I’m not saying you must have these items in your kitchen. I’m all about having less stuff, but I am telling you these will make your life easier, and open up so many recipes. I would start with the knife and go from there. The below list is in order of what I use the most or get the most out of.
- Chef Knife: it slices, it dices, it does it all. You might hate to cook because of your knife; seriously, cooking is so much easier when you have a good knife. A chef’s knife is something you will use everyday.
- Food Processor: we use it for everything, none of which is chopping things. You can make your own hummus, salsa, dough (scones, pasta), nut butters, pestos, sauces (and more!). And yes, you can also use it to chop things or shred cheese.
- Stick-Blender: this one is not even that expensive – I think I got our’s for around $30 and it works great. You can use it for soups, dressings, sauces. Who wants to “transfer” hot liquid to the blender? Basically, any recipe that says “transfer to blender” I use the stick-blender for. The only thing I use the blender for is smoothies.
- Dutch Oven: I would never have thought this is something we should buy but I love it. Stove to oven cooking, it braises meat perfectly, holds temperature exceptionally well, and cleans with ease. We use it way more than expected.
- Stand Mixer: now I realize it may be shocking for this one to be last. We use our’s quite a lot, and yes probably more so than the stick-blender. However, if you don’t bake…then you don’t really need one. It makes whipping up cookies a breeze; no more creamed butter flying about the kitchen. Used for any type of dessert, fresh whipped cream, icing, bread dough, and pretzels.
What item/items would you recommend to invest in for the kitchen?
The Rest of the Week:
- Sautéed Chicken with Olives Capers and Lemons
- Lemon Asparagus Pasta
- Chewy-Dark-Chocolate-Chunk-Cookies
Two repeats: I made both of these dishes to take to a friend, so I also made a batch for P and me, which made this week easy cooking-wise.
