How Do You Improvise in the Kitchen?

I've found that I have to improvise just about everything, at least a little bit, when preparing something in someone else's kitchen. I'm at my mom's house for a week and a half, and I keep finding myself having to pivot somewhat.
  • She doesn't have kosher salt or sea salt, so I make things with table salt. I've also learned that I can use table salt to clean a cast iron pan. This is good to know!
  • She has a lot of different seasonings of all kinds, so I often have to substitute those for ones I would have used at my house.
  • The use of kitchen tools is probably the biggest difference. She doesn't have a mandoline, so I had to slice onions with a knife when we made pickled onions. And, on that point, she has exactly one knife that's somewhat sharp. Onions were not fun to cut with a less-than-sharp knife. I told them they were tears of joy because I'm so happy to spend time with her. :laugh:
  • The old standby pans that I use at home are replaced by equivalents that have different properties.
The end result is good, but I do miss my kitchen.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I've found that I have to improvise just about everything, at least a little bit, when preparing something in someone else's kitchen. I'm at my mom's house for a week and a half, and I keep finding myself having to pivot somewhat.
  • She doesn't have kosher salt or sea salt, so I make things with table salt. I've also learned that I can use table salt to clean a cast iron pan. This is good to know!
  • She has a lot of different seasonings of all kinds, so I often have to substitute those for ones I would have used at my house.
  • The use of kitchen tools is probably the biggest difference. She doesn't have a mandoline, so I had to slice onions with a knife when we made pickled onions. And, on that point, she has exactly one knife that's somewhat sharp. Onions were not fun to cut with a less-than-sharp knife. I told them they were tears of joy because I'm so happy to spend time with her. :laugh:
  • The old standby pans that I use at home are replaced by equivalents that have different properties.
The end result is good, but I do miss my kitchen.
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you mean. When I get back to my kitchen and all the equipment works well, the layout suits and the store cupboard contains exactly the same library of ingredients you have buried somewhere in your mind everything just runs so smoothly it's easy to really enjoy the cooking.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I've found that I have to improvise just about everything, at least a little bit, when preparing something in someone else's kitchen. I'm at my mom's house for a week and a half, and I keep finding myself having to pivot somewhat.
  • She doesn't have kosher salt or sea salt, so I make things with table salt. I've also learned that I can use table salt to clean a cast iron pan. This is good to know!
  • She has a lot of different seasonings of all kinds, so I often have to substitute those for ones I would have used at my house.
  • The use of kitchen tools is probably the biggest difference. She doesn't have a mandoline, so I had to slice onions with a knife when we made pickled onions. And, on that point, she has exactly one knife that's somewhat sharp. Onions were not fun to cut with a less-than-sharp knife. I told them they were tears of joy because I'm so happy to spend time with her. :laugh:
  • The old standby pans that I use at home are replaced by equivalents that have different properties.
The end result is good, but I do miss my kitchen.
Click to expand...

My sister has a large pantry that is half empty. What is there is mostly snacks. On her own, she has a few dried herbs, some PAM for cooking oil, some "Lite" salt and a jar of black pepper.

I have been stashing some things in the back corner of her pantry when I'm there.

Like the rest of my family, butter is a killer, so only margarine allowed in her house -- it's MUCH healthier. I buy butter, put it in the back of the fridge, and after a few weeks, she throws it away. She insists it goes bad, because it is dairy.

She has one good chef's knife. I bought it for her. Her pots and pans are all non-stick aluminum, so her utensils are all plastic.

She does have a very nice gas cooktop. I do like using that.

She eats out at least two nights a week, and often three or four times. She does NOT share my enjoyment of cooking.

So yeah, I have to do a lot of shopping and improvising when I am down there, which is a lot now that my parents are fading.

CD
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
In my mind molasses is something you put on the cows feed to increase the milk yield not something we actually eat 🤣
So when I stumble across it listed in American recipes I can't shake the thought Americans eat animal feed 🙄😂
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I bought my first jar of molasses a few months ago. I have yet to open it :laugh:
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I know exactly what you mean. When I get back to my kitchen and all the equipment works well, the layout suits and the store cupboard contains exactly the same library of ingredients you have buried somewhere in your mind everything just runs so smoothly it's easy to really enjoy the cooking.
Click to expand...
Yes! For the pineapple challenge I was cooking in my SIL's kitchen and I kept having to text her to ask if she had this or that or where the blender is kept, etc.

About the blender: she kept the top part of the blender in an under the counter cabinet next to the crockpot but the base of the blender that you plug in was in an upper cabinet on the other side of the kitchen next to the coffee cups :scratchhead:
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
JAS_OH1 doesn’t strike me as the sort who enjoys sticking fingers in jars 😆
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You got that right! I'm more of a tasting spoon kind of person. When I cook, there's a pile of them in the sink.

But I do know what molasses tastes like. I don't even remember why I bought it exactly. It was for a recipe but not sure what because I didn't get around to making it. I think maybe a different pumpernickel bread than the recipe I used previously.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
You got that right! I'm more of a tasting spoon kind of person. When I cook, there's a pile of them in the sink.
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Ditto!

JAS_OH1 said:
I don't even remember why I bought it exactly. It was for a recipe but not sure what because I didn't get around to making it. I think maybe a different pumpernickel bread than the recipe I used previously.
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Lol I’ve just happened upon a bottle of pomegranate molasses and can’t remember what I wanted that for.
I suspect it was Ottolenghi related 😂
 
TastyReuben said:
I was going to find a cute image of Pooh getting into the hunnypot and post that, but googling “Pooh hunnypot memes” led to some very family-unfriendly results! :eek: :laugh:
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Sticking my whole head in the jar...yeah! I've been tempted to do that with a nearly empty jar of peanut butter with the squirrels to see if they'd stick their heads in it.
 
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