Less Kitchen Stuff. Easier Cooking.

You Really Need: a huge serving platter.

2010-06-25T16:32:00.000-05:00

I love my huge serving platter. It's something like 2 feet on the long side.

You may be asking, why on God's green earth would I need this thing?

You need this thing because you can serve your entire meal from it without dirtying other serving dishes, leaving less mess for you to clean up once everyone leaves.

My favorite use of it is during barbequing. I put all the meat on it prior to cooking and I season it right on the platter. Then after I put the meat onto the grill, I just wash the platter, which is glazed ceramic, and therefore has
no pores. Let the platter dry in the dish drainer, then get it once more when it's time to gather items from the grill.

When I grill, I do my veggies, potatoes, and meat all on the grill. So when I take things off the grill, they all go back onto my platter, which looks pretty enough to be transferred directly to my dining room table. :) Awesome!

The good news is that a huge platter like that is cheap. Yes, you can get one at Target for about $19.99. That's where I got mine.

A huge serving platter, about 16-20", is indispensable, especially if you want to save room in your kitchen. To repeat, it lets you serve everything on just one plate. One plate to wash. Yay! :)

You Really Need: Seasoned Cookware

2010-06-03T17:23:00.002-05:00

At some point, I'm going to write about what my opinion is on cookware. But for right now, what you need to know is that you should have seasoned cookware.

Seasoned cookware is not pots and pans sprinkled with salt and pepper. Rather, it's cookware that you've coated with an edible oil, like vegetable oil, then baked at 350 for an hour or more in your oven.

Once you've done that, your cookware will be nearly non-stick, if not just plain non-stick. Seriously.

You can season all kinds of cookware...
-- cast iron, spun aluminum, you name it. I would skip the non-stick cookware, though. Just yesterday I picked up a small cast-iron pan and an aluminum one, for small jobs. The small cast iron pan was looking pretty gnarly. It was rusty too. So I took it home and scrubbed it with a scrub bud from Amway (I love their stuff.), rinsed and dried it, then I seasoned it. Now it looks awesome and I can't wait to cook with my little pan. I did the same thing with the aluminum pan that I acquired. And now it has a nice, non-stick coating, achieved with nothing more unnatural than vegetable oil.

Personally, I am not a fan of non-stick, chemically-coated cookware.

I often wonder whether those chemicals and that coating is flaking off into my food. Secondly, I find that it's usually not that non-stick anyway.

Do you have problems with food sticking to your pans? Make sure you are not cooking at too high of a heat setting. Heat that is set too high will make your pans insta-sticky. This is especially true with eggs. They're sticky enough as is. :)

Benefits of Seasoning Your Cookware / Pots and Pans

If the seasoning wears off, just season them again.
It's simple: coat the inside with veggie oil or whatever, bake @ 350 for an hour or so.
All natural.
Allows you to use very sustainable products, like cast-iron, with the ease of non-stick products that aren't as durable.

So there you have it - You really need seasoned cookware, and once you've tried it, you will thank me. In fact, if you have any input or tips about seasoned cookware, please share them and feel free to leave comments!

You Really Need: Knife Skills

2010-05-30T16:08:00.001-05:00

Knife skills are indispensable. A cook who has good knife skills doesn't need a chopper from Pampered Chef or Zyliss taking up valuable cupboard or drawer space in his or her kitchen. Good knife skills let you easily and quickly handle chopping jobs that you can't or don't want to use a food processor for.

Sure, you're still going to need your blender and food processor for other things...but not for chopping up just one carrot or one tomato or tons of little things needed for a complicated recipe. Nope, you need, you MUST HAVE good knife skills! Even saying nothing about good knives...the skills will make even a crap knife work better.

There is no way to properly learn good knife skills from a paragraph. Personally, I learn better from watching. So therefore, I have compiled some really good videos from YouTube. You should be able to click on the videos to play them and also to see more videos by the authors, which I do not claim to be me, that's for sure. :)

Remember, though, good knife skills are not going to save you from a dull knife. So you have to make sure your knives are sharp. Keep that knife steel handy.

