Brave New Kitchen

We are go, people. I have run back to the arms of Sweet Lady Internet to tell you all about my kitchen based adventures.

First of all, the new kitchen:



That's right, that's a sofa you can see there. The new place has an open place living room/kitchen. You'd think that that might be a negative thing, but I'm loving it. I don't have to pause a film if I fancy a snack, which is really cool. I still need to leave the room if I need a wee, though. I'm not that progressive.

For the past couple of months I had imposed a 'no new stuff' rule to minimise packing, but now I have been able to make the following additions:

- Some lovely oven-proof dinner plates
- Cutlery (living in a shared house I hadn't realised how low my personal supply was)
- Stackable shakers. I don't know the proper name for them, but it's a set of 4 plastic shakers that I have filled with flour, icing sugar, or cocoa powder. I have been using them quite a bit already, and they're in gloriously retro colours.
- Kitchen scales
- Food processor (from my parents loft)
- Popcorn machine (from Pete's parents)

I have also been actually factually cooking. For reals! Posts on various bits and pieces to follow. I don't want to do them all now as you'll get all overexcited. Tune in soon for the next thrilling episode!

I've missed you too, The Internet.

I know, I know. “No blog for a while, Bronners. What’s the deal?” Well I’ll tell you. I have just moved and still have no internet access. And if your mind hasn’t been completely blown by the fact that you’re reading this on the internet right now, I’ll point out that I’m on my lunch break at work, where I am as yet unable to write for long periods or upload photos of tasty treats. This kind of puts paid to the whole ‘writing and pictures’ elements (the canny amongst you may have noticed that those are the only elements). What’s more, I’m still busy enough in the evenings that cooking forays have suffered, so it’s not like I have that much to talk about anyway.

Still, I am very fond of my new kitchen. What was once a homely, beige and cream affair with kitchen tiles that were inexplicably designed to look marked and grubby is now swish beech effect doors and chrome handles. I’ve even got a dishwasher! I don’t even like dishwashers! Inexplicable exclamation mark!

At the moment I’m desperate to stock up on all the kitchen bits that I want/need, as we’re still a little short, and currently improvising kitchenware out of bits and pieces (make do and mend, Blitz spirit and all that). The first dinner party of Casa Bronita made use of a decorative plate as a dinner plate and tea saucers instead of bowls. However, a recent charity shop excursion made a start at accumulating a proper kitchen’s worth of goods, and I also now have the welcome addition of a beautiful set of stoneware Le Creuset cookware that was a very generous house-warming present.

Not that I can show you a picture of it, or anything I’ve done with it. But I will, in time. Oh yes. Then you’ll see. You’ll ALL see.

Normal service shall resume shortly.

Leftovers

There’s an old joke which goes something like ‘when I was young, all our meals were leftovers’. Ah, but how can they all be leftovers when there surely must be something original for them to be left over from, I (for the sake of argument) hear you say. And therein lies the humour. I have, however, found a way to make this epicurean Penrose staircase a reality. The reason I have not blogged so much recently is that I have been mostly eating leftovers.

I will shortly be moving house you see, and must bid adieu to the 70’s style kitchen that I have been calling my own.

Farewell, my ugly.

So I have been systematically emptying the cupboards and keeping the fridge contents to a bare minimum. As practical as this will be come moving weekend, it means that my dinner options this week have been sadly limited.

It has also forced me to be inventive. The main meal of Monday is refried and served as a side dish on Tuesday. Tuesday is thrown in a soup for lunch on Wednesday, while Wednesday evening is rolled up in a fajita for Thursday. And so on and so forth. Leftovers are the ultimate convenience food - what could be more convenient than something you've already cooked?

It is this dedication to the leftover cause that has led me to discover onion pasta.

I wanted some spicy onion relish to go alongside some burgers, so I fried up a Spanish onion in some chilli oil (which is really quite spicy now, by the way) with a little salt and sugar to help it caramelise. The next day I was stuck and only had pasta in the cupboard. So I boiled that up, melted some butter in a pan, added some garlic, thyme and the left over onions. They didn’t need to cook, just warm through. Once the pasta was done I stirred it into the onion mixture.

Reader, it was damn fine eating.