It doesn't matter to Rosemary, as with many
things about the kitchen. These things combine
to make a space where it's now difficult for
Not fun working in a space that doesn't "flow" well. Our daughter
It's a challenge. Were I doing it for money,
I'd walk off the gig, but insofar as I do it
for friends, that's not an option.
Rachel's house in LV had a big kitchen. Fridge was across from the stove
but there was a good sized counter top between the stove and sink. It
was a good spot for the dirty dishes that pile up in food prep (as she
used it) but would have been better to find another place for them. She
did a lot of her prep work on the end of the (large) island that was
furthest from the stove and and fridge. They bought the house set up
that way; I think I would have tried to make a better work set up had it
been my kitchen. The kitchen in her new house is more compact, better
working flow.
Mmm, nice; the only thing I'd add though is
that one shouldn't let used stuff pile up -
either wash them in your copious spare time
or get someone else to. That's the way to
deal with well-meaning folks who offer What
can I do to help? - get them to do the cleanup.
You know and I know that they want you to say
Oh, there's something just not right with this,
please taste it and fix it, but, hah, fat chance.
me to work to my satisfaction, but my
preferences are secondary.
And it sounds like she's not that much of a cook so it probably doesn't matter to her how it's set up.
People who try to impress me with their
culinary prowess generally don't, She tried
once or twice, but we both knew that her
husband (who was offered the chance to be
the editor of the American edition of Larousse
Gastronomique, the one that that Jennifer Harvey
Lang ended up with) cooked better than she and
possibly better than I, and she was more of an
Eat than a Cook, and not that much of that at
that. Women who try to win me through my
stomach invariably fail. There was the one,
who eventually became a moderately esteemed
conductor, who proudly served me a gray steak
that might as well have been boiled. Aagh. Then
there was the blintz lady. And the one who
served me baked squash for dinner, which might
have worked, until I stepped in her dog's poop in
the dining room. Which had been there a week. Oh,
the joys of being a single nonabusive nongay male.
Because she doesn't much care about food the
way her husband did. I was really friends with
him, but he died, and I sort of inherited
Rosemary. Not that was a bad thing, of course.
No, but when that fridge dies, you might be able to have some input into
its replacement.
Possible, though I suspect that unfortunate
appliance may outlive us both.
Compost in general is a good thing for
aspiring gardeners (and harvesters).
Yes, and building up the yard. There's very little topsoil and it's of a
very poor quality (We keep finding things in it that shouldn't be, like
glass fragments.) so Steve has been working on building it up. What will
also help is that we had some trees taken out, others trimmed so the
yard will get a lot more sunlight.
What does the bedrock look like?
We had three caramel custards last week, the
richest (at Commander's) being best.
Sounds yummy. I'd have maybe tried to restrict myself to one or two,
trying to make sure that if it were only one, I'd get it at Commander's.
Good choice. There are a few dishes that I'd
always been happy to spend the pills on, caramel
custard/creme brulee/flan being among them.
The original plan was to put the butcher block
island back, but Rosemary likes the open feel of
the kitchen without it, and when she cooks, the
I can understand. When Steve was putting down the new flooring, we had a
lot of stuff moved to the one side. It did open up more space but the
butler is needed. Bought it for the house on Pearce Ave. as the kitchen
had very little storage. This one has more, but we still need the butler (basically, it's an island on wheels). We park it under the hanging pot
rack so we don't bump our heads (as much) on the pots.
The real appeal of this island was that at
close to 100 lb and no wheels, it was a
real table workplace for tasks that required
real table stability.
dishes are of the simplest, so not a lot of
space is needed.
No, but even then, an adequate prep space is important.
Much preferablt that way.
To be honest, I just ask someone else to do it,
but when it needs to be done in a hurry, I can.
If I can do something, I usually will. Steve handles a lot that I
can't. > Anything else, we hire out, if needs be or fall back and
punt.
I find that if you punt something, it tends to
come back and haunt you.
Not always in our case. Plan B has often worked out much better than
Plan A would have.
considered beautiful; I find it affected and vain.
And matching colors to skin smacks of the same.
Not so much matching as finding what colors work well with them.
There's that "well" thing again.
What word would you use?
I'd be leery of making a value judgment in
such a situation. I almost wrote "incapable,"
but I would be idealizing me.
co-ordinate clothes so you don't end up with orphans (shirt or
slacks,
Most people have said that I look okay in
green. They lie.
Depends--if it's a pastel green, it doesn't look as good on me as a
darker shade. Also, depends on if it's a blue-ish or yellow-ish green;
one will look better on you than the other.
See, even here there will be no unanimity,
Your closest and dearest might share your
sartorial tastes, but someone from outer
Timbuctoo or Norway could easily not.
I almost always pack navy, brown, gray, and
black.
Since I rarely wear black or gray, I'll pack blue and either green or
brown. For instance, for this trip, I packed a dark persimmon colored
shirt that looks good with either blue jeans or the brown slacks and
jeans that I also brought.
So I'd say, in my aesthetic, brown slacks
just plain don't look good. For me, brown
shouldn't be a color. I have a lovely pair
of brown pants that I bought because the
fabric felt good against my skin, and it was
on sale. Never wore them, though once in a
while I still try them on ... and then say, nah.
Do you find you pack first and think later
and take along a lot of stuff you don't need?
We tend to be "night before we leave" packers but I pretty well have a
good idea of what I'm going to take before pulling it out of the closet.
i do find that I'm packing some things I don't need but we found out the
Ideally, that would be my modus operandi, but
sometimes things prevent that (which of course
causes anxiety). For this last trip I packed up
a nice assortment of warm-weather duds and then
discovered that the weather in Hong Kong was going
to be 10 degrees cooler than previously forecast,
so that idea was out the window.
expensive way that it helps to have some things. For the picnic in
September, I'd packed a pair of somewhat dressier slacks with a top that
was a bit more dressed up. Steve hadn't really packed anything dressy so
when we got word that my aunt had passed away, we needed something appropriate. We ended up buying Steve a pair of dress slacks, a sport
coat, dress shirt and tie. Bought me a light weigh jacket to go with
what I had---------------then we ended up missing the funeral because of
the accident.
Life, meet irony.
---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.05
Title: Small Coffee Cakes (Kleina Kaffee Kuchen)
Categories: Penndutch, Breads
Servings: 1
1/2 c Butter and other shortening, 2 Egg
2 Egg yolk 3 tb Sugar
1/2 c Cream 2 c Flour, sifted
1 c Yeast *dissolved in:
1 c Milk, lukewarm 1/2 ts Salt
Cream the butter, sugar and salt and add the eggs and egg yolks one at a
time, beating well after each addition. To the dissolved yeast, add 3
Tbsp
of the flour and mix well. Combine with the first mixture. Add the
remaining flour and cream alternately. Grease and flour muffin tins and
fill 2/3 full of the dough. Set pans in a warm place until dough has
risen
to the tops of the pans. Bake at 400-F about 25 minutes. Source:
Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book - Fine Old Recipes, Culinary Arts Press,
1936.
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