Notes, News, and Nerdiness from JKLA World HQ

The first week in the new home has been... boxy. Extremely boxy.

My kitchen is a bit more stacked than the average home kitchen, mainly because I like testing equipment to see what's actually worth owning, and because I never know when I'm going to need some old pan to abuse-test a recipe.

So on Sunday, the kids built a vast labyrinth of cardboard tunnels in the backyard while I unpacked the kitchen, hurling empty boxes off the patio toward them as I worked. Out came titanium pots, cast-iron skillets, aluminum baking sheets, carbon steel sauté pans, stainless-clad pans, plates for eating, plates for serving, plates for photographs, enough knives to stock a small shop, three rice cookers, three toaster ovens, several dozen wooden spoons and spatulas, tart tins, pie pans, cake pans, bundt pans, springform pans, a bubble waffle iron, an aebleskiver pan, a Belgian waffle iron, a Wagner cast-iron waffle iron, multiple mortars and matching pestles, blenders and mixers and processors and burners, a half dozen sous vide circulators, three pressure cookers, a cherry pitter, a ginkgo nut pitter, infrared thermometers, instant-read thermometers, predictive thermometers, scales of various sizes and resolutions, and far too many pizza ovens.

What did not emerge from any of the boxes were forks, or cups, or most of our utensils. Those are apparently in a mislabeled box somewhere else.

By the time dinner rolled around, I realized I had not yet thought about what to cook. Then I realized I had not yet bought groceries.

The emergency rations from last week (eggs, tortillas, Cooper Sharp cheese, and milk) had worked well enough for lunch, but the kids needed some real food, and fast. We ended up ordering Chinese takeout: moo shu pork, beef chow fun, and mapo tofu.

As a bonus, the order conveniently added six pairs of restaurant chopsticks to the two spoons currently residing in our cutlery drawer, plus a couple packets of hoisin sauce to our small but budding pantry. Speaking of...

Let's build a pantry.

To give you an idea of how we eat at home when I'm not yet familiar with a kitchen and haven't moved over any of my pantry staples, I thought I'd share this week's grocery list.

First up, cheese. We got:

A 32-ounce block of Tillamook sharp cheddar, our everyday sandwich-and-melty-cheese workhorse

A block of Parmigiano-Reggiano

A block of Pecorino Romano

And a tub of pre-grated Parmesan and Pecorino after I realized my Microplanes and graters are still missing

Rounding out the dairy, we now have:

Whole milk

Greek yogurt

Cream cheese

Unsalted butter

Kerrygold Naturally Softer Salted Butter, for toast

For breakfasts, which in our house are generally fruit-heavy:

Blueberries

Raspberries

Strawberries (we can't wait for our own to grow in)

Blackberries

Bananas

Mandarins

Asian pears

Along with:

Avocados (yes, I know those are technically fruits)

A loaf of whole-grain bread

A bag of Tamaki Gold rice

Eggs

Quaker Instant Oatmeal in the lower-sugar maple flavor (one of the few genuinely sweet foods both kids consistently enjoy)

Lunches have been all over the place. My favorite so far was some leftover moo shu pork filling that I seared in a skillet and stuffed into a freshly cooked flour tortilla with provolone, hoisin sauce, julienned cucumber, and a fried egg.

To support that sort of improvisation, we stocked:

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Onions

Cucumbers

Carrots

Pickles

Celery

Lemons

Garlic

Ginger

Mayo

Mustard

Some really good olive oil

Oil-packed tuna

Sliced smoked salmon

For dinners, we've been leaning heavily on pasta. I've been conducting a secret taste test between Rao's and Carbone marinara sauces, using my children as unwilling research subjects and fettuccine sauce as the control. Alongside that we've had salads and simple vegetable sides. Both kids love broccoli (cooked in the Wonder Oven Pro), Caesar salad, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Last night I stopped by Leschi Market to pick up some flowers—which are currently sitting in a Cambro food container because I haven't unpacked the vases yet—and a loaf of bread. Instead, I came home with an entire haul (seen at the top of this newsletter):

An entire guanciale

Sliced mortadella

Sliced salami

Peaches

Plums

A wedge of Stilton

Some Humboldt Fog

Arborio rice

And a slab of bacon

Looking at that list afterward, I realized I'd somehow spent more money on cured pork and fancy cheese in one ten minute spree than I had on vegetables for the entire week. I think my grocery trips often end up like that, especially if I see specialty products like guanciale and slab bacon. The difference is that usually there's a pantry full of beans, tomatoes, rice, and dried pasta at home to balance things out... oops.

We'll get there eventually. But as I'm building out this new kitchen, do let me know: What are the first things you stock your pantry with when you move into a new kitchen? I'll be sure to let you know as I continue to stock mine!