Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living – The Stove

LJ 11

The stove rules! That’s looking at it from the point of view of feng shui wherein much ado is given to the stove – its placement in relation to the other elements in the kitchen, its specifications and condition, and the cook’s position when cooking, and more.

I used to think feng shui was a lot of crap. That was way back in the 1980s when my house would be described as a geomancer’s worst nightmare. The basic structure, the placement of rooms and doors, practically almost everything about the house defied the most common rules of feng shui. As if to give credence to feng shui, my life then closely resembled the ‘unfortunate’ consequences — mostly about money and health — of incorrect and improper placement.

Fast-forward 1990s. After 3 major renovations and continuous improvements, my home is cozy and peaceful and so is my life. Good feng shui? A healthy lifestyle? God’s blessings? I think it’s all of that. But before I get sidetracked into launching an autobio, let me just say that proper placement of things in the house has become a force of habit with me.

Basic Feng Shui Rules

According to feng shui, the stove affects two key aspects of our lives: health and money. Incorrectly placed, physical health might suffer. Improperly maintained, earnings might come in trickles and savings may dwindle. Indulge me in sharing some simple, practical feng shui guidelines about the stove.

1. The stove should not share the same wall back to back with a toilet seat (lavatory). If the house/building is 2 or more storeys high, the stove should not be directly above or below the toilet/lavatory.

2. Septic or water drainage should not pass above or under the stove.

3. There shouldn’t be overhead cabinets or exposed ceiling beams above the stove.

4. The stove should not be directly opposite the (a) kitchen entrance door, (b) the refrigerator and (c) the faucet.

5. Stove should ideally stand against a solid wall.

6. Knives and other sharp or pointed utensils must not be placed on the range top.

7. The stove must be in good working condition. Turning the stove on and off should be instantaneous and the flame should be steady and strong.

The Cooking Range Set Up

For state-of-the-art cooking range set up, a family of 6 will need 3 stove burners — 2 medium size and one small size units – and an electric grill. If the kitchen space can’t fit all of these items, 3 stove burners will do. Find another spot for the grill.

Remember to ask the appliance dealer about electrical requirements. In the Philippines, some imported brands are not compatible with the local electrical current configuration, outlets or whatever it is — sorry for the vagueness. An electrical engineering will do a better job of explaining the technical considerations when choosing kitchen appliances. Take the time and effort to do research (like my wise friend Carol) to avoid investing hard-earned money on the wrong appliance.

I made a mistake of buying a top-of-the-line La Germania cooking range with a huge oven. As it turns out, the oven requires lots of gas so it works only with an industrial-sized LPG tank or a direct line to a gas provider which is non-existent in my area. The oven is totally useless except as storage for some tools. Of the 5 stove burners, I can only use 3 at the same time. This is one of my foolish impulsive decisions.

Standard ranges provide one timer only. Your kitchen should ideally have 2 more portable timers to aid you keep tab of cooking time for 3 separate cooking tasks done simultaneously.

Stove Cooking

1. To avoid burning the pots and pans, use moderate or low heat/flame. High heat should only be used to bring liquid to a boil and then lowered to medium or low setting for continuous simmering.

2. Have all the needed cooking implements and ingredients ready before cooking. We can’t all be like Wolfgang Puck who looks totally in control while multi-tasking in his well-appointed kitchen studio. Besides who knows what actually goes on during the taping sessions of his cooking show.

3. Position paper towels (‘Tork’ brand is of good quality and reasonably priced), pot holders, counter/work top savers (to put down hot pot/pan/dish) within easy reach.

4. Never leave something boiling or cooking unattended too long. If you must leave the kitchen, check back at frequent intervals. Turn down the heat and bring the portable timer with you when you have to be away from the stove longer than 5 minutes. I can’t remember how many times I screwed up with mental estimations and ended up with burnt or overcooked meals.

5. Except when frying, the cooking pot or pan should be covered for many practical reasons. Example: a tomato-based sauce dries quickly in an open casserole even at low heat.

6. To achieve boiling point faster, heat the water in a water kettle first, then transfer the boiling water to the pot or pan.

7. Water level for the pot should not exceed 2/3 of the pot’s height.

8. To shorten the cooking time of beans like mongo, fill the pot with boiling water twice the height of the beans. Cover the pot and allow the hot water to break down the beans for 30 minutes. Use the waiting time to prepare ingredients or check out your email, whatever.

