Look Around

Look around your kitchen. How much plastic surrounds you? I can't help but look around my kitchen and wonder what I can replace with something that's NOT plastic. Some things are easier than others. Some things maybe only came into being with plastic. What did we use before we HAD plastic stuff to use? Let's think about it.

Toaster... plastic. Let me get a metal one next time. I'm so tired of buying a cheap plastic thing, only for it to break after just a few years. Give me a sturdy toaster that will last decades, with someone to repair it, too, when it does break. Hand beater? Plastic crap! They are terrible. I mix by hand when I can, and maybe a big old KitchenAid mixer is the way to go... with counter space, of course. Those things used to last forever. Pay a little more? It lasts longer and you aren't laying out the money all over again in 2 years. Didn't vacuum cleaners used to be metal? And repairable? Now they are all plastic pieces of crap, and when something breaks, go get a new one. 'Cuz plastic can't be repaired.

Sure, those are the big things. What I really meant to get into was all those little things that add up. I'm slowly but surely coming out of my plastic ways and replacing with better materials. Big spoons, stirring spoons and spatulas etc? We do NOT need plastic. For cast iron, a metal spatula is great. For enameled wares, bamboo is perfect. For how much sauce I cook? Bamboo doesn't stain! Repeat that: Bamboo does not stain. And it's durable. And inexpensive. And biodegradable. And it grows plentifully and without pesticides. Measuring cups? Why are those plastic? Metal, for sure. And Pyrex. Measuring spoons? Metal. Why did we start buying these things as plastic? Cheaper? Fun colors? I don't know. These are things we can keep around the kitchen for a LONG time; there is no need to go cheap plastic. Plastic stains. Plastic holds odors. Plastic melts. Case in point: you have a turkey baster in there, don't you? Most of us do. What do you squeeze all up into that? Boiling hot oils, right? What do we know about plastic now? Hot liquids leach chemicals out of it. We've been serving our gravies with chemicals. How do you feel about that? Did you know you can find inexpensive glass basters? Of course the squeeze past is still silicone or rubber, but the tube is much better. Scared of glass in your kitchen? Get out. Now. Remember those metal ice cube trays? Remember they were kind of a giant pain in the ass? But remember we still used them? And we survived, and we still had ice, and we didn't die? Many people have ice makers on the fridge anyway, but really, those plastic trays? They break, they get to smelling... they are convenient but not necessary. Pause for a moment to think how many of them have ended up in the trash over the years...

We're phasing out all our plastic containers and replacing them with Pyrex. Or jars that I save. I can't wait to have a big old pantry just filled with jars. I can't wait to have no more plastic in my kitchen where there is a better product to use. Salt & pepper shakers.... pepper mill... all these little things... they add up. What can you phase out of your kitchen to make it a better, healthier room?

Easy Things

On a perfect rainy Sunday afternoon (rare in Southern California), my perfect thing is to make sauce for a nice rainy-day dinner. The simmering smell takes me back and makes everything feel extra homey.

Cooking is fun for me and I love when I can do it. I like spending time in the kitchen, I love my enameled cast-iron (as constant readers know), and I get to thinking of things as I prepare ingredients. Today, it was of chopping onions. We have so many fun tools to chop onions, so that our hands don't have to smell. So that it's fast and easy. So we don't cry from the odor. I've had these things. They are made of plastic. When they break, we throw them away, because hey, they are cheap, and wow, you can't fix them AT ALL. Plastic things, when broken, are usually rendered useless. I would actually never remember to grab this thing. I like chopping onions with a knife. A good chef's knife is the best thing in the world for your kitchen. I don't care that my onions pieces are not uniform. I don't care that my hands smell like onions for a few minutes afterwards. I don't mind that it takes a few extra minutes.

Why this driving need for ease and convenience and making everything so darn mess-free? Why do we not give a second thought to what we are doing in the long run, simply because we think the worst thing in the world is to have to handle an onion for a few minutes? To me, activities are more worth-while if I have to spend time and care on them. So, why all this stuff? Choppers, cutters, food processors, every single one of them made of cheap plastic and designed to break after just a little bit of time, so that a new one needs to be purchased by the same consumer.

Isn't that kind of insane? Is it me? I think it's a little insane. How long do we keep a good knife over a lifetime, versus how many of these things? What are we doing with all this extra time we have from these things? Why don't we just value the time it takes to do things anymore?

Nothing.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

So I have overcome the brain-washing and the duping and have learned that a cast iron skillet does wonders for the simplest most humble grilled cheese sandwich, and everything else, too. And I have this base desire to own a whole set of Le Creuset in yellow - no, green - no, yellow... well, whatever. That will have to wait until I have my own TV show or something.

This holiday, though, found me gifted with a beautiful enameled 5 1/2 quart dutch oven. (My coworker listens to me when I talk!) We have a plain cast iron one, but you can't do just anything in those. So this was a welcome addition to my kitchen. And I did not wait long to try it.

How I feel about mine!

I'm convinced I will not have awesome pasta sauce again until I make it from my own home-grown tomatoes and I jar it for a supply over the winter (this IS the plan for next winter), but I thought, well, let's see what we can do here. Chopped my onions, chopped my garlic, got my chicken "sausage" ready. Put my onions in with a little oil. Oh, this is troubling, look, it's getting brown stuff stuck on the bottom. Well, I guess this will take some getting-used-to. Can't be great and right the first time out all the time. Garlic in. OK. Definite stickies. Sigh. I'll do better next time. Sausage, in. (Meanwhile it smells extra good, I AM noticing that.) But wait... what's this? The brown goodness stuck on the bottom came right up and off! Could it... could it be... stuff doesn't STICK to this when used properly????

The lid, so nice and heavy, is keeping all that flavor in! That iron is keeping the heat so nicely distributed! OK, so I still have a little mark on my hand because I had the heat up a LITTLE high and the bubbling sauce got over-zealous. But I am pretty sure that is the best sauce (I'm not from Jersey, it's sauce, not gravy) (and it's not "red sauce" it's just sauce) I have made while relying on those horrid jars of crap. (Yes, I do feel dirty, why do you ask?)

It's the wonderful beautiful heavy pot that made my sauce extra good, I know it. I just made chicken noodle soup in it today. My Hunny got a cold for the holiday, and what better excuse to try it out on soup from scratch? Yes, it rocks.

So where has this stuff been all my life?? Yeah, it's pricey, but with good care, it will last probably the rest of my life. Remind me again why we stopped using this stuff in favor of lighter cheaper just-plain-crappier crap? Because I cannot remember. Piece by piece, I will grow my collection. And when I make sauce from my own home-grown tomatoes with my own home-grown garlic and my own home-grown onions and herbs, it will be EPIC. :)