apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'll do you one control-freak better: I've traveled with my own blender and my own mustard, in addition to knives, salt and fry pan.

Grant I am 100% with you!

Cooking at my mother's house can be a true test of my patience. Not only does she rarely have what I need, but when she does, you can usually be sure it is expired!

(She had a gallon container of vanilla extract that she got on sale and it went bad of course...I was like "Mom, how much vanilla did you think you could possibly use??")

This morning I had to call her and ask if she had garlic...and did it have any sprouts??

Her knives are never sharp and I can't get used to her Pyrex pots that burn everything! Other than outfitting her with a whole new kitchen, I don't know what to do. I'll bring a few necessities with me and try and make the best of it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh my goodness - I was just thinking about this exact thing, Grant! I am at my parents' for two weeks, completing a bunch of grad school stuff in my hometown, and being in the kitchen I grew up in is weird. It's familiar, yet frustrating, as I don't have a good sense now for where anything is. Cooking that would usually be easy is now daunting.

I totally travel with my own spices, when I come up for this long! I bring all the things I need for a good spicy stew.

I can't deal with cooking in my mom's kitchen without my knife (wustof 10' chefs knife). Her's are old dull and won't cut anything! As long as I have a good knife I am good to go.

Though I do remember one time I went to a freinds house to cook something (they had nothing in their kitchen) and I toted my wok, cutting board and knifes on the metro with me. It was somewhat obnoxious

My parents bought a new house a while ago and at first it was a little hard getting used to where she put all her stuff at, but I am now okay in her kitchen. But what is really funny is that when I go home my mom will tell me to bring stuff up with me. She has a lot of kitchen gadgets, etc., but she always is giving me kitchen stuff for gifts and she has no problem with me bringing my goodies with me when I go home:) Can't say the same for any of my friends, but oh well.

So how do you guys travel with sharp knives? It's very feasible to pack one into your trunk if you're driving, but I can't imagine one can fly anywhere with a 10" chefs knife. And as Luke said, taking the metro with any sort of cooking gear must get tiresome very quickly.

I rarely cook when I am traveling but my fiance and I generally bring tea with us when we travel because we are tea snobs and rarely our family has tea to accomadate us.

unfortunately, the thing that drives me the most bonkers is my mom's electric stove. i always over- and undercook things on it!

otherwise, her kitchen is usually pretty well-stocked, although she tends to have spice blends rather than individual spices. also, she's allergic to onions, so nothing i make for them tastes right to me.

My in-laws only buy 'Garlic Plus' and other pre-mixed-MSG'd spices often found at Costco, so when I visit, I will buy a new spice, cook with it, then leave it with them with instructions on what to use it in.
Last time I was there, I asked if they had any Cumin, and they didn't know what it was! CUMIN!

I love amd adore cooking in other people's kitchens.
But I often travel with a microplane grater and my own olive oil and spices. It's the littlest things I can't do without.

Haha! A couple of Thanksgiving's ago I cooked at my Mom's new condo and the only spices she had were Salt & Pepper! I had to drive back home and get all my spices and a couple of saucepans in order to finish cooking dinner.

Now I have the immediate family over my very small, but well-stocked apartment. And things run much smoother. =)

If one of my relatives offered to cook the holiday meal provided they can bring their own equipment and spices, I'd say, "Come on down!"

What a luxurious gift you all are offering your family by cooking for them.

I havne't been tempted to bring woks or chopping boards or knives, but I HAVE given in to picking up a bottle of Tabasco sauce or Dijon mustard or hot chilli peppers to spice meals up at my in-laws' home. (they watch their salt and oil intake and serve everything plain, so everything has zilch flavor).

Wow. I'm glad I'm only an occasional cook so that I'm not such a snob!

I'm the one with the dull knives and make-do supplies.

Wait, I guess I am a snob. I made my fabulous Squash Bisque for my family one Christmas Eve. They tried it with their noses turned. (they're the meat and potatoes types - I've developed a more sophistocated palate than they, over the years) Only my teenaged niece liked it and asked for more! As her mother, who didn't bother to even taste it... criticized it - I explained to my niece that unfortunately, her parents are 'common'!

I made it for Thanksgiving yesterday and it was a hit! As expected.

Amen! I brought my super-accurate ThermaPen instant-read thermometer (so there would be no questions about the turkey's doneness), a bunch of homemade chicken stock (so we wouldn't have to use canned), spices, and more. And I still wish I'd brought some other things. Professional chefs ALWAYS travel with their knives, so there should be no shame in that. I wish I'd brought one of my knives yesterday, too.

... common? Please tell me that you're joking.

And I'm starting to think that everyone in our parents' generation has dull knives--drives me crazy, though mine live so far away that bringing supplies with me isn't very feasible. I just opted to get my mom a few nice knives for her birthday last year.

Of course the 'common' comment was a joke!

Though I do find myself irritated with folks who won't try anything that isn't meat and potatoes.

I don't have a problem with finding things in my parents' kitchen because nothing has been moved around 15-odd years.

I took care of my mother's knife set problem last year by buying her a nice replacement set. At first, she was staunchly against it; she was convinced her (extremely dull) knives were fine and a few quick swipes through her sharpener is all they ever needed. I bought her a new set anyway and she immediately realized what a difference good, sharp blades make.

I tried the same thing with the steak knives, but the set is still unopened, hiding in the pantry somewhere. I've illustrated how dull their knives are by swiping a steak knife multiple times across my palm and pointing out how I didn't even have a scratch. But they're just stubborn.

The other highly frustrating thing is that my mom's diabetic and my dad is a low-fat fanatic (they're both skinny already). 1/2% milk, no-fat sour cream, low fat mayo, SmartStart spread but no butter, sugar free cookies... Oy vey.

When we first moved into our condo we were disoriented in our own kitchen. I made post-it labels for all the drawers and cabinets, which helped. But the best comments were from guests who came to our kitchen and loved it, because they could find everything!

I also know an elderly woman who says she can always find everything in all of her childrens' six kitchens, because they've organized theirs just like hers. I liked that.