The Apartment Farm

It’s been nearly a decade (oh god, there’s a mental crisis if I dwell on that one too long!) since I’ve been out on my own, so I’ve had some time to figure out what constitutes an essential in the kitchen, and what constitutes a money-wasting, space-eater. With the fall coming on and the young kids going off to college or first apartments, I thought I’d help the younger generation out with a list of things that every kitchen needs. (Also useful for gadget addicts who want to pare down or those of us who are moving on to new kitchens). (By the way, all the products I’m “showcasing” here are from www.ikea-usa.com, so everyone can find these everywhere for a good price…if you hover over the images with your cursor, it will tell your product name, capacity, and price).

Cooking

The Pots & The Pans: 

Keep it simple here kids. Space and cash are at a premium, so let’s go with a few versatile, high-quality pieces. Save the expensive specialty stuff for your wedding or commitment wish-list (let your rich relatives buy it for you!) Let’s talk about pots and pans for a minute before we get into which ones you need and want. There are a dizzying array of materials, sizes and colors out there. Don’t get something flimsy (aluminum is out). Don’t get something with a non-stick coating that’s going to flake off into your food (disgusting! And it will probably take a few days of your life. Teflon is out). Don’t get something high-maintainence (copper is out– are you really going to polish it every time you use it? Doubt it.).  What does that leave us with? Two beautiful, useful options– stainless steel and enameled cast iron. Either one is a good choice, but I’d recommend the enameled cast iron. Why’s that? It’s going to last you three or four lifetimes (yes, LIFETIMES) with proper care. And proper care is easy– you wash it after you use it. Don’t gouge sharp knives into it (why the hell would you do that anyway?) Don’t throw it at your boyfriend during an argument (and why the hell would you do that anyway?). There you go, proper care. What’s the downside? It’s pricey. But since we’re going to just buy a few essential pieces to start with and be frugal where we shop, we can swing it. Le Creuset is the queen of enameled cast iron. Retail prices will kill you- we’re talking a tuition payment for A PIECE. But check this out– Le Creuset has outlet stores all over the country where you can find deals (find one at http://www.outletsonline.com/lecreuset/lestores.html). You can also find it on Ebay, Amazon and if you keep your eyes peeled, your local thrift stores (true story- I’ve seen decent-condition pieces in several Chicago thrift spots for dollars. It’s a rare find, but when you see it, you better grab it fast!). Our overlords at Ikea have also started selling enameled cast iron too, so that’s an even better steal. Oh, another cool benefit of enameled cast iron– it can go from stovetop, to oven, to table. How cool is that!? Even more bang for your buck! But enough already, what pieces do you need? Just three. Seriously.

– A medium-large Dutch Oven (aka stockpot, big pot, large cooker, casserole, etc.): You can do soups, stews, roasts, sautes, braises, casseroles, sauces, stocks and even bake in these. They are the workhorses of cookware. It looks like this:

– A Saucepan: It’s a smaller pot that’s good for sauces (as it’s name implies) as well as cooking/heat up side dishes and whatnot. Ikea doesn’t currently sell an enameled cast-iron version (boo) but they do have a nice stainless-steel model. It looks like this:

– A Saute/Frying Pan: Now, there is a difference between a frying pan and a saute pan. A frying pan is smaller with sloped sides. A saute pan is larger with straight sides. But I’m going to tell you to get the saute pan, because it can do double-duty as your frying pan. You’ll appreciate the extra room and a capacity it offers. It looks like this:

That’s it for your cookware. Nothing fancy, but you can make anything with these three pieces. Not bad, eh? Now, on to bakeware:

The Bakeware:

Same considerations apply here. Good quality, versatile stuff. These are the basics:

– The Pizza Pan: For pizza of course. But you can also bake cookies, free-form pies (also known as galettes or tarts) and other tasty little bites on these. It look like this:

– The Cake Pan: Great for cakes, brownies, casseroles, lasagna, whatever. It can be round or square, and the one pictured here is a spring-form version. It means you can loosen the side and lift it off your creation (making it easier to unmold in one pieces). This one also comes with two bottoms– the decorative one shown, and a plain one. It looks like this:

That will do it for the bare bones, since you can also use your Dutch Oven to roast stuff and make larger casseroles. But if you really like to bake, you might to add a muffin tin (for muffins!) a pie pan (for pie!) and a loaf pan (for breads!) to your set.

