Yeah so for the next six-plus weeks we don’t have a kitchen. By choice—the goal is to wind up with a functional kitchen (and downstairs toilet; do not forget the toilet)—but nevertheless. What we have is a set-up. The stove and dishwasher are wrapped and taking up much of the dining room. The rest consists of our fridge, dining table, and the various garbage bins that would normally be stored under the sink. We do not have a microwave or hot plate, nor anywhere to put these. There is oatmeal on top of a bookcase, but also no way to make oatmeal.
We’ve had to rethink basically everything, and what’s weird is, it kind of works? All this effort to have a better kitchen than the one we had, and now we have a much worse set-up, but it’s sort of fine. Lots of going upstairs to the bathroom’s potable-water sink and downstairs to the basement’s questionable-water sink. But it’s OK. Maybe kitchens are overrated?
Of course a part of me is thinking, we could get our old kitchen reinstalled, complete with the too-high countertops, and I’d be like, wow, a kitchen with a sink in it, so why are we doing this, but I’m sure having countertops I can comfortably reach will be an improvement.
Dining out or takeout or what have you—the obvious for this situation, and still vastly cheaper than renting a place with a kitchen—was also a concern, as our household manages severe food allergies. Between that and the non-restaurant-aged children and the saving up for a pantry toilet I basically didn’t know what we even could eat around here, because we haven’t tried.
Well. I am now the world expert on what’s sold in Roncesvalles and doesn’t contain sesame or walnut. Surprisingly a lot! But it’s not obvious (a Venezuelan restaurant, some Italian prepared food, among others), so this has been a bit of an adventure. It did involve me realizing after the fact that I had let a baby eat about a gallon of aioli, an ingredient I’m not sure I’ve ever knowingly eaten myself, and started wondering whether I was worrying about food allergies when I should also be concerned with the food safety implications of feeding a young toddler what I only later realized may have been raw egg, but apart from my now chipotle-aioli-stained jeans, no harm done.
There was also the bit where I went out and ate the price of the renovation worth of ramen and kimchi, because a snacks-type dinner can be nutritionally balanced and child-friendly and is basically what they have when we do have a kitchen but I reached a point where I needed A Meal.
But we do have a system, so the great, looming what will we do?? has answered itself. The Instant Pot sauté function (eggs with kale) and waffle iron have each made an oven-substitute appearance. The rice cooker is on standby. I am in pasta withdrawal, but I have Week 2 to figure out what setting on the Instant Pot gets you an al dente result.
¨We’ve had to rethink basically everything, and what’s weird is, it kind of works?¨
Having made chicken in sour cream with noodles on a campfire stove once, you have my sympathies, but also, you can make it work.
¨(and downstairs toilet; do not forget the toilet)¨
I haven´t; I´m still back there at, ´Why not an addition?' which I am guessing would be due to permitting and money.
¨food safety implications of feeding a young toddler what I only later realized may have been raw egg¨
Yeah... is it fresh aioli or out of a jar or whatever. Pretty sure it´s not going to be fresh aioli because that stuff goes off quick.
¨I have Week 2 to figure out what setting on the Instant Pot gets you an al dente result.¨
That´s why I never got one, I remember: there´s no straight boil function. This might not work, but you could put a bunch of water and salt in it and try the Saute High function and see if it´ll boil it without pressure. If it does it´s the equivalent of a pot on the stove. The alternative is the steam function (same drill). Then you don´t have to mess with guessing the pressure: boil water, shove pasta into boiling water and wait 8 minutes.
elm
trying to pressure cook pasta sounds like a recipe for a gloppy mess