Cooking Clutter #4: Kate
Kate shows us around her Massachusetts kitchen.
Kate is a social worker and mom to 2 humans and 1 dog who crochets, collages, and embroiders. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Chris. Let’s see what she's got cooking.
Who are you 3 dream dinner party guests? What would you serve them?
The person I would most like to invite to dinner is Stephen King. He's welcome to bring his spouse, Tabitha, an author in her own right, and his son, Owen, who also writes. He comes across as a down-to-earth person with a fantastic sense of humor, and he would definitely have an amazing tale or two to share during the meal. While I'd ask what they wanted or liked to eat to make the meal pleasant for them, my favorite thing to cook and eat is soup! Making a boule from scratch, a pie for dessert, and some kind of soup is ideal to me. Heck, why not say the meal is in October, one of the best months for weather, especially for people who like fresh-baked bread, soup, and pies. It's the perfect month to cook these things! We could take a stroll through the cemetery near our house as an after dinner walk, fitting for our company!
Tell us about your favorite corner of your kitchen.
The cutting board on the left was made for us by our friend as an anniversary gift. He enjoys woodworking and has been playing around with different types of wood to create artistic cutting boards. It is almost too pretty to use, yet we do use it! The bread bowl has a family story. While this is a newer version, the company that made this is no longer in existence. There is a family bread bowl (any extra large mixing bowl is called a "bread bowl" for whatever reason regardless of it being used for all kinds of things) that was passed from my great, great grandmother to my great grandmother, to my grandmother to my mother, and then to me. The bowl here was given to us as a wedding gift by my uncle and aunt. (Don't tell anyone else who gave us things, yet this is my favorite gift of all as it holds such meaning within our family.)
Tell us about your aprons.
My apron collection hangs on our pantry door and both Chris and I wear them to cook and clean up. I made one of the aprons myself using a pattern I created. Another my mother made and we bought two others. One is from King Arthur Flour Company and another has ducks on it (that one is my favorite)! I absolutely LOVE aprons. Sometimes, after cooking or cleaning, I wear one longer than necessary just because I like the soft, cotton fabric and the design of the material.
Tell us about your favorite kitchen tool.
So, this is going to sound like an advertisement for the Pampered Chef RockCrok and I wish I got some kind of compensation from what I have to say about it! This is a crockpot in its function as shown sitting in the electric base. What is AMAZING about this product is that it is ceramic that is safe for use on the stove top as well as in the oven and refrigerator! I can move from baking a whole chicken in it in the oven to using the base to make stock from the carcass and to make soup, to storing the leftover soup in the fridge, to warming it up again on the stovetop. Now you want one, too, right? I really should get a commission!
What’s the culinary creation you’re most proud of?
Over the years, I took pride in making birthday cakes that are unique and special to my son and daughter. A couple come to mind: a dinosaur cake for my son complete with blue cake that represented the water under the earth's crust and a 3D volcano on the sheetcake foundation that used candles grouped together to smoke and spark and my daughter's thirteenth birthday cake that was a "doll cake" with a twist - one side was Glinda the Good With with pink frosting for her dress and blond hair with a crown and the other was Elphaba (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) complete with green skin I hand-colored, flying monkeys at her feet, and a black frosting dress.
What’s a culinary challenge you’d like to tackle but haven’t yet?
I have yet to make macarons and would love to figure them out and get good at them. What stops me is the time involved. To do this right, so that they come out perfectly every try, you need to let egg whites age, and need to know how to balance liquid and dry flavorings for the filling and shells. I don't believe a class would even help because I am not looking to make "standard" macarons, rather those that experiment with flavor combinations, so it will likely be a lot of trial and error.
Have you taken any cooking or baking classes?
I've taken a couple of one off cooking classes, and a major life goal was going to the sourdough intensive at King Arthur Flour Company in Vermont. (Emphasis on the word "intensive!) My spouse and I went together and we had a great time! We learned so much about sourdough and have a lot of options for using left over starter for various sourdough-based recipes. It was a fast-paced learning environment and was almost information overload in some ways. We weren't even sure what to expect, and we definitely got our money's worth of information! The King Arthur store alone was amazing to spend time in deciding what supplies would be important for our forays into home sourdough experiments.
Does your family have any recipes that have been passed down through the years?
There is a meatball recipe that has been adapted by each generation. It is not a recipe with instructions, rather, you learn to make the meatballs by watching and then engaging the sense of touch to get the right consistency. I know the ingredient options I use and then the "amounts" are determined as I go along. I taught this to my daughter and she has her own take on it and it works!
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