The Gadgets & Necessary Accessories:

I’m not big on gadgets and you shouldn’t be either. Let’s spend our precious funding on other things! What do you need to get by? I’ll just list these out for you, since you’ll know what these look like:

- A Slotted Spoon

- An Un-slotted Spoon or Ladle

- A flexible Spatula

- A few Wooden Spoons

- A Whisk

- A flat Spatula (aka Pancake Turner, Flipper, etc.)

- A manual or hand-held Can Opener (Works even when the power goes out!)

- Colander (aka a Strainer) (For draining pasta or rinsing veggies)

- A few Pot Holders (So you don’t burn your hands!)

- A few kitchen Towels (To clean up your messes)

- A Corkscrew with Bottle Opener (So we can enjoy a good drink after all the cooking)

- A veggie Peeler (For peeling your veg! You can also use it to make garnishes like lemon peels and pretty designs in your food- you know those vertical line in your cucumber slice? Veggie peeler did that!)

- Knives: This one requires a bit more information. Despite the popularity of huge knife sets, you’re really only going to use two, maybe three, knives in your kitchen with any regularity– the Chef’s knife and a pair of kitchen shears will really do it for most people. If you’re big into baking bread, or buying uncut loaves, throw in a serrated bread knife. Leave the rest of the crap at the store. You just don’t need it. You might want a tiny paring knife. I don’t know why though, my chef’s does it all for me, and if you know how to use it, it will for you too (do yourself a favor and get Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques while you’re at it if you’re new to this whole cooking thing. He shows you how to do and make everything, including how to use knives- and everything has step-by-step photos. This should be your starter cookbook!) Anyway, back to knives. Get the best you can afford here- your chef’s knife is an extension of yourself. You want something heavy for it’s size (that makes it easier to control) and full tang (that means the metal knife blade should run all the way through to end of the handle, and not just be attached to it– that makes it sturdier and it will last longer). You also want the blade to have enough depth so your knuckles aren’t knocking into the cutting board or table every time you make a cut– it’s uncomfortble, inefficient and dangerous. Get a knife that feels good in your hand.

That’s it kids, those are the basics on the cooking end of things. Not to much stuff to pack and unpack or take up space in your miniature-sized first kitchen. And you’ll use it all, so you’ll get your money’s worth. Now you just need some stuff to help you serve all the good food you’ll be cooking up.

Eating

The Dishes:

Really simple here. Get 6 place settings. If it’s just you and room mate you can eat more than one meal without having to wash everything. If you have some friends over (dinner party, anyone?) you can serve up to six people at the same time.

- Dinner Plates. Six white ones.

- Salad Plates. Six white ones.

- Cereal Bowls. Six white ones.

Done. Not to bad, and you’re almost done!

The Glassware:

You can go crazy here, especially if you like the mixed drinks- it seems like every drink has it’s own damned glass. But we’re starting with the basics here. I’ll give you pictures again for reference. And let’s do this in sets of six again, so your dinner-party friends can all have a beverage at the same time.

- Regular tall Drinking Glasses. You can serve every kind of drink in this if you have to. It looks like some version of this:

– The Basic Wine Glass: Looks like this:

– The Cocktail/Martini Glass: For cocktails! Looks like this:

– The Mug: Coffee, tea, hot chocolate– for all your hot drink needs. Looks like this:

Okay, anything else? Don’t forget a set of cultery (aka silverware) that includes forks, spoons and butter knives. Throw in a white tablecloth and a set of white cloth napkins for when mom and dad come to visit or when you’re making a meal for a special boyfriend-material someone. For basic appliances, you’ll want a small microwave (you don’t need one big enough to roast a turkey! Something small will do!), a small crockpot (you’ll thank me later for getting one, I promise) and a small coffee maker or tea pot (depending on your preference for morning beverages). If you eat toast like there’s no tomorrow, by all means get a toaster. If you don’t, don’t buy one! Everybody seems to have a toaster, and I don’t know a whole lot of people who eat the toast. Toasters aren’t prereqs to adulthood, so don’t feel obligated to throw one in your cart. That’s it. That’s really all you need to get started. Now faithful pupils, go forth and cook! No matter where you are or who you’re with, cook and eat the best that you can. We are what we eat.

