KITCHENWARE PEAR: December 2014

Having the right tools in the kitchen can make all the difference. Cooking can be fun or it can be a chore. Over the years I have found that certain tools and products make cooking faster and more enjoyable for me. ‘I have also found that it is easier to involve children in the cooking process if you have the right tools. Take a gander at this list and see if these are items you have in your kitchen. If not I seriously recommend that you consider adding them to your arsenal.

No one is paying me to say any of this. These are the items I use in my own kitchen. I find each of them very helpful and vital in getting dinner or anything else on the table for my family.

In no particular order, here we go:

A Good Knife: I can not stress this enough. If you hate cooking, take a look at your knives, it might be why. A few years ago I went to help my sister while she was on bed rest. I was cooking all of the meals and two days in I found myself dreading chopping anything. Chicken, vegetables, anything. Her knives were horrible. Dull, cheap and flimsy. I couldn’t believe that I was not enjoying cooking. It really was the knives, everything took twice as long and it was harder to get the desired shape and size I wanted. A good knife will last forever if you take care of it and sharpen it well. I have had mine for 9 years and they are still going strong. I have three knives that I love. J.A. Henckels 8″ Chef’s Knife, J.A. Henckels 4″ Pairing Knife, Pampered Chef 5″ Santoku Knife, I have this Sharpener. If I had to grab just one if the house was on fire and I couldn’t grab all three, I would probably grab the Santoku knife.
Crock Pot: I think it goes with out saying that every kitchen should have a crock pot. Especially if you are a busy mom, you need to be armed with a few great crock pot recipes and a crock pot that is the right size for your family. I have a 5 qt size crock pot that works well for our family. We got it for our wedding, it looks sort of like this, but blue.
Rice Cooker: Oh how I love my rice cooker. I tease my husband that it is one of the main reasons I married him. He lived in Korea for two years and got addicted to rice. The first thing he did when he got home was buy a rice cooker….a really nice one, and lucky me I married him and get to use it all the time. Not all rice cookers are created equal. when he picked his he bought it because it was the same brand that he had seen while living in Korea. Our rice cooker is 10 years old and still going strong. I think he paid about $70-80 for it. This rice cooker is just like ours but the newer addition and is $50.00. I also like to cook quinoa in my rice cooker.
Food Chopper: I reach for my food chopper all of the time. It is so helpful. I can chop things up in a jiffy. Onions, and other veggies I want in tiny pieces. Chocolate and nuts in baking. It can also chop up cooked chicken breast in a hurry. I have The Pampered Chef Food Chopper, but I have seen many other versions, I can only vouch for the one I have….I love it.
Veggie Peeler: Veggie peelers are not all created equal. If you have a bad one, you can probably peel your carrots and potatoes faster with a shoe. If you have a good one, cleaning and peeling veggies is a breeze and a great job for one of your kids to help with. I have a J.A. Henckels peeler. It came with my J.A. Henckels knives that I got with a cooking class I took in college.
Cutting board: Everybody needs a good cutting board or two. I prefer plastic cutting boards so I can throw them in the dishwasher to be disinfected after using them to cut up meat. I have a large cutting board and a medium size cutting board as well as aflexible cutting mat. I like being able to cut up things and move them to one side of the cutting board and still have space to chop up the rest of my ingredients.
Large skillet with a lid: A large skillet is a must. They are great for one skillet meals and making sauces, as well as browning and frying meat. I use mine almost everyday. I would suggest at least a 12″ size. Just picture how much your family eats and make sure that it could fit in the size of skillet you pick. Mine is Pampered Chef, It came in a set of pans I bought about 5 years ago. If you purchase it separately you have to by the lid as well. William Sonoma also has a nice one.
Covered Baker: I have a pan I call my special pan. It is a Magnalite round dutch oven. I have had it for 11 years. I actually bought it at a Good Will in Ohio when I was visiting my sister. Best six bucks I ever spent. I love that pan. It feels like a member of the family. I use it all the time. I use it on the stove top for cooking dry beans, making soups/chili and sauces. I use it in the oven for cabbage rolls, roasts, potato dishes, to cook juicy and tender chicken and countless other recipes. It cooks things sooo well! I love it. I recently bought Pampered Chef Covered Baker and have been very impressed with it as well. I like it because I can also use it in the microwave. It cooks things very evenly and everything I have made in it has come out delicious!
9×13 pan: Everyone needs a good 9×13 pan for casseroles, lasagna, and all kinds of desserts. I like my 9×13 Pyrex dish and my 9×13 Pampered Chef Stone. My Pyrex one is especially cool because it has a lid which makes it great for transferring things or storing leftovers.
Large cookie sheets: Everyone needs a good cookie sheet, but they are not just for cookies. (I actually prefer to make my cookies on my Pampered Chef stones because they cook more evenly.) But My large bar pan stone is a little two small for some of my favorite desserts. Large batches of brownies, strawberry shortcake, giant éclair dessertand many other crowd size desserts work better in a large cookie sheet. They even make the large cookie sheets with lids now. I want one so bad. I need to ask Santa for one this year. What ever kind of cookie sheet you have you can use it for many things.Baked fries, baking pork chops or other meats, bread sticks, rolls, roasting veggies, drying out bread for breadcrumbs or croutons…..I could go on and on.
Blender: Whether it is a blender, an emulsion blender or a food processor, you need something in the kitchen that can help you blend things up. I use mine for salad dressings, turning pinto beans into refried beans, smoothies, salsa, Pina Coladas, applesauce and to obliterate many other things. I am dying to get a Vitamix or aBlendtec but for now mine is doing fine, it’s comparable to this one.
2 quart mixing bowl: A 2 quart size mixing bowl is perfect for mixing almost anything. I grab mine at least once a day for pancakes, waffles, roll dough, scone dough, cake mixes, scrambling eggs, tuna salad, energy bites, and many other family favorites. I have two I use all the time. One is stainless steel and the other is thePampered Chef batter bowl. I love it because it has a lid.
A good spatula: A good spatula in the kitchen will be your best friend. Some people call them mix and scrapers. What ever you call it, you need a good one. It helps you get every last drop out of the peanut butter canister or the last blob of cookie dough for one more cookie. Very important.
Cheese Grater: I use my cheese grater for much more then just cheese. I like to grate carrots, zucchini and other veggies to put into casseroles, meatloaf, soups and other dishes. It is a great fast way to add a little more nutrition to many of the dishes you are already making. And, of course I also use it for grating cheese. I got mine at Ikea
Measuring Spoons and cups: Measuring cups that are clearly marked make for faster and easy measuring. They also make it easy for kids who know their numbers to help with dinner and other cooking/baking. I like my stainless steel measuring cupsand spoons. I also think it is important to have a two and four cup liquid measuring cups of some sort. They come in very handy.
Cookie scoop: Cookie scoops make lots of jobs faster, making meatballs, cookies,energy bites and anything else you need to make in a small circle. My kids also love to play with it in our wheat box. Remind me to tell you about the wheat box sometime.
Basting brush: You might be saying basting brush, what is so important about a basting brush. Well having a good one will make your life easier, whether you are putting bbq sauce on chicken on the bbq or buttering bread sticks. I use mine when I lightly fry corn tortillas for many of our Mexican dishes and meals. Which is more often then I might be willing to admit. I love my silicone basting brush because every other basting brush I have ever had sheds it bristles and also never really seems like it gets all the way clean. I got my silicone basting brush 5 years ago from Pampered Chef and it still looks new even after hundreds of uses.
Kitchen Shears: Oh man, you need some good kitchen shears. My mom never had them growing up, so I never even considered getting any until I saw a friend using them all the time. I decided I needed some and boy did I. How did I ever live without them. They are not all created equally though, I would suggest paying a little more fora good sharp pair that will last a long time. I feel like a broken record, but yes I bought mine from Pampered Chef. What can I say, they know what they are doing when it comes to helpful kitchen products.

