FatalTheGod posted:

FatalTheGod posted:

Hoping someone has some insight on this as this has been driving my girlfriend and I crazy! We recently moved into a new apartment in NYC, and we love to cook. However the counter layout of the kitchen has made setting up a dish/drying rack less than ideal (and we don't have a dishwasher).




So far we have considered...
- Over the sink racks, but the faucet is too tall and cabinets are too low for anything meaningful.
- Laying out a drying mat on the stove, but if we are cooking at the same time this becomes impossible.
- Putting out a dish rack on the counter opposite the stove (or opposite the sink on a cart), but this means moving wet dishes a decent distance and most likely making a mess.

The small slivers of counter space on each side of the sink at 5.5", so a bit thin for the foot print of most vertical dish racks.

I know these are the problems that come with apartment living, but does anyone have any clever ideas or suggestions? Any low profile wall-mounted dish racks you've seen? Clever repurposed items that would work in this situation?

As mentioned this has been driving us crazy and I feel like I've exhausted all my options, so hopefully a fresh set of eyes could help

FatalTheGod posted:

Hoping someone has some insight on this as this has been driving my girlfriend and I crazy! We recently moved into a new apartment in NYC, and we love to cook. However the counter layout of the kitchen has made setting up a dish/drying rack less than ideal (and we don't have a dishwasher).




So far we have considered...
- Over the sink racks, but the faucet is too tall and cabinets are too low for anything meaningful.
- Laying out a drying mat on the stove, but if we are cooking at the same time this becomes impossible.
- Putting out a dish rack on the counter opposite the stove (or opposite the sink on a cart), but this means moving wet dishes a decent distance and most likely making a mess.

The small slivers of counter space on each side of the sink at 5.5", so a bit thin for the foot print of most vertical dish racks.

I know these are the problems that come with apartment living, but does anyone have any clever ideas or suggestions? Any low profile wall-mounted dish racks you've seen? Clever repurposed items that would work in this situation?

As mentioned this has been driving us crazy and I feel like I've exhausted all my options, so hopefully a fresh set of eyes could help

wormil posted:

This is what happens when contractors are also the designers.

AnonSpore posted:

Apartment hunting time

Scientastic posted:

It's my daughter's third birthday on Sunday, and one of the things she wants to eat is a load of hummus with slices of bell pepper to dip: can I slice the peppers on Saturday night and keep them in the fridge until Sunday morning, or will they be ruined?

rgocs posted:

I slice bell peppers and keep them in the fridge for days to give my kids for lunch during the week. They'll be fine.

Edit: unless some bell pepper purist chimes in and tells me they're not, in which case, I will continue to do so, because they're fine.

QuarkMartial posted:

Just a shout-out to whoever recommended Reinhart's American Pie. I just used the Pizza Americana dough to make some awesome pizzas. Made one white using the sauce and ricotta recipes from Serious Eats, one regular pepperoni, one pepperoni and half sausage and jalapeños. Also used a dough ball to make some garlic cheese sticks. Everyone seemed to like them, and they took some home.

I know less is more with toppings, but I was too excited to have it turn out right that I got caught up in the moment.

Klaus Kinski posted:

I have a slow cooker and about 4 lbs of chicken thighs. Tell me your favorite way to combine them.

wormil posted:

I make pressure cooker chicken thighs all the time either with onions and curry, or onions and citrus, or onions and spicy. Hmm, maybe I need some recipes too. I'd just end up throwing a bunch of onions in anyway.

Klaus Kinski posted:

Curry sounds like a great idea. How little effort can I put into this? Just brown the skin and throw them in or remove it first?

wormil posted:

I've only done skinless chicken but have used turkey wings and left the skin on, browned it first. The skin will be soft obviously but it tastes fine. If you want to remove the skin later, it falls right off. This is the specific recipe I use but there are lots of them out there:
http://www.fagoramerica.com/my_fago..._chicken_thighs

Bagheera posted:

Sauce recommendation.

I'm making a main dish of brown rice, toasted pumpkin seeds, and roast broccoli. This isn't from a recipe; it's just improvising.