Ah food, it’s a popular topic with me as of late. We’ve had the desire to branch out a bit in terms of our culinary repertoire, so game seems like a natural direction. My husband and I have both had bison and venison, and I have had pheasant, so it’s not completely foreign to us. But what is game, really? Well, Wikipedia defines game as “any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated”. So while bison is all farm-raised, and so is venison for the most part, they still fall into the game category.

We’ve been interested in trying caribou, elk, moose, and wild boar. Finding this type of meat can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. A good, reputable hunter is probably your best bet. The best way to find someone is probably word-of-mouth through people you know (yes, even you city folk- I bet someone knows someone who knows someone). You’ll want someone who will follow the law (hunting in-season, not taking off-limits or over-limit animals) and one who knows how to properly dress (clean and butcher) his or her catch. You want someone with a sustainable mind- not a sport hunter, and certainly not a poacher! You can also find more “common” game animals farmed in small operations– venison, game birds like pheasant, rabbitt, and other small game animals are sometimes farmed. For example, you can find bison, mountain sheep, geese, elk, and venison at www.eatwild.com through sustainable, independent producers (no factory farms!). On their multi-state listing page, you’ll find producers that do web orders and cross-country shipping (though I do encourage you to check out your local producers first and foremost, of course!). If you’re looking for buy from a producer or farmer, the same considerations apply– someone sustainable, not a big factory outfit. Human carnivores have a responsibility to be respectful to the creatures that feed us!

So, once you get it home, what do you with it? At first I was hard-pressed to find game recipes that sounded good, but then I stumbled upon a wealth of good ones on Epicurious (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/find/browse/results?type=browse&att=93&threshold=50). A few of my favorites (I saved them in PDF files for my own conveniance, and will share them with you in that format):

roasted-leg-of-wild-boar.pdf

tea-smoked-duck-breast.pdf

cider-brasied-pheasant-w-pearl-onions-apples.pdf

spiced-venison-steaks-w-red-cabbage-confit-red-wine-sauce.pdf (red-cabbage-confit.pdf)

pan-roasted-quail-w-port-sauce.pdf

roasted-quail-w-juniper-berreis-balsamic-vinegar.pdf

spice-rubbed-quail.pdf

A few good cookbooks you can look for are D’Artagnan’s Glorious Game Cookbook (by the gourmet food purveyor D’Artagnan, check them out at www.dartagnan.com), The Wild Game Cookbook by Judith Bosley and the Wild Fish & Game Cookbook by John Manikowski. Here’s to good eating!

You spend hours creating a special dinner for your special someone, then you plunk it down on a plate and there you go. Sure, it’s going to taste fantastic, but why can’t it look fantastic too? You can elevate the curb appeal of your dish with a few simple tricks, and stuff you already have in your kitchen:

– The Tuna Can: Seriously? Seriously. Use a can opener to take both the top and the bottom off the can, so you’re left with just a ring– now you have a ring mold. Ring molds are essential for creating stacked food, and for some reason stacked food looks cooler than plunked food.

– The Squeeze Bottle: They sell these all over, but you can recycle a mustard bottle (the kind with the pointed tip) right from your fridge. Instead of serving your sauce poured over your food or crusting over in a gravy boat, swirl it, dot it, or make designs around your plate with it. Using a toothpick (or chopstick or skewer- whatever is handy) you can even create designs in your sauce– swirl a few circles around the plate and then drag your toothpick out from the center creating a spiderweb design. Or put dots around the plate, and connect them by dragging the toothpick from one dot to another. You can do anything with the squeeze bottle!

– The White Plate: If you’re really going for haute cuisine and not homestyle, white dinnerware is essential. You’re not showing off your china here, you’re showing off your food. Think of a big white dinner plate as the canvas for your dish. While you’re at it, put down a white tablecloth and white cloth napkins. Suddenly your kitchen table is a four-star dining room. And the best part? White dishes and tableclothes are cheap. We’re talking less than $10 for a complete place setting, and I’m positive you can do better than that at your local thrift store or Ikea.

– The Garnish: It’s more than just a sprig of parsley these days. A few chive fronds. A curl of lemon peel. A few edible flowers. Crushed black peppercorns. A little nest of fried rice noodle. The key to garnish is to not overdo it– don’t put a big hunk of chives so it’s covering all your food, instead arrange three chive fronds over the top. (For some reason, I feel like odd numbers work better than even, so three is better than four. But that’s just me- you do whatever you think looks hot). Voila, your dish is finished. Or shall we say, your dish has been composed.