On to the videos!!!!! :)

First off we have this nice lady who will teach you:

how to hold a knife.
proper knife motion.
how to mince garlic (included the smashed garlic trick).
julienne.
brunois. Not sure I spelled that one right.

Next up, this chef has some more tips for you. He will show you how to:

dice.
cut an onion. His onion instructions are a little more detailed than the other chick's.

Finally, this person teaches you how to easily cut that most elusive of fruits: tomatoes. Her technique is pretty surprising and I'm not sure about throwing away the guts, but that's what we do with all kinds of other stuff too, right? So why not with tomatoes? Ok, watch away!

If you liked this post and would like to see more of this blog, be sure to click on one of our sponsors. :)

Recipe for the Food Processor: 1-Dish Pakistani Potatoes & Onions with Eggs

2010-05-17T22:19:00.000-05:00

I personally love this recipe. It's easy to make, inexpensive, and tasty. Goes well with whole-wheat rotis.

Ingredients:
4-5 small to medium potatoes, washed.
1 medium onion, outer layer peeled off.
salt and pepper.
4-5 eggs, depending on size.
cooking oil.

Optional:
1 tsp turmeric.
1 tsp curry powder.

Preparation
You can either use a food processor or slice these yourself. :)

Equip your food processor with the slicing blade and safety lid, etc.
Start the processor.
Feed the potatoes through the food chute. Make sure to use the food pusher as it will help the potatoes feed through more easily.
Next, peel your onion if it's not peeled already. Feed it through the food chute. You may need to cut it in half.

Don't remove the foods and rinse the bowl or anything in between.
It's just potatoes and onions, and they're going to be frying-pan friends soon anyway.

If using turmeric and/or curry powder, then you will need to cook these ingredients. This does 2 things-it brings out the flavor in the spices and it also infuses the oil with the spice flavors.
To cook the spices (if using turmeric and curry powder):
Pour some oil in your pan, maybe 3 tablespoons. You decide. Heat the oil on medium until water dances when added to the oil. Now add your curry powder and turmeric. You can also do the salt and pepper during this step. Cook the spices until you really smell the aroma coming up. They will bubble as though they are frying.

After cooking the spices, add the onions and potatoes.

Your goal is to cook these until the potatoes are done.
You may need to add water, especially if the oil cooks away. I add about a 1/2 cup of water or so, then I put the lid on and cook for 5 minutes. I check the potatoes and if they are not done, I steam them some more. Repeat until the potatoes are cooked.
Shortcut: Microwave the onions and potatoes for a few minutes to speed up the cooking process. Ideally, your food processor bowl shouldn't have metal parts, so you should just be able to put the whole kit and kaboodle in your microwave (minus lid).

Whipping the Eggs
While potatoes and onions are cooking, crack the eggs into your food processor bowl. You do not need to rinse the bowl between foods. That is why the eggs come last. Change the blade to the chopping or dough attachment. Whip the eggs for a few seconds.

With your eggs ready to pour, check the potatoes.
Are they done? Do they need water? If anything is sticking, add a little water and then lower the temperature. If things are sticking, the temp is too high.

If the potatoes are done, then add the eggs. Cook until they are done. Check the taste. Add salt and pepper as necessary. Now eat.

This sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. I may post a video showing the steps in the near future. The great thing about this--only 2 things to clean: pan and food processor. Yay!

You Really Need: a Food Processor

2010-05-16T13:40:00.003-05:00

I just got one and it's the most amazing thing ever. I don't know about you but I do a lot of chopping and slicing before I cook something, because I make a lot of Pakistani food, which requires this. So one day my brilliant husband says to me, "Go get a food processor so I can make mint chutney."

Off I go to Wal-Mart. This is the good news about food processors: you really can get a decent one at Target or at Wal-Mart. Or you can always go to Amazon.com, which has hundreds of food processors, rather than the small selection that you'll find at Wal-Mart or even Target.