9. If you are absentminded or if you delegate the cooking to a domestic helper, don’t use a pressure cooker. Once a long time ago, my pressure cooker exploded without warning. The hot contents burst all around my old kitchen and permanently marred the ceiling wall paper. Luckily nobody was within striking distance when it happened. After that, I threw away the pressure cooker and never replaced it.

Maintenance

1. The stove/range must be tidied up before retiring to bed at night. (I was surprised with the poor state of the cooking ranges in many homes I visited. This rule is simple and basic, yet many stoves go weeks without being cleaned.)

2. A daily range cleaning routine requires only 6 things: rubber gloves, 2 sponges, hot water in a jug, warm water in a wash basin and paper towels. Be careful you don’t scald your hands with the hot water.

Procedure

Slowly and gently pour a small amount of hot water around the stove top and wipe away with the sponge. Rinse the sponge in a basin of warm water. Repeat the process until all the traces of cooking are removed. Dry the surface with a paper towel.

Wipe the knobs and other parts with the sponge damp with hot water. Using another clean sponge, do the same with the streaks of oil and sauces on the walls and counter tops. Dry the surface with paper towels. Rinse the sponge in warm soapy water. Hang the sponges and paper towels to dry. Total time: 15 minutes more or less.

There is a portable gadget that sprays steam to melt away stubborn, sticky oils, dried up food and molds. It’s available in a shopping channel and pretty expensive. If you have the means, go ahead and get one. Steam is safer than hot water, as long as you don’t spray yourself with it. Seriously, I suffered a minor burn from accidentally spraying my left hand with steam from a portable steam iron, ugh.

Emergency Fire Procedure

My friend Lyn sent me an email with an attached video vignette produced stateside by a fire brigade demonstrating the safe way to extinguish a fire from a burning pot. If you haven’t viewed it, give me your email address and I’ll send it to you. The video explains that the only safe way to handle a burning pan or pot is to soak a towel with water and to cover the burning pot or pan with it. The fire is deprived of oxygen and the fire dies down shortly. Make that a big wet towel!

Blog Dedication

I dedicate this blog to my sister Cecile’s co-worker Emma who got married recently and is absolutely clueless about the basics of kitchenship. May this blog inspire you to hone your kitchenship chops. Cheers!

KItchenship to be continued…

Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living (#15)

Drinking Glasses
LJ 010

My next blog was supposed to be about the stove but I got this seemingly simple inquiry from Elizabeth May. Ms. May is a stranger yet I felt an instant kinship with her when I read her thought-provoking email.

This is her email.

“My husband and I are having a healthy debate regarding storage of drinking glasses. I find the glasses should be put away with the bottom of the glass down and the top up because the bottom of the kitchen cabinets are more prone to collect dust and unhealthy germs & he feels that glasses should be stored down. I just can’t stand the thought of kissing the bottom of the cabinet every time I put the glass to my lips. Can you confirm which storage method is the cleanest. Thanks.”

Hi Elizabeth! First of all, thanks for reading my blog.

To tell you the truth, blogging about storage techniques for drinking glasses has not entered my mind. I thought everyone is happy with the usual top-down method. It’s done that way mainly because the glasses stay firmly in place even when we accidentally tag them. But you got me thinking about it for a couple of days. My husband and I also had a thoughtful discourse on the subject.

My answer: how you put away drinking glasses is a matter of personal choice based on your circumstances and environment. There is no absolute right or wrong answer to this question. Finding the best practical solution to deal with a particular need is the essential task for conscientious homemakers like us.

Take, for instance, a typical start-up Filipino family of 4 (2 adults with 2 young children) and a domestic helper living in a 20-year old modest apartment located in the infamously polluted, crowded part of Manila. The air is dense with dust and what-have-you and the nearby canal stinks. It is not unusual to find mice darting nervously around in the kitchen, cockroaches crawling at night with telltale droppings inside cabinet drawers, flies buzzing about and mosquitoes following you around. A thin layer of dust settles on the furniture and kitchen tops 12 hours from the last dusting. The domestic helper has a severe case of colds and sneezes at will and the kids often reach out for a drinking glass in between play without washing their hands. What would be the best strategy in this case?

Putting the glasses in a covered tumbler organizer for top down arrangement would be the most convenient way to minimize contamination. Furthermore, thoroughly cleaning the organizer at the end of each day would be a definite necessity to eliminate the accumulated dust, dirt and harmful viruses and bacteria.

