RSSWhat’s Your Fetish….?
June 28th, 2008 by Dawn, Co-founder of Rouxbe
Okay so it’s 6:15 p.m. on a Saturday evening. It’s currently 31°C outside and beautiful. I think it might even be a long weekend. Honestly, I am not entirely sure. We have all been working like bandits on the cooking school (not sure what “working like bandits” actually means, but that’s what popped into my head). Anyhoo, (you can call me “side track Sally”)…so here I am, working away on the computer….all good, totally excited to be working, yes really!!
But just a little bit ago, I thought I needed a break…it was too early for a drink (what! she says….never…ooops sorry was that my inside voice). Right sorry…here I go, I needed a break….so I thought, oh why don’t I do a blog post on my NEW timer, how exciting right!
Well then, that got me to thinking about all of my other timers….and the other collections or “fetishes” I have in the kitchen.
Measuring spoons is another big one for me. This is a very practical one though. There are somedays when I use at least 4 or 5 sets. You know once, the Tbps. is full of oil it is useless for anything else, until it is cleaned.
What about you? Do you have any “kitchen fetishes”? Come on, don’t be shy, I won’t judge you.
Oh, ya! I forgot to mention something. The picture of the measuring spoons is an actual picture of the spoons in my cupboard.
I am so anal, that they’re even placed in order of “most used”.
Oh well, it could be worse, right? :-)
Thanks Dawn for my education or maybe my preliminary education while waiting for the cooking school to get started. Until I read your blog I did not realize I had a “Fetish” Mine is “stock” Brown stocks, white stocks, beef stocks chicken stock, fish stock veal stock. There is seldom a day in my kitchen when my slow cooker is not working. My freezer is full of labeled containers. Now I have confessed I feel purged and healed.
Hey, along with measuring spoons-I have at least 5 sets-I also use measuring cups. I have 3 sets of dry along with a lot of liquid measuring cups. I have them in 1 cup, 2 cup, 4 cup and 8 cup. I have them in glass and the OXO plastic. So when I bake the kitchen is a mess! Luckily my husband does all the cleaning for me!!!!!!
Christopher…stocks, now that is a good healthy fetish. Good for you, can’t believe you have all of those stocks in your freezer….even fish stock, impressive!
I have never heard of making stock in slow cooker before, but I know those who own slow cookers would be lost without them.
I did own one once but I found it frustrating that you are not supposed to touch or tweak the food once you start cooking. That’s what I do, I fiddle with the food, taste for seasoning, adjust the heat, up, down, back up…you know.
Maybe one day I will try again, because I like the idea of things cooking while you are doing something else.
Barbara…I am right there with you on all of the different measuring cups…big, small, odd sizes, glass and metal.
I can just imagine your kitchen after you bake. How nice of your hubby to clean up. He must really like your baking!
Have you ever measured your measuring cups? I know weird right. But seriously, I did this awhile ago and I was surprised how different some of them were.
Some were 237ml (the correct measurement for 1 cup), some where 250ml (which most people think is the measurement).
Then there were some that made you think whoever made them was just “guess-tim-ating”.
Now I have my trusted measuring spoons and cups, the ones I know are accurate. I save the other sets for measuring ingredients where a precise measurement is not so crucial….like with chocolate chips!
OMG, I would have to say…collecting recipes! Geezz, I have them printed out in a pile on my desk, and have a drawer packed FULL. Some recipes written on paper plates from different parties I attended. Most food magazine subscriptions I have are decorated with post it notes. I have binders full, some organized..others not so. I have shelves with recipe books. On the other hand, if your a foodie…isn’t that normal??? hehehe
OMG, right back at ya! Don’t even get me started on the collection (S), of recipes that I have.
“Do I tear out the recipe, do I keep the magazine intact, do I fold the page over…” Oh what to do, what to do!
Do you ever think, hey I want to make that one recipe…and then you spend 2 hours looking for the recipe in a collection of papers? Good times! Hopefully in the end the recipe was worth the hunt :-)
Kitchen fetishes: clean and dry knives: After each use I immediately wash and dry – water eats the edge. Spices in alphabetical order. I’m a Penzey’s junkie and I’d never find them otherwise. I’m with Dawn & Cathy on recipe collecting – no good method yet and pretty much no organization. Ick.
At our house, my wife decides what to make and I make it. I’m usually too decision-impaired. We all clean up. My meez is a mess so clean up is always much more of a chore than it should be.
I’m also a nut for temperature – I have a scary collection of temp devices, I love my IR shooter for the grill. (Well, mostly I just love gizmos) And as for timers my now antique Gralab darkroom timer is great – look for one on e-bay. I plug a light into it, so if I really have the music cranked a light comes on when the timer goes off in case I can’t hear it.
