Tools of the Trade

I have some tools of the trade in the drawer and countertop next to my cooktop. Let me start by writing that my kitchen is not brand spanking new. It's from the 1960s and is slightly wider than a galley kitchen. It's got a gas wall oven that will not cook steaks in the broiler without setting off the smoke alarm. Then there's the cooktop. When I bought the condo almost three years ago one of the burners wouldn't turn on and the exhaust fan was coated with grease. I eventually removed it myself and closed the wall with drywall and had an electrician put in an overhead vent. Anyhow, enough DIY. The cooktop was also repaired by a very strong repairman. Now I'm firing on all 4 burners.

George came into the kitchen the other night and said "I wanna see you cook with all 4 of those burners!" Was that a challenge? So I got out some of my "tools of the trade" and got to work making Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and 'faux' Naan. By faux I mean I took some oldish flat bread and warmed it up with butter. By the end of the night, that man had a lotta dishes to clean, let me tell you!

You will see on top my tools of the trade. There are two pepper grinders- one is traditional black pepper and the other is Grains of Paradise which I put on at the last minute to enhance certain dishes and veggies. I read about it in Amanda Hesser's "Cooking for Mr. Latte". Great foodie read. Check out the blog she co-founded- food52. She saw where writing was headed- online- and has a great thing going for food writing. I visit that site a lot! I've listed it at the bottom.

What's in the nesting chicken, you ask? Why that's my salt- kosher salt to be exact. I do not cook with iodized salt. That's for the table, not for cooking darlings- that's just how I roll.
It will not melt on you right away but it wakes up your food and stays with you throughout the cooking process. Go ask your chem teacher to explain the rest, okay?

Okay, now don't ask me to explain why I read MSL (Martha Stewart Living)- it was free when I cashed in some airline miles I wasn't using. I basically like her cookie recipe at the back of the every issue and laugh at the calendar she insists on printing in the front. Like I care how often Martha does yoga every month?

I do adore Real Simple though. There's something that's worth schlepping over 26 bucks a year for that mag. I can thank the re-org of my closet and how to defrost meat properly to that publication.