kitchen philosophy

During the spring break of my semester abroad in Ireland, I traveled to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic with two American friends. We were on tight student budgets, so we didn’t eat many fancy meals out. Instead, we bought cheese, bread and yogurt from grocery stores and picnicked by fountains in public squares. In the evenings, we waited our turn to boil noodles in hostel kitchens.

One day in Germany, we stopped in a bookstore where I found a beautiful Bavarian cookbook. It had hand-drawn illustrations alongside boldly outdated recipes – like stuffed roast pigeon. I fell in love with it, instantly. I agonized over whether to pay the steep price of (I think) 13 euro. After all, that kind of money could buy five to seven hostel spaghetti dinners. With cheese. Eventually though, I decided it was worth it. And a tradition was born. Ever since then, I have collected a cookbook from every country I have been lucky enough to visit.

Ballad of a Black Thumb

Posted on May 25, 2020 by Caitlin

Skip to the recipe for produce box minestrone

I’ve always wanted to want to garden. When I was little, one of my favorite songs was the “Garden Song.” I think I first heard it on a children’s tape, but the most popular version was recorded by John Denver. The first lines are, “Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow. All you need is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.” The song – considered a “folk standard” – was written by David Mallet. Apparently, it came to him one day in his 20’s as he worked in his father’s garden. He describes the tune dropping into his head with the same sort of ease that fruits and flowers spring from the ground in the lyrics. As a ten-year-old, I ranked it somewhere between “At the Ballet” from Chorus Line and “Hands” by Jewel as one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

Unfortunately, it is also full of lies.

I’m Here to Make Friends

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Caitlin

Jump to recipe for award winning rhubarb bars

You will not be surprised to hear that I am a huge fan of cooking competition shows. And not just the classy ones where everyone is civilized and kind and the grand prize is an engraved plate presented over a larger-than-average tea. No, I also like the ones hosted by d-list celebrities, with kitchens full of people running and yelling “behind! behind!” – where, if the contestants can’t make a dessert out of peach O’s and catfish in 15 minutes, they lose out on $10,000.

Life on Ice

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Caitlin

Or: How to organize your freezer the Sprinkle Fix way

Jump to recipe for black bean and chorizo taquitos

One of quarantine’s hottest trends – along with fostering dogs, baking bread and depicting the likeness of Joe Exotic out of dried beans and macaroni – is organizing. People are using this overabundance of inside-time to optimize their entire living spaces – but of course, I’m especially interested in the kitchens. Some of my favorite food authorities have recently written about how they stock and organize their pantries and fridges. They usually say at the top that they’re doing it because they’ve gotten lots of requests from readers who want to look inside their cupboards. Which makes sense. We’re all spending more time in our kitchens and taking fewer trips to the grocery store. So, we want ideas about how to store food more efficiently. I’m not sure these pantry show-and-tell posts can help though. They are full rainbows of legumes in Weck Jars; fully alphabetized spice racks; freezers packed with Tetris-like precision. They look like all the other stuff these food celebrities post – completely beautiful, and completely unattainable for normal people.

Crouching Baker, Hidden Gluten

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Caitlin

I wasn’t totally honest with you about those chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago. I didn’t lie about their deliciousness (I’m not a monster). I still believe that everyone you feed them to will love them, and you. But when I said they would solve all your social problems, I was exaggerating. The truth is, sooner or later you’ll run into someone – like a vegan, or a person allergic to soy, gluten, dairy or chocolate – who can’t eat them. And then, your Lutheran cookie powers will be useless.

But when that happens, you mustn’t lose hope! There are other powers you can call upon. I’ll show you. I know I may seem like a simple prairie girl: facing the world with nothing but a church cookbook, a few pounds of butter, and a sweet, I-hope-she-doesn’t-realize-I-have-no-idea-what-‘fleek’-is smile. But I have a more sophisticated set of baking skills than you might think. Read More

Substitutions For Common Social Interactions

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Caitlin

If you cook – even sporadically – you’ve probably researched ingredient substitutions. Like when you’re in the middle making shortbread, but you realize you used your last stick of butter in a volatile caramel experiment last week (which is why your kitchen smells like an on-fire Werther’s factory). So you take to Google. You type: “Can I substitute olive oil/cream cheese/ I can’t Believe It’s Not Butter for butter?”*

*Do not substitute butter with anything that says in the title “…It’s Not Butter.”

Sprinkle Fix

When in doubt, add sprinkles

Europe (and India) Through the Kitchen Door