Okay there are more then 18: These aren’t exactly necessities, but boy they make cooking more fun.

Salad Spinner: We use this to clean all kinds of lettuce for salads, chopped or shredded cabbage, and all kinds of berries. Very helpful and the kids LOVE to spin it for me.
Manual food Chopper: I just got this a few months ago and use it for making pico de galo, crushing graham crackers and all kinds of other things. My kids think it is the greatest. They beg to help cook when I get it out. I like it because it is easier for them to use then the manual food chopper and has no slip grips on the bottoms so it stays in place on the counter while they are using it.
Small sauce Pan: We got a small sauce pan when we got married that has been my little (no pun intended) right hand man over the years. I love it. It is just the right size for all the small jobs.
A large pot with a steamer or strainer: I have a large pot with a steamer/strainer feature that is so handy for making pasta and steaming vegetables. It also works great for large batches of soup or chili. I love it because I can steam green beans while my pasta is cooking. Love killing two birds with one stone.

I get a little passionate about kitchen tools/products. I really do think that more often then not, peoples dislike of cooking is a combination of the wrong tools and lack of confidence. I have found that the right tools and knowing how to use them brings confidence and pushes you to take risks and try new things in the kitchen. When you feel confident in your cooking skills you will get faster and faster and be able to get dinner on the table even quicker and you will have more patience for letting your kids help you cook.

What are your favorite kitchen tools that help you include your children or make your life easier in the kitchen? I would love to hear about them.

Thanks for reading!

-PEAR

taken from http://www.themotherhuddle.com/18-kitchen-tools-everyone-should-have-in-their-kitchen/

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