cooks and their tools

Every cook, be they good or bad, keeps certain things in their kitchen which they consider essentials.  When it comes down to it, to make good food, you need next to nothing.  A steak thrown over a fire is good. Raw fish is good.  Neither of these, at their most basic require a whole lot of equipment, but playing with toys to make food look as good as it tastes is fun at times. I sometimes go fancy. But mostly i go basic.  For me, food is about flavor more than appearance on a day-to-day basis.  Sure, I have fancy specialty toys hidden away in my pantry, and big tools stored on a wire rack in my living room. But here are the toys, tools, and utensils I use all the time.  These serve to make me more efficient, to keep me from burning my hands, and, on rare occasions, to make my food prettier.  Some of these things, I use just for fun.  The blow torch, for instance.

For the most part, the tools pictured above fall into the basic and everyday category, from the coffee grinder, which I like to use to grind whole, freshly toasted spices, to the knives, which I use for, well, knife-y stuff. Like any cook worth their salt, I take good care of my knives.  I hone them every time I use them, sharpen them frequently, and keep them clean, dry, and stored properly.  I wouldn't say my knives are my babies -- I'm not really into babies -- but they're pretty special to me.

Of course, there are some tools that I use just once in a blue moon, tools are a bit like the proverbial dream guy--nice to look at, pleasant to have around, and fun to play with. The little cake/cornbread mold pictured above is made of cast iron.  I found it at a thrift store in San Diego, where i paid next to nothing, and it made me super happy.  Also, this little Le Creuset casserole dish (a gift from my mother) is pretty fun to look at. I love how cheerful it is,  and I love that it's the perfect size for little individual desserts (which I'm doing less and less as I try and lose weight) and dinners.  I live alone, and cook for just myself a lot of the time, so having cute little one serving dishes is awesome. 

After a 45 minute run and lots of weight training, it's bedtime for me.  One of the things this blog will focus on is my struggle with my weight as a foodie, and a big part of that is the working out.  Goodnight!