Hi gals! I am the last stop on the The Blended Blog “My 5 Favorite Kitchen Tools” blog-hop. The minute Sheila at Making the Most of Everyday suggested this post idea, I knew I wanted to participate. You see, I am more a Chef Boyardee than a Julia Child or a Wolfgang Puck. And my kids have made fun of me for years, YEARS, because I never seem to select the correct kitchen tool for the job. For example, I might choose a slotted spoon for dishing up bowls of soup. Not sure what thought process, if any, is behind the choices I make. (Kind of like the choices of my first husbands) Most of the time, I just grab the first thing I see when I open the drawer.
Please allow me a moment to have some fun with this prompt before I get serious about my favorite kitchen tools. Last time my daughters visited, I knew this post was coming up, so I asked them to model my poor ability for selecting appropriate implements for certain cooking tasks.
Exhibit A: This is my oldest daughter Brennyn. She found the little roller thing my mom used to use to cut pie dough for lattice-topped cherry pies (had to sit here a minute and think what this device really is used for). For the cherry pies I never make, I might add. Check out Brennyn’s sassy mouth. She purses her lips like that when she is imitating something I do.
Bren is demonstrating how I might stir popcorn shrimp with the lattice cutter.
Apparently, my biggest problem comes in trying to decide what to move food around with as I am cooking. Seems like that should be easy enough but obviously, my choices don’t meet with my girls’ approval.
Exhibit B: Coincidentally, Lauren picked the very same tool when I asked her to choose my favorite utensil for stirring. So I told her to pick something else and here’s what she came up with.
What is that green thing anyway? And how did it get in my drawer? Love the little grin on Lauren’s face as she pokes fun at her old mom.
Exhibit C: I collected what I consider my five favorite kitchen tools for the photograph below.
There’s my beloved pie crust cutter. And a spatula that I use for stirring about everything when the lattice cutter is dirty. My favorite “custom” pancake turners, one slotted and one solid. The handles melted off of them because I left them propped on the edge of my pans when I wasn’t stirring with them. But I love the new, shortened length of the handles as they give me more control. These are now my go-to utensils for serving pie, quiche, cake, flipping pancakes, and removing cookies from the cookie sheet and occasionally stirring. Let me know if you would like me to customize a set for you.
And then there’s the corn cob holders. You probably have several sets of those in your own kitchen. They definitely making eating corn on the cob more civilized and less messy. But did you know they can be used as handles for when you want to cut the corn off the cob, too?
Exhibit D: Lauren loved corn on the cob but because of her braces, had trouble eating it. She would ask me to cut it off the cob. Usually after I had already put the holders into the cob. I would set the cob on end, balancing it (or trying to) on the end of the bottom holder while trying to hold the corn by the top holder in order to cut the corn from the cob.
Curiously, the holder would slip all over the plate. Not sure why I didn’t have the common sense to realize that it would be much easier to cut the corn off without the holder on both ends. Someone, other than my two daughters who grew up watching me do this and didn’t say anything, finally mentioned it to me. And I saw the error of my ways. I can be reasoned with. Usually.
Before you chalk me up as being totally bonkers, let me redeem myself by sharing two really helpful kitchen tools that require very little common sense from the user to used successfully.
I hate cutting and chopping things. Not just things, but food. Such as onions and green peppers and carrots. Meat. Potatoes. Like I told my best friend Sharon when I shared a recipe with her that called for a whole lot of chopping…
So what did my BFF go out and do? She gave me the most indispensable kitchen tool of all. My numero uno. The grand poobah of all kitchen gadgets.
Exhibit E: The handy dandy “Vidalia Chop Wizard”. Beats a knife, hands down.
Especially the knife I was always trying to use. This little cutie with the bent blade.
I just put a chunk of the vegetable I am wanting to chop, onto the wire blades of the “Chop Wizard” and push down the lid. Voila…perfectly chopped onions, potatoes, Brussel sprouts fall into the tray below.
No blood, no mess, no tears. Perfectly chopped onions ready to saute using my custom pancake turner and my favorite frying pan. Run, don’t walk, to get yours, here.
So that’s a review of my five favorite kitchen tools. But because I am a nice guy, I’m going to throw in a bonus. Just like they do in those infomercials for as-seen-only-on-TV gizmos.
Exhibit F: The “Dash Go Rapid Egg Cooker”. I am relieved to know that I am not the only one who has trouble boiling the perfect egg. Or perfectly boiling an egg.
It boils up to 6 eggs perfectly in three minutes. And they peel just as perfectly, too. I asked my PC to take a few pictures of the steps for using the “Dash Go Rapid Egg Cooker” as I modeled them for you. He might or might not have gotten carried away with the picture taking.
And there you have it, the perfect boiled egg. Or four. Get yours here, on Amazon. And now it comes in red. RED! That would have been perfect in my kitchen.
If you haven’t been there already, I want to invite you to run by the blogs of the other TBB contributors who have participated in “My 5 Favorite Kitchen Tools” blog hop. You can begin by hopping over to The Blended Blog, here.
