Our Stove is Never Clean and the Sink is Always Full

A quick post on food and all the ways we try to stay sane around the kitchen

Today’s newsletter comes after building a rig for Oliver’s bike which he now enjoys riding in. Thanks for the encouragement!

Musings

1. I wonder if we broke down our four seasons into smaller moments like sekkis if we would see more wonder like our kids in our day-to-day.

2. (Atlantic Paywall Link Ahead) According to The Atlantic, curriculums in schools have kids reading snippets of material rather than full books nowadays leading to an increase in students not able to keep up at the college level.

3. I stopped logging onto my social platforms as much only to spend an ungodly amount of time on prediction market apps as a new way to doom scroll.

4. Oakland’s mayor and DA have both been recalled in this year’s election which makes me wonder 1. if there’s such a thing as too much democracy and 2. how Eric Adams would have done if New York had similarly laxed requirements for ballot measures.

I Understand the Appeal of Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals

I had to take a break from Substack this last month due to some health, work, and overall stress with the political hellscape. We’ll ease back into it today with some kitchen chaos. 

If you look through my text messages with Sondra dating back to 2011, you’ll notice the green bubbles of sweet nothings quickly being replaced with desperate screams for help to feed ourselves over the years. Thoughts on dinner? There’s nothing in the fridge. The freezer is full. Can you text me the GrubHub/Doordash pin sent to your phone? 

It’s a race to plate once either one of us gets home from work to get a meal on the table. If we miss the usual bus home, forget an ingredient, or our kid’s pickier than usual tonight - that’s unfortunate. 8PM bedtime is a non-negotiable in our house which means 730 bath and dishes in the sink by 7. 

You would think that in the 14 years of being together, we would have a system figured out for feeding ourselves but it’s only become more complex as we add more things to our kitchen, try new recipes/routines, and consider the feelings of our 2 year old. 

In the spirit of keeping things short and sweet this week, here are some lists to remind myself on what’s working and what to tackle this winter:

Things That Work

• Cooking with Oliver since he was able to walk has helped bring him into the kitchen to get him familiar with all the ingredients around us, the imperial measuring system, and more time together.

• Garlic Press, Wok, and our Balmuda Toaster Oven are my top 3 tools for getting a good meal out fast

• Bon App’s Carla Music’s advice to Always Be Consolidating. Moving food and items to smaller containers as they get used up helps us clear space in the fridge and provides some visual sense of progress throughout the week.

Challenging

• Baking bread and making yogurt was fun at first but a chore to keep up. It was especially defeating when I look at the time/ingredient spent v. the affordable options on store shelves and farmers markets.

• Cooking size appropriate meals. Large meals and meal prepping really made me hate cooking for a period of time. Trimming down a new recipe that serves 8 to just 2 really helps us 1. learn to math 2. try before we commit.

• Diverging too far from our usual palette. New recipes filled our cabinets and fridge with ingredients we were too guilty to admit defeat on. A jar of preserved lemons and cans of chickpeas took up space for years that could have been a larger jar of kimchi or packages of daal that would have been quickly gobbled up.

Recipes for Winter

Things I’m excited to make this winter

• [Wok of Life] Crab and Shrimp Congee - I’m hoping this is the year I can make this without needing to reference how to breakdown a crab.

• [Bon App] Chicken Thighs Jammy Onion Soup - This has convinced me onions are arguably the most delicious things in our kitchens.

• [Alexis deBoshnek] Dutch Baby - Simple. Beautiful. Uses all our leftover berries.

• [NYTimes Cooking] Braised Leaks with Parm - I just want to know what to do with leaks other than use them in broths. Let’s start off slow.

Questions for You

What is your kitchen tip? Seriously, what is either a recipe that you make in a pinch for guests or a thing that you want to make sure your siggo understands about how you use your kitchen before you write a post on r/AmItheAsshole?