K-day

I think it took me a long time to post because I knew I this post had to come next…

It is time to post about K-day.

When last I left you, I was recounting how I had purged my house of non-kosher food, kitchenware and dishes. I had bought all kinds of new kitchenware. My kitchen was bare, and I was living in a state of limbo, using plastic utensils and occasionally running out to the balcony to use a colander or pot.

Don’t laugh, but I actually had two sets of plastic utensils. I happened to have a bunch of left-over blue plastic knives, forks and spoons from son’s bris. I used these as dairy. I had a huge (Costco) set of metallic plastic utensils we use for other casual entertaining- I put some of these in a plastic bag and used them for meat. Obviously this isn’t necessary when using plastic utensils- but it actually helped me (newbie) get into the thinking using different sets while I got ready to use the real ones. It seemed like the habit was already in place when broke out the new flatware.

At this point, I had already asked a local rabbi to come and help me kasher my kitchen, and to answer various questions. He had told me to call after Pesach- on the Wednesday after Pesach. I had tried calling him a few times starting on that Wednesday and for the rest of the week with no response.

I was calling my sister a lot with questions. I was starting to wonder if this would ever happen. Things were dragging. I was in a bad place, losing momentum, thinking about Manchego cheese and what life was going to be like without it in my home…

A week later, I was whining to my sister on the phone about how I wished it was just done and over, she said:

“O.K. This is IT.”

“What?” I asked.

“This is K-day”.

I said something equivalent to, “???????”

“You are going to kasher your own kitchen”, she told me. “You can do this.” She said.

I asked if I need a rabbi to bless it or something. Right? I mean, didn’t it need to be supervised, and pronounced kosher by some authority? Wasn’t there some final blessing that needed to be said?

She said that I did not, but that if I had any questions about it, I did have to contact a rabbi for answers. Then I told her that I was getting no respons so far and almost started a downward spiral of whining when she reiterated, “This is IT. K-day.”

When she told me this, I suddenly felt a strange peace. I would be busy for a couple of days, but it would be resolved. All of the wondering and wavering and running to the balcony to see if I still had a ladle would end. I would finally be eating off my new dishes and using my Le Crueset and moving forward. YES, I thought. This is it. This is K-day.

And she was on call for me for the next 48 hours.

I'm Still Here...

1st- Thank You to The Jewish Advocate of Boston, MA for printing an article on my little blog! I appreciate the attention . I especially want to thank the author, Rachel L. Axelbank, for doing such a great job.

2nd- My apologies for my little lapse in posting. I hope this hasn’t completely turned off readers.

I have had a busy week here- some minor things have gone awry- not dish, nor pot, nor even kosher related. Life got in the way for a moment, but I have managed to keep the kitchen running- I just wasn’t able to blog about it. I promise more posts are forthcoming.

For instance… The big day (or two days) that I really got everything done in the kitchen are going to be described in painful detail- we call this “K-day”- my sister coined the term.

I have more topics to discuss: take-out, how I came “out” to my friends and parents (many of whom don’t keep kosher), and how to deal with many interesting little situations- non-kosher friends wanting to bring in non-kosher food to my house, for instance. I am going to show how I organized my tiny kitchen with pictures. I am going to ponder how I am able to lead my “double-life”- keeping a kosher home, and not keeping kosher outside the home. (Please discuss this when the post comes.) I have much to cover. More in-depth posts will continue after Shavuot.

Please keep reading! There is so much more to come (after the holidays)

I hope your Shavuot is wonderful.

China Patterns

I was hoping someone would ask me to post my china patterns- and someone did! I will also be posting pictures of my cabinets and how I labeled them. (I took these pictures of my dishes for the labels- I will be posting how I labeled everything very soon).

We went with Villeroy and Boch china: "Limone Twist" for our dairy, and "Alea Caro" for meat. They dishes are a bit similar, but the "yellow band" means dairy in our house and "just the dots" means meat.

Meat Plate

Dairy Plate:

The Silver Lining

Perhaps I have written too much on all the challenges I had faced in this process. Now would be a good time to talk about the "silver lining". For me, this was the excuse to go shopping for Kitchenware (well, actually for us it turned out to be the "stainless steel lining"- but maybe people with bigger budgets will enjoy a true "silver lining"). I will be writing about the benefits of keeping kosher as I discover them- I have already discovered a few- but this is particular post is about one benefit of the kashering process...

