So DD has gone off to college & they are trying to cook in their dorm room - Need some help

M

music-city-missy

Well-known member
I want to put her together her own little spice container - sort of like the Indian tradition. But the Indian ones only hold 7 little boxes. She LOVES her spices. So....

1) cheap places to get spices? Penzey's is just too expensive, I am going to hit World Market for some but other places????

2) Any ideas for what and how to build her this spice box or a cooking kit? We used tool boxes at culinary school but they are really not that well suited. Her roommate brought a crockpot, a steamer, and such. So I thought I would put some other essentials together but I don't want it to take up too much room.

 
Mexican markets have cheap spices, but usually limited to what latinos use.

I buy bulk spices, keep the majority in the freezer & use baby food jars to keep a little in my pantry. If you bought her an electric skillet with a high domed lid she could store quite a few utensils in it.

 
Health food stores often have bulk bins for spices, or

check out Whole Foods, if you have one of those in your area.

 
A Forman grill would be great-- panini and grilled meats etc.

some basic knives would be good too. Local ethnic markets have a lot of cheap spices.
Good luck!

 
An idea... If you have some "extra" spices, perhaps you can purchase small

jars, and fill with spices from your cabinet. I linked below a place that sells "spice jars" . Does not seem too expensive. You can then add the spices from your cabinet that she enjoys, and replace yours when required, as opposed to a big up front expense. You can also make fun, personal labels for each.

What a nice idea to make her the kitchen care package.... You must be so happy that she enjoys cooking!

Best, and good luck with Grad school for your DD!

Barb

Edited: The link I found for small jars was for Bulk... (ie too many).. But I am sure that google / ebay / amazon will come up with smaller quantities

 
How about little empty tea tins - you could buy spices at, say, Walmart, and then

send them to her in the little tins. That would be colorful and different.

Basic cooking tools in a colorful flower pot or ceramic pitcher maybe. Being in a dorm she'll probably get most of her meals in the dining hall I'm guessing?

I like the idea of a Forman grill... just check with the dorm rules because when I was in college they were fussy about things like that. Can they have grills, microwaves, etc. now? A hot pot is about all they would let you have.

 
More thoughts about the culinary 'kit'. Think of your what your knife bag contains in culinary

school. You could assemble a type of knife roll kit/culinary kit for her. She definitely won't need the variety of knives a chef's knife roll usually contains, just a few basics like chef's knife, paring knife, serrated knife will likely be enough for her. Then fill up the rest of the knife roll with other essentials you think she will need and actually use in her situation. Like you, I too used a 'tool box kit' in culinary school, but I've seen some chef's knife rolls lately (some of the chefs I work with right now) that have some really functional basics included. Maybe these types of items will suit her needs:

vegetable peeler
measuring cups (one set of nesting dry measures should work just fine and fit nicely in the kit)
measuring spoons
tongs
whisk
silicone spatula (heat resistant so she can cook with it in addition to serving ordinary spatula needs like scraping jars and such)
microplane
large stainless cooking spoon
large spatula (nonstick and/or stainless)
wooden spoon
thermometer
citrus reamer or hand-squeezed juicer
immersion hand blender
wine key

lemme think about other essentials and I'll come back to edit this post.

She'll likely not need extensive cooking utensils, and quite honestly, as you know, many tools can serve multiple purposes. We really don't need half the gadgets available to cooks these days.

Come to think of it, I believe I saw a cooking-type knife and culinary kit a few years ago online, maybe at the Fine Cooking website. Hmmmm, lemme see if I can find the link.

 
Missy definitely check out the "international" section at your grocery...

I find that spices in that isle are much less expensive then the ones in the baking isle.

 
That's why the immersion hand blender is on the list. smileys/wink.gif Though she could easily

'get by' with margaritas on the rocks. A sacrifice, I know, but totally doable if dorm room space for kitchen items is limited.

 
World Market also has lots of cool little spice tins... may be able to find something there.

I got my DD's boyfriend several of the mini canisters that have a chalkboard on them for writing the name of the spice. And the Container Store has some nice little acrylic ones for $2.49

 
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