Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine met in seventh grade at the Fieldston School in the Bronx, where they bonded over oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They have been cooking together ever since. In 2008, they founded the website Big Girls, Small Kitchen.

Phoebe Lapine is the author of numerous cookbooks, including Carbivore and SIBO Made Simple, and a memoir The Wellness Project. Her writing has been featured in Food & Wine, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan, among other publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her art dealer husband and oatmeal-addicted toddler, who inspired her popular Substack Munch Menus. The Weekend Wife is her first novel.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

It's hard to forget your first apartment—its cramped closets, one too many roommates, and oh-so-tiny kitchen—or the first entry-level job, vibrant but hectic social life, and newfound independence that come with it. For Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine, that first small kitchen was a blessing in disguise, a haven from adulthood's worries and thrills. In the Small Kitchen, inspired by their popular website Big Girls, Small Kitchen, is their debut cookbook, filled with more than 100 delicious recipes for cooking and entertaining within the constraints of a twentysomething life. Whether you're packing Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwiches for a cubicle picnic, staying in with a cup of Workweek Tomato Soup and Cara's Classic Gooey Grilled Cheese, whipping up Three Onion Dip and Pimm's Cup for a cocktail party, or making Shrimp Risotto with Sweet Peas and Leeks to impress a special dinner date, Cara and Phoebe will show you how to stretch your imagination and your pocketbook to get the most out of your small kitchen without sacrificing the flavor or fun of savoring a good meal. In the Small Kitchen will get a new generation into the habit of cooking and make your kitchen a place everyone wants to be.

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In the Small Kitchen

William Morrow Cookbooks

Chapter One

Let?s start with the basics: how to stock your cabinets, pantry, and fridge with useful
equipment, utensils, and ingredients, even when space and money are scarce resources. City life is hectic and expensive and, worst of all, requires us to carry all our groceries all of the blocks home. Follow our tips for creating a well- stocked pantry, and over shopping will no longer take its toll on your biceps or your wallet. Understanding some principles about seasoning your food will help you make the most of the tools available, what ever that well stocked pantry has to offer.

The ladle and other avoidable equipment
Our kitchen tool sets were born out of a series of haphazard hand- me- downs, determined bargain shopping at thrift stores and web ware houses, and equally determined improvisation. For the first year in her apartment, Cara had no baking dish and was forced to chisel slices of cornbread from the grooves of her cast iron grill pan, resulting in crimped delicacies and delicious crumbs. Phoebe cooked most of her early meals entirely out of a 5- quart Dutch oven? everything from frittatas to pan- fried fish to brownies? and she made them all without the help of measuring spoons until she received a set as a gift from her boss, Stephanie.
As resourceful quarter lifers, we trust you will find cheap ways to procure the essentials
below, and with these tools on hand, you will be able to cook all the recipes in this book.
Where we can, we give suggestions for substitutions and pose provocative questions like,
why buy a rolling pin when you have plenty of wine bottles lying around?

On the stove and in the oven

Medium enameled-cast-iron dutch oven (5- to 7-quart)
When people refer to one-pot-wonders, they are talking about this bad boy: the Dutch oven. Le Creuset makes top- of- the- line versions of these lidded pots that will likely outlive you. (Phoebe uses her grandmother?s). Lodge is a good cheaper option. Regardless of price, this item is a worthy investment, as you may otherwise find yourself buying a handful of other dinky pots and pans to compensate for the Dutch oven?s many functions? it can double as a pasta pot, can be used in the oven in place of a baking dish, and has sufficient surface area for simmering a sauce or sautéing veggies.

Large ovenproof skillet (12- to 15-inch)
Cast iron skillets are our favorite type of ovenproof pan. They are multipurpose and make
for a beautiful, rustic presentation if plopped down in the middle of a table. Use the cast iron ovenproof skillet for items that need to be cooked stovetop and then baked in the oven. Make sure not to use soap when cleaning cast iron, or to go overboard with a Brillo pad? you want the pan to stay seasoned and well greased (new cast- iron pans come with seasoning instructions).