Back to the story. I go to Wal-Mart, the source of my large bamboo cutting board, my Santoku knife, and my 3 tri-ply stainless steel Tramontina pans, which are awesome. I quickly find myself a food processor that looks good. Whilst playing with the different parts of another one, though, I drop its food pusher thingy on the floor, and that breaks. Definitely not getting that brand. SO I eventually select a GE food processor with a large bowl and just a few attachments.

Well, imagine my surprise when the next morning, I'm making eggs with onions and potatoes in it, the Pakistani way, and this thing slices my onions and potatoes like a hot knife through butter!!! In just a few minutes, I have my onion uniformly sliced, and my 4 or 5 potatoes uniformly sliced as well! Whoa!

...this thing slices my onions and potatoes like a hot knife through butter!

So the next thing I do is hop onto the Internet to find an easier way to make roti dough. Rotis are these flat breads that are whole wheat and you just fix them on the stove. My roti dough is usually hit or miss. Not scientific, that's for sure. Soon I find out that not only can you make roti dough, you can make bread dough, and your food processor will knead the dough for you! And it will make pizza dough too...really any dough you want! Wow!!!

Food processors can make roti dough, pizza dough, bread dough...any dough you want!

Now I shall give thee some tips about food processors.

Tips on Buying a Food Processor

Capacity.
Make sure you get one with a large capacity bowl and a strong motor. This will make your food processor more versatile.
Check the website.
If you are going to buy your processor at Target or Wal-Mart, and not online, you can still read reviews. Those websites have options to buy their products on line, and customers do review them, even at Wal-Mart's website. So check the reviews. One review I read let me know that if anything gets on the metal contacts inside the lid and the middle of the processor, the processor won't work. So I am careful about that.
Blades.
Make sure the food processor has at least 3 different blades-slicing/shredding, dough, and chopping.
It doesn't have to be expensive.
Mine was less than $50.00 and it works just fine. Even for dough, which can take a lot of power.
Easy to Clean.
You'll want something that isn't a pain to clean. So make sure that you look at the individual parts and consider how easy it will be to clean them.
A Large Food Chute.
You'll want one that will take big pieces of food. After all, you want the food processor to do the slicing, not you. That's why you're getting the darn thing.

How to Use a Food Processor

Big jobs.
You're probably not going to use your food processor for every chopping job you ever have. Who would want to clean it? But the times that it's going to save you some serious time are going to be making dough, chopping lots of stuff, or those times when you can make an entire meal while dirtying only 1 - 2 dishes...your food processor and your pan.
Cleaning.
I try to clean my food processor parts right away after using it. This keeps things from hardening onto the surface of the parts and it also makes my food processor available when I want to use it. It takes less than 2 minutes, I find. At the very least, I try to soak the parts so it will be easier to clean later.
Don't overload it.
Read the manual and don't overload your processor. This could result in things like the contacts between the bowl and the safety lid being messed up, which results in a food processor that "mysteriously" doesn't work. I had this happen once and try as I might, I could not get those contacts clean enough that my baby started working again. Thank Heavens that Wal-Mart has an automatic 2 year warranty for any products made by GE, so even though I had neither my receipt nor the box any longer, I could still take it back and get a replacement, virtually no questions asked.
YouTube.
You can do a lot with your food processor and I bet you'll find even more that you can do if you check out YouTube for ideas. That's what I did and it worked really well for me.

Here is a lovely video on how to make roti dough with a food processor. It's very simple. Personally, I was grateful to no longer have to dig dough out from under my fingernails and remove my rings too.

Food processors can replace the following one-use tools:

Food choppers.
Like Pampered Chef's or Zyliss, whatever food chopper currently sits in your cupboard.
Coffee grinders
(did you know you can grind coffee in your blender?)
Small food processors.