It sounds tasty but a bit dry. What's a decent sauce to put on it? I could do plain old soy sauce, or soy/sesame oil? Maybe a thai peanut sauce? How hard is that to make?

Pollyanna posted:

Why exactly do we sear protein? I understand that there's the need for a crust to form on the surface, and something about caramelization, but I've heard explanations for it ranging from "locking the juices in" to "getting a nice fond on the bottom of the pan".

FatalTheGod posted:

All great suggestions (aside from moving - we've only been in the apartment 4 days!). I never thought about blocking off 2 of the burners. Right now I'm thinking that may be the right move - close off the 2 burners closest to the sink, and then place a dish rack on there when it's time to do dishes/let them dry.

And yes, unfortunately the kitchen seems to be the least thought of room in an NYC apartment. I like to think we've done a good job setting it up (these pictures were before we moved in) but this issue seems to be the one we haven't been able to solve.

Thanks for the insight everyone!

Pollyanna posted:

Why exactly do we sear protein? I understand that there's the need for a crust to form on the surface, and something about caramelization, but I've heard explanations for it ranging from "locking the juices in" to "getting a nice fond on the bottom of the pan".

Drunk Driver Dad posted:

Can I get some tips on cooking chicken? I've been using my brothers foreman grill, he cooked some the other day for me, then I did some myself tonight and the chicken seems a little....tough. I don't think I'm overcooking it(planning on getting a meat thermometer). Both times I cooked it from raw(not frozen) first time were boneless skinless breast and the second time was tenderloins. Should I just learn how to use a skillet or whatever? I work a ton of hours so being time efficient is fairly important to me. Most of the time I'm cooking I'm doing it for meal prep as well.

dino. posted:

Dish racks are the tool of the devil, and I loving hate them so much. They end up sitting there, with the dishes in them permanently, and the bottom gets gross and infested with mold and other horrible things, and GOD DAMNIT I HATE THEM SO MUCH.

At home, I cover the burners with towels, and set my dishes to dry atop those. Then, as soon as they're dry they get put away, because if I don't, I am not going to be able to cook until it's cleared off. The thing with tiny spaces is that you have to force yourself to be vigilant about letting poo poo get out of hand. My apartment in Jersey City is even more tiny than any I had in Manhattan, so I need to be super careful about how I use my space. I have exactly /one/ drawer in the kitchen.

That means that anything with a hole is getting hung up on the wall. The drawer houses things that don't have a hole and thereby cannot be hung up on the walls. All clothing gets hung up in the closet on hangers, with the exception of underwear and socks. Those get folded neatly, and put into storage containers that fit into my closet. The one thing I /do/ have plenty of is cabinets, so I'm pretty careful to put things away into the cabinets. I bought an extra rack for my freezer, so that it can be neatly arranged in there. That way, I have space to throw a large thing into there that I need to freeze, while still having space for my frozen veg, frozen fruit, curry leaves, etc.

Atop the tiny rear end counter lives my rice cooker (it gets used daily), the Vitamix, the toaster oven, and the cuisinart. Everything else gets put away into the capacious cabinetry. Whenever I'm at a friend's home who lives in NYC, I'm endlessly amazed at how much space gets wasted on poo poo like dish drying racks, little caddies for mugs and poo poo, and all kind of other random poo poo that never gets used. You don't live in the suburbs, Linda. It's time to make some loving space.

Seriously, it is so much nicer to have things put away. If it means that you end up actually drying dishes with a towel as you wash them, that's cool too. I just don't have the patience for doing it, so I found that the over the stove method works really well. Best part is that the back of the stove lets you prop up the dishes so that they drain off into the towels. Everything is usually dried nicely in an hour or so, and it's dead simple to put away.

You kitchen looks lovely!

Liquid Communism posted:

Chicken tenderloins on the grill overcook if you look away for a few seconds anyway. They're pretty thin, and low in fat content, so easy to dry out. I prefer to marinate and bake chicken given the choice.

Liquid Communism posted:

Chicken tenderloins on the grill overcook if you look away for a few seconds anyway. They're pretty thin, and low in fat content, so easy to dry out. I prefer to marinate and bake chicken given the choice.