A Functional Kitchen

As more of us live in cities, in smaller spaces, it is time to consider a functional kitchen that makes life easier for the cook(s).

A question on Chowhound today was if magnetic knife racks are safe. I’ve always hated wooden knife blocks and the thought that one can buy them with those laser knives that never need sharpening and can cut wood and then a tomato.

Knives come from personal choice. It took me some time to get my 10″ chef and 4″ paring knives for cooking school by asking and handling the knives. We’re talking forged, full tang knives. No-one is paying me for this but what works best for me and my hands is Henckels Four-Star.

For years I’ve had a sturdy magnetic knife rack that holds at least 12 knives, all facing the same way and grouped in order of size and function: chef; santoku; bread; boning (meat and fish) and paring/specialty. No knife has ever fallen. All the blades are pointed down. I wash and dry them, place and take them off carefully.

The hefty mag strip (held in place by anchors) is better than a knife block and certainly better than a kitchen drawer, even with knife guards. Yes, I have knife guards, a knife suitcase and roll-up case. I’m a knife nerd. I do have a Kyocera ceramic santoku that is safely in a drawer in a knife guard, as ceramic does not stick to magnetic knife bars.

Keeping my kitchen counter clean is a matter of keeping mail off it and dusting/polishing it a few times a day as our place tends to collect dust and black granite shows everything. So I’ve few kitchen items on the counters.

I prefer an open kitchen with stools for guests on the other side, and very few items on the counters. In a small space I’ve a 5 qt. Kitchenaid mixer, a crock with my favorite utensils next to the stove for easy access, a Kitchenaid food processor and blender. No pay from my Kitchenaid friends, neither sought nor would be accepted.

Also, there’s a toaster and electric tea kettle, which I fell in love with in the UK and saved me living in the mountains when I couldn’t get water to boil on the stove for tea. Salt and pepper, and that’s it. I try to have a bowl of fruit around to keep my dear husband out of the Cherry Garcia…..

It’s funny that in Texas people just want big kitchens, not functional ones. My mother-in-law had one of those for many years and has now redesigned her kitchen to be more functional. We have multi-day cooking marathons for holidays and my only problem is that I don’t know anymore where anything has been stored. The kitchen looks lovely, though, and functions beautifully and even on a ranch my city dog is welcome as she gets underfoot at times but licks up the crumbs making cleaning up easier.

In our current kitchen, once I placed glasses and plates and everything in the cupboards I had no pantry so we made one in the “tech center.” Thanks to my mother and husband’s grandmother we have china service for 18. We have a table that seats four. But now I’ve a pantry that I keep open, I thought of a screen to hide the spices and flour and sugar and cans of tomatoes but then I realized I’m a cook and will always be one. We may have great views but live in a small place and make do and I do like my open galley kitchen. Cook something today! Dee

ps If you want to hear about a specific subject please let me know. My goal is 2,000 posts and blog retirement. There are 78 to go. Now 77.