Before we start cooking, we should organize our kitchen. If you are starting from scratch, that's great, because we have a clean slate and we'll get just what we need. If you already have pots and pans in your kitchen, and I guess everybody does, we'll have to sort out what we really need to have an organized and efficient kitchen. So the first step is to assess your needs: do you live alone? what's your life style? do you invite a lot of friends to your place? what setting do you prefer? do you have a family? how big is it? what are the needs of every member of this family? These are all important questions that will help determine exactly what you will need in your kitchen.
I know that we have a tendency to buy sets of pots, gadgets that seem so useful, but always end up cluttering our drawers, and despite all the pans that we tend to accumulate along the years, we never seem to find exactly what we need. This is true.
When my brother first moved out and got his own place, he furnished it on his own. Later, when he got married, his wife kept wondering why on earth he had 3 pots size 20 (20 centimeters in diameter), 2 size 22 and a number of what seemed to her a very odd collection of pots and pans. The explanation was very simple: without knowing it, my brother had replicated my mother's kitchen: the two 22 size pots were for some vegetables, the three size 20 were for rice and other vegetables, the larger pots for soup, in short the collection was meant to cover the needs of a family of six, not a bachelor or a young couple.
So before you rush to buy anything, take a deep breath and think about how many people you are going to feed, and what exactly you need to do that.
Also it is good to evaluate your actual behavior in the kitchen: are you very neat (or messy) when you cook? do you tend to forget your pots on the stove until they burn up? have you ever burned soup? Ah, don't worry, a friend of mine did it more than once, and she's still cooking. The answer to these questions will determine the quality of the pans you are going to buy. So if you are like my friend, I think you should stay away for the moment from the high-end expensive brands, until you are sure you'll not burn them. Also I wouldn't go for the cheapest kind, because it might burn your food and discourage you from ever cooking again. So we'll go for the medium range price, good quality items, but not very expensive. Also start with non-stick kind of pots (again the burn possibility) and add to them a large (5 qts) stainless steel pot, for soups or large meals. Of course you'll also need frying pans, they usually come in twos, one large and a smaller one. they'll be perfect especially if non-stick.
You'll need a cutting board and a good knife. If you cannot handle the large cook knife, please get a smaller one, with a sharp blade.
Other items that are a must have in a kitchen include: a colander, a salad spinner, a salad dish, a box grater with handle, a set of nesting bowls for mixing, preferably with lids, they can double as containers for your food, a set of stainless utensils (ladle, big spoon, slotted spoon etc) and another set of heat resistant material for non-stick pans, a spatula, a can opener, in brief every utensil that you used in your kitchen until now. Whatever you have in the kitchen and did not use it for a year, please get rid of it, you will probably not need it.
As for the small appliances, don't get blindsided by the new inventions and the ads you see on TV. Again, assess your real needs and don't buy them assuming you will be living your dream of a perfect life!! You should start with a blender, a good size food processor, not very fancy, just the basics, a small chopper (very useful, especially if you are still not very handy with knives, and it's cheap, about 9 dollars).
And finally, please, please, please, don't mistreat your food and buy some dishes, real china dishes and real grown ups cutlery. Even if you start with some from an open stock, believe me it makes a big difference to eat, even a hot dog, in a real dish, than in a paper dish.
I watch people on TV looking to buy a house and they have this fantasy of getting the best kitchen with ultra modern appliances and granite counter tops, because they like to entertain a lot, and then they serve their guests in paper plates!!!
Pantry: It is very important that you keep a well stocked pantry. Even if you don't have a real pantry in your kitchen, a section of the cabinets will do. Depending on the number of people living in your house, you'll decide how big a part of your cabinets you'll use as your pantry. What you keep in the pantry will also depend on your needs and eating habits. But, since this exercise aims at helping us eat healthy, please start cleaning your pantry and get rid of whatever junk food you keep in there. You'll need to stock up on some staple items: rice, pasta, flour, sugar, canned tuna, canned beans, different kinds of canned tomatoes (sauce, paste, diced, whole, pureed etc), and please, no canned vegetables, if you want to stock them, try frozen vegetables instead.
TIP:When deciding what kind of pasta you want to keep in your pantry, think first about the kind of pasta your family prefers. For ex., for my husband pasta means penne and maybe spaghetti, my mother likes small pasta, like elbows, so this is mainly the kind that I regularly buy and stock, plus some angel hair, lasagna and orzo, which I use in other dishes too. When a recipe calls for a different kind of pasta, I just buy what I need.
You should also start a spice rack with the essentials, then add to them as you go. You'll need: salt, pepper, dried oregano, cumin, coriander, onion and garlic powder, herbes de provence, poultry seasoning, cinnamon, ground clove. Of course you can add to this list whatever you use regularly.
Now we are ready to cook.
