Top 10 Kitchen Must Haves

Every cook can think of a few items that are absolutely essential in their kitchen. There is nothing worse than being in the midst of a culinary masterpiece only to discover you're missing a crucial tool. Most of the items on my list are things I started out with or grew up using, a few I acquired as I learned more about cooking and what I preferred (my kitchen scale and shears, for example). Honestly, there are countless items I would not enjoy cooking without, like parchment paper, or the pepper grinder I foraged from a thrift shop in high school after seeing one on a cooking show. But this list is my top ten- not my top 20:


1. Good, solid knives- There is nothing more disappointing than cooking with dull, bending knives. I once cooked in a kitchen where the knives were so thin and weak that the blade curved sideways as I cut through a tomato. Trying to cut carrots was terrible. Needless to say the girl hated to cook. So much time and frustration can be saved by having a great knife set in the kitchen. You don't need an expensive 12 piece set- an 8 inch chef's knife, paring knife and a serrated bread knife should suffice. Add extra pieces as needed.


2. Pots and Pans- This one is a little tricky because everyone has their own preference on what kind are the best. I bought a non-stick set nearly 7 years ago that are still going strong. In my opinion spending a little bit extra to get a sturdy set is what matters. Choose a set that has good handles, heavy bottoms for more even cooking, and tightly fitting lids. Then you can start buying more specialty pans as needed.


3. Scale (one that measures both grams and ounces)- This is one of my most used gadgets in the kitchen. Not only does it save clean up (I pour some ingredients straight from the bag or bottle), but I also know its an accurate measurement. Sticky ingredients like honey or peanut butter are so much easier to deal with! I write down measurements on the recipe as I cook, so that many of my recipes allow me to pour the ingredients right into a bowl and have little, if no extra clean up. Talk about a time saver.


4. Measuring spoons and cups- If you have a good scale you won't need these as often, but it's important to make sure you buy a set that has an accurate measurement. Novelty spoons and cups are not always spot on, which in cooking might not be a big deal, but in baking is crucial.


5. Thermometer- A good thermometer is handy for just about everything. Use it to test if your bread is baked in the middle, your meat is ready to eat, or whether your carmel needs a few more minutes.


6. Glass mixing bowls- Mixing bowls are great, and it's nice to have a few different kinds, but in my opinion glass mixing bowls take the cake. Since glass is non-reactive you don't need to worry about it effecting the flavor of whatever you're preparing or absorbing oils that will destroy your egg whites. I love bowls that have a rubber bottom so they grip the counter while you stir. This is especially handy when you need both your hands free.


7. Vegetable peeler- A good vegetable peeler is a mult-tasker. You can use it to grate decorative peels of chocolate, thin wide shavings of parmesan cheese, or remove thick peels off carrots and apples. Make sure you buy one with a comfortable handle and sharp blade as there is nothing more annoying than a vegetable peeler that skips over an apple peel or can't cut through a tough vegetable skin.


8. Flat wooden bamboo spatula/spoon- In high school I found one of these in a thrift store's kitchen section. I'd never seen a flat wooden spatula before and it quickly became my favorite kitchen utensil. It broke up hamburger like a champ, flipped pancakes, mixed cookie dough, and didn't warp like other wooden spoons. I carried it with me through every college move, leaving behind mixing bowls and can openers, but never forgetting my bamboo spatula. Needless to say I was excited when they started showing up everywhere. This is an absolute MUST.


9. Blender- From purees to pie fillings, a great blender can save serious time in the kitchen. I use my Vita-mix for just about everything- homemade peanut butter, making powdered sugar, salad dressings, pureeing soups, and everything in between.


10. Kitchen Shears- Last but definitely NOT least. I absolutely couldn't live without my kitchen shears. They make cleaning meat, opening thick packaging, and cutting up candy manageable. I can't imagine preparing my chicken without them.


Recipe Box- This one isn't totally essential, but super handy. I am guilty of stashing recipes folded away in cook books or tucked inside drawers, but it's nice to have a set place to hold your recipes. It saves searching like mad for that lost recipe Aunt Agnes gave you for her famous lemon icebox pie.

Did I miss something? What are some of your kitchen must haves?

Compliments of Costco, or something.

Tonight Jarom and I made a much needed run to Costco. Our fridge and freezer were getting low on the staples and we decided the best place to fill the bill was the 100 dollar store.

