My Most Loved Kitchen Gadgets

Don’t you just love it when something works the way it’s supposed to?  And it lasts forever?  And you use it on a regular basis – maybe even daily? 

Since we’re all spending so much time in the kitchen, and since I am the queen of shortcuts, I thought I would share with you my top six kitchen gadgets and why I love them. 

Mini Whisk and Mini Whipper

I have a mini whisk that I think I might have received as a sample or something.  It’s so old it’s sort of mashed, but I LOVE it.  I cannot get rid of it.  It’s a six-inch and they are available lots of places, but I’m keeping mine like it’s from the island of misfit toys.

From Pampered Chef, I have a mini whipper and I do not love it like I love my mini whisk, I do use it almost every day to whip up warm cream and cinnamon for my coffee when I have tall cups of coffee.

Salad Servers

These olive wood servers were a gift from my sister for Christmas by special request.  I think they might have come from Williams Sonoma but I couldn’t find them online now and I linked some from Crate and Barrel.  When I serve a salad to guests, I don’t think they ever specifically notice the set, but I think they are so beautiful and grace my table.

Tomato Knife

I have spoken before about knives, but let me say the Cuisanart we picked up at Costco are losing their finish already.  The tomato knife I bought from Pampered Chef around 100 years ago is still great and can be sharpened.  This is no lie:  I eat tomatoes every day of my life and use this knife.  Can’t speak highly enough of it.

Pizza Cutter

I had an old and dull pizza cutter and just never replaced it for some reason.  When stores were still open and I still visited them, I received a coupon for a free cutter from World Market.  It’s so adorable with a face on it.  It’s probably not that a great of a cutter, but it makes me smile when I use it and, hey, it works.

I don’t see this cutter on World Market’s site, but there is a similar from Crate and Barrel.

On another note, Trader Joe’s has Italian pizza and pizza crust that both beat anything from take out in my opinion.  They are basically the only pizzas I eat.

Silicon Popcorn Maker

I traded texts with DF Jill last week about both of our fine dining habits of eating popcorn for dinner.  It came up because we needed to replace our microwave and our popcorn wasn’t popping entirely.  Jill, popcorn snob that she is, said that only stovetop popcorn works for her. 

Oh, no, we don’t eat microwave popcorn, we eat real popcorn popped in the microwave.  With a silicon popper we use several times a week. This popcorn popper was a Christmas gift for John a couple of years ago, and what a find!  We found avocado oil spray and it makes the popcorn delish.  It probably isn’t technically necessary because John always adds ¼ cup of butter to the batch.  And salt.  And it’s delish.

Citrus Press

Mine (again 100 years old) is from Pampered Chef, but you can get them anywhere now and even for a bit less money.  I press citrus into drinking water and use for salad dressing and meat marinade.  I see the Pioneer Woman use her hands to squeeze lemon onto food, but my hands are nowhere strong enough to get much juice from fruit and I use press constantly.

What I’m Reading

This week I read the first of a suspense series, Hunt for Jack Reacher by Diane Capri who is a friend of Lee Child, the Jack Reacher series author.  As everyone who knows me knows, I am in LOVE with Jack Reacher and he’s actually my boyfriend.  Don’t worry, John knows all about it.

Since it’s the first of the series, maybe it gets better, but I will say it was just okay.  I wouldn’t recommend it per se, but I’m not running out to buy more.

I am now starting the new Dean Koontz, Devoted.  I have no high expectations other than just to be entertained and hopefully a happy ending.  What I routinely get from Dean Koontz.  I’ll let you know on Tuesday.

What I’m Eating

My sister Susie has been whipping up recipes like a tornado, so I’m sharing some of her pics and comments about what she made.

She made these sandwiches and said: 

“They turned out just like “original” Schlotzsky’s sandwiches! Ciabatta hamburger buns-lightly toasted the inside in a dry non-stick pan-layered (about 3 slices) Genoa salami, hard salami, provolone cheese, sliced tomato and on the top: chopped green olive, chopped roasted red pepper w/a little Italian dressing.”

She made a beautiful banana bread and a pasta salad.  Here are her instructions for the pasta salad:

“You can put anything but the kitchen sink in-there are no rules! I did tri-color rotini pasta, raw broccoli, cauliflower, green bell pepper, carrots, grape tomatoes (halved), black olives (halved) and tossed it all w/Italian dressing. I made a big batch so it can be a side for a few other meals. I wanted to grill chicken breasts but Mike is the griller and was too tired, so they got pan fried-it was a good dinner.”

So, DF Jill, when you recommended a post about the microwave popcorn maker, you probably didn’t think it would be so involved!

Blessings to all of you who read my blog and many thanks for the comments and suggestions. XO