Caveat here-I once had a mother-in-law who had a withered arm thanks to polio, and she just loved her small 1.5 cup food processor. It allowed her to chop food one-handed. So these things do have a purpose! But if you're not in that kind of situation and you have a little bitty kitchen, then you're going to want multi-use tools, like the regular-sized food processor.

Your hand shredder.
Your food processor can now shred things for you.Yes, this include cheeses. Simply put the cheese in the freezer for 30 minutes prior to shredding, and your food processor will handle it for you.
Your Bread Machine.
This one is a little tricky. The food processor won't bake the bread for you. What it will do, though, is mix the ingredients uniformly and knead the dough for you. Then all you have to do is put the dough into a couple loaf bans and you're done. Definitely less work, though it doesn't do everything the bread maker does. You have to decide which you value more-the space in your kitchen or what the bread machine does.

You Don't Need: a Potato Ricer

2010-05-12T11:50:00.000-05:00

Ahhh the potato ricer. How excited I was when my ex-mother in law presented my ex-husband and I with this little gizmo. Being an inexperienced cook, I was so excited that I would now be able to make mashed potatoes so easily!!!! Yay for me!!!

But then last year, about, oh, 13 years after that fateful day, I found myself calling the ex and seeing if he wanted it, and finding out that he didn't, I carted that potato ricer and my Zyliss food chopper (same as the Pamperd Chef version) to the Goodwill together.

A potato ricer has only one use: ricing potatoes.
And why would we rice cooked potatoes? To make mashed potatoes and other associated dishes. So your potato ricer is only helpful for those times when you're going to make mashed potatoes and things that use mashed potatoes. Lovely.

So like 90% of the rest of the year the potato ricer collects dust in the cupboard. But that's not all it does.

Its bulky form also takes up space that you could be using to store all that stuff out on your counters. That space that you could be using to have a nicely organized selection of your cookware. Instead, your cookware sits jumbled up, your counters are cluttered, and the potato ricer smugly sits there, collecting dust.

The moral of the story -- skip the one-use kitchen gizmos.
Go for the multi-use items. That potato ricer and that food chopper could easily be replaced with a knife and some large, sturdy spoons. Knives are easy to clean and so are spoons. Potato ricers and food choppers? Not so much.

Organizing Your Kitchen

2010-05-11T15:17:00.001-05:00

The well-organized kitchen is the kind of kitchen that gets used. Once you've got your kitchen in a groove, you go out to eat less. You swear less. You feel more accomplished as a cook and there is a lot less clutter.

How to Organize Your Kitchen Tips

Spice racks suck.
I like my counters to have less stuff on them. It's easier to keep them clean. I feel the same way about my walls. With less visual chaos in my kitchen, it's so much simpler to stay focused on what I'm doing - the recipe I'm reading, the food I'm chopping, et cetera.

So rather than have spice racks and have my spices sitting out, I instead have them on small, 9" turntables, or Lazy Susans, inside my cupboards. You can get these turntables at Wal-Mart or Target.

In the cupboard nearest my stove, I have my most-commonly used spices - garlic salt, garlic powder, parsley, basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, etc. Then in another cupboard, I have the less-often used spices. All the spices are on these carousels. I never have to worry about a bottle hiding behind another bottle.

How to Store Knives
For this, I use a knife block. I don't keep anything other than steak knives and butter knives in my silverware drawer. I don't want to get sliced up when I go to grab a sharp chef's knife, or even a paring knife (which I also keep sharp, with my knife steel). Although I don't like having things on my counters, the knife block or magnetic knife holder is a must.

Avoid Canisters on the Countertop
My experience with canisters on the countertop is this: they get dusty and mangy looking. One more thing to clean and to clean around. Children get into them, and those little lock things that lock the ceramic lid in place? They break. Snack foods kept in them disappear more quickly and people leave them open left and right. No thank you.

I much prefer to use plastic, transparent canisters, and to keep them in my cupboard.