Whew! Excellent thread. I’ll call and cancel next weeks appt. with my therapist.
Chris
cookie cutters! there are some unique ones out there, and lately I’ve been into the 3-D ones. The 3-D cutters are actually two cookies, one smaller and glued, (with icing ) to the other, for example, a sheep’s head is centered on the sheep’s body, as if you were looking at him head on. They are ADORABLE! I’m only aware of a sheep and a pig, at the moment. Anyone know of any others?
wow, 3-D cookie cutters? uh oh…I might be on to another fetish…lol
They sound very adorable. Where did you get those? Recently, I went camping and made some ‘brown bears’ sugar cut out cookies…tinted the icing brown, flavored it with cinnamon oil and then sprinkled jimmies on them. They were a hit!
BTW, I LOVE PENZEY’S!! SIMPLY THE FINEST!
I love this thread! My kitchen fetish are prep bowls! I have teeny tiny stainless ones, bigger melamine ones in all colors of the rainbow, glass bowls of all sizes…
I have an entire shelf JUST for prep bowls! And even though they take up more dishes, I love how all my chopped up ingredients and spices look in them!!!
Oh good one Leah
If you have watched some of the Rouxbe videos, you can only imagine how many prep bowls I have…. :-)
They help me feel organized. Sure it is a bit of extra cleanup but I find them super handy.
I especially like them, when I am having a dinner party, it allows me to prep ahead and then when the guests arrive (and I have had a few drinks) I can still look like I know what I am doing :-)
The more I have to drink the more I obsess about my prep, I even go as far as to line them up in order of when I need to add them.
Okay how did this comment make me feel like I drink too much…!!!
This is a very therapeutic thread – Good Times!
Okay, I thought I was the only nut with multiple sets measuring spoons my last count was six; additional fetishs: eggs are cooked only in certain cast iron pans, multiple non-stick pans only for cooking certain foods, tomato sauces/gravy stirred only with one special wooden spoon, knives are like gods in my kitchen – touch mine and it’s like you’ve stolen my property! I’m not kidding, very proprietary about my knives, it’s not a joke.
I am absolutley with Julie on the knives. The edge is everything.
I have actually worked with people that did not think it was a big deal to use my knife or my steel…everyday…I might add.
They never seemed to get that it was like asking if they could borrow my underwear! Hands off Buck-O!
Okay since I wrote this blog post, I have become even more aware of my quirks…at least in the kitchen! The rest, ah, I am learning to live with them, they make me the crazy person I am. Anyways, I now realize that I also have a thing for aprons.
I have a short blue apron (gift from Mexico that I love) it goes with shorts or capri pants. I also have a straight black one, a stripped black one…a different stripped black one, a pink one (from cooking school in Thailand), I have a white and brown one (for those light colored days). I also have a cool blue “bike shop” apron with lots of pockets.
I think there are a few more in my “apron closet” – all with their “certain fit” and style. Oh, I almost forgot about the very first apron that I made…my Bart Simpson apron – what can I say the material was super cheap and I was just practicing.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) it turned out really well and I still have it. Can’t say that I wear it very often though.
Well that’s it for my latest update, thanks everyone for keeping this going it has been quite fun…I think? Either that or disturbing :-)
Ciao for now
dawn
Quirks? Yes. Disturbing, no.
I had never thought of knives as being as personal as underwear, but — yes — absolutely. And where would Tim Burton go with that train of thought? OK, now that is disturbing.
But back to the kitchen. Who has an unfulfilled fetish? I’ve always dreamed of having a “one-handed kitchen” Assuming my meez isn’t actually fully in place (like, always) and the fire is hot and things need to happen NOW and that plate or pot or whatever is not right at hand like it should be, I’d love to be able to grab it with one hand.
Our kitchen is small and not very well laid out. Everything is stacked several layers deep. Getting at anything takes both hands and much shuffling around of stuff. Sigh.
Anyone else have something they would love to be obsessive – compulsive about, but just can’t? Yet.
Everyone has a little Rainman (does captain stance)
CFAW
I hope no trademarks were harmed. I’ve also found the most amazing knife sharpener, but I didn’t know if product/service plugs were allowed on this blog. Let me know.
Hi CFAW
If I were able to be obsessive it would be about only have the very freshest of ingredients, local, organic, free-range, etc etc.
However money and life right now do not allow us this full luxury. I try to do what I can but one day I hope that it can be full on.
