Kate and Her Kitchen

Who is Kate?

I'm a mom who likes to try new recipes and is always doing fast-easy-tasty-healthy-inexpensive food juggle.  All four of my kids are female, between 8 and 13, and very opinionated.  I'm rapidly losing control over their food choices and I struggle to make healthy food that they will like to eat.

My husband is in the military and we are currently living in Italy.  We have two choices for food shopping:  the military commissary or the Italian shops.  Each choice has benefits and disadvantages.  We tend to buy most staples at the commissary and purchase our fruits, vegetables and milk in town.   It is very hard to track down foods that are not American or Italian.  I hear rumor that there is an oriental food shop somewhere in this city, but I haven't found it yet!

I have been surprisingly disappointed with the food available in restaurants and take-away shops, which makes it even more enjoyable to cook at home.

How is Kate's Kitchen?

My kitchen is a challenge.  It is huge and well equipped by Italian standards, as most rentals here come with an empty room, a water line, and perhaps a gas line for the stove.


We are blessed with a dishwasher and a decent sized refrigerator.  We also have a big, American style refrigerator in the basement.  The stove is gas, which makes me remarkably happy, but it is a hot stove.  Even with a heat diffuser, it is hard to keep some things from scorching.  The oven is small; you can not put both layers of a cake in the oven at the same time.
 
We've added an awful hodgepodge of storage furniture and a big table in the middle.  It works well enough though it rarely looks good.  I promise I will put up a picture if I ever get the whole thing clean at one time.