I use a KitchenAid stand mixer my Mom gave me. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a cool Mom with a spare mixer, you can find them on Craig’s List or on Amazon. If you can’t afford one, you will need to build up some arm strength and get some quality bowls. Glass or Pyrex bowls are great; completely non-reactive and they make sets that nest. (Something else you will need is somewhere to store all this crap!) Stainless steel bowls are also useful. Get some.

As far as mixing goes, you need some spatulas. Look for silicone. They will last a long time and are heat-safe. Target has a great selection of inexpensive ones. You will also need at least two whisks. Get a pretty big one (9-15 inches) with thick, sturdy wires. If you can get one with silicone coating, even better. Then you will need a whisk with thin, flexible wires for things like whipped cream and meringues and beating eggs.

And tongs. Get some tongs. They need to be sturdy and well made. the cheap stamped shiny ones will fail on you. It’s better to spend a few more bucks to get a set or two that will last instead of having one break or bend and drop a 4 pound roast on your foot.

You will need some saute pans. They come in a few different flavors: Sauteuse and Sauteur. Sauteuse is the basic, curved-side pan.

Sauteur is the straight sided pan.

Unfortunately, these terms have become confused and conflated. Don’t worry about it. You need a quality non-stick pan of each type. Anywhere from 8 to 12 inches will work. The hard anodized are better than the sprayed-on nonstick coatings. Get ones with lids if possible.

You also need a non-coated one. This is for pan-frying, simmering and poaching. You actually want some of the food to stick to the bottom, creating what is called “fond” in French. This is released by deglazing with some liquid and dissolves the flavorful stuff for sauces, etc.

Here’s a warning. If you are cooking with a non-stick of any sort, use the proper utensils. Silicone coated whisks, wooden spoons or spatulas, plastic spoons or silicone spatulas, etc.

If I see you stirring something in a non-stick with a metal fork, I will come to your house and kick you in the junk.

Treat your equipment nicely, please.

More stuff later. But now, some Descendants.

This should be a link to Amazon to find the baking text I refer to so often.

Between homework and dicking around on facebook, I have run out of time to post more recipes. However. You can look forward to directions to make stock (vegetable, chicken, beef, pork or the always popular “what do I have in the fridge and freezer Stock”)

I’ll also show you how to make Sriracha Salt, the best seasoning in the whole damn world. I’ll give you even more options to combat the overabundance of summer squash and zucchini many of you are “suffering.”

I made some bitchin’ tacos and I’ll be sure to give you some tips on how to make every Tuesday an amazing Taco Tuesday! Tequila is optional. Cerveza is not.

I’ll post some more pics of stuff I eat, as well as stuff I have learned to bake in school. Well, I have to be up in six hours, so I will bid you all a fond “Oi! It’s bed for you, ya sod!”

Unca Mo

I promise some pics, some recipes and some more punk rock. Soon. Just freaking busy this weekend.

Mo

I have some 300 pics of food I have cooked in the last year. Some of it was for class, some for catering gigs, a couple of shots of food I cooked for my friends’ parties and several pics of food I cooked because I was just fucking hungry.

Keep checking and the photos should be up sometime soon.

I have some cool stuff planned, but I am off to a bachelor party.

Mo

If you want to see what I do at the paper, check it out!

http://issuu.com/cnmchronicle

thecnmchronicle.wordpress.com

Some of you will already have most or all of this. If so, go and listen to some punk which I am posting in a bit. If not, and money is tight, like it has been for me, check out thrift stores, yard sales and used restaurant supply stores. I got my giant 10-gallon stock pot for 22 bucks at a used equipment store.

You need a knife. Get a good one. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be forged steel. Don’t get some Ginsu serrated crap. Those knifes suck. You will want one with about an 8 inch blade. This is the typical chef’s knife. Go ahead and get the best one you can afford.

Wusfhof and Henkels make decent chef’s knives for under a hundred bucks.

You will need a paring knife for jobs where your chef’s knife is simply too big. You will probably want at least two of these. I recommend getting one good forged paring knife, and one or more of the stamped steel knives in a different shape. I have a bird beak or tourne knife with a plastic handle and sheath I picked up for less than 5 bucks and I use it very often.