My all time favorite canister is the swirl-around carousel organizer. It's compact, every lid fits every container, and the containers all stack within eachother. No confusion about where the lids are, where to put the containers, etc. It would be nice if they were a little bigger, but this eliminates a lot of problems for me.

Throw or Give Away Those One-Use Items; Buy Multi-Use Items Instead.
That potato ricer from PC? The garlic press? The little thingy that makes pouches of food? That food chopper from Zyliss or PC that's really a pain in the rear to clean? That small mini-rolling pin from PC that is two-ended but never seems to get used much while your regular or even small rollling pin pulls more than its own weight in your kitchen? That pastry mat that cracks each time you use it and you can't throw it in the dishwasher to get cleaned? Yes, these are the things that I am talking about. The less one-use items you have, the more space you will have to get organized. Rather than reaching into a cupboard and knocking over a million things piled on top of one another, you can have neat, organized cupboards that seem to have plenty of space.

Put Heavy Things on the Lower Shelves. Lighter Things go on the Upper Shelves.
Even if they're not used much. The purpose of this? Less breakage, and more people can help you, like children. Let me clean my kitchen and I'll show you an example. ;)

My plastic mixing bowls are on the second level shelf of my corner cupboard. My French White Corning wear with glass lids are on the bottom shelf. I don't use them that much, but they do come in handy (more often than my potato ricer did...that's why it went to the Goodwill). Any heavy glass, ceramic, or other kind of breakable material stuff goes on the bottom shelf.

Well, that's all for today, kids :) Let me know your thoughts!

You Don't Need: Cutting Board Mats to Stabilize Your Board

2010-05-07T15:56:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite video authors from YouTube, ChefTips, has a great tip about stabilizing your cutting board while you work. You may find that ChefTips likes large plastic cutting boards. While I'm not a fan of plastic, we still have something in common, don't we? We like big cutting boards. :)

This tip is awesome because a cutting board that slides around a lot while you work is not only annoying but, I think, unsafe. To stabilize your cutting board, you don't need a fancy piece of rubberized cloth or anything.

How to Stabilize Your Cutting Board:
You just need paper towels. Simply wet a couple paper towels, fold in half, and place under your board. It will cause the board to adhere to your counter.

One less thing to store, and one more problem taken care of!

Quickly and Easily Peel & Take Apart Garlic Cloves

2010-05-07T15:43:00.004-05:00

Peel and take apart garlic simultaneously
by: whacking the garlic on your big cutting board with the side of your knife a few times or more. Voila!

The garlic will disintegrate a little bit and the peel will quite easily come off, in one step, without you touching it much. Then, if you want small pieces, just rock your chef's knife or Santoku knife among the pieces. If you have a big cutting board, things will not fly everywhere; they'll stay on the cutting board.

You Really Need: a Knife Steel

2010-05-07T14:02:00.001-05:00

If I'm right about the audience for this blog, I'm going to bet that many of my readers do not know what a knife steel is. Simply: it is the home cook's closest friend. It makes the home cook's life easier in ways that are both subtle and obvious. When things just aren't working right, you can pull out your knife steel and make them a little easier. And then sigh as you blissfully chop, slice, and cut your way to a lovely, peaceful meal. :)

What is a Knife Steel?
A knife steel is basically a cylindrical piece of steel with a handle. It can be 9-10 inches or more. It looks sort of like a sword. But rather than being a slicing and stabbing weapon, it's more like a blunt weapon, like a club.

What do I use it for?
You use your knife steel to sharpen your knives. Ten rubs on each side of the blade at a 22 degree angle or so, and you're pretty much done. It even helped my duller-than-dull cheap Farberware cleaver. Knife steels can be purchased individually, but probably not at Wal-Mart or Target. Knife steels also often come with knife sets. I recommend buying one individually, for reasons already stated. A knife steel is an awesome thing to have in your kitchen, because it will make life easier by keeping your knives sharp (dull knives are your archenemy) and it will probably outlast you. Even a cheap one. Mine came from that Farberware set and it works just fine.

