Cherry Pitter

Cherry Pitter – Check out my story about this gadget.
It is only used for a couple of months
each year when cherries are in season but,
if you love fresh cherries, it will
change your cherry-eating-world!
(I call it a cheap thrill.)

Kitchen Scissors

Kitchen Scissors –
These come in handy when
trimming raw chicken
and cutting parchment paper
and chopping fresh herbs.
They are dishwasher safe
and they come apart for easy
cleaning.

 

Pampered Chef Spatula

Scoops

scoops – various sizes

Scoops – We use scoops all the time when baking cookies and muffins. There are several sizes which are all useful. It decreases the mess and creates more consistent-sized baked goods.

Solid Measure

Solid Measure– This is very helpful in
measuring Crisco, peanut butter,
Coconut oil… any solid, gooey substance.
You simply adjust to your measurement,
spoon in the ingredient, level across the
top, and push out. It all pops out and
none goes to waste.

Mini Spatulas

Just Lucy’s Size

Mini Rubber Spatula–
We are super-romantic at our house. For my birthday a couple of years ago, Dave gave me a couple of these spatulas from Williams Sonoma. They are a great little size for cleaning out a measuring cup, and a perfect size to fit in your mouth when scraping batter or cookie dough
out of the bowl.

BBQ Turner

Cake Lifter

Cake/Pizza Lifter– This is one of those
“when you need it, you need it, but you don’t need it every day”
kind of a tool.  You can lift your
entire cake and move it from a
cooling rack to the serving dish.
It can also lift a Pizza right off the pan.
Amazing!

Favorite Cookbooks

Favorite cookbooks:
Everyday Food magazine (by Martha Stewart)- It is so practical, user-friendly and a great way to inspire new recipes in your kitchen.  I’ve had a subscription for years and some of the “staples” in our kitchen have come from it.  I have given it as a gift a few times too.  It’s only $12 and it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

The Chopper

Travel knife– I found these at the check-out at Williams Sonoma (in those glass jars by the register) and thought they were cute. When I got to looking at them, I realized they are more than cute, they are really useful. The knife has a good, sharp blade, but with a sturdy plastic cover.

Kuhn Rikon Paring Knife

the same knife in orange

I bought a couple, one to keep, another to gift, and I have ended up keeping mine at my desk at school to use for lunchtime to slice my apple.  I then bring it home for the summer, to put with our picnic gear for our meals at the pool and park.  It’s a great knife and safe and easy to tote.

4 Tbsp Measuring Cup

Small Metal Spatula

Small metal spatula– the pampered chef “petite spatula” is the perfect size (though I have had two, and the handle broke off both of them eventually), and now this one (that my sister gave me recently) has been a great substitute. Having a small, metal spatula makes serving gooey bars, brownies, sheet cake, etc. a much easier and prettier task

Lemon Zester

Lemon Zester – You have to have a zester! There are many varieties and styles. I have a little one that creates long strips of zest, but this one, that is more of a zesting plane, makes a finer zest. Mom gave it to me last year and I have loved it.  This one fits nicely over a bowl and steadies the tool for the zesting. (Your muffins will thank you!)

Pitcher with plunger

Medium: ($25-50ish)

Kitchen Scale

Kitchen scale– My friend, Gretchen, and I took a cookie-making class last year and learned about the value of this tool.  I wrote about it HERE.  For Christmas, she gave me one!!  It has been so fun to find uses for it.  My mom saw it at my house (and since it was the only tool she didn’t own) she asked for one and I gave it to her for her birthday! Now she has every tool in the world.  This measures in ounces and pounds and is helpful in weighing meat, determining the size of a ball of cookie dough
(and Dave uses it to weigh his CD packages to determine postage when mailing them to people…I recently discovered!)

Baking Stone

Baking stone– I had a pampered chef baking stone in my cabinet for years, un-used, until a friend in my Bible study asked if I had a stone on which we could bake her cranberry crescent rolls.  I pulled it out and we put 1/2 of them on it and 1/2 on a cookie sheet. The difference in the baking consistency was remarkable. The rolls cooked on the stone much more evenly and without being overdone on the bottom. It made me a fan.  I now use it especially when I am baking scones,  shortbread and biscuits.

Cutco knives

Waring double waffle iron

Ice Cream Maker

Ice Cream Maker –  This is our newest appliance. I have long loved making homemade ice cream but this is our first indoors-without-rock-salt-and-ice maker. It is a nice 2 quart size, so you can experiment with different creative flavors without investing in a giant batch.  It is easy, fast and we have been making some tasty treats in this beauty!

Extravagant: (over $100)

Bunn Coffee Maker

Bunn Coffee Maker – I will be posting soon about making a good cup of coffee, and I must say, when it comes to a cup of brewed drip coffee, nothing compares with a BUNN.  The technology is fascinating.  There is a reservoir of hot water stored in the tank behind the pot.  When you pour water into the coffee maker, DISPLACEMENT occurs as the new cool water pushes out the hot and it SPRAYS over the coffee grounds to produce immediate, hot, fresh, delicious coffee. When our friend Amy lived with us, and our coffee pot died, she encouraged us to buy a BUNN and we have been fans ever since.  We gave one to my dad a few years ago and he’s become a fan too (as much as he would claim be a “fan” of any inanimate object).

Food Processor– this is worth having, if only to make THIS  homemade salsa recipe!  It is so great. I don’t use it as much as I use my stand mixer, but I use it often enough to justify owning it.  For chopping, pureeing and slicing, it is fast and powerful.

Happy Shopping and Wish List Making!