While perusing a book I’d recently acquired on food and cooking (totally out of character for me, right, to pick up yet another cookbook? You can all laugh now), a section in it got me to thinking. The book proposed 12 essential tools for the kitchen. While I had everything except two (though both were on my list of things to get!), I started wandering through my own kitchen for my personal cooking “must-haves.”

Besides the usual suspects (pots, pans, wooden spoon, etc.), I came up with 10 very essential kitchen/cooking tools I could not live without:

1)

Besides salt and salsa, this is a culinary essential that I put on nearly everything. I use it daily. It’s a healthier alternative to butter when cooking, and just plain delicious in salads, pastas, etc. So yes, you can say it’s a dangerous thing to take me into a specialty olive oil store with flavored olive oils…it’s better than going to a wine tasting! 😉

2)

This is NOT just another pretty light fixture. These under-the-cupboard lights have made my small kitchen a nighttime cooking utopia. Besides adding a nice touch of mood lighting, they supplement light right above where I need it – my work area on my counters. Until I installed these, I was always working under my own shadow cast from my kitchen lights above/behind me. Wouldn’t prep a single meal without these beautiful lights, now!

3)

Pretty, and purposeful! Bought this heavy-duty, wrought-iron decorative cookbook holder on a whim one day, and boy, I’ve never regretted it. I had no idea how much I was suffering without a place to put my magazine/cookbook/or what-have-you recipe source. It used to flop all over the place, was always in the way, or way the heck out of the way while I prepared foods. Now it sits right above my sink, near where I prepare most of my ingredients, and was worth every penny. Don’t get anywhere near as much food splatter and stains on my cookbooks now!

4)

The ever holy dishwasher….no more needs be said 😀 Course, the nasty unavoidable hard water stains are an unfortunate side effect, but it’s something I live with for the convenience.

5)

Everyday tools of the trade – and I mean, every day. I use at least two of this knife set every single day, and two to three of these cutting boards a week. It’s crazy, but these culinary weapons are the most powerful of them all. Try doing a thing in the kitchen without them. While I don’t have different colors, as suggested by many sources so you can differentiate between your meat and your veggie cutting boards when prepping a meal, I do have different sizes instead, and helps me keep track. And of course, need the knife sharpener. When you use two of the knives out of this set as much as I do, and suddenly one day you discover that you can’t even cut through a tomato, it’s a handy thing to have. The sharpening stick that comes with the block can only do so much.

6)

Once a week, I oil my babies up. In this picture, I have both a bottle of mineral oil (food safe variety) and mineral oil wipes. I like the wipes SO much more. It’s less messy, and keeps both you and the counter a whole lot less greasy when you’re done. On the other hand, there is one board I have that is not quite as polished and sanded as I’d like, and tends to shred the wipes – and so, I have to resort to the oil and a rag. I detest that job, and hence don’t use that board much/don’t wipe it down as much as I should. But it keeps your boards happy and hydrated, and they last much longer.

7)

Sorry for the unsightly hard water stains, folks. Fact of life out here in the desert. But here is one of my major must haves…doubles! I hate to wash dishes, and often enough had found myself in the past lacking in required measuring ware because it was in the dishwasher. Now, even if I end up using one of these sets, I have an extra one just in case I don’t get a chance to throw the dishwasher on before I need it again. Sometimes I’ve even needed to measure out the same measurement, but for two different items within one recipe…one liquid, and one solid. It’s great to know you don’t have to stop in the middle of everything to wash, rinse, and thoroughly dry a measuring cup in the middle of a baking mess.

8)

As any single person, I cook enough to produce enough leftovers to carry me throughout the week. And so what is especially important…see-through storage containers! I have a bachelor friend that boasts that he simply takes the pot off the stove, throws a cover over it, and into the fridge it goes. Sure, saves on some extra steps and dishes, but…makes it hard to stack things, you lose your pot for an indeterminable amount of time, and depending on what’s in it, can stain or adversely affect the pot. And yes, you can store your foodstuffs in old butter and yogurt containers, but if they’re at all perishable, you’ll quickly forget what’s in what in your fridge, and eventually lose a clear inventory of what should be eaten first! I’m not that much of an enterprising person who will label all of her food containers. With see through tupperware, it’s as easy as just looking in my fridge. Good for bringing salad to work or other non-microwave-required cooking. Microwaving just unleashes a whole mess of toxins in your food that you could do without.

9)

Let’s just say that one Thanksgiving, I found myself grievously deficient in mixing bowls. They’re something you scoff at buying until you find yourself in that position. I know my little soup bowls don’t do it for me. You may not use them often, but they’ll save your butt when you find the need to!

10)

Mmmm, yummy. Yup, it’s what it looks like – kitchen scraps. Mine is a very compost-friendly kitchen. While I have yet to successfully keep a garden, I do compost regularly, and like my leftovers to be able to recycle organically for the benefit of other living things (especially something as beneficial as living things you can eat!). Anything from egg shells to banana peels and potato shavings…it’s a go. I tend to use the plastic containers my salad greens come in rather than my own tupperware, but, somehow, I ended up using that just past week. I wouldn’t suggest using something you want to use again for your kitchen compost-bound ingredients.

And those are the Holy Ten in my kitchen! What are yours?

ADDENDUM

These three are essential for any numbers-challenged person. My father used to cut out pieces of paper with this information, and tape it to the inside of cupboard doors.  These are much more handy as fridge magnets 😀 I use them wisely, and I use them well.