| From Crappy Little Kitchens – Gourmet Meals |
| Thursday, 25 March 2010 20:11 | |||
 Dallas, Texas, March 2010 – At some point we have all lived in a place that had a crappy little kitchen (CLK)…maybe our first apartment or even those beloved dorm rooms.
And maybe we still don’t have the kitchen we really want. Chef Jennifer Schaertl believes that “cooking in a crappy little kitchen builds character and personality – two attributes of downright delicious gourmet meals.” Learning from her own experiences cooking in a crappy little kitchen in her first tiny apartment in Brooklyn, Jennifer created, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens. Within the pages of this new cookbook, Jennifer shows us how to love our kitchens and create fun and exciting gourmet meals in them. As Jennifer likes to say, “Just because you cook in a crappy little kitchen does not justify a crappy meal.” In her book, she tackles the myths about gourmet cooking and shows home cooks how to make fun and delectable meals despite the lack of counter space and high-tech, expensive appliances, and gadgets. In her book, Jennifer covers topics such as: - CLK Basics - It’s Not What You Have, It’s How You Use It - The CLK Pantry - Preventing Crappy Little Casualties - Nine Gourmet Rules Recipes cover everything needed to create a delicious meal, including “A”-Game Appetizers, Toss Everything but These Salads, Dignified One-Pot Creations, Artful Accompaniments, Saucy Sauces, and Desserts to Die For. And she seems to have fun doing it, making home-cooking an adventure with recipes such as: - When the Saints Come Marchin’ in Gumbo - Smokin’ Leftover Turkey Soup - Scallops Ceviche - Hot-and-Bothered Dragonfly Prawns - Wassup! Wasabi Chicken Salad - Caramelized Fennel and Goat Cheese with Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette - Hunka Hunka Monkfish - The Perfect Pot Roast - Snake-Charmin’ Moroccan Lamb Chops - Barbequeless Barbequed Salmon - Rum-Infused, Caramelized Pork Chops - Leaning Tower of Tofu Lasagna Stacks - The-Morning-After Pasta Frittata - The Best Paella You’ll Ever Eat - Rock-‘n’-Roasted Vegetables - Butternutty Squash Bread Pudding - Under-the-Sea Timables - Fig and Lavender Honey Yogurt Pie - Coconut Poached Pears with Burgundy Sauce Packed with color photos, line drawings, interactive sidebars, and chef tips and information, readers of this interesting cookbook will learn: - Why a Crappy Little Kitchen can actually be an asset, not a liability - The must-haves for every Crappy Little Kitchen pantry - Crappy Kitchen Saboteurs: Pointless items that eat up small spaces - How to enhance the functionality of your Crappy Little Kitchen space—emphasizing the surprising attributes of working in a small kitchen, plus space-saving ideas that help expand space and utility, allowing for the creation of the most complex dishes - How to double or triple the function of utensils to eliminate clutter - Swap It Skills: Replacing hard-to-find, gourmet ingredients with everyday items without sacrificing taste - How to cohabitate in Crappy Little Kitchens—Jennifer tells readers how to share the tight space and avoid Crappy Little Casualties with chef-proven techniques she learned working in busy and cramped restaurant kitchens - Ways to create beautiful plating presentations with secretly guarded tricks of the trade “Don’t fall prey to the misconception that having a crappy little kitchen limits your possibilities or confines your pallet,” Jennifer explains. “In fact, the opposite is true. My own experiences shows fine food and cramped kitchen quarters are not mutually exclusive. Remember, what sets your Crappy Little Kitchen apart from all the others, is the gourmet chef – you.” If you can’t have the kitchen you want, maybe Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens will show you how to love the kitchen you have. Jennifer Schaertl met her first crappy little kitchen when she moved to New York and found the perfect brownstone apartment in Brooklyn. After all her worldly possessions arrived, she found out just how small 300 square feet truly was. Armed with determination, Jennifer learned a million little tricks in her crappy little kitchen. And so “Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens” was born. Deciding to become a chef, she moved back to Texas to study culinary arts at El Centro in Dallas, where she received a technical education about cooking, food style, and preparation, as well as Old World knowledge about recipes and techniques. Jennifer's first job inside a professional crappy little kitchen was actually that of a dishwasher, where she eventually worked her way up to sous chef. Since that humble beginning Jennifer has worked as a chef in some of Dallas’ top restaurants, including Savory, Taste, and The Grape, and even as a pastry chef at Suze, To learn more or to join her monthly mailing list "The Crappy Little Newsletter," visit www.crappylittlekitchens.com. SOURCE: CLK
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