"the Kitchn" news and stories

We've already acknowledged our obsession with IKEA glassware. Now over at The Kitchn (the design arm of Apartment Therapy) they are waxing poetic about the design of Ikea's new spring kitchen accessories from the stylie triple-threat servingware above (TROLSK) to some "cake doilies" called -- no joke -- DRÖMMAR. Um, are we the only ones who think that maybe sometimes the Swedes just make this stuff up to trick us? Like, they just started putting Elven lingo in these catalogs years ago and are waiting to see if we'll catch on?

Anyways. Check out the 15 items The Kitchn has their collective, design-nerdy eye on. They're as curious as we are to see which ones stand up in the kitchen (report back if you've tried one!), and none of the featured items will cause you to shell out more than a ten-spot.

Back at the end of August, my cousin and his wife had their second child. In the face of this happy news, I did what any loving relative would do. I pulled down a casserole pan and started cooking. I put together a baked pasta dish with browned organic sausage, lots of wilted spinach, ricotta cheese, homemade marinara sauce and whole wheat elbows.

However, when I turned up with it at their door, instead of looking relieved to have a meal ready to pop in the oven, my aunt (who was there taking care of the two-year-old) looked harried. I wasn't the first to bring a dish by that day, nor was I the even the third. Their refrigerator was bursting at the seams with deli containers of pasta salad, roasted chickens from the local gourmet market and a pot of turkey chili. If only MealBaby had been around just a few short months ago, we could have avoided that traffic jam of food.

MealBaby, you ask? It's a new (free) online service that allows you to organize and schedule meals for new parents, people recovering from illness or surgery and anyone else who just needs a few homecooked meals. Once you have an account (and signing up is easy), you just set up a meal calendar for a friend, family member or yourself. You can invite as many people as you'd like to participate, and once they sign up for mealtime slot, the system blocks out the date and sends them a reminder email a day in advance. People can even participate from far away, as there's also an option to buy a gift certificate to a grocery store or restaurant built into the system.

It's a brilliant way to coordinate meals and ensure that your lasagna is greeted with an appreciative smile instead of an overwhelmed grimace.

[via The Kitchn]

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It may not be difficult chopping up a block of chocolate, but here's a tip to make it that much easier.

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All summer long, I've been buying up bags of tomatoes, quarts of peaches and at least two melons a week. I can't get enough of the sweet flavors and amazing freshness of the produce from my local farms and markets. I have, however, had more than enough of the fruit flies that often tag along with my edible hauls. For the last two months, my kitchen has offered shelter to these diminutive insects and their flitting around is starting to make me feel truly crazy.

Thankfully, just as I was about to round the bend and consider stripping my kitchen bare in order to free myself of the fruit fly plague, Re-Nest has come through with a technique for getting rid of these pests. It involves a cone-shaped piece of paper and a glass of apple cider vinegar and is apparently supposed to work wonders. I'm planning on setting one up when I get home tonight. Hopefully the fruit flies will soon be no more!

[via The Kitchn]

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I am currently totally and completely enamored of Faye Hess. I discovered her over the weekend, while catching up on the backlog of feeds in my reader. She is a New York City-based (well, Queens to be exact) chef who has made a series of four cooking videos that are entertaining, instructive and appealingly quirky. Oh, and did I mention that her food looks delicious?

During the nicely edited and captioned videos, she carries on a conversation with the camera that is so natural, passionate and easy that you can readily imagine that you are actually standing in her long, slightly slant-y kitchen with her. While preparing a garlic and butter sauce for freshly made gnocchi, she holds up a handful of sage to the camera man (who I'm guessing is her husband) so he can enjoy the scent. In that moment, I inhaled deeply myself, expecting a noseful of of rich, green woodiness. All I got was the faint wisps of bacon from the morning before.

Thanks to her inspiration, I'm planning a gnocchi attempt soon. I've also subscribed to her blog and ordered her book on Lulu (and I'm counting down the days until it arrives). She's made a passionate fan out of me, and I'm certain she'll do the same to you.


[via The Kitchn]

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