A few other things to keep in mind– cook with the very best ingredients you can afford. Do not cook a $30 steak and serve it with boxed mashed potatoes! It’s just not right. If you’re spending all that time and money on the steak, you can peel a few potatoes. A note about wine also– never cook with anything you wouldn’t drink. That means stay away from the “cooking sherry” and “cooking red wine” you see in the salad dressing aisle! Any wine you cook with should come from a good vitner, or at the very least, the wine/beer department at your local grocery. And remember this ratio– every time you add wine to your dish, pour yourself a glass. You deserve it, you gourmet you!

But wait a second! You’ve got the keys to the gourmet kingdom, but you can’t quite envision how this meal is going to come together– it can’t be that easy, right? But it is! Take the standard steak and mashed potatoes dinner. Family-style you’d just put your steak on the plate, pour a little of the reduction on top, and pile a nice portion of mashed potatoes next to it. (Nothing wrong with that at all, by the way). But you want to make it shine. Here’s what you do (and there are any number of ways to do this using the tools above, this is just one method): Slice your steak on the diagonal (instead of using your knife to cut while it’s vertical, angle it slightly into the meat). Put your ring mold into the center of your white plate. Spoon in mashed potatoes to fill it up, then carefully lift/jiggle your mold off the top (this might take a little practice to get right, but that’s okay- they’re mashed potatoes. If it doesn’t work right on the first try, wipe off your plate and try it again). Next, fan out your sliced steak on top of the mashed potatoes– be delicate, you don’t want to destroy your ivory tower! Fill up your clean mustard bottle with the red wine reduction or gravy you made to go with your steak. A funnel is useful here– it helps you sauce get into the bottle and not all over the counter; you don’t want to waste it. Use the bottle to squeeze the design of your choice around the perimeter of the plate, maybe a few swirls? Again, if it doesn’t look right to you, just use a dampened towel to carefully wipe the plate clean and do it over. You can also clean up errant drips and smudges from the plate with your damp towel before you serve it. As your final touch, snip a few fresh chive fronds and arrange them on top of the steak. Voila, a sexy steak dinner ready for the table. Don’t forget the glasses of wine, and certainly don’t forget to toast the chef!

Planning some good eating this weekend. Tonight for dinner I’m making some leek and potato soup. Full-size leeks are finally in season here! And I’m going to use up the blue potatoes we still have from last weekend’s market, so the color should be quite interesting. Tomorrow night we’re doing a London broil pot roast with carrots, white potatoes and lots of garlic. I plan on throwing that in the crockpot after brunch. I’ll also put some beans to soak tonight for 15 Bean Stew to simmer away tomorrow afternoon. That will be great for lunches this week. Might try my hand at some more bread tomorrow, but we still have the rest of the Hawaiian loaf to eat up. Might turn some of that into French toast for brunch tomorrow; we haven’t had that in awhile. I’m also going to do up some cinnamon sugar pastry stars– yummy! Can you tell I like to eat?  

Came across this page by an amazing young women who built her own house. She started the project back when she was just seventeen years old, with help from her carpenter dad and a few friends. She did the bulk of the planning and building on her own. Her site includes some great step-by-step photos and a journal of the project. Worth a look at http://www.homestead.com/peaceandcarrots/HeathersHouse.html. She also has a more recently updated blog about her adventures in general at http://royalepain.blogspot.com.

As I just mentioned in the post crediting www.countryplans.com with the farmhouse plans I’ve fallen in love with, the site is a wealth of information. Browing it again for the umpteenth time, I came across two more useful sites for the DIY homesteader, both including some pretty excellent small barn, shed and workhouse plans. The first one is www.barnsbarnsbarns.com and the second is www.homesteaddesign.com.

This plan has to be my favorite though:

It’s a charming little farm market building, that would be a fantastic addition to anyone interested in selling produce or crafts right from the farm. (It’s on the Barns Barns Barns site at www.barnsbarnsbarns.com/farmmkt.html). But there are so many great buildings to browse through on both sites that you’re bound to find something that fits your needs and your dreams.

The farm house plans I posted earlier are so popular, I thought I should give credit where credit is due. I found the plans at www.countryplans.com. They have several cabins, farmhouses and cottages on the site as well as a small homes discussion forum. Plus, their site is really oriented toward the DIY home builder, so it’s a good resource.

