A Cave Girl and Her Tools

Before I could cook anything, I had to know how the "kitchen" tools would limit me. I realize that my environment will make any recipe a challenge, but there are some which are impossible without special tools. Most of my high-grade equipment stayed behind in California due to space restrictions; I brought only my five-piece Calphalon cookware set that my mother gave me, plus some dishes and silverware. I am down to the basics.

Ben's cave of a kitchen was woefully under equipped, but he had a bit of gear to nicely supplement mine. All of his equipment came from encouraging family members and one particularly fruitful divorce*, but it had done him hardly any good. The greater part of his cave kitchen had gone to waste as he is fatally allergic to any kitchen activity.

Aside from basic utensils and flatware, my available tools are listed here. My gear is in italics, and Ben's gear is in standard type. New additions to our inventory will be added in bold type as we get it, along with the date

One Euro-Pro toaster oven
One Toastmaster Buffet Range hot plate
One General Electric hand mixer with two sets of whisks
One Calphalon 1 qt. saucepot
One Calphalon 2 qt. saucepot
One Bialetti 2 qt. saucepot
One Calphalon 3 qt. saucepan
One Calphalon 6 qt. saucepot
One Cookmate 7 qt. saucepot
Two Syscoware 7-inch non-stick frying pan
One Calphalon 10-inch non-stick frying pan
One Chefmate 10” non-stick frying pan
One non-stick muffin tin, made for six muffins
Two Ikea Drälla cutting boards
One 6” x 9” x 1.5” non-stick baking dish
One 6” x 9” non-stick baking tray
One set Oneida measuring cups and spoons
One four-piece Ikea Hake knife set
One Oxo spatula
One Good Cook cheese grater (Added 2 August 2009)
One Oxo meat pounder (added 14 August 2009)
One Cuisinart dual blender/food processor (added 25 December 2009)
One 8-quart Crock Pot (added 28 February 2010)
One Chefmate electric skillet (added 28 February 2010)

*Special thanks to Tiffany Sarasin VanderZanden for being a such a good sport when Ben unceremoniously dumped her in May 2005. Thanks for the kitchen gear!

Girl meets Hot Plate

My passion for good food is life long. Some of my earliest photos are in the kitchen with my mother. She has always been an excellent cook, and still dreams of giving up law to run her own bakery or catering business. I learned most of what I know of cooking from watching her bring Seville and Tuscany to our table. Even if we had no money I could always count on something delicious to eat. Frugality, she said, was no excuse to abandon good taste.

The rest I learned from my father, who owned a small organic farm north of Napa Valley’s gourmet splendor. He taught me large and involved recipes from scratch, always eager to instruct. Because of them I developed a love of cooking for others, and extravagantly so. A door was always open and a plate was always set for anyone hungry or lonely. Love in my family is expressed in the kitchen.

I fell in love seven years ago in the usual way: in a grocery store. I was eighteen, new to Oregon. Ben was a lifelong Oregonian on the way to a geek party. I introduced myself and he all but hid under the grocery cart. We became friends anyway, and tried a relationship only after I had moved back to California. Like the car accident that forced my return, our long distance relationship crashed and burned.

We reconnected in late 2008, and by June of 2009 I was preparing to move to Oregon. Both Ben and I had unrealistic expectations about the move: I would find a job in days, we would move out of Ben’s studio apartment after my first paycheck, and I would recreate Napa in my gourmet kitchen night after night.

Life, however, is rough around the edges. I was laid off from a job after a month, and I had a harder time making friends than I ever had before. We had no chance of moving this summer, even if I found a new job immediately. We were stuck for an indefinite time in a studio apartment with one window and no air conditioning. Ben’s bachelor “kitchen “was equipped with just a hot plate and a toaster oven. California, despite all of its economic problems, seemed like paradise lost.

With no job, no friends, and no creative outlet, I began to lose hope. My mother could hear my voice grow bleaker and bleaker with every phone call. One day I told her about how much I hated the kitchen, and how no good food could ever come of it. Suddenly, the tone of her voice changed. “I think it can,” she said. “I think if anyone can figure out how to make gourmet meals with a hot plate, you can. I heard that Ina Garten (the host of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network) had only a hot plate on her honeymoon in Europe, and it made her into the cook she is today. This is an opportunity to be resourceful. Make this a fun challenge, not a destructive one.”

So I did. I took stock of my “kitchen”, said a quick prayer, and The Hot Plate Gourmet was born.

Thanks, Mom.