What about my personal circumstances? I live in a Class B quiet village in the suburbs with very little vehicular traffic. But even here, the air is filled with powdery dust. The windows of our house have screen and most have curtains. The doors are kept closed. Once in a while a fly would sneak pass us when we open the doors or an adult cockroach would venture inside the house. With Ms. B working in Singapore, it’s just me, my husband and Ms J, our devoted housekeeper whom I have rigorously trained to comply with our sanitation standards.

When a fly is hovering around, leaving a mug full of coffee without a cover to answer a phone call is like leaving an inviting pool for a diving insect. That’s why we have a high-dome wire mesh cover which is a common item in a Filipino kitchen to keep pesky flies at bay.

My tiny “cleaning” kitchen has several overhead plastic-coated steel wire trays lined up on one side of the wall where we keep the everyday stuff. Clean mugs — we use an assortment of mugs for our coffee, tea, water and soup — are placed top down. The storage trays and racks are cleaned thoroughly once a month with soap and water. The windows in this cubby-hole of a kitchen are kept slightly open. It’s the best we can do. One kitchen rule I insist on is that anyone who feels a sneeze or cough coming on must rush out of the kitchen immediately and wash his/her hands with soap and water again upon re-entry. See how “makulit” I am! (Makulit’s closest translation in English: “annoyingly persistent”).

Our drinking glasses for guests have rust-proof covers. I keep them in one of the stainless steel pull out trays inside the “regular kitchen” cabinets so they are always clean and ready for use. My other collection of beer mugs and wine glasses are kept in their original boxes and stored away in one of the cabinets. When these items are needed for a party or for use by occasional beer- or wine-drinking guests, we take them out of their boxes and re-wash them. Washed and dried after use, these special occasion glasses are returned to their original boxes and in their usual storage space.

A friend of mine wraps her reserve drinking glasses individually in crisp translucent white paper bags before putting them away. The ones regularly used by family members are stored top down on the portable open plastic dish organizer with a catch-tray. The possibility of ants and other insects contaminating the glasses when lights are out at night is a cause for concern. So far, her family members are alive and well.

In your case, I imagine someone with a spotless kitchen. I agree though that storing away drinking glasses top down in a cabinet is a less than perfect way to ensure sterile glasses. However drinking glasses are typically coned shape and, unless the glasses are stored away in a tray with partitioned sections for individual glasses, setting them top down is less prone to domino-effect toppling. Protecting extra glasses individually in paper wrap is an excellent technique though somewhat time-consuming. As an added safeguard, I suggest you line the drawer or shelf with white paper towels which can be replaced regularly. If you are concerned with the effects of excessive use of paper on global warming, the used paper towels can be recycled to wipe spills from the floor and for other less-sensitive cleaning jobs.

If you feel strongly that the suggestion above isn’t the right one for you and the best method for your circumstances is setting down the glasses bottom down, then you should perhaps investigate if there are tumbler covers you can get that will fit securely on the mouth of the glasses and also invest in trays with individual slots for glasses — if you don’t have these yet — to prevent breakage. This is the only idea I can think of right now that will satisfy your stringent standards for hygiene.

Or else… how about a simple step of rinsing the glass again before using it, would that be ok ? If the general condition of your surroundings is reasonably tidy and your kitchen is free of insects and rodents, then a little dust wouldn’t be so bad. Believe me we ingest far more soil from the fruits and vegetables we eat.

Next topic: The Stove Rules!

Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living (#14)

Kitchen Sinks and Faucets (#14)

LJ 009

Choosing the Kitchen Sink(s) and Faucet(s)

• If your kitchen space is large and a lot of cooking, eating or entertaining takes place at home, I definitely recommend installing two wide, deep-bottomed sinks with separate faucets side by side. (The bar sink is optional, seriously).

To achieve a lasting shiny look, go for a brand reputed for its high quality heavy duty stainless steel kitchen sinks. With fixed fixtures & equipment, get the best quality.

Don’t go overboard though by getting industrial-type sinks unless you have an enormous kitchen. Consider the kitchen size when choosing sink sizes. The sinks should not have an overwhelming presence in the kitchen. Keep a sense of balance among the different elements (stove, ref, sink, etc) in the kitchen for good feng shui.

• One sink can be designated as the “dirty sink” and the other the “clean sink.” Ideally the dirty sink should be fitted with an incinerator underneath.

