley kitchen and the triangle workspace there are so many other features to consider. We have the color palette, countertop materials and finishes, flooring materials, lighting, and cabinetry to choose. And probably the most important selections for any cook to make are those for the the kitchen equipment. You know - those things that make a room a kitchen. Like your refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, stove and ovens and microwave. There are, of course, hundreds of other "fixed assets" that used to be the "extras" such as the built in warming drawers, wine cellars, pantries, freezer drawers, hot water dispensers, and built in butcher block cutting boards.

The Distracted Cook's kitchen was designed and built about 25 years ago and believe me, it looks like it. Now it doesn't have any avocado and turquoise appliances, but it is still stuck in the dark ages. I have already worked through two dishwashers and I am just waiting for this one to blow up any day now. Better put that on the list of things to start studying. This kitchen has served me well, and I have been able to serve from it with great delight and success. But I sometimes wonder if I could be a really great cook if only I had some of those great new inventions. If not really great, maybe just a bit better?

So let's take a look at what we have here. First off, there is that wonderful, deluxe cooktop that was the big deal when it was new. You know the kind. It has the electric indoor grill that you can switch out for the deep-fryer. And it has four electric cooking elements, two of which I have managed to render almost useless. Don't ask how. But I will tell you that I now have some replacements in there and they are looking a bit sad already. This was the Jenn-Air to have back in the day. However, they do not make one that same size now, so to replace this one would entail taking the Mexican tile surface off of the cooking island and putting a new top with the correct size cut-out on it. Hmm. Well if I do that, maybe I can just put a gas one in there, right? Gas is supposed to be best.

Well of course I can, if I want to jackhammer my brick floor to lay a gas line. Or I can have a column installed right there in the middle of the room to run it down. Or I can move the whole thing over to a wall to bring the gas line down. Why is this so complicated. What would you do? What I have done so far is cook off the two working elements and melt the grill! Yep, I read the instructions (after all these years) and it said to preheat the grills. So I did and one of them just upped and melted! So here is what this looks like now:

See that grill over there with the big hole in it? That's what preheating did for me!!

Now The Distracted Cook is certainly not going to claim that being ADD is what melted that burner, but I do recall turning it on, going into the pantry to find something (hmm...I wonder what) and coming back out to find the grills glowing red hot and one of them just oozing onto the heating element. Wow! I vowed right then and there to never preheat that thing again. And to tell the truth, I haven't much used either one of the grills since then.

You might be thinking "Why didn't she set the timer for the preheating of the grills?" and you would be on to something really enlightening. The reason is that the timer on the cooktop doesn't work any longer. Why, I don't know. And the lovely, beautiful microwave that I used to have that had a timer on it is gone. Gone?  Yes, it is gone. It was really lovely. Stainless steel, high powered and I loved it. But one day the door just stuck shut! Yes, that is right, just stuck shut. With my cafe au lait stuck in there! That was just too much. I was sad about a broken microwave, but to have my favorite mug stuck in it was just too much. I finally pried the cover off the front of the thing and released the switch by hand so I could retrieve the mug of coffee. And that was that. Out that microwave went to the recycle bin. So, now there was no timer. And so now there was a hole in the Jenn-Air grill! And so -- I went and bought a timer!! Yes, and it works. When I remember to set it. You see, that is one of those things that The Distracted Cook has to work around on a daily basis. But it is getting better. Because I have devised a great many kitchen tricks. And I am going to share those tricks with you. As soon as we get back into the kitchen. Maybe tomorrow?

Right now I am going to go "pop" a cup of coffee into the replacement microwave which came from Dr. Deeds' office. It is NOT as lovely as mine was, but it does work. Alas... no timer!!

Why We Cook

First things first. Before we get into the actual mechanics of cooking and take a whirl around the kitchen spaces, let's talk a bit about why we cook. There are many reasons why a cook gets herself (or himself) into a kitchen and starts flinging things around.

Probably the first reason that anyone ventures into the arena of food and cooking is that they are hungry and there is no one else around to do the deed for them. Hunger trumps it all. And if we are hungry and there are others living with us, they are most likely just as hungry. And more than likely, they are all waiting for someone else ( YOU) to get in there and come up with something really terrific. Or whatever.

And after we get into the process, some of us discover that we actually enjoy cooking and all that it entails. Well, almost all. And some of us enjoy it so much that we actually can be caught dancing around the kitchen humming loudly as we get sucked into the rhythm of the pots and pans as they burble on the stove.

The kitchen is a place of constant action. If we are not cooking or washing dishes or chasing pets and kids around the counters, we are probably thinking about what to cook. There is never a dull moment in my kitchen and I would bet that there isn't in yours either. The kitchen is a place that you can clean in one minute and the next minute you have undone it all. Now, that might not be true for you "real" cooks. You know who you are! Your counters are cleared off, your pantry is in perfect order, your cookbooks are alphabetized, and you know what you are having for dinner - tonight.

For The Distracted Cook it doesn't quite work that way as our process seems to be just a bit off the beaten path.  I am usually found searching the pantry for something, well - really, just about anything that looks good enough to eat. No menu, no plan, no ideas, and about an hour till the dinner bell is supposed to be ringing. BUT - that is the fun of it all. What a challenge. Life is never dull. The creative skills are put to the test and it is always a great test. Just don't ask "Honey, what's for dinner?" because you will always get the same answer. And that answer is inevitably "I don't know - but it'll be really great and you will love it!" Well, what choice do they have after all? It's not like anyone is fighting you for the ladle or oven timer!

Really and seriously though, why do we cook? Why do you cook? Hunger for food is a fundamental need that is  fulfilled and that is the first good reason. But when we get beyond that, we venture into the area of creative genius, pride of dominance over pots and pans, interior design (that one is a reach,  I admit,) display of skill, and oftentimes just plain comic relief. No matter what your reason might be, I know that we will have one grand time exploring kitchen mechanics as well as the skills and talents that go into making it one of the rooms we love to live in! And let's be honest, there are just so many really interesting and weird looking things that live in my kitchen that The Distracted Cook can't resist spending a few hours hanging out in here. I hope you'll join me and share the fun.