I love Costco. Mainly because you can pick up pretty much anything there. Bagels, roast 3 packs, bright heads of romaine lettuce, tubs of cottage cheese, ripe red strawberries, and unsolicited marital advice. Did you know that they were offering it there? They are, free of charge, by floral patterned pants wearing old ladies casually standing behind you.

"I love your necklace!" I heard loudly behind me.
I turned around to see an older asian lady smiling at me. She was dressed to the nines with a very busy outfit and perfect hair and makeup "I love your necklace." She repeated again.
"Oh thank you!" I said smiling and went back to loading my groceries on the conveyer belt. I get comments on this necklace all the time, usually people ask where I got it, or just want to tell me they like it. This lady had another agenda.

"Is it a sea horse?" She asked.
"Yeah." I said, turning to chat with her, leaving the loading to Jarom. "I love sea horses."
"That would look great with white. Turquoise looks great with white." She said, repeating herself.
"It does." I agreed. "It looks good with black too." She looked at me, and shook her head. Apparently turquoise does not look good with black. I really wish someone had told me. I am so embarrassed.

"You know," she said, "when I was your age I used to dress up a lot. You should dress up and wear that necklace."
"I should." I acknowledge, thinking that statement was odd. "But I'm kind of a jeans and tee-shirt girl. I don't get dressed up too often."
"Well you should." she said worriedly. "You should get dressed up for..." and she points at Jarom secretly. "You don't want him to leave you. Lots of girls let themselves go and wonder what happened when their husbands lose interest."

Now I realize that I was not looking my best. I had been working on taxes, and one of my eyes had gone lazy from focusing on the computer all day while the other was twitching erratically. My hair which had looked great curled the day before was haphazardly pulled in a messy bun that had grown messier from my Chiropractors visit and frequent pulling from the stress of working out deductions. Most of my mascara was on my chin and my boobs have shrunk to the size of raisens from losing 15 pounds recently. But still, no one wants to hear that a stranger who doesn't know you considers you to be in some varying stage of letting yourself go, or that you just might have reached the climax. I was completely taken off guard.

"I do get dressed up!" I exclaimed, feeling slightly defensive but starting to laugh out of shock. "Today is just not my best day." I'm sure I sound desperate.

She looks disbelieving, of course I would say that. To her I look like the girl who is having an affair with a box of Krispy Kremes. I am on the downhill slope.

"Well you should." She confirms. "You don't want to let yourself go. It gets worse after you have a baby. Some women completely let go and wonder why their husbands leave them. You don't want to be one of them." she warns. Is this lady for real?

"You're a pretty girl," she says eying me. "You're tall and thin, you should really dress up for your husband." Really?

Finally I just start laughing, "Well, I'll do that." I say and turn to help Jarom at the register instead of going in circles with a lady who thinks I need some tough love before I let myself turn into Quasimodo.

I might have backhanded her but she said I was thin.

So I'll let it go, but that is the last time I get dragged into conversation with an old lady in flowered pants.

When I told Jarom who was paying for the groceries and missed the whole exchange, he started to laugh and said, "Obviously she doesn't know me. I don't care if you dress up... besides it gives me an excuse for when I leave you." Nice. Love my man. The old lady not so much.

My Secret Crush

Shush, don't tell...

J.Crew+Holly Forever

Dieting and Dining

For the last 6 weeks I've been following Weight Watchers in hopes of shedding nearly 30 pounds of "marital bliss." Impressive right? 30 pounds in 6 years is not a good thing! Usually I fall off the wagon at week 4, but this time is different. I think the trick has been finding new recipes (or modifying old ones) that keep me excited and still allow me to eat. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to eat.

When I start getting that why me attitude, or I start looking to graze all day on easy treats, I know I'm approaching a battle with sticking to the plan. One little bag of skittles turns into four pieces of pizza and suddenly I've consumed a whole tray of brownies to boot. At that point I start making excuses for myself and 3 weeks later I've gained back all that hard won weight loss.

This time I've branched out of my "safe diet foods" (i.e.- the boring but easy staples) and started to have fun reinventing recipes and finding healthy new dinner options. I think I'm going to start posting them because I know I'm not the only one who wants to eat healthy, if not lose a little weight.