• The most practical kitchen sink faucet has a long vertical swan neck that can be rotated from left and right. Add an auxiliary spray in one of those sinks. Sprays are the most effective and economical way to rinse strainers, wired ladles, extra-large pots, dish organizers, and tall things.

• A stainless-steel wall utility rack designed to hold bottled detergents, soap dishes and sponges can be strategically placed behind and over the sink faucet. If the sink is facing the window, there are countless choices of aesthetically-designed yet functional counter organizers at the home section of department stores and specialty shops. Going from store to store to hunt for one organizer is a joyful pastime for one with good taste and a small budget.

Organizers reduce clutter by limiting the number of items scattered on the kitchen counter.

Keeping Things in Sanitary Condition (Don’t compromise on cleanliness!)

• The dirty sink should be used exclusive to dump and pre-rinse dirty dishes and other kitchen items (except those with sharp edges which should be laid down on the counter away from small children). This is also where fresh food like fish, meat, fruits and vegetables can be washed. Run the incinerator once at the end of the day to liquefy solid wastes that get trapped in the incinerator.

• The clean sink is for final washing and rinsing of dishes and other items, putting down cooked pasta to drain and laying down blocks of ice (hey, remember the blackouts when we all had to buy a block of ice to keep the freezer section of the ref cold ?)

• If your kitchen has only one sink like mine (sigh), follow 3 simple steps when washing things:

1 Pre-wash kitchen items (ideally with warm slightly soapy water) to remove food residue and lay the items down on the counter.

2. Clean the sink (and run the incinerator if the sink has one).

3. Wash the things.

• No spitting and teeth brushing in the sink(s), please!

• Absolutely no washing of floor mops, infant’s butt, used underwear, garden implements and pets in the kitchen sink. I saw this American Ad on a shopping network that demonstrated the use of a “magic” mop which was repeatedly soaked in a kitchen sink full of soapy water. It totally grossed me out!

• Have several sponges for specific uses: one each for dishes, the sink, the stove, the microwave, the counter, the ref, etc. For easy identification, sponges should have fixed designated places. Locally made sponges costing about P15 each are sturdy enough to last about a month. Buy them in packs of 12 to avail of wholesale price.

• At the end of each day, the sink and surrounding counter should be wiped completely dry. Bacteria multiply rapidly in wet surfaces and contaminate anything within reach. Empty soap dishes of soapy water that accumulate in the catch-tray.

Hang the sponges overnight to dry. (For added safeguard, mildly OCs like me can also microwave the sponges for 1 minute using full power the next morning to sterilize them.) Replace sponges as soon as they become smelly, bald in places or heavily stained.

• Finally, we all get those big jars of extravagant, scented moisturizing liquid hand or bath soaps at Christmas time. I just love those presents. I bought a couple of easy-on-the-pocket cute, blue-tinted plastic squeeze bottles and fill them up with the scented soap and placed one in the kitchen.

When I wash my hands, I start with the scented soap to get rid of the sticky fish scales or slimy garlic juice on my hands and the unflattering smell. Then I finish off with a rich lather from a bar of anti-bacterial soap. A cheap way of getting my hands germ-free and smelling of essential oil.

To be continued…

Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living (#13)

The Kitchen Cabinets

LJ – 008

When I had my kitchen renovated in Y2000, we spent P90,000 on my new “showcase” cabinets. The local cabinet contractor made a huge profit from my overpriced kitchen storage. The materials that said contractor used were of inferior quality and the workmanship was somewhat sloppy. These facts only became obvious to naïve-me two years later when I decided to design my own furniture and hired a top-caliber master carpenter to execute them.

Experience indeed makes one wiser and less gullible. Here are some useful tips in kitchen cabinet design, usage and care for good kitchenship. We don’t want any more incompetent cabinet maker to dupe prospective homeowners and we certainly want our kitchen cabinets to look and smell new for a very long time.

Tip #1

Don’t use a kitchen cabinet contractor-installer who showcases his work in the malls without asking for references from previous clients. By all means, check out those references one by one. My installer’s real work is way below par than those of his perfectly-crafted exhibits.

After getting the 50% down-payment, the contractor became less available to take phone calls. He failed to meet the stipulated date of installation by a month. When he and his men finally showed up to install the cabinets, the cabinets were the wrong color and finish. (Today, I take pride in myself for not killing the contractor on the spot.)

