Unusual Kitchen Habits

[TOLady]

I...clean up as I go.

Having worked in kitchens for many years, I still clean as I go. As much as I love cooking, with many of my recipes, it can be quite time-consuming as it is, so the last thing I want to do after hours in the kitchen is look forward to cleaning up!

It's just nice to present the finished meal and sit down and relax to eat it, knowing the clean-up is already done!

My other quirk is that everything must be consumed with chopsticks - and I'm not even Asian! Slows me down and I appreciate the flavours more.

[ApolloSZ]

Steel? at least that's what it's called round my area of the globe.

Thats the one.
Yeah, my friends don't let me have sharp pointy objects now, yet I do Rapier! heh.

[RayvenQ]

Heh, You're suppose to have the steel pointing away from you, my preffered method is pressing the pointy end of the steel against my thigh and doing it that way with the blade facing my leg.

I'm prety good at nto cutting myself ever, well, except for shaving and with an exacto blade but other than that, with kitchen knives, I've but myself maybe once, in my life.

Burns however are the other matter, such a dilemma, you've got a hot tray resting mostly on your forearm, loaded with food that has to go out with a few minutes and every surface on the oven has no clear space, what do you do? Me? I waited about a minute with the hot tray on my arm while someone cleared enough space for me to put it down.

I became so inured to burn injuries that I stopped feeling them.

[mandaliz8704]

I talk to myself when I'm cooking. I don't do it any other time... just when I'm cooking. Mostly when I'm following a recipe, though... so I'm probably just trying to keep the ingredients/measurements straight in my head before I go dumping them into the food.

I am trying to get better about cleaning as I go. I made lasagna one night and wanted to off myself after we ate and I saw the mess I had to contend with on a full belly.

[BethB]

I read new recipes a dozen or so times completely thru before and during cooking.

when i make pancakes or waffles for the boy, I use a pizza cutter to cut things up. Makes life soooo much easier than a fork or knife.

I don't clean as I go because I think it could cause me to miss a step or overcook(drives the hubby mad when I don't clean as go). I just clean one big mess at the end.

[Green_Fairy]

i have a reeeeally bad habit of leaving pots and pans on the stove. i was told once to never put hot pots and pans in a wet/cold sink so i think the habit started from wanting the pot/pan to cool...and then just forget about it. my mom used to nag me all the time and now The Boy does. it's sad...*looks at the stove* heh. there's a pan from breakfast on there. oops.

[NightWatch]

It's not something I do... but, I'm utterly offended by electric ranges. I am insistant on cooking with gas. I had little choice about the apartment I'm living in now and it depresses me that I must cook with electric. I also hate when the bf turns the heat up to high. I refuse to turn up the heat on an electric stove above med-med high. Mostly cuz an electric stove doesn't cool down as fast as a gas stove so if something starts to boil over, you're screwed.

[Eric the Grey]

It's not something I do... but, I'm utterly offended by electric ranges. I am insistant on cooking with gas. I had little choice about the apartment I'm living in now and it depresses me that I must cook with electric. I also hate when the bf turns the heat up to high. I refuse to turn up the heat on an electric stove above med-med high. Mostly cuz an electric stove doesn't cool down as fast as a gas stove so if something starts to boil over, you're screwed.

Quoted for Truth! I absolutely hate cooking on an electric range. Unfortunately, the apartment has one.

Anyway, I too am a cleaner. I rinse off stuff as I go and pile them in the sink, and once I've got everything cooking, I'll load it all into the dishwasher to clear out the sink.

I hate having dishes sitting in the sink for any length of time. My older sister and brother in law left dishes for days sometimes, and it drove me nuts when I lived with them.



Eric the Grey

[Jester]

Once got asked if I knew how to sharpen knives on a skillet (I think? - the long pole with ridges)

It's called a steel.

A skillet is generally a large wide flat pan with a bit of a brim that one would use to sautee or otherwise cook stuff on top of a stove. (I have often said that if you give me a knife, a cutting board, and a skillet, I can cook just about anything!)

100 quarts/24 gallons

I hate to be a math geek here, but 100 quarts is 25 gallons, not 24.

My other quirk is that everything must be consumed with chopsticks - and I'm not even Asian! Slows me down and I appreciate the flavours more.

Must really slow you down with certain dishes. Like steak, soup, ice cream, sandwiches, ribs, corn on the cob, and burritos, among other things.

I'm prety good at nto cutting myself ever

I have the opposite problem...I am quite skilled at cutting myself. I do it fairly often, between cutting up fruit at the bar and doing prep work in my home kitchen. It's to the point where my roommate isn't even surprised any more when I call him in to help bandage me up!

I hate having dishes sitting in the sink for any length of time.

My mother is the same way. Even if we tell her we're going to wash something shortly, if it's in the sink, she is pretty much compelled to wash it immediately. Very odd.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I'm used to doing everything in stages . . . such as cleaning as I go. But then, I have limited counter and table space to work with so unless I clean up, I have NO room to work with. It also makes for less mess to clean up after dinner.

Some things I'll do when in the kitchen include:

Turn on the television and spend a couple of minutes flipping through the onscreen guide to find something to watch, unless it's 7 p.m on a weeknight (when I automatically turn now to TBS to watch My Name is Earl.)

While I've got the meat frying and the taters on cooking, I'll either be prepping other stuff to get in the microwave to cook or getting a pan of sliced french bread ready and buttered so it can go into the oven under the broiler after everything else is done.

Some habits I have other than the tv flipping thing . . . I'll pour my creamer into my coffee cup first, the pour the coffee over it. That way I don't have to stir it up - it stirs itself.

And I have to have that certain knife to slice my butter thin to go onto the bread. Mom has one that's a very slim, curved blade that she got from one of her patients years ago and it's razor sharp. She also has a stainless steel knife that I use to peel potatoes with. I don't like a peeler - they're too uncomfortable. I'm used to using a smallish knife and this one is perfect for that.

Last thing I do after cleaning up after dinner before I go to bed: set the coffee pot up for the next morning and turn the timer on. If I'm off the next day, the timer stays off so I can just turn it on when I get up. But if it's a workday, the timer is set and it makes the morning a bit more bearable when I can wake up and smell the coffee brewing in the pot.

And I wipe my counters with a dish towel after I've wiped them clean with the soapy dishrag to dry them off. I've been told I'm weird for doing that, but that's my habit and it ain't changin'.

[McGoddess09]

It's not something I do... but, I'm utterly offended by electric ranges. I am insistant on cooking with gas.

Same here!

DGoddess, I also do that. It's more out of habit from work because we have to put in the cream,then sugar, then coffee. When I did my demonstration speech on how to make coffee for Intro to Public Speaking, people thought I was nuts for showing them that.

[TruthHurts]

I have a habit of leaving every cupboard and drawer I use open. It drives my boyfriend crazy.

[AccountingDrone]

It's called a steel.




I hate to be a math geek here, but 100 quarts is 25 gallons, not 24.

only if you want to constantly boil stuff over ....

[mandaliz8704]

I have a habit of leaving every cupboard and drawer I use open. It drives my boyfriend crazy.

I do this as well, and I usually whack my head on them and curse at the moron that left the cabinet open.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Unusual kitchen habits?

hmm...sometimes I cook stuff...