Need more directions? No prob, got ya covered.

What's the big deal about sharp knives?
Sharp knives make meal prep much faster and easier. You ever heard the saying 'like a hot knife through butter', meaning that something happened really easily or quickly? Well, that's what sharp knives do for you in the kitchen. They make it easier to do everything - chop more quickly, cut and slice more quickly, and more safely.

Yes, more safely. A sharp knife is more likely to do what you tell it to.

A dull knife, like dull people, often gets poor ideas of its own, doesn't follow directions, and frustrates and tires you out.

So now you know that you need a knife steel. It's indispensable, and much more effective than those plastic knife sharpeners shaped like mice, though I do have one of those, and before I had my steel, it was useful. :) Now I just whip out the steel. It works EVERY time.

Happy Cooking everyone!!!

You Don't Need: Cute Ingredient Bowls

2010-05-05T14:53:00.000-05:00

So I got these adorable, primary-colored ingredient bowls at Target. Man they are so cute. I just like to look at them.

But once I got home and thought about how I'd explain what we're going to do with these pain-in-the-a$$ to wash little bowls (cause they don't sit right in the dishwasher) to my husband, I knew what he would do. He would laugh that Target had seduced me into buying these melamine beauties.

And he'd be (I should say he was) right. Because I have used these things like once in the past five months since purchasing them. Ahhhhh, consumerism.

But look at the picture. Aren't they cute?

Truth is, most home cooks will never use things like this. Perhaps they might be great on a cooking show or if I was going to do a cooking video, but at home in my hectic kitchen or yours? No.

Gird yourself while walking down the aisles at Target. Don't buy cute stuff just cause it's cute!!! :)

You Really Need: Chef's Knives

2010-05-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

You need a Chef's knife...preferably 2 in case one is dirty and you don't want to wash it right this minute. Like if you just cut some meat and now you need to do your veggies. (Hint: do the veggies first : ) )

Why a Chef's knife?

Because you can use it for almost anything! It cuts almost anything, and it does some other things too.
Peel and disintegrate garlic with it. Yes, with your Chef's knife. No, not by doing all sorts of cutting and chopping. I will tell you in another article how to do this. It's easy. And satisfying if you are angry at someone.
Gather up your chopped stuff with the back of the blade...it's just wide enough.

How to Buy a Chef's Knife
In the article previous to this one, I told you that you don't need or want a matching knife set. What I really mean is not one from Target or Wal-Mart. Those knife sets are silly and frilly...they come with all kinds of useless stuff like steak knives. You know how many steak knives I have? Good God. I don't even eat steak that often! (Nota Bene: If someone offers you a Wolf knife set or a Wusthoff knife set, do not say no.)

Instead, I recommend having a look at the individually-packaged knives. And more importantly, look for one made by a company that specializes in making knives. That's not going to be Farberware (famous for their dishes) or Kitchenaid (famous for their appliances)...that's going to be a company like Chicago Cutlery, Wolf, and some other German outfit I can't think of right now.

Remember, my chef's knife has been around since 1996-that's 14 years of bliss. It outlasted the marriage it was given in celebration of. It outlasted like 4 different cars. It's outlasted jobs and friendships. So your knives, if you want something that is going to make cooking a lot easier, are an investment.

Luckily, your investment can get you a decent knife for around $30-$40. :) Yay for you! Take a look at the picture in this article for a good idea of size. And if you're going to get 2 chef's knives, then great, you will have at least 2 knives that match. :)

You Don't Need: a Matching Knife Set or Millions of Knives, Either

2010-05-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, about 4 years ago, I was pining for certain knife equipment for Christmas. Specifically, I wanted a knife steel. I was starting to learn more about cooking and had discovered that I was not fond of a knife 'drawer' in which I would stick my non-wounded hands and then retract them with various painful, small cuts. Kinda like papercuts, and you know how *those* are.