Worst of all, I discovered two years later I would have saved at least half of the cost using better materials and cut the stress significantly had I hired a master carpenter with good work ethics and collaborated with him to come up with custom-made cabinets.

By the way, the best master carpenter in Tunasan, Muntinlupa City is Ed Olayres, a “riles” resident who lives 300m from my home. You can get in touch with him through me (absolutely no commission, *innocent look*). Book him in advance to increase your chance of getting him. There is a long queue of customers waiting for a gap between his house-construction projects.

Tip #2

Install the kitchen wall and floor tiles end to end before installing the kitchen cabinets. A white-tile finish to the back of the cabinets provides high visibility of pests and dirt.

Tip #3

Use marine wood for the cabinet’s main frame. Mine was made of wood particles pressed together to form soft boards (I forgot what they are called). The ants like the soft boards so much that they made nests on door hinges. I often have to inspect the cabinets to check for new ant-homes. I fear the cabinets will just collapse one day without warning.

Tip #4

The lumber sections of all giant construction depots are stocked with a good selection of ready-made cabinet doors of various sizes. Bring with you the measurement of the spaces where you plan to install the cabinets. Pick the design you like and select the door sizes according to the available space.

Choose cabinet doors with simple lines and designs. Intricate carvings are the perfect resting places of stubborn dust and stain.

All kitchen cabinets should have doors to keep dust, germs and insects out. Glass doors for hanging cabinets make the kitchen look more spacious. Every time you are in a great hurry, you will be glad of the convenience of peering through the glass to locate items vis-à-vis the repetitive motion of opening and closing wooden doors.

Tip #5

If you are running low on your budget, forget those state-of-the-art pull-out trays. Save up for them for another year or two.

Instead, settle for adjustable sturdy wooden platforms for the time being. Why? Because after one or two years of experimentation, you will achieve the best strategic location for kitchen stuff. Experimentation is more efficient where there is flexibility.

When you’re definite about where to place what, that’s the time to buy and install those shiny, stainless steel pull-outs beauties. OR you can ask your trusty master carpenter to create pull-out boxes made of marine wood and the painter to give them a glossy vanilla finish. That’s exactly what I did. They came out just as sturdy and classy and very affordable. After 5 years of rugged use, those boxes are still around.

Tip #6

My kitchen counter top space is littered with the teapot, blender, rice cooker, and an assortment of decorations that there is hardly enough vacant space during food preparation. The breakfast table doubles as chef table for chopping and lining up ingredients and tools. I should have installed pull-out wooden trays underneath the counter top (big sigh).

Tip #7

Always line your cabinet drawers with thick plastic or cabinet liners. Spills are inevitable and create ugly, permanent stains. Clean out those shelves and cabinet drawers and replace the liners every month.

Tip #8

Always separate utensils with sharp edges and points from ladles, measuring spoons and the like. Place the dangerous items in the drawer in such a way that the sharp/cutting parts are to the back of the drawer. Your hand should make contact with the handles when searching for the right tool.

Tip #9

Always wipe the oil and condiment containers with tissue before putting them back in the drawers. Preventive cleaning saves you the precious time spent scrubbing the stains out of drawer surfaces and removing the revolting droppings of cockroaches that get attracted by the smell of fish or soy sauce.

Tip #10

Never store away wet stuff inside the cabinets. Not unless you want molds to develop and metal stuff to become rusty and useless.

Silica gels (purchased from a handyman store or collected from vitamin bottles) help to keep moisture out of food stuff and utensils. Caveat: make sure the kids and household help don’t mistake them for salt or sugar.

Final note: Despite my less-than-perfect cabinets, the kitchen came out really beautiful.

Basic Kitchenship to be continued…

Basic Kitchenship for Healthy Living (1 to 12)

LJ – 007

If I have to pick that one special place in my home where love overflows, it has to be the kitchen-cum-dining area. This is where Mr. B and I have synergetic fun putting our culinary instincts into action, where Miss B whips up her instant dessert of buttermilk and condensed milk (Miss B has since added toasting vege-sausages to her very short list of cooking competencies), where we like to squeeze tightly in the cramped ‘breakfast’ nook to dine and be merry, and where we hang out impromptu until 2 am, ‘lol-ing’ at life’s absurdities or pondering the mysteries of life. This is where I prove my greatest devotion to my family with offerings of tasty, healthy meals and snacks, and where frequent guests automatically head to when they drop in, in search of a listening ear and a treat. That is why kitchenship is high on my list of home-making skills that I strive to hone each day.