My co-workers might disagree based on how my lunch is often composed– cans of soups from un-named gigantic soup conglomorates, bags of chips, mass-market tea… but I am a foodie. I’m just (admittedly) lazy about translating my inherent love of food and cooking into a gourmet meal to take to the office. But all this aside, good food is a passion of mine. I am on the borderline of being obsessed with learning complicated French dishes, reading cook’s memoirs, developing mise-en-place and superior knife skills and most importantly, cooking and eating well. My mailbox is suffering from a massive influx of food porn, otherwise known as gourmet food and kitchen supply catalogs. I browse 20-year-old oak-cask-aged balsamic vinegars and cuts of beef for fun. I practice chiffonading in my leisure time. I write detailed menus, devour cookbooks, catalog recipes from food magazines into a searchable database (I’m not kidding– I’m nearly halfway done with it) and am intent on learning the do’s and don’ts of appropriate wine pairings and white-tie-service place settings. Food geek, and proud of it. But how much is too much? I guess I haven’t gone over the edge yet– I have not yet blown an entire paycheck on a good vintage bottled before I was born, or structured an entire vacation around truffles being in season in the south of France, and I haven’t sold my firstborn to the Devil for a complete set of Wustoff knives and Le Creuset. But I’ve thought about it! In all seriousness though, good food is not a privilege. It’s a basic right, that some of us happen to be a little more zealous about than the others. But anyway, maybe I’ll whip up something decent to take to work tomorrow… but then, will I have to share? C’est la vie, let’s eat and pass the wine!

I spent several hours in the kitchen this afternoon baking and cooking up a storm, and my body is tired. But it’s the tired of having lived through an active day, instead of parked in front of the television. We woke up at nine this morning (late, even for us) and went to the farmer’s market. We got kale, grape tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, a green pepper, blue potatoes, red onions, leeks, red lettuce, sour cherries and a bouquet of miniature sunflowers. Then we stopped at Whole Foods for meats and pantry items (they were having a few good sales this weekend, too). Then we came home and I realized we’d forgotten a few things, so I made three– yes, three! trips to the market around the corner. And then came the baking. I really enjoyed myself– I was wearing my favorite cherry bib apron and I felt like a fine farmgirl whipping up good things to eat at my kitchen table, enjoying my sunflowers and singing along to one of my favorite albums. I ended up doing most of what I set out to do– the bacon and sundried tomato cornbread muffins, the applesauce spice cake muffins with granola topping, two loaves of Hawaiian bread and a large batch of gnocchi. But I forgot to get the sourdough working– I drained all the potato water right down the sink! But we’ll have potatoes again sometime this week, so I’ll get the sourdough working then. Plus, I’ll have a chance to read up on sourdough a little more in my bread book. We had some of the gnocchi with andouille sausage for dinner tonight, and my hat’s off to all the Italian grandma’s out there who make it all the time– it really is tricky to get the dough the right consistency, and then forming it off the fork. I’ll need some practice with that. But they sure did taste good. Tomorrow will bring a new weekend morning (how glorious are those) with baking a cherry pie for the husband and doing a little crafting. For now, it’s off for a nice soak in the tub and some reading before bed. Sometimes it’s the little things that are the most rewarding…

We love city life, but it’s been a dream of ours (like that of so many others…) to put down roots somewhere on a little piece of land and build the house of our dreams. We’re not greedy– just 10 acres of so would do it for us, and we want a house of moderate proportions and amenities. Well, we think we found the perfect house to build (when we get our little slice of farmland in a few years):

We would make a few modifications to the existing floor plans:

– We would get rid of all of the bedroom closets and instead use free-standing armoirs.

– The walk in closet in the master bedroom would become a sitting area, and we would get rid of the second sink.

– In the master bath we would put a clawfoot tub with shower attachment instead of the built-in shower, and we might rearrange the master bathroom fixtures so they mirror the second bathroom, so that the tub is in front of the window also.

– In the entry, the two small closets would become one large closet.

– The side door by the closet we would leave out.

– The window in the living area would be bumped out to be a window seat with bookshelves on either side.

– We would move the attic hatch from the master bedroom into the hallway.

– Instead of shingle siding, we will have white clapboard siding.

So, one of these days…