Medium nonstick skillet (8- inch)
If you?re using the Dutch oven for boiling pasta or simmering a stew, it?s not a bad idea to have a shallow pan on hand. This nonstick skillet is also a great item to have when cooking for one. It is perfectly sized for single- serving eggs (like those found on page 28) and for quick sautés and sauces.

Cookie sheet
This is the pan for both sweet and savory items (chocolate chip cookies, page 180; roasted veggies, pages 59, 102). It can also be a great item to help in the ever tiresome small kitchen balancing act: most sheets will sit comfortably across your sink or on top of other pots and pans for use as an extra surface for prepped food. Keep a roll of parchment paper on hand to cover the sheet and cleanup will be easy. Be sure to measure the interior of your oven before you buy; we?ve owned cookie sheets that were tragically too large for our ovens. Two sheets would be ideal even if you only have one oven rack, so one sheet of cookies can be cooling while the other is baking.

9 × 13- inch baking pan
If you?re not prone to baking blondies or large quantities of mac ?n cheese, you can get away with just using a cookie sheet for most of your baked meals. Otherwise, you?ll want a metal or ceramic version of this pan. You can also use this as a vehicle for roasting meats or veggies. Pyrex is great too, but be careful when adding cool liquid to a hot Pyrex; it can cause the glass to shatter.

For the counter
Cutting board
Make sure you get a large, sturdy cutting board. Store it vertically to save the most space,
and balance it across your sink to gain more surface area. Don?t buy floppy, soft cutting
boards; these are an accident waiting to happen and will only add to your mess. A thick
plastic or wooden board, and perhaps an extra small one for menial tasks that you can dole out to your roommates and/or guests, is all you need. Wood makes for a beautiful presentation, but it is not good for when handling raw meat.

Cuisinart mini prep
Cara didn?t believe Phoebe when she claimed that this $30 food processor was a necessary item for any small kitchen. That is, until she received one for her birthday (courtesy of an ?anonymous? tip). Soon she was whipping up homemade butter in the time it takes to toast bread and venturing down Phoebe?s path of endless herb dressing creations (see page 237).
Now we both endorse this sucker in place of a blender or any other pureeing device. Trust us: it will change your life.

Large good looking mixing bowl
Medium not- necessarily- so- good- looking mixing bowl
Mixing bowls are incredibly handy. We recommend you get a good set of glass, plastic, or ceramic bowls (metal means no micro wave). At the bare minimum, you want at least one large and one medium, and preferably ones that are attractive enough to present to company (as in, not pink plastic) if you want them to double as salad or fruit bowls. If you don?t have any smaller prep bowls, you can always use a mug or measuring cup instead.

Utensils and tools
Chef?s knife (around 8 inches)
Invest in a decent knife. Don?t go crazy, but we do recommend doing some research before you buy anything super cheap. Dull knives are more likely to slip and cause injury. If you cut yourself badly, you will likely never want to (or, god forbid, be able to) cook again. And can you really put a price on safety? In this case, we say no.

Serrated knife
We find that one serrated knife, either small or large, can accomplish a lot. We use our chef ?s knife for almost everything, but it really sucks for cutting bread, and when you make as much crostini as Phoebe does, that is a major deal breaker. Serrated edges excel at cutting tomatoes, bread, and chocolate.

Paring knife
This knife is definitely third in line, so if you are investing piece by piece, get the other two first. Paring knives are helpful for smaller tasks such as peeling apples and de-veining shrimp.

Flat metal spatula
One sturdy metal spatula is really all you need for sautéing onions, flipping chicken breasts, and removing brownies from the pan.

Silicone spatula/spoonula
Our moms ingrained in us at an early age that plastic + heat = death. We?re always wary
of using plastic spatulas for scrambling eggs (news flash: we don?t use...