Creative cooking
Living Antikraak* is not all it's cracked up to be. Sure the rent is very low, but the room I get is small and there's other things I have to be less than picky about. There's very little privacy -- if I have my door open on even the smallest crack people will come by, barge in, wanting to share their story, ask a question or borrow an egg. I can never walk from my bed to the bathroom naked or in my pj's. The toilet's near my door, but the showers are one floor down and going there in the Eve suit will just no do me much good.
I thought the showering in cubicles would be a challenge but that's actually turning out to be pretty okay. I wear my robe to and fro, which has ample pockets for whatever I might need in there**.
The main problem I have is with cooking. There's several kitchens throughout the building and I can use any and all of them if I wish. The one in the large common area downstairs has an induction cooking plate, which I use for wokking vegetables. It still takes some getting used to -- I have burned shrooms on the damned thing.
The kitchen closest to my room and the only one on this floor is pretty tiny. It holds a washer and dryer (only to be used by upstairs residents!), a dishwasher which I never use, a small convection oven/microwave and an electric cooking plate with room for two pans. There's a small countertop and double sink for dishes, and no less than two frying pans for common use.
I also have a rice cooker in my room, as well as a water boiler and coffee maker.
Most evenings, I cook my vegetables in my room, combining them with potatoes (when I have them) in the rice cooker, cooking everything all at one. Proven to work for cauliflower, broccoli, beans and corn. I've also attempted mac&cheese in it and was less successful in making something that actually tastes like something.
While my vegetables are getting ready in my room, I usually a potato product (pom'duchesse, potato wedges, rösti) in the oven and fry a (vegetarian) burger on the electric plate. Sometimes it's the other way around - fish (fingers) in the oven and potatoes in a pan on the stove. It makes timing a meal much trickier, but I'm getting the hang of having everything done (and not overcooked) rather well. It also means I'll be eating, collecting food from the kitchen when something's done or bringing the hot rice cooker pan to a sink for pouring off the water, for most parts of the episode of whatever series I'm watching at the time.
With the new schoolyear around the corner, several people have moved in, Cara from a few doors down hall is suddenly also home and cooking dinner, and suddenly we're fighting over the limited counterspace we have. Suffice to say I'm quite happy that I have some left-overs in the freezer. Dinner is always a challenge!
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*) Antikraak = anti-squatting. They rent out an abandoned building so squatters can't move in. I'm not actually supposed to call it that, it's "temporary living space", even though Interveste advertises it as being 'antikraak'.
**) Excepting any "lady toys" -- see the note about privacy and 'cubicles'. Not that I own any, the only one that was ever gifted to me for my birthday stayed behind in Tilburg and was actually meant for use in the shower but never used.
I thought the showering in cubicles would be a challenge but that's actually turning out to be pretty okay. I wear my robe to and fro, which has ample pockets for whatever I might need in there**.
The main problem I have is with cooking. There's several kitchens throughout the building and I can use any and all of them if I wish. The one in the large common area downstairs has an induction cooking plate, which I use for wokking vegetables. It still takes some getting used to -- I have burned shrooms on the damned thing.
The kitchen closest to my room and the only one on this floor is pretty tiny. It holds a washer and dryer (only to be used by upstairs residents!), a dishwasher which I never use, a small convection oven/microwave and an electric cooking plate with room for two pans. There's a small countertop and double sink for dishes, and no less than two frying pans for common use.
I also have a rice cooker in my room, as well as a water boiler and coffee maker.
Most evenings, I cook my vegetables in my room, combining them with potatoes (when I have them) in the rice cooker, cooking everything all at one. Proven to work for cauliflower, broccoli, beans and corn. I've also attempted mac&cheese in it and was less successful in making something that actually tastes like something.
While my vegetables are getting ready in my room, I usually a potato product (pom'duchesse, potato wedges, rösti) in the oven and fry a (vegetarian) burger on the electric plate. Sometimes it's the other way around - fish (fingers) in the oven and potatoes in a pan on the stove. It makes timing a meal much trickier, but I'm getting the hang of having everything done (and not overcooked) rather well. It also means I'll be eating, collecting food from the kitchen when something's done or bringing the hot rice cooker pan to a sink for pouring off the water, for most parts of the episode of whatever series I'm watching at the time.
With the new schoolyear around the corner, several people have moved in, Cara from a few doors down hall is suddenly also home and cooking dinner, and suddenly we're fighting over the limited counterspace we have. Suffice to say I'm quite happy that I have some left-overs in the freezer. Dinner is always a challenge!
-----
*) Antikraak = anti-squatting. They rent out an abandoned building so squatters can't move in. I'm not actually supposed to call it that, it's "temporary living space", even though Interveste advertises it as being 'antikraak'.
**) Excepting any "lady toys" -- see the note about privacy and 'cubicles'. Not that I own any, the only one that was ever gifted to me for my birthday stayed behind in Tilburg and was actually meant for use in the shower but never used.