Beorn's "kitchen" set up
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:49 pm
[mod edit: I meant to post this in Linna's "What have you DONE in your kitchen today?" thread, not Syl's "Lightning Bolt" thread. ~m. 
]
Well, this is really stretching the purpose of this thread, but I can't really find any other thread which is more appropriate. So, I'll
this one.
I spent the last week getting my son moved in to and helping to set up his dorm for his first year of college. Due to his disorder, he qualified for a single room, although we do still have to pay the rate difference for him to have one. At his school, the "first years" dorm rooms are 15' by 15' with a private bathroom in each room. Typically, these rooms are doubles, although the school admitted a large class this year and the majority of first years are in triples. Beorn has the same room (only ADA equipped so it has an extra large bathroom with railings and a seat in the shower in case the student using it is in a wheel chair), so we had lots of space to play with.
Beorn and hyperception planned out most of the room, but one of the things Beorn's school is lacking in is a decent meal plan. So, my task was to come up with a working appliance oriented "kitchen" which could be fit in the dorm room.
This first picture shows what I call the "working corner" of the room. You can see the edges of Beorn's dorm refrigerator and his bed on either side of the picture. His desk with his computer is in the middle. hyperception put together two stainless steel shelving units, one 72" long and the other a space saving corner unit. Currently the top three shelves aren't being utilized much, but we suspect books and other school supplies will take care of that. So, I turned my attention to the bottom three shelves of his unit.
"The Pantry"
Not visible in the photo is the bottom of the corner unit. Unfortunately, Sarasota's city water is just about as bad as Gator Town's city water, so Beorn is stocked up on gallon jugs of Publix spring water, which is bottled from a source pretty local to Gator Town. In front of the water is a bag of apples and a bag of oranges.
The bottom shelf of the straight unit is his appliance storage. He has a crock pot, a hot pot, an egg and muffin toaster [an all in one toaster which poaches an egg, steams canadian bacon or a slice of ham, and toasts an english muffin (or bread or bagels, etc.)], a small GF grill, and a GF contact roasting oven, in which he can bake chicken or roasts, make stews, rice, all sorts of things. I wanted to get him an induction hot plate, as open coil elements are frowned upon, but I just could not find one in our price range. Maybe as a holiday gift, but there is a full kitchen he can use just across the open courtyard from his room. He has to carry all of his supplies, including pots and pans, to use it though.
The second from the bottom corner shelf is full of boxed pasta and cans of Progresso soup. More easily seen on the second from the bottom straight shelf is most of his pantry staples; i.e. pasta sauce, popcorn, cereal, saffron rice, and lots of canned vegetables. I would have preferred fresh or frozen vegetables, but the stores are seven to ten miles away, he has no car, and at most will probably shop once a week via bike or bus. And his dorm fridge is too small to store either fresh or frozen vegetables.
His room does have a garden plot right outside his window which lies solely against his room, and right now it is totally bereft of any growing things. As it starts to cool off, I want to encourage him to plant things, perhaps some herbs or a few vegetables. But I have a feeling that won't happen...
The corner middle shelf holds Beorn's laser printer, but there was a lot of space behind it which I took advantage of. That shelf holds a knife set in wooden block (they came as part of a Target "kitchen in a box" which I bought on 75% off clearance for $8.74 many years ago in preparation for Beorn moving in to a dorm). Unfortunately as far as the knives go, "you get what you pay for." The knives are very lightweight laser cut blades and when I attempted to use what passes for a chef's knife to slice an onion I was sorely disappointed. I've been told I am a "knife snob," but I really am concerned he is going to cut himself using them. Perhaps a better set will be a good holiday gift; right now we're too strapped to afford them for his birthday at the end of the month.
Next to the block set is his silverware, and behind that are his utensils. I searched all over for an empty utensil carousel, as his pots and pans already came with them, but the only carousel I found came with more utensils and I couldn't justify the cost. So right now he has a ceramic holder. I hope it doesn't fall on the tile floor at any point. It is set towards the back of the shelf, so here's hoping.
The middle straight shelf holds more pantry items: english muffins, a loaf of bread, an unopened jar of olives (the opened one is in the fridge), Nutella, raspberry preserves, Jif (all essential, in Beorn's mind, especially the Nutella), spices, a head of garlic, a bottle of extra light olive oil, paper towels, dishes, bowls, and cups.
Finally, his in-room "kitchen."
We placed his very old microwave on the stainless steel work table permanently. As you saw, the rest of the appliances are stored on the bottom shelf of the straight unit. However, a surge protector power strip stays on the work table so the various appliances can be plugged in and used as needed. Beorn's pots and pans which can be used in the common kitchen sit on the shelf below, as well as various food storage items and the rest of Beorn's supply of kosher for Passover Coca-cola (notice the yellow caps on the bottles).
All told, this set up works pretty well. He used the hot pot to prep his grandmother's "goulash" recipe one morning while I was there, and then put it in to the crockpot to finish off while he ran about doing orientation events. He then made penne in the cleaned hot pot, and had himself a nice dinner that night and some leftover for lunch the next day. The egg and muffin toaster he has used at least weekly since I found it on clearance at CVS several years ago, so between that and his Kashi cereal, plus the pastina in his stack of pasta, I know breakfast is covered.
