What's In Your Kitchen?

There was very little that the Brave Astronaut family had to do when we moved into our house, which is a good thing, for as Mrs. BA will tell you - I'm not handy (in my defense, I will say that recently I reinstalled some towel racks and those suckers are in there good.)

Our kitchen came equipped with drawers instead in cabinets under the counters. It was a interesting thing to have to get used to, but I'm getting there. I'm actually in the market for a carpenter to look at the state of the shelving that is in the kitchen, so if you know one, send him my way. And lets give it up for C in DC's new kitchen, which is looking quite nice.

As one who craves order, I set out to set up the kitchen almost immediately. I identified the spaces available to me, what would go where, and began to stow things away. At around the same time, Mrs. BA's sister's family built a new house and excessed some of their kitchenware (their new house is bigger - but go figure) and we got the castoffs. Some of it I integrated into our stuff, the rest is going off to a yearly yard sale held by some friends.

I stumbled across this blog post not so long ago about what everyone should have in their kitchen. The author of the blog is Adam Roberts, who now has his own show (now canceled)on the Food Network, which I have written about before (I've used some of his recipes). In the post, he recounts what every well stocked kitchen should have. I like to cook and am certainly taking this list to heart. Who knows, I might even create a wish list. Maybe Adam will buy me something.

1. A really good skillet/saute pan - he suggests All-Clad, well sure, wouldn't we all. He also suggests that there be two, one non-stick and one metal. Sensible. We have one large skillet that we use a lot (I think we bought it at IKEA) though we do have an All-Clad frying pan.
2. A big pot and a small pot. His point here is that brand doesn't matter because most likely you are using it to boil liquids and the one that he bought from Target in the 1990s works just fine.
3. He suggests that instead of settling on a full knife set, get yourself three really good knives: one large chef's knife (approximately $100), one really sharp, high-quality paring knife and one serrated knife. He recommends Wusthof or Misono (of course he does). We bought a Cutco knife set shortly after we got married, but that's another story. But they are good knives. To go along with those knives, he recommends a rubber cutting board, but I'm not there yet, I like substance to cut on.
   
4. A roasting pan. Again, he says you don't have to spend a fortune and we didn't. We have a good Corning one and one or two metal non-stick ones. We could probably excess items here.
5. A Dutch Oven. He likes Le Creuset and who wouldn't really. We have one of those and it makes great chili and stews. As he says, you will and we do use it a lot.
6. Finally, "two cake pans (9-inch) [check], one springform pan (also 9-inch) [check], one loaf pan [check], a cupcake/muffin pan that makes 12 muffins [check], two cookie sheets (preferably without sides for flatter, more evenly cooked cookies) [check], one with sides for roasting vegetables [check], a hand mixer if you're just starting out baking [check], a flat rolling pin (no handles, which forces you to put pressure on the middle) [check], measuring cups [check], measuring spoons [check], a nice wooden spoon [check], a nice whisk [check], a sifter [no, who sifts flour anymore?], mixing bowls [check], a strainer [check x 2], a cheap juicer [check], a microplane (for zesting citrus) [check], a grater (for cheese) [check], a thermometer (for testing meat) [check] and a pastry brush [check]."

If you are interested in the "higher end items," you can read the whole post, but basically he suggests a KitchenAid mixer [check], a food processor [check], a salad spinner [check], a pasta maker [really? who makes their own pasta anymore?], a coffee grinder [check, but I love my current coffee maker], and a hand blender [check].

Now if I could just find room for everything. Remember why we moved? We needed more room? So we moved to a bigger place and now I need to find room for more stuff. I hate that.