This is not my kitchen but if it was I would never leave. EVER.
My husband was a cook for five years (he even has a spatula with his name engraved into it, so he’s a Big Deal^TM.) I on the other hand try to put metal in the microwave once a every few months, and recently mistook a cucumber for zucchini! Just today I caught a saucepan of butter on fire. It was really exciting! As my husband imparts the skills he learned in a commercial kitchen, and as I conduct culinary experiments of my own, I’ve found some kitchen tools that make a world of difference! (No, a fire extinguisher is not at the top of the list, but maybe it should be…)
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Kitchen Tools
The day we got a garlic press was one of the best days of my life. We previously owned the double handled style that opens/closes, but it was a nightmare to clean and required more grip strength than I care to use when preparing all the garlic we like to eat on a daily basis.
Quality knives greatly simplify your food preparation. They’re also much safer than the dull alternatives you might be trying to hack and saw food with! If you spend $100 per knife, you’ll get to pass on a high quality kitchen implement to your children. Less than that, you’re compromising both steel and craftmanship. Also, as pretty as they are, never buy Damascus steel knives as they are unsanitary. These are the two most used knives we have in our collection!
My immersion blender is incredibly useful and multipurposed. The whisk attachment is excellent for quickly making a batch of whipped cream and preparing other dairy based desserts. I also love it for ensuring my quiches are extremely homogeneous! The blender is great for soups, sauces, salsas, and more. And the milk frother? I mean, come on. This is precisely the correct level of extra, no matter your culinary skill!
This kit includes herb scissors and kitchen shears, both incredibly high use items in our house! We go through loads of cilantro and rosemary and are steadily expanding our herbary. I find that chopping herbs is the one cutting process where I’m at most risk of slicing my fingers, an issue these scissors totally rectify! A good set of kitchen shears is irreplaceable, too!
I’m obsessed with our salt and pepper mill set! I also go through a lot of rosemary, and so we keep a mill on hand for that as well. I notice a huge difference in taste between fresh ground peppercorns and regular ground black pepper. It’s also wonderful to get more precision with how much salt you’re adding to a dish, and to customize the size of the granules. Also, let’s be honest, they look fabulous!
Appliances
The KitchenAid mixer is worth its weight in gold. And it’s super heavy so, it’s worth a LOT. It comes in extremely handy when preparing entire meals, when doing lots of baking, and when your arms are tired. This one comes with a coated flat beater, coated dough hook, 6-wire whip and 1-piece pouring shield. The flat beater and dough hook are dishwasher-safe! We have a juice press attachment for ours and it’s the best! There’s nothing like a pitcher of mimosas made from orange juice you juiced yourself!
If you are a fan of pizza you can’t do better than the Pizzazz! It has a heating element underneath and on top of the rotating pan, eliminating all the need to preheat the oven and thoroughly cooking whatever you’re making. It makes the best pizza ever, and can be used to cook other dishes as well!
Our Magic Bullet Blender gets loads of use! We use it for protein shakes, smoothies, White Russians (and other mixed/blended beverages), and for large meals when the immersion blender is occupied. It comes in handy when making roux as well, to ensure the flour is evenly distributed within the liquid and isn’t clumped together before combining with whatever I’m cooking.
If there are any kitchen tools, appliances, or other gadgets you’re a big fan of, tell me about them in the comments! I’d love to hear about what makes your time in the kitchen more fun and effective!
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