Kitchenship, our new word – short for kitchen-person-ship — denotes an integrated application of various concepts in creating a kitchen worthy of healthy living. Surely it deserves a new word. Kitchenship encompasses home economics, culinary art, cost control, architecture, interior design, practical feng shui, provision/proper use/maintenance of equipment/tools/materials, and lastly, kitchen and personal hygiene.

Kitchenship derives mostly from common sense which we all know is a rare quality. I myself used to be kitchenship-challenged in my younger years. So allow me some slack if I include a hygienic act as basic as ‘always wash your hands with soap and water before touching anything in the kitchen.’ It wouldn’t hurt to go back to basics. Here goes my 200-pesos-worth (adjusted to inflation).

A toilet adjacent to the kitchen

1. Toilet door should not open to kitchen area.

If your CR door opens to the kitchen area, you can remedy this situation in two ways: (1) by installing an exhaust fan — a small investment with big returns on preventing diseases — to expel bacteria and germs outside the house, and/or (2) covering the door with a drape to prevent germs and bacteria from migrating from the CR to the kitchen. Buy a heavy fabric about the same width and length as the CR door and fashion into a drape. Match the drape colors and style to your overall kitchen look. The drape should serve both as an obstruction between the CR and the kitchen and as a diversion from what is behind the CR door. Wash the drape weekly (duh).

Also, impose a strict rule among CR users to put down the water closet cover before flushing the toilet –the swirling force can propel the bacteria as far as 6 feet up and out during flushing (Miss B’s input) — and to wash hands, like a surgeon would prior to surgery, before leaving the toilet. Always have a bacterial soap near the sink.

If this CR is also for guests’ use, it would be a smart idea to post the rules inside the CR to save you the awkwardness of verbalizing hygiene rules every time someone uses the CR.

Kitchen equipment/effects and water closet

2. Kitchen equipment/effects and water closet should not share the same wall, back to back.

Remedy: Move the equipment/effects elsewhere in the kitchen.

Electricity and water

3. Faucet/sink should be positioned away from electrical outlets and electrical equipment. Extension cords should not cross water sources. Self-explanatory.

Ventilation and lighting

4. Keep appliances for cooking as far away as possible from appliances/cabinets for food storage, i.e., cooking range side by side with refrigerator is a big no-no.

5. Observe proper ventilation for stoves, grills, and refrigerators.

6. Air circulation around the room helps prevent the kitchen from developing a pervading stale odor. Keep the kitchen windows open during the day.

7. Kitchen must be well-lighted with white fluorescent (compact) bulbs. Bright, white illumination alerts you to existence of molds, tiny cockroaches and other camouflaged anomalies in the kitchen like an ants-infested muscovado-sugar canister. Easy detection of spills and low stools precludes accidental slipping and tripping.

Herbs, condiments and oils

8. Store your dry herbs, condiments and oils in cool places shielded from light, heat and moisture. When such items are needed for cooking, keep them far from the stove and store them away immediately after cooking.

If oil comes in a clear bottle, dress the bottle in paper bag and secure well so that the bottle doesn’t slip down the paper bag bottom. Or buy oils in small quantities and keep them hidden in a seldom-opened cabinet when not in use.

Sharp objects

9. Don’t mix sharp objects with safer objects. Let’s be specific. Dirty knives, ice pick, forks, peeler, can opener, etc waiting to be washed, dried and stored must be uniformly arranged in their designated places. Cutting edges and points of such tools should always be set down in such a manner to avoid cuts or pricks even when one is distracted. E.g., a can opener must be stored face down, and a butcher knife slipped back to the protective cover and set down with the sharp edge touching the cabinet base.

10. A knife/scissor wood block should be washed regularly and exposed to direct intense sunlight (10am to 2 pm is best) as often as possible. I keep my knives in a narrow, tall, pull-out cabinet with a vertical open steel rack where the knives and ice pick are inserted point down.

Cleaning agents

11. Except for bacterial hand soap and dishwashing detergent, cleaning agents have no place in the kitchen.

Kitchen garbage

12. Keep trash cans away from the ref and other food storage. If this is not possible, bring out the kitchen trash every night. Use small-capacity trash bins to force yourself to commit to the daily routine of emptying them.

Basic Kitchenship to be continued…