"kitchens" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• If you can't satisfy the craving for Girl Scout cookies, try your hand at Samoa Tartlets.
• Don't be afraid to show off your pot rack, spice rack or canned-food cave.
• Batali brings Eataly, a Turin-based Italian food bazaar, to New York -- brewpub included!
• Don't scribble grocery items as they come to mind -- there's a better way.
• Never mind debating white or red wine -- the most important question is: crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
• Get your oopa on with a Greek drink menu.
• Bag some baby bok choy before winter's end.

Garlic clove. Photo: Muffet, Flickr

• It might not win you any suitors, but researchers say that freshly crushed garlic can help your heart.
• Writer Jhumpa Lahiri writes about the inadequate culinary tools housed in the rental kitchens of Cape Cod.
• Gripes about sharing kitchens with friends, from terrible salad dressings to cleaning up other people's messes.
• Beaujolais might not have the most haute reputation, but some winemakers are producing high-quality versions of the vino.
• Iraq's masquf -- a technique that cooks gutted fish in a roaring fire -- is re-gaining popularity.
• Over-harvesting couldn't keep the oysters out of the Chesapeake: Scientists have "re-established a significant population."

I have a love/hate relationship with my kitchen, my stove in particular. My apartment used to belong to my grandparents and so just about everything in the kitchen has been there since 1966 when they moved in. They never cooked much to begin with and in the last ten years of their lives, they ate out exclusively.

I put the counter top you see to the right in last summer, when the old one started to crumble into pieces and the building replaced the dishwasher last fall when the old one lost the ability to clean anything. However, the stove is untouched and it makes my cooking life frustrating on a regular basis. I have five burner settings, which makes any nuance in heat difficult. And do you see the way the oven overhangs the stove? Well, that makes those two rear burners nearly impossible to use when there's stuff on the front, because it's hard to reach without burning yourself. And the underside of the oven is always dirty because it on the front line, catching all the bubbles and splatters from the stove top.

On the plus side, my oven bakes perfectly, heating evenly and always exactly on temperature (not bad for four+ decades) and I never worry about messy projects, because my kitchen is very far from pristine.

Now Slashfoodies, it's your turn. Tell me what you love and what you hate about your kitchen. Take pictures and upload them to our Slashfood Flickr group, so we can all get a peek into the most used room in your house.

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Here at Slashfood we occasionally provide you with "green" information, whether that's an alarming statistic about how much energy it requires to get your food to your table or a new eco-friendly food or kitchen product. If, however, you are interested in going all out and want all the information in one place, kitchen appliance manufacturer Sub-Zero (and Wolf) have launched a website for just that.

Granted, GrowAGreenKitchen.com is a microsite on their own manufacturer's site, so it can be construed as marketing, but still, the information is there. The site is divided into three main sections: energy, construction, and everyday tips, all intended for consumers, builders and kitchen enthusiasts alike. Likely, you aren't going to tear out your old kitchen right now just to build a brand new one, but the every day tips could help you help the environment.

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It never fails.

You create a stunning tablescape a la Sandra Lee in the dining room. You set out a well-stocked bar in the hallway between the dining room and the living room. You even put plates of delicious snacks on the coffee table in the living room. Your dinner party is out there, and yet...

Every one of your guests ends up standing around the kitchen while you are still waiting for the last course to come out of the oven, holding their plates, clutching their cocktails, having the time of their lives. In the kitchen.

Why? Why, unappreciative-of-all-your-entertaining-efforts guests, why?!?!

A book entitled The Warmest Room in the House might have the answer. It studies the evolution of the kitchen over decades through to the 20th century. The book is available from Amazon for $16.47.