10 things that changed the way i cook - # 1: "on hands" - the larder

as i have said, this blog is in response to the fact that i find myself on a new plateau in my journey as homecook. i am able to reflect on the things that changed the way i cook, the things that got me here. in many cases these were not things i learned in one night, but were instead lessons that i processed over time-bit by bit bought into, incorporated and eventually mastered, and once i had them in my system forever changed the way i cooked. it is like the changing of a season, slow, gradual, but all of a sudden there comes a change and things are not how they have been.

so i thought i would chronicle these 'key learnings' in no order then perhaps how they came to me, so the later ones i had to think more deeply to get to, but i put no more importance on one than the other. for the next few days i will post them, how i came to them and share a little of their impact on my style of cooking:

i) "on hands" the larder. my cooking changed when i began to just get all the staples i might ever need at the market instead of deliberating whether or not i would be able to use a whole carton of heavy cream before it would go bad or if it made sense to have both these delicious looking new potatoes and some good old fashioned russets. today, i stock up. and it affords me much more range in everyday cooking. i think the change came when i decided that limes and lemons would be a staple.

(limes and lemons!!??)

a few years ago, living alone and barely affording the rent on my boston apartment i was always careful at the grocery store - oj, coffee, cream, greens, onions, garlic, parmesan, protein, veg done! - enough to cook the basics, but most things that i cooked i would usually plan for.

i think it was an alfredo dish that set me off - i was in the finishing touches stage: plates warmed, pasta water boiling, garlic and shrimp carmelizing in the pan...i opened the fridge to cut a wedge of lemon and...empty! how did i not have any lemons? what was i thinking? where was the breakdown in the system? where did my last lemon go? alfredo is a staple dish, alfredo you make any day of the week, there is no planning in this dish, how am i not ready for this!!

ever the plan B person I took the heat down on things and ran down the street to the corner convenience store that i knew would have lemons (for a dollar a piece of course). what should i find at the convenience store? a 6:30 closing time on Sunday.

as i walked back home i let my fury warm a new idea: i determined there would be a certain set of things that, no matter what, i would always be sure to have on hand, this would include lemons and limes but quickly grew to include a new generation of staples - things that, knowing i had them, empowered me to go to new lengths as i pursued home cooking. today, my 'on hands' stretches 10 pages and over a hundred items - many of them dry goods which is no worry to have on hand, but many perishables which add an urgency to cooking, and a lot of kitchen cabinet salads, soups and rag tag dishes which have only increased my capacity for creative cooking. now when i find myself in the store, confronted with a bountiful bushel of tomatillos, or rooting through the herbs, or examining the leeks, the fennel, the beets, a little voice inside whispers: "just by the lemon!"