The Food Maven Diary
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Kitchen Complete and Time To Shop
Alright! The kitchen renovation ordeal is over and I have neglected to keep a diary of the process. I started writing several times since July 19, which is when we demolished my old kitchen. Then, I told you, the Kraft Maid cabinets were going to be three weeks late – meaning they would not arrive until Aug. 20, instead of July 29. I left you there, being happy, at least, that the cabinet dealer, Valley Design Center on Second Ave., near the 59th Street Bridge, gave me a 10 percent discount because of the delay.
I sat here rather patiently, I thought, for three weeks, gorgeous tile floor in place, newly plastered and much sanded and painted walls waiting to be hung with those cabinets. Then the cabinets arrived, but wrong. Four of the top boxes, which were to be “void” and without doors, arrived with four pieces of hardware attached to each of them. Removing the hardware is easy. Just pick up a screwdriver. Repairing the screw holes so you don’t see them is something else.
I waited nearly two weeks for the Kraft Maid repair man. I think he could be a repair genius, but not in my case. If those boxes were not eight feet off the floor, where I cannot see the repairs, I would have rejected them. To get new boxes would have taken another three weeks, at least. Valley Design said they were going to order the boxes for me the day I reported the error. They didn’t.
And here’s a whopper: My big splurge, two under-the-counter refrigerator/freezers, the only ones in the world that you can put cabinet doors on – which I was fixated on – were ordered at the end of April. They arrived after the much-delayed kitchen was complete – meaning last week.
What can I say? I was living this – let’s not even start about what I was eating while all this was going on, trying to be a good boy but a person who eats under stress – I couldn’t write about it.
I know from experience that in a year from now I won’t remember half of the horrors, but I will still be loving my kitchen.
I am not totally, totally complete. I haven’t put up a rack or maybe a small shallow cupboard to house my spices. I still haven’t found a place for every last thing. But I’m cooking again.
A FANTASY REALIZED
For years and years, I’ve thought I should have a business called Arthur’s Table Top Shop. I’d sell wonderful things, sometimes trifling things that I find on my travels.
But: Did I really want to sit in a store all day? Nah! Nowadays, I could do it on the internet, but do I really want to have to stock and fulfill orders? Nah! Then I realized all I really wanted to do was shop and share, and of course make a little money for my effort. So while I was sitting here supervising this kitchen job, I went shopping on Amazon.com with an eye to opening an Amazon.com store. There are hundreds of items in my website store now, most of them annotated by me with reasons I have bought them or would buy them. Although I have not totally completed the job, it’s time to open the store. I guarantee you, as it always was when I was on the radio, I wouldn’t ask you to spend money on something I wouldn’t buy myself.
What’s in the store?
Of course, many books: A suggested Jewish cookbook library, an Italian cookbook library, “Around the World in 80 Cookbooks” (although there aren’t quite 80 there yet), and other great books, with recipes and without.
Hard to get ingredients, particularly ones used in the Southern Italian kitchen. Bottarga. Colatura. Hand-crafted pastas in hard-to-find shapes.
Small appliances. I just bought a new, four-slice, chrome, sort-of-retro styled Waring toaster for my new kitchen. My favorite feature is a pop-up lever that raises the toasted bread high enough to be easily retrieved. Also I am grinding my own meat these days: The Kitchen Aid attachment is in my store, as is the mixer itself – a good buy on Amazon.com, as are many things.
I have a list of what I consider essential gadgets, although I like to call them tools, not to mention my favorite cookware and my favorite cutlery sold on Amazon.com.
Please check it out.
WHAT I’M COOKING
The first three weeks of the kitchen renovation and I was gung ho about continuing to prepare meals in my little pantry kitchen. (If you don’t recall that I have two kitchens, read the New York Times piece or view the slide show). Somewhere in mid August I got disheartened. By September I’d given up and was eating way-too-much take-out food.
Now that I am back in business, I have pent up Jamie Oliver cravings. He is on the new Cooking Channel and my latest addiction. I don’t watch food TV, but I watch Jamie, and I even bought the TV show’s companion cookbook. The recipe so far that I can’t wait to make again is his version of Caesar Salad with chicken – he calls it “Proper chicken Caesar salad.”
Even if you don’t want to make a Caesar Salad, I recommend Jamie’s way of cooking the chicken, which is to say with rosemary, salt, pepper, olive oil, and on a bed of ciabatta torn into “thumb-sized” pieces.
He uses only leg-thigh joints, not “dry, old breasts,” and places four of them fitting snuggly in a casserole on nine ounces of ciabatta (a small loaf). He then drizzles the poultry and bread with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkles them with a couple tablespoons of chopped rosemary, and seasons with salt and pepper. After tossing it all together, he puts the chicken back on top and bakes the whole thing at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Now, he drapes the whole casserole with 12 paper-thin slices of pancetta (or, I say, American bacon) and bakes the chicken and bread an additional 15 minutes.
The chicken-juice and fat-soaked, but crisped bread, reminded me of Thanksgiving stuffing, but I dutifully tossed them into my Caesar salad and tore the chicken into bits for same.
I can’t get that poultry stuffing analogy out of my head, and next time I make this chicken, I am going to substitute sage for the rosemary and throw some diced onion and celery under the chicken. What could be bad?
OFF TO ITALY
I leave for Italy this Sunday, Oct. 3. I’m going to Le Marche, a little visited region on the Adriatic, east of Umbria, where I have some friends. We’ll eat brodetto, fish soup, the most famous dish of Le Marche, although it is known for fine procsiutto (from Carpegna) and a sausage made of innards called Ciausculu. Then there’s a week of bumming around Paestum/Salerno/Naples, then a session of Cook at Seliano.
I am posting only one session for 2011 – so far. It’s Sunday May 8 to Saturday May 14. Write to me at CookatSeliano@aol.com, if you have any interest. I’m already booking, but there’s still room – limited to 12.
