There is one new thing in my kitchen that makes me smile: a gurgle pot pitcher. Fish shaped items are always pleasing, and since we drink a lot of iced tea one that makes a coy bubbling sound when poured only adds to the lovely experience. Click here to hear the gurgle.
Now the challenge. I will list five items that are beloved in my kitchen, various things that I consider essential to my day to day cooking endeavors. Are you up to the challenge? Can you leave your five beloved items in the comments? Do you dare? Have I goaded you into it yet? Here they are in no particular order:
1. Frozen pesto. Charlie makes delicious pesto and there is always a ton of it. I freeze the extra bits and defrost them gently on the counter. Wonderful on crackers, of course pasta, or as a spread on sandwiches. Also helpful when a friend who could really use a pot of soup requests "tomato basil" from your list of what you could cook for them.
yes, I love my labeler but sometimes containers get re-used and I'm toolazy to peel the old label off
2. Hand-held immersion blender. I can't say that I use it every single day, but that would be close to the truth. You have not lived until you cook a recipe that needs 20 cloves of garlic minced and you look at that chopper and suddenly little hearts start appearing above it and it turns your hard work into one simple step. Or salsa needs three minced super hot peppers, and you don't have to wear rubber gloves to get the job done. Or you make tomato soup for a friend and it needs to be pureed and you don't have to transfer boiling cup-fulls to a blender.
3. Timer with thermometer. This thing cost me all of $12 at Target several years ago. I use it for steaks, jam, bread, boiling oil, and to see if the thanksgiving turkey is done. It has a temperature function where you set the degree and it beeps when it gets there. The probe and cord are heat proof to something crazy (I've had it on a 550 degree grill when cooking steak and it works perfectly).
4. Homemade stock. Yes, you can buy stock in many forms at the grocery store. But if you're using carrots and onions and peppers and tomatoes and parmesan cheese and roasted garlic when you cook anyway, why not save the bits in the freezer? I could devote an entire entry to stock creation, but I'll keep it simple and say that it is quite easy to make and the taste difference will astonish you. Except for beef broth...I could devote another entry to that and how much of a pain in the fundament it is to make.
5. Butter Bell. I make a lot of bread, ergo: I eat a lot of toast. My biggest vice is a piece of hot buttered toast. I would say that it is a sin when butter is cold and rips holes in a perfect slice. The solution? A simple bit of physics involving water and an airtight dome of butter. Kept at room temperature, the butter magically stays just spread-ably soft and easy to use, without spoiling.
Those are my five. You know what? I triple-dog-dare you. Go ahead and click on that "comments" button and tell me your five. Aren't familiar with commenting? Just check the box marked "anonymous" and tell me who you are in the comment. You don't have to be an internet whiz to comment. Mom Mom, I know for one that you're a top hand with one of those microwave egg-cooker things. Dad, you produce a cooking show for pete's sake. And mom, you pioneered dilly bread. Come to think of it, perhaps dilly bread should be in my top five kitchen items.
9 comments:
Okay, I take up your challenge:
1. Microplane: makes grating cheese, garlic, ginger, a breeze.
2. Cusinart: Two buttons: On and pulse. What could be easier?
3. Resealable sandwich bags filled with 8 ounces of chicken stock or beef stock, laid flat in freezer like a deck of cards. A snap to use.
4. My Japanese Veggie knife, carbon steel, have to dry it and oil it after every use, but after two years of constant use, it's carbon steel edge is still as sharp as a scalpel.
5. A string of multi-colored Christmas tree lights strung along the ceiling where mom's collection of baskets hang. I plug it in and the world changes from ho-hum to HO-HO!
Alright, I'm coming out of lurkdom to accept your challenge!
Hello there! It's your cousin, all the way in DC! *waving*
1. My Kitchen Aid mixer: It's RED, it's always clean & ready. Nope, it doesn't get used every day, but when you need one, you *need* one. A friend and I were talking about making marshmallows. She broke her hand mixer in the process. I'm going to try to make them this weekend, knowing I have the power to do so. I've admired them for so long, I squealed when I got one for Christmas.
2. Tinfoil: Yes. Tinfoil. Wrap things up in it, use it as an easy, cheap cover for awkwardly shaped plates without the wrestling you get with plastic wrap, ball it up and clean the grill grates, make a hat and put it on the dog to amuse yourself while waiting for the cupcakes to finish baking (not that I've ever done that or anything), and for god's sake, lining pans, trays, etc, so you aren't standing at the sink scrubbingscrubbingscrubbing for hours.
3. Cheap plastic IKEA cutting boards: Use, abuse, and when they get awful, recyle 'em. Hey- they were only $2.50 for 2 of 'em. Love the cheap Swedes!
4. Microplane: I'm with Uncle Paul on this one.
5. Toby: A dog in the kitchen is a very handy thing to have. One who is motivated by food is slightly better. He sleeps in front of the sink (his one bad feature), but when something hits the floor (anything but onion, grapes or chocolate), he's great for "Hey Tobs" {tap toe near dropped item} "Want this?" We both win!
