Hello! I’m Marcy Gaston and I’m a blogger. Is this a support group?
I come to you from a faraway place called Montana. Not only am I a blogger, I’m a former chef and caterer (and there were a few other jobs in there, too). I gave it all up for the glamorous life of being a stay-at-home-mom. My passion for cooking and food has never waned, which makes my husband spoiled in the dinner department.
Before I go on with my little guest post, I would like to send a big THANK YOU to Brian for allowing me this opportunity to be a guest blogger here on Eazy Cheezy.
I gave him a few options for a post and then I found myself contemplating just exactly what I wanted to say. How informative do I want to be? I thought about giving away restaurant secrets but Anthony Bourdain beat me to it in Kitchen Confidential. Dang it.
So, instead of spilling trade secrets (chefs’ home pantry’s are full of Ramen Noodles and their freezers are stuffed with frozen pizzas), I thought I would give you a list of gadgets that I find useful in the kitchen.
I’m not a gadget hound. The overly excited Billy Mays or the will-sell-anything-for-food actors on info-mericals selling the Magic Bullet do not easily sway me. (I thought this was something else entirely but that’s a different story.) I tend to gravitate toward simple gadgets rather than flashy ones that promise to slice and dice everything in my pantry. Now if these gadgets turned my onions into gold nuggets, then I might feel the urge to purchase one.
I used to say that all I needed was a Chef’s knife and a cutting board and I could make anything. While that’s not entirely false, here’s a list of other basic kitchen tools that everyone should have:
- 3 knives: Chef’s knife, paring knife, and a serrated bread knife.
- A good wooden spoon
- A good whisk
- Heat resistant spatulas – choose 3 different sizes – small, medium, and large
Once you graduate from making that absolutely scrumptious ham and grilled cheese sandwich you’ve been bragging about at work, you should probably invest in some other tools.
- Microplane Grater: The-where-have-you-been-all-my-life tool. Good for grating everything (including your fingernails if you don’t watch it) — Parmesan cheese, Citrus Zest, Chocolate, Nutmeg, and Ginger.
- Scoops: Bake cookies? Quit using a spoon and your finger to get the cookie dough onto the sheet. Stop right now! Use a scoop. I use two different sizes, a #40 (kitchen speak) 1.5-tablespoon size and a small one that only holds 2 teaspoons. The 1.5-tablespoon scoop is awesome for cookies. All your cookies will come out the same size. Perfect for those with OCD.
- Fish spatula: Need to turn something delicate in a pan, like, say, fish? Use this.
- Bowl scraper: Gets all the batter out of the bowl. All of it. So, if you like licking the bowl clean, then you may want to pass this up.
- Bench Scraper: This tool has many more uses than just for bread baking. Not only does it do its job of “scraping the bench,” it can also be used as a scoop to move vegetables from the cutting board to the pan.
- Pastry Blender: This is for the serious baker, one who bakes biscuits, scones and piecrusts from scratch.
- Citrus Reamer: You know, I wish I had this in culinary school when I accidentally stabbed my hand with my paring knife when trying to juice a lemon. Oh the stupid things I did in culinary school…
- Offset spatula: This handy little tool is great for icing cakes but also for spreading brownie batter in a pan.
These are the tools I use most often. I have other gadgets but some of them only get used once a year (for that very special Christmas cookie) or on rare occasions. Most of these items mentioned above can be found at Cooking.com or Chef’s Catalog.
If you get a chance, visit my blog, Cooking Rut where I post recipes, tips, and commentary. I also have a blog about my two small children who drive me a little batty. Read at your own risk.
It’s been a real pleasure stopping by, meeting new people, and seeing familiar faces. Thanks again, Brian.
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