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Interests: Alfons Mucha, Archibald Leach, big words, Bob Hicok, Brian Eno, Cat Power, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Masaryk, cheese, clarity, dark chocolate, David Byrne, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Parker, Douglas Adams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Frank O’Hara, Fred Rogers, garlic, Gaudi, Gertrude Stein, ginger, Gustav Klimt, Iva Pekarkova, Jane Austen, Jaromir Nohavica, Jeanette Winterson, Josef Skvorecky, Joseph Campbell, Joss Whedon, Just a Minute, Kate Bush, Kurt Vonnegut, laughing until it hurts, Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen, little kids singing, Lloyd Alexander, mandarin oranges, making lists, Margaret Atwood, Miss Manners, New Yorker, Paul Simon, performance, P.G. Wodehouse, poetry, Rebecca Solnit, Rob Brezsny, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Creeley, salt, Salvador Dali, secrets, silence, Star Trek, Stephen Dunn, Talking Heads, Terry Gilliam, things that stain, This American Life, Tom Waits, T.S. Eliot, vegetable juice, veiled cultural references, vinegar, water, wine, W.H. Auden

what we disagree about when we disagree in the kitchen

COOKING:

Rice does not need to be washed or toasted before it is cooked.
Meat can be cooked in a tablespoon or less of oil.
Rinsing cooked pasta, especially in cold water, is a sin.
Toast should be brown but never black.
Sugar is not an appropriate second ingredient in any savory food.
Most vegetables taste better raw.
Potatoes do not count as "vegetables".
A meal should not take longer than 1 hour to prepare.

WASHING DISHES:
The person who cooks is ideally excused from doing dishes.
When washing dishes, it is important to wash at least all the tableware.
Sometimes this involves two loads, but it is part of "doing the dishes".
It is okay to soak pots overnight.
Dishes that are soaking should soak in the sink.
Emptying the dish drainer is part of washing the dishes.
Putting away the dishes is the last step in doing them.

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6 responses to “what we disagree about when we disagree in the kitchen”

  1. Corbin Avatar
    Corbin

    Food should be tasted before salted or doused. Attempts at kitchen cleanup before the meal is served must be authorized by the cook. Fresh vegetables lightly seasoned are not “boring”.
    ps–enjoyed the Raymond Carver allusion!

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  2. ste3ve Avatar
    ste3ve

    Cooking: We would disagree only in the preparation time. Some meals deserve more than an hour to prepare. Plus, some podcasts I listen to while cooking are longer than an hour.
    Washing Dishes: Unfortunately that which is ideal and that which is real are often very different things.

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  3. tuckova Avatar
    tuckova

    Corbin – Good catch! You know how much I like Raymond Chandleeerrrr…Carver. And I agree with you: People who consider good food simply seasoned or unseasoned to be boring are projecting.

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  4. tuckova Avatar
    tuckova

    S- Everything is an ideal, here, for me, and all ideals have real exceptions (rinsing pasta in cold water before making pasta salad is of course fine) and real world exceptions (“I didn’t have time to do all the dishes b/c: EMERGENCY”), but these are the issues that seem to come up more than those exceptions should allow.

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  5. ste3ve Avatar
    ste3ve

    I simply meant that ideally I wouldn’t have to do the dishes when I cook, but in reality I do. ^_^

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  6. Lake Boggan Avatar
    Lake Boggan

    Eggs should always be basted or scrambled in real butter (period)

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