That should be it, to start. As you do more complicated work, you may find you want a flexible boner (hee hee) or a large carver, but a Chef’s knife and a few small knives should do the trick.

You need a cutting board. DO NOT use the tempered glass boards. They will ruin the edge on your knife. I have fallen in love with the laminated bamboo boards available at most specialty cooking stores. Or here:

http://www.totallybamboo.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=44&CFID=13223809&CFTOKEN=bb1559dba1207da1-822BB978-26B9-7B27-ADB9AC6F4184FCE2

You can also get plastic cutting boards, but I really like using something from a renewable source. If you like plastic, try here: http://www.acemart.com/cutlery/plastic-cutting-boards/abc-valueline-white-plastic-cutting-board-aaacbp18/prod4577.html

End grain wood cutting boards are great and will last forever, but they are expensive. If you can afford one, great. Get back to me with your recommendations.

You need a stock pot. Actually, you will need two. The size will depend on a number of things. How much cooking are you looking to do? The more stuff that goes through your kitchen, the more scraps you will have for stock and the larger a stock pot you will need. Storage. Do you have room to store a bunch of stock? If so, get a big stock pot and make large batches. Making stock is time consuming even for a tiny amount. Making more saves time in the long run. I have a 4-gallon enamel, a 6-gallon and a 10-gallon. I often make stock in the big one and reduce it to save on storage space.

Decide how big you want and get one. Then get another at least half the capacity. You will need the second one to transfer the stock to while you strain it.

Speaking of straining, you will need some type of strainer. I have a couple of china caps 

like this one. These are great for straining the stock from the stuff you made the stock from. The perforated style is pretty inexpensive. There are strainers called Chinois that are much finer and have a mesh instead. They are better for straining sauces and stuff and are much more expensive. 

A good sturdy colander will work too, but will not strain as fine as either of the above. You will want a colander as well.

You will need some good spoons and ladles. Make sure you get at least one spoon that is long enough to stir the very bottom of your biggest stock pot when it is full. Trust me on this.

I’ll post my procedure for making stock soon. As a matter of fact I think I’ll make fish stock Friday. You should get a start by saving stuff for stock. Remember though. A stock pot is not a trash can. The only stuff that should go in there is stuff you would eat but don’t because it’s the trimmings or peels of stuff you did eat. I save all the skins from my onions, all the ends and peelings from my carrots (well washed!) The ends and greens of celery stalks. Put a gallon zipper bag in the freezer and every time you end up with scraps, toss ’em in the bag. It will add up quickly.

Damn CNM and the whole scheduling process. I got into my last required cooking lab (Global Cooking). Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30 p.m. until almost 9 p.m. My Intro to Education class? Mondays 6 p.m. to 9. At least my Educational Psych class is online. So now I have to completely change my schedule from getting up at 5 a.m. every day.

Feh. I suppose I can still get up dumb early and fiddle about in the kitchen. I’ll take notes and pictures so you all can share my pain/triumphs.

Good night all, 5 a.m. is earlier than I ever imagined. Still.

I am going to assume a level of kitchen skills and equipment. Plus a level of punk rock knowledge. I really can’t help you with the punk rock thing, but I will try anyway.

If you don’t have basic knife skills, find someone to teach you. Unless you live close. I will trade knife lessons for stock ingredients.  If you don’t have an oven and a stove, you are just checking this blog out like watching porn when your erogenous zones are broken.

I will be putting together a list of tools and equipment you will need to replicate the recipes I post. Some of the tools and equipment are cheap as hell and easy to find. Others are fucking expensive and you will have to get those on your own. Or sometimes your Mom ships stuff to you. Or your Dad gives you a gift certificate. That is cool even into your 40s. Hm. Sometimes even cooler.

Stay tuned for a comprehensive list of stuff everyone in the world should really have in the kitchen.

My buddy and former roomie Tim was in town today so I didn’t even get my homework done. I gotta sleep. Baking lab is a cruel (and early) mistress.