Tonight we had:
Butternut Squash Soup and a Chopped Salad with apples, red onions, cinnamon almonds, feta cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. I topped the soup and salad with homemade garlic croutons.

The whole meal had about 8 points (I get 23 a day) which leaves me with some points for fudge cookies and milk! Yippie! Ok, and some fruit... If I'd left out the croutons- which were super yummy but unnecessary- I could have saved 3 points, making the whole meal a total of 5-ish points. Not too shabby.

Butternut Squash Soup:
(I halved this recipe, and counted the soup for about 2 points, but it might have been 3...) (=

2 tsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped medium
3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 1/2" chunks.
6 cups chicken broth
1/2-1 tsp. dried thyme
generous pinch nutmeg
1/2 c. cream or half and half (I used land-o-lakes fat free half and half)

Add olive oil and onion to large pot. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in squash, broth, thyme and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, 20-25 minutes.
Puree soup (in batches if necessary) in a blender until smooth.
Return soup to the pot. Stir in cream/ half and half. Bring to a brief simmer then remove from heat. If the soup seems too thick, thin with some chicken broth. Season with salt and pepper and additional nutmeg if desired.

*serves 4.

Cutting up a butternut squash:

Step 1: chop top and bottom off of squash.


Step 2: peel thick skin off with a vegetable peeler.


Step 3: scoop out seeds and feel grateful you don't have to do a pumpkin.


Step 4: Chop into smaller chunks.




Chopped Salad:


1 head of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped into bite sized pieces.
1 apple diced into small chunks
Red onions, sliced very thinly
Feta cheese (preferably very old and from the back of your fridge like mine) (=
Cinnamon almond slivers (place almond slices or slivers into a nonstick pan, sprinkle with sugar (2 tsp per 1/4 c. nuts) and a shake of cinnamon and stir continually on the stove until the sugar melts and the almonds become slightly toasted. Careful not to burn almonds or yourself- those suckers get hot. Spread on a plate until cooled.)
raspberry vinaigrette (I made mine from scratch but wasn't all that impressed with the recipe I followed.)

Lay out salad, add toppings as desired.

Croutons:


3 cups bread slices (I used homemade rustic bread from another night that I sliced into 1" by 1/2" thick chunks.) Stale old bread would probably be awesome.
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced fine
1/4 tsp. salt

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes on a cookie sheet until browned and crispy. Breath deeply into husbands face to maximize garlic breath. Enjoy a night of uninterrupted sleep. (=

Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cookies

I've recently discovered that indulgent eating doesn't have to kill your good intentions. These super rich, chewy chocolate cookies are no exception.

For the last 2 weeks Jarom and I have been on quite the baking kick. After discovering King Arthur Flour's website, which has an amazing assortment of recipes on it, I found this awesome little recipe for Flourless Fudge Cookies. It's like the little black dress of chocolate cookies. Guiltless, delicious, never out of style.

Since last week I have made them twice, I like them so much. (disclaimer: I'm on Weight Watchers and your taste buds change when you don't eat as many treats, but I think these cookies are winners anytime.)

I followed the recipe minus the expresso powder, which I didn't have, and replaced it with ground Roma (like Pero or Postum, it's a coffee substitute). The first time I made them I didn't add it, but I think it rounds out the chocolate flavor to have it in there. I also cooked the cookies for 9-10 minutes instead of the 8 it called for since 8 minutes was a little undercooked. Make sure to bake on parchment paper. If you don't have any you can grease a cookie sheet, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Flourless Fudge Cookies

2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process (European-style) preferred
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract*
*For gluten-free cookies, be sure to use gluten-free extract.

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2) Stir together all of the ingredients till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and stir again till smooth.

3) Drop the “dough” onto the prepared baking sheets in balls of about 1-1 ½ tablespoons.

It should look like this. Not really balls but sturdy puddles of chocolate heaven. (=

4) Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes; they should spread, become somewhat shiny, and develop faintly crackly tops.

5) Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool right on the pan.

6) Yield: 24 medium (2") cookies.

For all you weight watchers fans- 1 cookie= 1 point! Or about 55 calories, no fat and 1 gram of fiber. Yeay!