I love kitchen stuff. So I did my best to focus on the new stuff I was getting, and not the stuff I was giving away, or the more difficult things I had to do- such as replacing the perfectly fine high chair trays, or having the Boos butcher block cutting board sanded down (which was almost as expensive as the board itself!) These things are best done and forgotten, using skills of memory blocking developed in childhood.

Warning- this post is only going to interest people with a real love (obsession) with kitchenware. It lists everything I have bought in the process of kashering my kitchen. It also lists everything I could keep from my old kitchen. I have not listed everything I had to give away- I just summarize this quickly, because as I said, I am blocking that memory.

1. Two Sets of Daily Dishes
My daily dishes had been stoneware and had to go, so I needed daily meat and dairy dishes. I opted for service for 8 in two different patterns. I plan to extend what I have to service for 12 eventually, but this gave us a working set for now.

I went with china, and a pattern I really loved- very bright, vivid and cheery. This colored my experience, too. I am so glad I didn't skimp on the dishes and made them a pleasure to get. I felt like I was not just cleaning and kashering, but also freshening my kitchen with color, making this match and make sense.

As for my formal china, the Rabbi at the temple we had been attending said that we could keep it and just not use it for a year (which we have already done, since I have not used any of our china since well before my son was born).

2.Milk/Meat Flatware
It turns out I was able to keep anything that was solid, stainless steel (with no coatings). All I had to do was something like boiling them- called "hag'ala", which involves immersing them into boiling water for about 30 seconds, and following it up with a quick rinse.

I could use hag'ala for my stainless flatware- there was no wood, plastic or ceramic handles or anything- it was 100% stainless. I used my old set for meat, as I had matched it to my formal china which I plan on using that for meat when the time comes. I think most holidays will be meat meals, except Shavuot, and I am happy to use my daily dishes for this (they are very bright and cheery).

I bought an additional service for 8 in a very different pattern. The dairy is very plain, simple and elegant. The meat has stripes. The important thing is that one can distinguish them. Also, the new flatware didn't come with steak knives, which are unnecessary for my dairy set. I made sure to pick up a few new milk serving utensils as well.

3. Cooking Utensils
I could keep some of my utensils, but had many plastic spatulas and wooden spoons that had to go. I replaced specific cooking utensils in blue and red depending on what I thought I needed. I could gotten complete sets in black and red (offered by KitchenAid, I believe), but I didn't want anything extra that I didn't need due to my space constraints.

4. Pots and Pans
When I made my list, I was s till unsure of what I was able to keep. At that time, I had a call in to our local conservative rabbi, and was still waiting on a response. I wasn't sure if I could keep the 5 piece Calphon set or my roasting pan.

So, I decided to wait on buying replacements for these things. This was wise. I found out later from Chabad that I could kasher the 2 pots (used mostly to boil food), but not the 3 pans (which toughed the food directly). In fact, the Chabad rabbi kashered the pots for me.

He torched my All-Clad pan (no coating, a very durable steel). He warned me that they could get browned or damaged before torching them. My wonderful, loyal All-Clad pan didn't even blink at the blowtorch, and even the Chabad rabbi commented on what a great pan it was.

So, I ended up being able to keep 1 pan and 3 pots I already had. I also was able to keep several aluminum baking sheets after he torched them, and one aluminum bundt pan. I did have to give away all my non-stick baking pans, muffin tins, bundt pans, etc.

I had almost no other pots and pans or baking dishes left, so I had to think- how would I replace this stuff- what would I need? I decided to think of a couple of weeks worth of meals, and what pots and pans and utensils I would need for the 2 week period. I could add things in later as needed, and this would make for a smaller credit card bill for the month. I decided to save baking pans and such for my next billing cycle.

I made my All-Clad meat, because it browns things so beautifully, and makes for a great pan sauce. I needed to replace all my Pyrex cooking dishes with lids. I decided to get red Le Cruset cooking dishes - a large oval, and a smaller round one.

I needed to replace my lasagna dishes. One had been Pyrex, and one had been Corningware. I upgraded these to a round blue quiche dish, and a blue Le Crueset lasagna dish. I also needed a dairy frying pan for french toast, pancakes, crepes, cheese omelets- I got a large, blue Le Crueset cast-iron pan for this.


Glass
We were able to keep all of our glass, and use ha'gala on them. We have several glass serving dishes, small and large serving bowls. We needed plates and additional glasses (we pitched our tall plastic drinking cups, and I opted for simple glass tumblers from K-mart.