Be sure to mark your calendars for our upcoming progressive dinner posts, beginning on tasty Tuesday, November 29, and for the next two weeks after that.
Recipes included!
Do you have a favorite kitchen gadget? Won’t you share in a comment below? And if you have a picture of said gizmo, let me know and I will feature it on a follow-up post.
Feels good to be back among my blogging friends. Thanks for stopping by to spend a few minutes here with me.
Hugs and kisses,
“Personalized spatulas!!!!” 😂Oh girl, this was a fun post!!
Thank you so much. I finally felt a little bit more myself as I wrote this for the first time in a very long time.
What a hoot! So nice of your family to help you “style” your lovely kitchen tools.
Glad to make you hoot! I have the most cooperative crew over here, ready to help me with blog posts at a moment’s notice. Thank you so much for stopping by and for leaving a comment. Means a lot, Karla.
Oh my goodness, Leslie! You are the funniest! Who knew that a kitchen utensil post could be so entertaining!? I love it!
Whitney, your comments lately have just warmed my heart so. I can’t tell you how very much I appreciate that you take time to read through my silliness and sappiness and stick around long enough to leave a sweet comment. Truly, Whitney, it means so much to me. Thank you!
What a fun post – you always come up with something clever! I hate chopping onions, too.
Lisa
Daily Style Finds
Thank you, Lisa. I have struggled to feel fun or have fun lately but in writing this post, even in preparing for it, I finally felt a little more like me. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Hehehe 😂😂😂 I was laughing. That was awesome Leslie. Thanks for sharing. Especially your custom made utensils. I have a chop wizard too except I broke the blades 😳 oops. So now I use a different one from Pampered Chef. It also chops nicely. I am gonna go see what my top 5 tools are. Thanks for sharing.
Let me know if you put together your five top tools. I would love to feature them in a part two! Thank you so much for commenting and reading. It really means so much.
Your spatulas cracked me up! Don’t you burn yourself? I’m definitely no Julia Childs myself, and chopping is my least favorite thing. I wouldn’t mind cooking so much if I had a sous chef to prepare everything ahead of time! Thanks for a fun post!
Haven’t burned myself, yet, with my customized spatulas. I do have this heavy duty pot holder mitt but never remember to wear it. I am pretty hopeless in the kitchen but as you can tell by looking at our pics, we aren’t going hungry over here. If you don’t have a chopper, I really, really recommend the one I have. Thanks for coming by.
I am intrigued by that dicer thing!
My dicer has been such a gift. I gave the girls each one, too. Before I had it, I would have about thrown in an onion whole rather than to chop it up. Everyone who eats at my house appreciates that I have my dicer, too!!
😂😂😂
Link for the veggie chopper now on my side bar.
Really? That veggie chopper actually works? It seems every time I fall for one of those veggie choppers they are a disaster. But if you say so, I will have to give it a try. My favorite kitchen tool? I don’t think I have one.
Absolutely love my veggie chopper. Truly! Get one…less than $20, I think. Comes with two sets of blades. If you think of a fav kitchen tool you want to share, holler. I will put together a part 2! Thank you so coming by, friend.
Link for the chopper on my side bar.
One of my favorite posts of yours. So funny. I love you, mom!
Haha! I actually gifted the egg boiler to my brother one year after he first moved into his house! Love the funny photos of your daughter! Lol! I really need to get a veggie chopper!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
GET that CHOPPER. Put it on your Christmas list. Ain’t nobody (especially YOU) got time for that chopping business.
Link to the veggie chopper on my side bar. Merry Christmas!
Hello! Such a hilarious post! Your spatulas with the messed up handles remind me SO much of my mother-in-laws cuz she seems to have the exact same affliction going on😂. That “green thing” your daughter has is one of my fav items and I’m on my third one already! I’m a lover of lemons big time and use mine every day for all the lemons I go through at my house. I could so relate to the onion crying cuz I’ve had that problem for many years now, I need to look into your special chopper I’m thinking… Speaking of Julia Child (no s btw) her book ” my life in France” was quite good, I would loan it to you if you didn’t live so far away! Hope your Mom is improving and so glad you are back to your great posts again! Talk to you soon, Cathy C.
Hey Cathy! First thing, I deleted the S in Julia’s name. Thank you so much. Glad to have an editor. Please always help me out when you see something. So I use the green thing to squeeze lemons, huh? I must have known that at some point but had forgotten. Can I use it with limes, too? Please check out the side bar for the link to the chopper. It is a an affiliate link and I am going to earn a few cents if anyone buys through the link. My egg boiler is linked, too. Amazon is threatening to unlink me if I don’t get some action!!!
My mom is still touch and go, but we are happy to have every extra day. Hoping to be back in KY in January. Thank you so much for always brightening my day with your sweet comments. I appreciate that you take time to say hi.
Will check out the Child book at the library. Hugs!!