This lovely woman that I knew at the time gave me a Farberware knife set complete with knifesteel and knife block. Now, I had gone slightly mad after a particularly egregious cut, and had already found a plain but serviceable knifeblock at Wal-Mart. But I had run out of luck trying to find a knifesteel.

How excited I was to get out that new knife set for my first mission: cutting onions for a recipe.

How disappointed I was to discover that those knives were brand-new but dull, dull, dull. Even after I used the knifesteel. A lot. While I was cutting the onion, the knife was sliding around, or not going in the direction I wanted, slanting this way or that. Irritation!

I soon realized that ALL the knives in the set were dull. WTF? So I got out my chef's knife from 1996 that my parents gave me, used the knife steel on it, and it cut like a champion.
So, here is the point: matching knife sets are unnecessary. In fact, if you're going to Wal-Mart or Target and you're looking to buy a knife set for yourself, just stop. Instead, look at the individually-packaged knives. Because you don't actually need all those knives in the block, and you don't need their clunky steak knives either. In my next article, I will talk about what knives you DO need.

Benefits of Having Fewer Knives
You know how too much information can be overwhelming? Or how a new computer system with all the bells and whistles, but which you don't use too often, becomes something feared and abhorred because each time you open it, you feel like you have to re-use it.

Well, when you're cooking, do you really want to have to stop and think about which of your zillions of knives you'll need to use for this or that?

Or would you rather have a smaller selection? One whose pieces you have committed to memory. You look at your knife block, you know that is the sum total of all your knives, and you know what each one is best used for.

I know that my serrated knife is best for not only bread, but also onion paper. Makes it easier to peel onions. My serrated knife is also best for tomatoes.

My chef's knife and that Santoku I got a while back are good for lots of stuff, basically just about everything.

Basically, I know what each knife is used for, where it always is in my kitchen, and I never have a ton of knives to wash...because I only have about five cooking knives. Maybe a chef needs more, but a chef I am not, and neither are most people cooking at home.

See my next article for a rundown on the knives you DO need.

You Don't Need: a Garlic Press

2010-05-04T00:31:00.003-05:00

I know many will disagree on this one.

I used to love my garlic press. It is the Pampered Chef one, which if you must have a garlic press, I highly recommend theirs. It's so durable and non-complicated. It always works.

But that wee little claim about never having to touch the garlic? Nope. You will have to touch it, a lot, unless you're willing to throw a lot of your clove away. And that thingy you stick on the back with the spikes that go through the bottom and push off the leftover part? Doesn't usually work. Just my experience. Remember, though, of garlic presses, Pampered Chef's is the best.

So why do you not need a garlic press?

Number one - it does only one thing: press garlic. That means that it peels and then turns the garlic into wee little pieces. Theoretically this is awesome, right? It does have its uses, I admit.

Guess what else can peel your garlic and turn it into little pieces? And does about a hundred other things too?

Your chef's knife. Or Sudoku knife. I mean Santoku. Or your cleaver. Your "good" knife. Large knives get along well with garlic.

And here's where I offer thee a small tip.

Some of your probably have a garlic press that you paid a lot, or a little, for. I suggest you try the whacking method a few times and see how you like only having one thing to wash, the easiest thing in your kitchen to clean: your knife. Then decide if you still want to mess around with your garlic press or simplify your kitchen a little bit.

You Really Need: 2 Big Cutting Boards

2010-05-04T00:22:00.002-05:00

Not 3. Not 4. Not small. Not tall, lol. Just 2 big cutting boards. Less boards = less washing = less stuff bamboo cutting board largeto store = less clutter. Less clutter = more energy for cooking awesome stuff. So many benefits!

My Pampered Chef medium cutting board made out of some kind of semi-translucent white plastic seemed great for a while.

The more I got into cooking, I realized 3 things:

the board was whittling away. Where was that plastic going?
the board was getting stained. What else is hanging out in that plastic?
stuff was always falling off the board, including juices from meats. Yuck.

