While I am not yet fully settled, everything is unpacked except for the sewing room. The apartment is functional and livable even, although there is still art to be hung on the wall and a couple of corners where things are piled up, waiting for me to figure out the best storage/use options. But the kitchen is operational, and increasingly more efficiently so.
I was cooking the day after I moved in, jumping right in and filling the space with fragrances that speak to me of comfort and home. I started with the idea of my grandmother's tomato sauce swirling in my thoughts, but I modified it to fit current circumstances. Rather than simmering it for hours on the stovetop and adding meatballs, I made it in the slow cooker with a lovely chuck roast that had been kicked out of its previous freezer allotment. This required a slight modification of the fluid ratios, as slow cookers do not concentrate the liquid in the same way as a pan simmer would. Rather than cooking it for 4 hours, I started with 12, and ended up cooking everything for 18 hours. I had three quarts of sauce, two of which were frozen, and a wonderful pile of meat which saw me through several meals, including in a wonderful Sunday brunch of pot-roast hash with eggs.
I've also been to the farmer's market twice, which means I have been cooking, or at least eating in, because there have been a few meals built around salads and simple soups. Although I mostly ate out during the two weeks I was packing and preparing to move, I did make 20 quarts of beef stock, in 3 quart batches in the slow cooker, simply because I had a batch of bones in the freezer, and it is more efficient to store the stock. I had ambitiously purchased a bulk package of beef bones in the late winter because I tend to use 3 -4 quarts of stock a week, but I'll probably stick to smaller packages in the future. I don't have space in the freezer while I am in the apartment, so that makes sense. Even when I return home however, I may forgo the bulk package and buy smaller packs, at least as long as I have a local supplier of grass-fed bones. It makes sense to save freezer space for things that must be procured seasonally or ordered in, hence making larger quantities feasible. I will have to think it through as I am definitely the kind of person who would weigh the options: considering any savings from buying in bulk rather than small packages; the cost of an additional freezer; as well as a cost in time and effort for procuring supplies. But that is months away and not worth fretting over now.
The increased time in the kitchen has not been without its frustrations, however, in that it seems that each time I cook I hit some logistical problem. The kitchen has been configured and reconfigured multiple times. I suppose the kitchen is a microcosm of what is going on the the rest of the apartment, but in overdrive, because cooking is so central to my own sense of home and happiness. I may have finally gotten it right as I've gone several days now with nary a glitch. There are still some things that don't have homes, and I am still in the process of sorting out storage, but at this point we are only talking minor refinements.
Part of that process has been adding over-the-door racks, like the one above, and another in the closet I am using for pantry, bar, and miscellaneous storage. I didn't have enough baskets the first time around, and I was not surprised by that as I needed to see how everything actually worked in the space, so I have ordered more baskets and am now waiting. I admit that I have more cooking stuff than many, and I use my sous-vide set up and my slow cooker multiple times weekly so they need to be accessible, but I have come to a far greater admiration for people who cook complex meals in truly tiny kitchens.
The complex has a grilling area, so I grilled a steak one day. Actually I cooked it sous-vide to perfectly halfway between rare and medium because the thing was nearly two inches thick and it is hard to get a steak that thick just right on the grill. I simply seared it briefly on the grill. The steak was so big that it lasted me for several meals, including another salad.
Another day I made peanut soup, west-african peanut crusted chicken kabobs and a salad, and that prompted a bit of an organizational melt-down, as I was tripping over myself, my pots, and various other equipment. However, the food was good and the experience really helped focus my attention on what works and why, another reason I think I am close to finalizing the kitchen arrangement. As I grow happier in the kitchen, I grow happier in general, and it is a contented kind of settling in.
A more successful, at least in terms of kitchen functionality was a batch of an anglo-Indian style Beet and Tomato soup. I got the recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cookbook, and I've been making it regularly since my 20s. The cookbook is now falling apart and is kept together with rubber bands, and my version is no longer true to Jaffrey's, but I like to think it maintains the same spirit.
I served it in my grandmother's vaseline glass bowl with some seared shrimp.. I am already thinking of what soup I will make next. I procured some fabulous carrots complete with a bounty of greens, so perhaps it is time for carrot greens soup. That tends to be another market-season favorite, mostly because it is the only way to find nice carrot greens.
I am getting hungry already.
As you can see from this past Saturday's market haul, there have been more salads, but also spaghetti squash and zucchini which I turned into zoodles. I've come late to summer cooking, as I was mostly preoccupied with other things in the earlier part of the summer, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process now. The process of cooking connects me to my better self, to family, to youth, to joy, despite the fact that it is often actually work, or is because of that? Spending time in the kitchen reminds me of the girl I once was, and still am, the girl who baked cookies and cakes for her dorm-mates every exam week. Cooking, and baking, although I do less of that now, always reminds me of the good things in life.