One day I would also like to be obsessive about how neat and tidy my kitchen is. I would like a separate shell for all of my white dishes….a separate shelf for all of my appliances. Well I could go one, but you see what I mean.
Also, go ahead and post your link to this “amazing knife sharpener”
I believe that just the URL will show up but people can still get the link.
Thanks so much!!!
The sharpener is a guy, not a gizmo. Holley Knives in CT.
http://www.holleyknives.com/index.html
Ted O’Neill is brilliant. I had a favorite very old Sabatier/Hoffritz that I snapped the tip off in a ham bone. He shaped it to look like a new knife and put an edge on it that would scare Stephen King.
Love the guy. Fast and reasonably priced and with an attention to detail that we don’t see much any more.
CFAW
Oops, sorry. It looks like Ted is in transition right now and isn’t taking orders:
“Thanks for your interest. We’re sorry we’re not taking orders at this time pending our upcoming merger with Ergo Chef LLC. Please check back in the near future. In case of an emergency, please call us.”
Anyone know about the Ergo Chef folks? I’d hate to see a craftsman like Ted disappear into some corporate structure.
But that is an interesting image: “This is an EMERGENCY! I need to have this knife sharpened NOW!”
CFAW
Oops. oops, sorry redux. He is Theo not Ted. Theodore not Edward. Now it is me who is not paying attention to details. I’m hoping his merger with Ergo Chef allows him to maintain some sort of personal presence. When it comes to knife sharpening, he is absolutely “Da Man.”
But while I’m here, let’s go back to Dawn’s measuring spoon comment about how many sets. I have two sets, but I agree with Dawn that I could use more. I also noticed in the photo that hers are all on the same ring. No way I could do that. They all need to be separate – part of my one-handed kitchen fetish. When I reach for one, I want to get ONE.
Anyone else have any feelings about whether measuring spoons should be connected together like the keys on your high school janitor’s keyring or separate like nicely folded linen napkins? (No, I’m not trying to stack the deck. Much.)
CFAW
CFAW
CFAW: In response to your spoons, knives and shelves comments, here goes: I prefer my spoons (four sets, which I never even realized I had) on a ring because I invariably end up using the teaspoon, half-teaspoon, tablespoon, etc. for one given recipe; my knives, I have two sets one I bring to outside cooking classes, my Global, and the set I keep at home, my Wusthof, which I try and keep everyone away from, including siblings. My Wusthof knives are sent back to Wusthof to be sharpend, the Global I have sharpend with my Chef’sChoice Edge Select for fine edge and serrated blades. Unfortunately the Chef’sChoice has created hairline scratches in the metal which drvies my type A personality nuts, but it is in the past; my shelves, well I live in Manhattan and have a “galley” kitchen. That means if you turn around, you’re in and out of it at the same time. I have compulsively organized my cabinets and additional racks as best I can (plates, bowls, measuring cups in specific locations, hanging rack rings for all utensils). Kooky, but I love my little adorable kitchen. It’s all mine!
Ladies/Gents are we all just a little kooky here? My recipes are scanned into my computer, alphabetized, categorized and filed, because I simply can’t keep all my cooking magazines forever. I have four temp takers and three timers all for vaugely/slightly different things. Next fetish is biscuit cutters, anybody out there with that one???
Julie – hats off to you for your recipe organization. I’m hopeless. So, I’m curious – do you have a computer in the kitchen covered with flour and butter? Do you work from printed copies? I’ve actually thought of setting up one of my antique computers in the kitchen for just that purpose (I’m an IT guy for a bookstore and I have old computers to spare) My kitchen isn’t a galley sort like yours (my brother lives in the Big Apple by the way) but it is very poorly laid out. I’d probably have to hang the computer from the ceiling.
The Chef’s Choice sharpeners are fine and are certainly better than not sharpening your knives at all. But I gave up and tured to the pros like Theo. In Manhattan you must have dozens. Next time you are at a restaurant, ask your waiter to ask the kitchen staff who has the sharpest knives and who keeps them that way.
Sorry, I can’t commiserate with biscuit cutters. I use a tuna can. I like ‘em big! Nothing else. Also, all my favorite temperature thingies come from http://www.thermoworks.com/ The IR one is great for the grill or frying pan.
As for kooky — oh, yeah! I might get a tattoo: “Kooky in the Kitchen”
And (this probably needs another thread) What music do you listen to in the kitchen? I crank it. We have 800 CDs in two jukeboxes and I usually just shuffle it, but when I really need to hussle and get the dishes done I pop in Paramore, Guster, or Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (I’m 54 by the way, but I do keep up with music.)
CFAW