Serving Dishes
I also got a couple of inexpensive serving platters from Bed Bath and Beyond (I still have a Nambe I need to kasher- or find out if I can, it's upstairs). I got some nice dairy serving pieces in my daily dairy pattern.

Plastic Food Storage
Of course we got all new Tupperware. I sprung for real Tupperware and Rubbermaid food containers. I got the kind that could collapse, and

Misc
We replaced the coffee machine. Yeah, I know we probably didn't have to, but it was time for an upgrade as ours was "user hostile", as my husband put it.

The Big Shop
When it came time to go shopping, we took one day at the outlet mall near us, and then a few trips to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. I kept everything wrapped up in the shopping bags, with their receipts, upstairs near my craft table. I can't imagine this part going this swiftly if we hadn't planned out what we needed to get with a list. Using the 2-weeks of meals as a guide really helped because I could get everything I needed in a couple of days and know I was set for a little while. It made it more manageable, both in terms of actually carrying the stuff home, and in terms of the credit card bill.

We still have many things left to get- baking pans of all kinds, a few more pots and pans, a few more gadgets- but we are making do (and have been) for about 6 weeks. It's amazing how many things can be used creatively, too. I just baked my Mother's Day brownies in the new quiche pan and they look terrific...

The Case of the Curious Cocktail Sauce

One day, while my husband and I were out shopping at a Kosher grocery store, we came across something perplexing:

Kosher cocktail sauce.

We looked at the jar, with it's little picture of a shrimp on a fork and a dollop of the red sauce on it just so. Then we looked at each other, blankly, in wordless, immediate mystification.

Wasn't cocktail sauce for shrimp, oysters, clams- shellfish? What was this picture of shrimp on a fork doing on a bottle on the shelf of a kosher store? Was this some form of hazing?

We continued shopping, occasionally sending a wary glance back over our shoulders towards the shelf with sauce. We had to know. We couldn't even wait to get home from the store. My husband called my sister from his cell while I drove.

"What' *is* the deal with the kosher cocktail sauce?" he asked.
She answered quickly and triumphantly, like a contestant buzzing in on a game show: "Fried Eggs!"

"She says it's for fried eggs", he relayed to me as I drove along. I exhaled, relieved for a moment, for some reason. I started nodding, and then shaking my head. No, no.....no! I don't really understand that one yet, but I guess it's nice to know there *is* an answer.

Planning

Having cleaned out my kitchen, it was time to replace all that kitchen gear, or in my case- upgrade the kitchen gear. I also had to establish a plan, and a color code. I love color coding things. Making kosher kitchen is great if you love to color cold and label, and helps justify OCD tendencies that one would usually have to hide away.

1. Color Code

I decided to go with red for meat, and blue for dairy due to the preponderance of supplies in these colors, and that I think this is an ISO standard somewhere. I also like these colors which helps. I sometimes use white for dairy and black for meat in cases where red and blue are not available. Green is pareve.

2. Buying Sets or Buying things As Needed

I looked around at my cabinets and put my thinking cap on. I don't have much space. I decided to keep the kitchen lean and mean- only bringing back the essentials, and then bringing in special tools and serving platters and such on an as needed basis. My plan was to start with the very basics, and figure it out as I go. I made having *just* what I wanted and used most the design goal here, and not minimizing cost. I had my limits, but I certainly didn't do this as inexpensively as one could have.

I am not big on getting "sets" of things. I would rather have 3 incredible Wusthof knives than an entire wooden block filled with average knives for the same amount of money. I would rather get just one amazing All-Clad pan and a single sturdy pot than get an entire 10 piece set of pots and pans that are of much lower quality. Given the size of my kitchen, it just makes sense. And I really appreciate selecting and getting just what I like.

But some people prefer the quantity, and are cooking for hordes of people. I can understand wanting a good value, too. IKEA offers "Kitchen in a Box" and there are many sets available at places like BJ's and Costco. They have entire KitchenAid utensil sets in black and red. Rachel Ray has orange and blue pot & pan sets. There are entire sets by other manufacturers in Red and White. I contemplated these, but given my budget and space, I decided to get the bare essentials, but to make them as high quality as I could afford. The question of whether or not to buy sets also connects to another concept. I have noticed a couple of different kosher kitchen modes of operation. When preparing to outfit my kosher kitchen, I examined the kitchens of people I know who keep kosher.

