Double Time – The Makeshift Doubleboiler

Doubleboilers (both real and makeshift) enable you to melt chocolate to a perfect, luscious consistency.

The state of the economy is more than a little frightening these days, and most people are feeling a compulsion to behave with a modicum of prudence and a careful eye for value.

Given this environment, it seems odd that the product development teams at Williams-Sonoma, All-Clad, and the like are working double time to produce ever-more specific, and by nature, less useful kitchen utensils. On the WS homepage, a glaring image beckons me to their “More than 250 New Items for Winter.” I am hardly a model of restraint and do love to moon about in WS with lofty fantasies of ever-grander, cleaner, and better-stocked kitchens, but even I have to question the utility of a Classic Soda Siphon or a Crepe Pan Kit in these uncertain times.

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Nobody’s Perfect – Adventures in Homecooking

I’ve always pictured food writers deftly administering to their culinary tasks with ease and calm, knowing exactly where everything is, never forgetting an ingredient at the store, and having a profusion of measuring cups and nesting bowls to dirty without needing to wash them. While I do believe in mise en place and do try to stay organized, this is not always the case, and I’m going to own that I make mistakes in the kitchen, some small, some enormous, and some hysterical.

The most recent near-disaster was this past Saturday. I had invited a few close friends over for dinner. PT and I had decided to spend the day shopping in Wrentham, planned to be back in Boston by 5 and home with the groceries by 5:30 – more than enough time to prep for an 8:00 meal. Well, as they say, I stayed a bit too long at the fair… I don’t want to bore you with details, but Kate Spade was having an unbelievable-we-have-a-major-recession-on-our-hands-and-have-to-get-rid-of-inventory kind of sale, and, well, it was hard to pull myself away.

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