Guys, I couldn't be happier than the last few days.
As I mentioned in a different thread, in Brazil cooking is way more than "preparing the food because we need nutrients", it's culturally seen as an act of love, kinda "old school". In Brazil, not having a kitchen that is really functional or not knowing how to cook is seen as horrible as murdering somebody.
Here in the USA, things are very different. People don't usually have the time to cook, the microwave is the best friend for many people, almost everything you can imagine can be found frozen and ready or, some people simply live their lives eating fast food, others eat only junk food and when they try the minimal effort to have a better nutrition, they go to CVS and buy tons of jars of tablets, gummed and shakes. Gosh, do people really need to waste money buying vitamin C when the only thing they need to do is lift their heavy butts from the chair and eat a fresh orange?
Anyway...
I always LOVED to cook, had the best cooking instructors in my life (my mom and my grandma) plus some "formal" education just for fun. Since I moved here almost 5 years ago, I became completely "Americanized", and that includes a whole year eating only in restaurants, from fast food to fancy ones.
Of course that's not the same as homecooking.
Slowly things started setting down and I could slowly start cooking every now and then. Also learning more about US ingredients, one or other item I can't find here, discovering ingredients that don't exist there, fighting with everything "different" in my kitchen, as I left everything in Brazil when I moved here so even the pots and pans were "strangers" to me. You know, you're super used with one thing and then suddenly you kitchen no longer exists, absolutely everything is different, it reaches a point that even the oven behavior annoys you because it's different (not worse or better, just different) from what you're used to and you feel a little bit "lost" in your own kitchen.
It took me some time but now I'm getting used. I hate my kitchen because its too small, cramped (compared to the kitchen i had in my apartment in Brazil that was the same size as the living room I have now) but with some creativity, I was somewhat able to make it functional.
One thing I always loved was the fresh vegetables my family owns a small farm and every week, sometimes twice a week, the employee that takes care of the farm brought to my apartment 1 or 2 giant crates of fresh everything. I remember, depending on the season it was a nightmare with the superproduction of an specific crop like "omg, how I'm going to consume 50 lbs of tomatoes in 4 days?" Jesus! Now its the grape season, so ok, grape juice for breakfast, grape mousse grape cake, for lunch grapes in the salad, more grape juice, bread with grapes is it OK if toss some grapes in the bathtub for a grape bath? Can I use grapes to do laundry? Things like that.
COVID came, together we had the initial panic, restaurants closed, confined home, bored... you know what? I wave an awesome stove (I really LOVE my stove). A couple of years ago my husband gave me an awesome stand mixer, an other friend gave me some All Clad pots and pans that I didn't touch for over 1 year. It's time to do something and start bringing life to this kitchen. It's definitely not acceptable that I have tons of high end stuff and I enter the kitchen only to brew coffee.
I started cooking again and you know, one thing pulls another, my house slowly started looking more like "home" and it finally came the time that I was really pissed off with dehydrated or store herbs.
Other thing that I was missing a lot, having my home looking like a "jungle", with plants everywhere (I have a greenish thumb, not perfect, but also I'm not a plant serial killer).
Yesterday darryl and I finished the second stage of my suspended garden. I'm slowly transforming my small urban balcony into something more "natural looking" and cozy.
One of the things I love in the space I'm creating is cooking outdoors. It not only helps avoiding sticky walls in the kitchen, but also makes me feel "free", not hitting my butt in the dishwasher or having to squeeze my belly to open a cabinet.
Plants came, I spent some time dealing with them, transferring them to the awesome planters my husband gave me. It's just the beginning, but slowly we'll get there.
For now we have parsley, basil, rosemary and an apple tree. Of course i want more but those things are sooooooooooo expensive i have to slow down a bit. I have the perfect garden in my mind, with elevated beds and several different crops in an area I have on the back (I need to see if my landlord authorizes). My main target is being 100% autonomous for anything that is vegetable. Store only for all meats and industrialized stuff.
Now I'm just waiting to find the exact plant i want to put in the fountain (I even know which plant (saracenia) and it will be called "Audrey 2". Since I was a child, I always loved carnivorous plants but in Brasil the weather only allowed me to have venus fly traps, pitcher plants and of course, pineapples. and now I finally have the perfect weather to have some species that can't survive the Brazilian weather. If i could afford, I'd travel near San Francisco only to visit a giant CP nursery and finally see a pinguicula or a dresser live in front of me.
Its kinda weird, an industrial designer engineer doing architect work designing a garden but well, that's what I have in hands.
Today I pampered my suspended garden and OCD-detailed the grill. Tomorrow i'll have fun preparing a barbecue for my husband and daughters. The weather is so nice that maybe I'll serve it in the balcony.
I'm happy and wanted to share this happiness with you guys.