3. "Pareve by Default", or "Either/Or" Approach

I have noticed that people have different systems. I was greatly influenced by my sister. She has a policy of "Pareve by default". A utensil or appliance or what-have-you can then permanently become meat or dairy when needed- sort of called into active duty. Once the utensil touches the meat or dairy, it must stay that way, unless it is re-kashered (and some things can't be). Things will become meat or dairy, get labeled as such and stored in the meat or dairy cabinet. Some things will only touch pareve things and other pareve equipment (cutting boards, for instance). These things can stay pareve.

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, has almost no pareve utensils. Everything is either meat or dairy. Fish is always prepared as dairy. When she starts cooking, she breaks out all of one or the other, and the food is whatever equipment she prepared it with. She is a recipe cook. She has 2 huge kitchen drawers, and duplicates of just about everything. But this is simpler for her, because she snaps into either meat or milk mode when she makes a dish (or about 10 of them for a holiday).

She also doesn't get into a lot of fancy cooking gear, or overpriced, foreign ingredients like I do. She is a basic, traditional family cook- and an amazing one. I think her method makes sense for the way she cooks. I call this the "Either/or" approach. These are just two different kosher kitchen strategies, each with its own followers. "Pareve by default" and "Either/or" approaches work well for different kinds of cooks. They are also not mutally exclusive approaches. Following "Pareve by default", you may end up with everything divided into Meat & Dairy in a few weeks time, anyway!

Both methods have benefits for the kosher newbie. With "Pareve by default", you can learn what you need and establish it as you go. Your system can grow organically You just have to be incredibly fastidious about labeling and storing the utensil once it becomes this or that. "Either/Or" has benefits to the newbie as well, in that you can simply buy two of everything, store them separately and be done with it. It will make getting used to your new habits a little easier in the beginning (maybe).

I also think these two approaches are suited to different ways of cooking. Sometimes I like to do a lot of prep work. I dice up a big bunch of onions and freeze them for later use. I like to improvise when I am cooking. I want to grab a bunch of diced onions from the freezer and decide to make a spinach and feta pie, or maybe use them in a chicken dish I am making instead. I might want to use the left-over diced sundried tomatoes somewhere unexpected. I don't want to use dairy or meat equipment to give the onions an affiliation with either dairy or meat- I want to keep them neutral for future use.

I like the flexibility of being able to prepare snacks or side dishes ahead of time. I like making extra of things, like vegetarian side dishes or pareve desserts and be able to store them in pareve Tupperware or plastic bags, and then eat them later, whenever I want, with whatever I want.

Also for things like potato peelers and garlic presses, that can be limited touching pareve foods, even while they are preparing meat or milk meals. It is my understanding that these things can stay pareve, provided they don't touch milk or meat, or milk or meat equipment. I now have an entire pareve drawer with these kinds of tools, and flexible pareve cutting mats that I use with them, away from the milk and meat ingredients. This limits unnecessary duplication of utensils.

So I clearly have adopted a "Pareve by default" approach, and (so far) it has been working it me.
However, I showed a friend of mine my kitchen when I was done, and she said it took "too much thinking". But I think whichever method one uses will become natural to them, and will either suit them (or not) based on the way they cook.

I guess most people who grew up kosher probably registered for or bought what they saw in use growing up and didn't have to think about it this much. This was the case for my mother-in-law who grew up in a kosher home so it was second nature to her. But for people like me (who grew up in a house of boiling lobster pots), I think it helps a lot to come up with your overall strategy based on how you cook.

4. The Shopping List

I started with the things I knew I needed. I based this on what I needed to make my typical meals, minus what I had to toss. It helped to think up a 2 week menu plan and write it out, including all the ingredient preparation that would be required. Then list all the gear that would be in preparation and serving of the meals during those two weeks.

Everything I bought (in incredible detail) is the next post. I am separating it out for people care, to avoid comments that say "zzzzzzzzzzzz". It has details of what had to be replaced and why- but remember, your mileage may vary- you must consult your own local rabbi or kosher expert in residence if you are doing this... some things can be saved under certain circumstances in some communities, and some things I kept would have to go in others.

KitchenAid Aid

I just want to share something that made me smile from head to toe.

An acquaintance of my sister- someone who I have never met- was reading my blog and came accross the section in which I describe myself stroking my KitchenAid mixer, worrying about whether or not I would be able to keep it.

This incredibly sweet and generous woman offered to give me her KitchenAid mixer!

This was a very touching gesture. It also exemplifies to me how Jews can support each other.

Shabbat Shalom.

Postscript: I asked and it turns out I can kasher my old mixer and keep it.