You need a Large Glass Cutting Board.
So hubby and I decided to invest in a Pyrex glass cutting board that had feet. We got ours at Wal-Mart. This board had way more uses:

cutting veggies.
cutting meat. Yes, on the same board. It's a non-porous material, so as long as you wash it between veggies and meat, you should be alright.
rolling out dough. Yes, that's right. If you regularly make things like roti (Pakistani or Indian wheat flat bread) you will need to roll out that dough. The countertop may or may not be dirty, but you wanna scrub it every time? No thanks. My kitchen is not always spotless. Actually, it's never spotless, so that was kinda dishonest. :)

I started using the new Pyrex board. It's big - about 14x16 total. It has measurements on it. It is easy to clean. It became a staple in my kitchen. It has been through some challenges but never breaks. No glass ever whittles off. It does not ever get stained. It is perfect for rolling out roti. I almost never have problems with things sticking.

You need a large bamboo or pine cutting board.
This cutting board is even bigger than the glass one. It's about 20x16.

Multi-Use: you can roll out dough, cut up veggies, cut up meats (wash in-between please).
Renewable Resource: what do we know about bamboo? It grows up to 2 feet per day.
Who cares if you end up eating some bamboo? It's good for koalas and look how cute they are. :)
Will not dull your knives. I didn't like the feel of my knives on the glass all the time. It made a sound like nails on a chalkboard.
Porous surface. Must always wash between meats and veggies.
Heck, you might just want to have two bamboo cutting boards.
It's huge. Nothing will fall off.
Has a routed channel around the perimeter. Juice will not roll off the board and onto your counter.
Makes a cool sound while you chop. That's a bonus.
So large that you can cut a tomato and shove it aside but keep it on the board, then cut up your onion and shove that aside without it touching the tomato, and then smash and cut up garlic too. Super, super handy!
No staining.

I love this cutting board most of all. I order thee to splurge. I have the Chicago Cutlery bamboo version. I have had bad experiences with Farberware. And I didn't want the no-name variety. Kitchenaid is over-priced, in my opinion.

Here's a video about bamboo cutting boards and maintenance of them:

So, to recap:

You need only two big boards.
They should be either: 1 glass, 1 bamboo, both glass or both bamboo (my personal favorite).
Each one should be at least 14x16 or bigger. Preferably bigger.
You do not need a bunch of little plastic boards. Think sustainable.

Kitchen Tools: Less is More.

2010-05-04T00:19:00.000-05:00

I always gravitate to the kitchen section at Wal-Mart. And especially at Target. I got my primary color condiment bowls at Target...they are so pretty and shapely, hanging out in my cupboard....

I often find cooking to be tedious. My logical little brain always assumes it's because I don't have the right stuff. No? Must be because I don't have enough stuff. No? Must be because I have too much stuff! Yes, that's it!

I realized recently that although there are zillions of kitchen gadgets that come out, not all of them are particularly useful, and, quite often, are close to useless, as each thing only may have one use.

In my life I have only once ever had a large kitchen, which I shared with a packrat who loved to collect spices from evicted tenants' kitchens and bring them home. Another thing he brought home: dead squirrels and rabbits. Anyway, I digress. We pretty much had 2 of every spice. But not cardamom and curry powder - just the basics. So that kitchen was packed full of useless stuff that you had to wade through every time you cooked. I wasn't too excited about cooking at that time.

Then I dated and married a Pakistani man while living in a small apartment with a small kitchen. Who loves home cooking. Some people want luvin'. Others want money. And then there are those who most value cooking skills in a partner. And if you don't cook at home, then you must not love him that much! Right? Anyway, the way to his heart really is through his stomach and I started cooking like mad.

But I didn't have a huge kitchen. Hmmm, what to do? Get more stuff? No. The solution was get rid of stuff that only has one purpose. Make cooking easier by having tools that can be used in many different ways and that really work.

And that's what this blog is aimed at helping people do.