As I mentioned in a different thread, in Brazil cooking is way more than "preparing the food because we need nutrients", it's culturally seen as an act of love, kinda "old school". In Brazil, not having a kitchen that is really functional or not knowing how to cook is seen as horrible as murdering somebody.
Here in the USA, things are very different. People don't usually have the time to cook, the microwave is the best friend for many people, almost everything you can imagine can be found frozen and ready or, some people simply live their lives eating fast food, others eat only junk food and when they try the minimal effort to have a better nutrition, they go to CVS and buy tons of jars of tablets, gummed and shakes. Gosh, do people really need to waste money buying vitamin C when the only thing they need to do is lift their heavy butts from the chair and eat a fresh orange?
Anyway...
I always LOVED to cook, had the best cooking instructors in my life (my mom and my grandma) plus some "formal" education just for fun. Since I moved here almost 5 years ago, I became completely "Americanized", and that includes a whole year eating only in restaurants, from fast food to fancy ones.
Of course that's not the same as homecooking.
Slowly things started setting down and I could slowly start cooking every now and then. Also learning more about US ingredients, one or other item I can't find here, discovering ingredients that don't exist there, fighting with everything "different" in my kitchen, as I left everything in Brazil when I moved here so even the pots and pans were "strangers" to me. You know, you're super used with one thing and then suddenly you kitchen no longer exists, absolutely everything is different, it reaches a point that even the oven behavior annoys you because it's different (not worse or better, just different) from what you're used to and you feel a little bit "lost" in your own kitchen.
It took me some time but now I'm getting used. I hate my kitchen because its too small, cramped (compared to the kitchen i had in my apartment in Brazil that was the same size as the living room I have now) but with some creativity, I was somewhat able to make it functional.
One thing I always loved was the fresh vegetables my family owns a small farm and every week, sometimes twice a week, the employee that takes care of the farm brought to my apartment 1 or 2 giant crates of fresh everything. I remember, depending on the season it was a nightmare with the superproduction of an specific crop like "omg, how I'm going to consume 50 lbs of tomatoes in 4 days?" Jesus! Now its the grape season, so ok, grape juice for breakfast, grape mousse grape cake, for lunch grapes in the salad, more grape juice, bread with grapes is it OK if toss some grapes in the bathtub for a grape bath? Can I use grapes to do laundry? Things like that.
COVID came, together we had the initial panic, restaurants closed, confined home, bored... you know what? I wave an awesome stove (I really LOVE my stove). A couple of years ago my husband gave me an awesome stand mixer, an other friend gave me some All Clad pots and pans that I didn't touch for over 1 year. It's time to do something and start bringing life to this kitchen. It's definitely not acceptable that I have tons of high end stuff and I enter the kitchen only to brew coffee.
I started cooking again and you know, one thing pulls another, my house slowly started looking more like "home" and it finally came the time that I was really pissed off with dehydrated or store herbs.
Other thing that I was missing a lot, having my home looking like a "jungle", with plants everywhere (I have a greenish thumb, not perfect, but also I'm not a plant serial killer).
Yesterday darryl and I finished the second stage of my suspended garden. I'm slowly transforming my small urban balcony into something more "natural looking" and cozy.
One of the things I love in the space I'm creating is cooking outdoors. It not only helps avoiding sticky walls in the kitchen, but also makes me feel "free", not hitting my butt in the dishwasher or having to squeeze my belly to open a cabinet.
Plants came, I spent some time dealing with them, transferring them to the awesome planters my husband gave me. It's just the beginning, but slowly we'll get there.
For now we have parsley, basil, rosemary and an apple tree. Of course i want more but those things are sooooooooooo expensive i have to slow down a bit. I have the perfect garden in my mind, with elevated beds and several different crops in an area I have on the back (I need to see if my landlord authorizes). My main target is being 100% autonomous for anything that is vegetable. Store only for all meats and industrialized stuff.
Now I'm just waiting to find the exact plant i want to put in the fountain (I even know which plant (saracenia) and it will be called "Audrey 2". Since I was a child, I always loved carnivorous plants but in Brasil the weather only allowed me to have venus fly traps, pitcher plants and of course, pineapples. and now I finally have the perfect weather to have some species that can't survive the Brazilian weather. If i could afford, I'd travel near San Francisco only to visit a giant CP nursery and finally see a pinguicula or a dresser live in front of me.
Its kinda weird, an industrial designer engineer doing architect work designing a garden but well, that's what I have in hands.
Today I pampered my suspended garden and OCD-detailed the grill. Tomorrow i'll have fun preparing a barbecue for my husband and daughters. The weather is so nice that maybe I'll serve it in the balcony.
I'm happy and wanted to share this happiness with you guys.
