What are the real workhorses in your kitchen? Nothing that has to be plugged in or that uses batteries.

Mine are:

Good ol' Pyrex huge 8-cup measuring cup/bowl. I love the markings on the sides, it's so huge that I often use it as a mixing bowl and just measure the items right into it as I go along. Goes right into the microwave or fridge too if I need it. Love this thing.

Vegetable peeler and soft fruit peeler. Picky kids who don't want to eat any peels.

Old Tupperware plastic mat that it marked in a grid and has circles on it in sizes of 6", 8", 10", etc. I roll out all kinds of dough on this mat. The grids make it easy to make evenly sized cookies and the circles help me size my pizza dough.

Salad spinner. I'm picky, I wash even the pre-bagged salad and I can't stand wet greens!

Bialetti three cup stovetop espresso pot -- If I don't use this, it's pretty much given that the day will turn out badly.

Vegetable peeler - especially for potato gratins and cucumber salad.

Moulinex food mill -- for pureeing boiled potatos. Mashing them with a fork or a "masher" is not enough for me.

2 quart Le Creuset enameled pot, bought pre-chipped and used on Ebay for nothing

assorted 1/2 cup size ceramic and glass ramekins for storing renedered beef fat, bacon fat, duck fat, extra chicken liver pate, tapenade, egg whites, extra roast chicken gravy, etc... Also, great for baked eggs.

Pyrex 1 cup liquid measuring cup, but I know I need to get the eight cup eventually

metal colander for draining pasta.

scale (goes up to 250 grams only, however)

Kirkland Sani-Wipes. I go through them, like crazy. GD . . . I have broken every salad spinner, I've owned. And, it didn't take long for me, to do it. My touch must not be delicate enough . . .


One tool that I cannot be without, is my metal whisk. It has a sphere at the bottom of each, prong. Fantastic, for sauces, and gravies . . . cake batters, too.

A baking pan bought from Williams Sonoma about 25 years ago. It has been the single most used tool in my kitchen. I baked a dessert in it a month ago and forgot to carry it home. Thank goodness it was still there when I returned to retrieve it. So many memories flooded my mind and heart of places I had been and beloved people who had eaten from this single baking pan.

DH - he's an excellent sous chef.;-)

colander
spatula
fine-mesh sieve
2-cup measuring cup

Thin, square, white cutting board with slightly curved sides so juices won't spill over.

Chef's knife.

I take both of these with me every time we vacation at our friends' house in Florida. When it's my turn to cook, my familiar helpers are with me.

Also, a tiny whisk. I use it more often than one would think.

A very long & sharp iron knife. My grandfather used it to filet fish.

Mandolin for shredding, etc.

Corkscrew! How else to get to the vino?

Salad spinner.

Potato masher- indispencible for making pasta fazoul.

Gosh, how could I forget the corkscrew (or rather, the three I own). This is the only type I can use.

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I also had those vacuvin things to squeeze out the oxygen out of a half-finished bottle of wine, but I found that they didn't really work after the second time I revacumed the wines, so now, I just cork a half finished bottle of wine, and if it's undrinkable after a while, I use it to make a sauce.

Click to view attachmentI always have a fifties, jackknife handy, too . . . might want to clean my fingernails, before starting to cook.

Toes curling.

HeeHee that's funny. My DH is a workhorse too, sometimes even in the kitchen... ;)


"I always have a fifties, jackknife handy, too . . . might want to clean my fingernails, before starting to cook."

Armanis, isn't that what the mushroom brush is for? ;)

Kitchen timer. The plastic one, you twist the knob to set how many minutes you want counted down. (I have a battery- operated one which is more precise but isn't so LOUD as the manual timer.) I use it every single day, not just for timing cooking but for reminders to do things - take medicine, leave house to pick up daughter, etc.

I have a serrated bread knife which comes in handy every day. I don't bother with expensive knives that need tending, I buy a 4-pack of steak knives from the dollar store for slicing and chopping needs, use them one at a time and toss them out when they get dull.

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More than anything, I rely on my santoku knife. It's part of a set that b/f gave me for Christmas almost two years ago, and it's as sharp as it was on that first day. I'm very fond of it! It's a Shun Classic santoku, and has steel markings like a sword blade. :D

Tongs , I am a fool for tongs. Have three or four pair and cannot cook without them. All from the asian kitchen stuff store at 1.35 a pair. I have the 8 cup Pyrex cup/bowl too- love love love it - thinking I need another one.

my wok pans...cast Aluminum non-stick....I use for sauces,chile,small soups all the time..my ss stock pot and my roaster...perfect for meats, fish and crab-legs.

2 sets of measuring cups and 2 sets of measuring spoons, so I never have to wash and dry in the middle of a recipe

My stainless steel mixing bowls with the thumb rings.

Small whisk with a black rubber grip

Chopping knife - the one with the long, wide blade

Rubber spatulas

My Cuisinart, can't live without it

Two very large, deep frying pans with lids

Whistling stovetop teakettle--essential for morning tea

An assortment of teapots

Two small antique wooden cutting boards I bought in the Salvation Army about 20 years ago for 19¢

One Japanese Ginsu chef knife (which I intend to trade up for a Henckels some day)

Bakelite-handled vintage tall stirring spoons and fondue fork which I use respectively for stirring things and spearing things in jars

A wooden stirring and tasting spoon with a channel for cooling the liquid--indispensable!

Three different sized depression glass three-compartment serving dishes--pink, yellow and green--which I use for festively serving three salty snacks at a time out of the following choices: pretzels, popcorn, corn chips, potato chips, Japanese mix, veggie chips, etc., etc.


P.S. I do not use or own ANY electrical kitchen gadget or appliance--except the stove!

Wow!!

I could never do that. I love my electrical gadgets, perhaps too much. DH and I are already on our second Cuisinart and our third toaster.

No, I don't sell Pamered Chef. but I luuuuuv their bamboo mixing spoons (so much better than wood.) Also, I have one of their stoneware jellyroll pan/cookie sheets, stoneware pizza round, and a stoneware lasagna pan that I use constantly...they are all very well seasoned and work fabulously!

Iron pans , marble board , rolling pin ( for hubby's rotis) , garlic crusher thingy , this one knife that we keep sharp enough to skin a crocodile.