Some Thoughts on Two Years Without a Microwave

Almost two years ago, Bill and I moved into our current home. And it wasn’t until we were about a week or two in, trying to reheat leftovers when we realized: no microwave!

We had always rented places with built-in microwaves, so it didn’t even register with us that we didn’t own a microwave until we “needed” it. We laughed, reheated on the stove, and said we’d get one. And then, we never did. Eventually, we made the conscious decision not to buy one, as our counters were so crammed full of appliances anyway. And we’d been doing without it for so long!

Well, it’s time to move again. And that means the usual: packing, purging, cleaning, etc. That said, one particular part of “purging” is “using up food in the kitchen.”… Continue reading →

Soured on the Kitchen

Somehow, I had two lemon halves, plus a wedge, in the fridge. I knew about one of the halves, but when I went digging for it, I suddenly realized I had a second. That was kind of embarrassing, because it meant I’d cut open a whole new lemon when I needed a half and had a half ready to go.

A close up of two half lemons and a lemon wedge in a plastic container. To their left is a baggie of carrots.

This is kind of the story of my kitchen functioning right now. It’s low. Very low. Some of it is the recuperating I’ve previously mentioned and some is the fact that occasionally I sleep for more than 10 hours in a night. Unfortunately, some is just a complete lack of want to do things in the kitchen.

Bill and I both get this way sometimes.… Continue reading →

Taming the Mania

Note: I wrote this post on the 23rd & then had some issues getting it uploaded before I left for Baltimore. So please read it accordingly.

My home smells a bit like lovage today. Very faintly. I, as planned, stripped all the leaves off and chopped them very finely. They’re frozen in ice cube trays now. I put the stems out with hummus to see if they’d be an adequate celery snack substitute. Only Bill was willing to try them (I don’t like celery much), and he said the stems were entirely too woody for that kind of consumption. So, into the stock bag they went.

I also chopped the rhubarb into chunks and froze that on a freezing sheet1. I’ll dump that into a baggie today.… Continue reading →

Experimenting in the kitchen

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

I’ll write this up fully later, but I just wanted to share a couple of photos with you. I’ve been in the kitchen more than my silence might indicate, but mostly doing simply things like hummus. Today’s my first experiment in awhile.

Well, I call it an experiment, but like the cautious cook I usually am, I took Marc Bittman’s recipe for “Braised Oxtail with Garlic and White Wine” and messed with it as I cooked. For one thing, I used beef neck instead of oxtail. It looks just as (if not more) tasty than the oxtails I’ve had, but was astoundingly cheaper. If this works out, I may never go back to oxtail.

His recipe also calls for 4 ounces of bacon. I didn’t remember that before I started quick thawing the beef neck.… Continue reading →

Guest Post! #BachelorCook Round 1

Hello everyone! So, as I mentioned a week ago, our friend Krysti declared her interest in cooking from our fridge. Something about it having more content than her own fridge. I agreed to let her cook for us on the condition she wrote a post about it for you all. I thought having someone else’s thoughts & comments might be a fun change. Upon reading this (and adding my commentary in the footnotes), I am now SURE having someone else’s thoughts & comments is a fun change. Hopefully, you all will encourage Krysti to do this again, and I can convince some of our other bachelor friends to do the same. IT’S AN ADVENTURE.

Thus begins Krysti’s quest…

Natasha and I have toyed with the idea of doing a guest blog post in varying degrees of seriousness the past few months1, then all of our dreams suddenly came true last week.… Continue reading →