Adult Jack in the Box

By principle I have tried not to buy biscuits from a can, instead opting to make them from scratch. There is something vaguely metallic about canned biscuits. Maybe it's the shreds of aluminum foil that ALWAYS get stuck in the dough. Maybe it's left over bitterness that the flour felt at being turned into a plain ol' biscuit instead of a fancy triangular scrap that would become a croissant. I'm not a biscuit snob (if there is such a thing), I eat Bisquick more than willingly, but I'm not a huge fan of pillsbury or any other canned biscuits.

This Christmas though I wanted to make a traditional family Christmas breakfast, and of course that included pillsbury biscuits. Homemade ones would not do.

At the store I browsed the rolls of biscuits, shiny blue labels, glistening bronze wrappers, bold red casings. And then I saw the simple store brand variety. The no nonsense school marms that blandly advertised themselves as biscuits, no frills, just biscuits. I looked at the price and noticed they were 1/4 the price of the fancy brands and joyously grabbed 2 rolls and thought no more of my sensible purchase.

Two days later however, I realized that the store brand was not in fact a school marm, but a well camoflaged child's play toy. A jack-in-the-box to be exact.

Have you opened a can of biscuits lately? It can be quite terrifying.

I'll be honest, I feel apprehension when tearing the little triangle that unleashes the biscuits into the world. It's a little nerve wracking waiting for the pop and release of the dough. But store brand biscuits are the worst. They have a mind of their own. They do not pop when appropriate, they pop when they feel like it.

I slowly peeled back the strip of paper. Half way down the canister the biscuits were still firmly secured and I started to get a little nervous. I tugged a little more, held my breath, and nothing. I tugged yet more, shielded my eyes with my shoulder, nothing. With a nervous laugh I yanked the wrapping off, expecting a burst of dough.

Nada.

Then I panicked. What if this is not a can of biscuits after all... What if this is a covertly smuggled nuclear bomb and I'm going to kill everyone by opening it? On Christmas. Or, what if the dough comes out so forcefully that it pops me in the eye and I have to explain that I lost a fist fight with a yeasty bit of bread, to my ever lasting shame? Or, what if I have a heart attack from the anticipation? A more likely possibility.

"Do it!" I shout at the trapped dough as I poke the seam of the unsplit paper. "Do it now!" (At this point Jarom poked his head in the kitchen and asked who I was talking to. I denied saying anything of course. )

Still nothing. It was like a jack-in-the-box that plays its whole song and then plays half of another one before randomly popping out.

And then, when I finally gave up, it burst, scaring the dickens out of me. I swear I heard it chuckle a deep demonic laugh as it's devious purpose was carried out.

Of course I had the pleasure of sending it back to it's own hell at 350 degrees for 20 minutes with a delicious orange glaze, but that is a different blog.

So, I discovered that store bought biscuits are the adult jack-in-the-box. And I vow to make someone else open them for me next time. Don't say I didn't warn you.

2010

Let's just start by saying that 2009 was not my year. 2009 was not my year.

And in the attempt to right the major set backs that occurred I am starting my blog again, since I figure it all started around the time I stopped. And I'm superstitious. (=

I think the first step to changing my year is changing myself. There are a few things I have noticed that need some attention:

1) My health. I have gained some crazy weight over the last 6 years because I let myself get back into old eating habits. Namely stuffing my face at any and every opportunity. Not recommended. This led me back to the place I was in 1995 and as much as I love Charlie Brown, I don't really want to look like his twin sister.

So last week I started Weight Watchers again and I am determined to get down to around my pre-marriage weight. I'm really trying to be realistic about it and accept the fact that if I want to change my eating habits and do it healthily it will take a few months. I'll keep you updated on any healthy recipe finds, or rants.

2) I've been a major procrastinator. This year I will try to be more in the moment and get stuff done when it occurs to me instead of writing a list of all the things I need to do and then overwhelming myself. I can still write lists, but they need to be small enough that I can actually accomplish the items on it in a reasonable amount of time.

3) I've been a super complainer and very pessimistic. So I will try to be positive and not complain. I am also trying to enjoy the moment and not worry about the future or long for the past. I think this one goal has really affected my last couple of years and I'm looking forward to changing.

4) My creative side. This year I will accomplish my creative goals, be more diligent on writing this blog and learn many new skills. This one really disappeared last year and I've missed creating.

I'm really excited about changing this year. Old dogs can learn new tricks and I'll keep you updated with this blog.

And now I will get back to the less serious, more random blogging I usually write.