I have no fear (though I just had to leave the kitchen with one screaming child, leaving another one "helping" to make tortillas")
1. Bench scraper: this is a metal flat thing with a curled top that bakers use to scrape dough off of wooden boards. It works wonderfully for that, but is also an indespensable counter scraper- I hate using sponges, when a nice metal scrape! and it's gone.
2. Small chapatti rolling pin. This is from an Indian grocery, but we use it for rolling pretty much all small flatbreads, and it's tiny size is convenient in a galley kitchen. Plus a 2 year old can use it. I love one-piece (i.e. no rolling handles) rollers, and this is one.
3. Homemade yogurt. We have an endless stream of yogurt in the fridge, which sometimes punks out and we have to use another store-bought starter, but ours is so much yummier! Lassis in hot weather, used in place of sour cream everyplace, and as a condiment in general.
4. Rag cloth diapers. Sorry- we spill so much water on the floor (it's not just the toddler), that these super-absorbant things save the day. This way, we also never have to _mop_ the floor- it gets washed end to end fairly often.
5. Kitchen stool. We have a lot of stuff on high shelves that are accessed fairly often, and Calliope can stand at the sink, roll out dough, and generally add to the chaos at will.
Hmm. Let's see...
1. My Cooper Cooler (http://www.coopercooler.com/). As an amateur wine maker (and drinker) with limited fridge space, it's lovely to be able to quickly chill a bottle of wine. And unlike most wine "chillers", this one actually works. And it's great for soda and beer, too. I just wish it was big enough for champagne bottles.
2. My Cuisinart DLC-8 Plus. I've had it for over 20 years, and it's still going strong. I just used it to make up some hamburger (Alton Brown's method - yay!) and some mayonnaise.
3. My spiffy new glass fermentation locks. Certainly more fragile than my plastic ones, but these have class.
4. Bodum French Press. Yum.
5. New counter space with butcher block tops and overhead storage made from the post and wire modular shelving pieces available from storables.com - I designed it with little swing out bits for holding waste bowls and a handy rack-mount PDU for power. Sweet. This house was built in 1904, and the kitchen was not designed with modern workflow in mind. And with the way the windows and doors are laid out, regular counters just can't be used. I tripled my (tiny) countertop space!
Better late than never....so disappointed to find that I can't comment with pics...but here's my list:
1) A 5-inch utility knife which is a replacement for one I started using in 1969 and then got the handle ruined by leaving it on the stove...and then Paul found a replacement...anyway it's the knife I want to use for everything and it's my favorite go-to item in the kitchen.
2) Our BIG spice cabinet which we found in a NH antique store. It's really a Victorian medicine cabinet...painted as an homage to Van Gogh as an artwork in the kitchen AND housing spices galore.
3) Nutmeg grater which I got in 1969 and is still going strong.
4) Window over the sink open for breezes in the summer.
5) Can you tell that I'm not doing the cooking these days? But for me, it is a must to have various wonderous cheeses in the fridge...and crackers...if you have that, you're ready for snacks AND for company.
Going beyond my list, I lust after the gurgle pitcher and would like to have it in our kitchen too.
Constanza
My rabbit wine opener lets me get that glass of wine in my hands so much faster.
I love my big blue rubber spatula. It's flexible and can flip an egg with gentle grace!
My nespresso machine with it's nifty little capsules. It makes the nicest froth on top of each shot.
My santoku knife because I haven't completely cut off a finger with it yet, but it has let me know whose boss.
Every plant guardian animal statue that annoys the crap out of Ido. He believes that every one of them is a reject from the factory. I just recently added a new white porcelain bird beauty to my collection.
1. jelly cutting boards from Crate & Barrel - not too pricey ($15ish), plastic is soft enough that it doesn't dull your knives. they go right in the dish washer so they are perfect for cutting meats. the best part is little rubber pads on the bottom so they don't slip when you apply pressure!
2. pampered chef baking stone - this thing is awesomeness! I've had it for 8 years and it's seasoned to perfection. nothing sticks to it - no need to spray or silpat. pizza crusts come out crisp. sucks the fat out of a rotisserie chicken beautifully.
3. Grohmann chef knife - made just outside my home town in Nova Scotia. sharper than bloody hell and heavy enough to cut just about anything.
4. heavy metal garlic press - we love garlic. I love a metal press - cleans up great and so easy to use.
5. tiny ramekins - I bought them in a creme brule kit. they were way to small to make enough brule for a single serving (I love that stuff) but they are perfect for other things - hot sauce for dipping, prep bowls, condiments. excellent!
Not sure if this'll be seen as it is so late, but...only one is truly essential; the wok, scrounged for $2 out of a church sale held behind my old home, Blair Hall, years ago.
It's never too late, mr. anonymous. ;)
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