Five Favorite Kitchen Utensils

19 March 2014

Linking up with Hallie for some favoriting today.

I certainly don't need to reiterate that I'm not a chef. In Los Angeles I had this little troupe of grad school buddies (Hi Ruth! Hi Wendy!) who were kind of foodies (You were. You are. Be honest) and we would go to fun restaurants and share the best food at each others' houses. I would always get a little nervous making food for them, so I tried to avoid it as often as possible. I cooked for them only a few times. One of those times I think I made a pasta with wilted greens. Very bad idea. Grazie for nothing, Giada.


So with that intro, I will now tell you my favorite kitchen utensils.

- 1 -





And not just any spatula. THIS SPATULA. I think I use it every time I'm at the stove. If it's dirty, I will wash it before I reach for a substitute. It's that awesome.



I grew up also calling these spatulas, but Jacob calls them rubber scrapers. We argue about this divergence like we argue about most things. We have this set of three, and I use them frequently. But the green one is my favorite. I'll stir my sauteeing onions with it. I'll grab it to fish out the last bit of jam. The pink spoonula thing that comes in the set is not my favorite, but c'est la packaged deal.
We like to make our own chai tea which involves grinding lots of spices. I used to use a rolling pin. It was tedious but it mostly worked fine except for the cinnamon sticks which, if you managed to even break them, would torpedo all over the kitchen. Time consuming AND hazardous. Jacob got me a mortar and pestle for Christmas, and it's the funnest. It can crush a cinnamon stick like an egg shell. So, while I certainly don't use this everyday, it sits on my counter looking beautiful, and I get so excited whenever I do use it.

- 4 -
I hadn't used a funnel in my kitchen till like a year ago. I was always one of those "I'll just aim really well and be very very careful and then clean up the mess afterwards instead of getting yet another utensil dirty" kind of people, but Jacob is a funnel person and he bought us one, and now I'm a convert. As I grabbed the image above I realized there are such things as funnels with strainers?? And dry goods funnels? What is all this amazingness?

- 5 -
 
I want to be a baker of bread. Right now I have a reader (Hi Kris!!!) graciously coaching me through some bread baking via email because she offered and I'm determined if mediocre at the whole business. But the only sure fire thing about my bread baking is that every time I try try again I get to use this Danish Dough Whisk, and my if it doesn't make up for all my paltry proofing.

What are your favorite cookin in the kitchen must haves??


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20 comments :

  1. Ha! I have three (countem' 1-2-3) mortar and pestles. One is from Mexico, one is Le Creuset and a wood one from Puerto Rico. They get a little use, but mostly just sit there looking pretty.

    You should share your chia recipe sometime!

    The one tool that I don't know how I lived without? A garlic press. I hate cleaning it, but I use it all the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've almost purchased a garlic press like five different times, but I get hung up reading reviews. I don't want a cheapo one but I also don't want to throw down on one that's not going to really last. Which one do you have?

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    2. This press was gifted to us as a wedding present and I'm pretty sure it will last forever:

      http://www.crateandbarrel.com/garlic-press-and-slice/s627723?a=1552&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CKT5zq3MpL0CFaw-MgodBkAAyA

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  2. I love my kitchen knives and a big mixing bowl I just got from world market :) I am with you spatulas are not rubber scrapers!

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    1. I'm bursting at the seams of my biggest mixing bowl!

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  3. I got a milk frother for Christmas. A few seconds before I pour my coffee in and I get a yummy fancy touch to my morning. I would never have considered one before and now I'm all, "where have you been all my life." Plus it turns out the thing cost $9 at our local hardware store - so worth it!

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    Replies
    1. Hold. The. Phone. My parents have a milk frother - I adore it - but it's Nespresso and therefore very expensive. It's also not the sturdiest.

      But a 9$ one from the hardware store?? I think I could get behind that. What brand is it?

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  4. What a great list!! I love my splatter-proof cookbook holder and rubber spatulas!

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  5. The whisk is also good at mixing ground meats, like for meatballs and meatloaf, if you make that kind of stuff.

    If you drink a lot of chai, you may want to splurge on real cinnamon, as cassia has higher levels of coumarin and can damage your liver (the EU, in all it's bureaucratic fabulousness, actually limits how much cassia cinnamon bakers can put in cinnamon rolls and so on). Obviously only if you're eating it on a daily basis - just a gloomy PSA.

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  6. I will definitely use the whisk next time I mix ground meats!

    We don't consume cinnamon daily but we do consume it regularly, especially during the cooler months. I remember my husband talking about ceylon vs. cassia the other day, and I filed it away as yet another thing to fuss over next time we purchased cinnamon! The cinnamon we use in the chai currently came from a big bin at a Mexican grocery store...so I'm going to take a wild guess that it was cassia!

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  7. Cassia is way harder than Ceylon, if that helps. So the stuff that was bouncing all over - cassia.

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    Replies
    1. This thread is making my day. I love this kind of stuff.

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  8. I totally agree about the spatula/scrapers! We have that same set and I <3 the green one and mostly the white one, but the red/purple one goes basically unused. Oh well.

    I think my favorite kitchen utensils are probably this cheapo wooden spoon I got at Target (light but sturdy with the perfect sized handle and scoop part.) and my Aerolatte milk frother. I'm an ex-barista, and it actually makes really legitimate foam (way better than Starbucks "foam" but not as good as a really high-end coffee shop where they know what they're doing). I don't use it every day by any means, but probably about twice a month and it has held up for 4+ years, so well worth the $20 investment. :)

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  9. Firstly (Jacob), it's definitely a 'spatula', but then we'd also disagree on Rockmelon vs Cantaloupe and popper vs juice box??? so you fight it out between yourselves!
    Secondly, I laughed out loud with the funnel bis, because last night I tried to aim the roasted sesame seeds into the tiny neck of a glass bottle. When that didn't work I folded a piece of paper in half and tried to guide them all down the seam into the bottle (fail again), Finally hubby caught sight of my happenings and made a paper funnel. It worked.
    So maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is rubber scraper?

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  10. I don't know if you'd consider this a utensil or not, but I love my cast iron! We have a 10" skillet, an 8" skillet and a stovetop griddle. We use one of those pretty much every day.

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  11. Oooooo! I want the dough whisk!! I LOVE my garlic press also - and I have the one from pampered chef. I got it years ago and it beats any other press on the market. I use it basically every day. And I recently started making my own ghee, so I bought a little fine mesh strainer that has a handle like a slotted spoon. I love that thing.

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