I'm pretty sure all this that will get him through until the 1st of October (and then some, I hope), when hyperception and I head down for Family Weekend .
]Well, this is really stretching the purpose of this thread, but I can't really find any other thread which is more appropriate. So, I'll
this one.I spent the last week getting my son moved in to and helping to set up his dorm for his first year of college. Due to his disorder, he qualified for a single room, although we do still have to pay the rate difference for him to have one. At his school, the "first years" dorm rooms are 15' by 15' with a private bathroom in each room. Typically, these rooms are doubles, although the school admitted a large class this year and the majority of first years are in triples. Beorn has the same room (only ADA equipped so it has an extra large bathroom with railings and a seat in the shower in case the student using it is in a wheel chair), so we had lots of space to play with.
Beorn and hyperception planned out most of the room, but one of the things Beorn's school is lacking in is a decent meal plan. So, my task was to come up with a working appliance oriented "kitchen" which could be fit in the dorm room.
This first picture shows what I call the "working corner" of the room. You can see the edges of Beorn's dorm refrigerator and his bed on either side of the picture. His desk with his computer is in the middle. hyperception put together two stainless steel shelving units, one 72" long and the other a space saving corner unit. Currently the top three shelves aren't being utilized much, but we suspect books and other school supplies will take care of that. So, I turned my attention to the bottom three shelves of his unit.
"The Pantry"
Not visible in the photo is the bottom of the corner unit. Unfortunately, Sarasota's city water is just about as bad as Gator Town's city water, so Beorn is stocked up on gallon jugs of Publix spring water, which is bottled from a source pretty local to Gator Town. In front of the water is a bag of apples and a bag of oranges.
The bottom shelf of the straight unit is his appliance storage. He has a crock pot, a hot pot, an egg and muffin toaster [an all in one toaster which poaches an egg, steams canadian bacon or a slice of ham, and toasts an english muffin (or bread or bagels, etc.)], a small GF grill, and a GF contact roasting oven, in which he can bake chicken or roasts, make stews, rice, all sorts of things. I wanted to get him an induction hot plate, as open coil elements are frowned upon, but I just could not find one in our price range. Maybe as a holiday gift, but there is a full kitchen he can use just across the open courtyard from his room. He has to carry all of his supplies, including pots and pans, to use it though.
The second from the bottom corner shelf is full of boxed pasta and cans of Progresso soup. More easily seen on the second from the bottom straight shelf is most of his pantry staples; i.e. pasta sauce, popcorn, cereal, saffron rice, and lots of canned vegetables. I would have preferred fresh or frozen vegetables, but the stores are seven to ten miles away, he has no car, and at most will probably shop once a week via bike or bus. And his dorm fridge is too small to store either fresh or frozen vegetables.
His room does have a garden plot right outside his window which lies solely against his room, and right now it is totally bereft of any growing things. As it starts to cool off, I want to encourage him to plant things, perhaps some herbs or a few vegetables. But I have a feeling that won't happen...
The corner middle shelf holds Beorn's laser printer, but there was a lot of space behind it which I took advantage of. That shelf holds a knife set in wooden block (they came as part of a Target "kitchen in a box" which I bought on 75% off clearance for $8.74 many years ago in preparation for Beorn moving in to a dorm). Unfortunately as far as the knives go, "you get what you pay for." The knives are very lightweight laser cut blades and when I attempted to use what passes for a chef's knife to slice an onion I was sorely disappointed. I've been told I am a "knife snob," but I really am concerned he is going to cut himself using them. Perhaps a better set will be a good holiday gift; right now we're too strapped to afford them for his birthday at the end of the month.
Next to the block set is his silverware, and behind that are his utensils. I searched all over for an empty utensil carousel, as his pots and pans already came with them, but the only carousel I found came with more utensils and I couldn't justify the cost. So right now he has a ceramic holder. I hope it doesn't fall on the tile floor at any point. It is set towards the back of the shelf, so here's hoping.
The middle straight shelf holds more pantry items: english muffins, a loaf of bread, an unopened jar of olives (the opened one is in the fridge), Nutella, raspberry preserves, Jif (all essential, in Beorn's mind, especially the Nutella), spices, a head of garlic, a bottle of extra light olive oil, paper towels, dishes, bowls, and cups.
Finally, his in-room "kitchen."
We placed his very old microwave on the stainless steel work table permanently. As you saw, the rest of the appliances are stored on the bottom shelf of the straight unit. However, a surge protector power strip stays on the work table so the various appliances can be plugged in and used as needed. Beorn's pots and pans which can be used in the common kitchen sit on the shelf below, as well as various food storage items and the rest of Beorn's supply of kosher for Passover Coca-cola (notice the yellow caps on the bottles).
All told, this set up works pretty well. He used the hot pot to prep his grandmother's "goulash" recipe one morning while I was there, and then put it in to the crockpot to finish off while he ran about doing orientation events. He then made penne in the cleaned hot pot, and had himself a nice dinner that night and some leftover for lunch the next day. The egg and muffin toaster he has used at least weekly since I found it on clearance at CVS several years ago, so between that and his Kashi cereal, plus the pastina in his stack of pasta, I know breakfast is covered.
I'm pretty sure all this that will get him through until the 1st of October (and then some, I hope), when hyperception and I head down for Family Weekend .
wow he COOKS?
