What one tool in your kitchen do you treasure the most?

[LPBeier]

I couldn't write in this thread without mentioning my Mac knives. The day we got them (second day of culinary school) I sliced my finger open and the knife was so sharp I didn't even feel it - one of the other students pointed out I was bleeding! I mention that not because of my clumsiness but to attest to their sharpness.

My KA 600 Pro is up there too. It allows me to make the big batches I need for cakes and will take a very large batch of chocolate chip cookies from creaming the butter (not always fully softened) to "stirring" in the chocolate chips.

I have to add a third much more obscure one. It is a very small square flipper I got as a hostess gift many years ago for having a Pampered Chef party for my mother-in-law. It gets used for so many things. The handle cracked off a couple of years ago but DH used some glue and tape and it keeps soldiering on! I have seen (and even bought) similar products in other places but none compare to the PC one.

 

[Bigjim68]

If I had to pick just one item in my kitchen that I could not do without, it would be my Japanese knives, and if I could keep just one, it would be the 240 Gyoto. Everything else I could work around if I had to. Lots of other items would come in second.

 

[chopper]

I know I posted a picture of these lifters not too long ago, but they belong on this thread too! I just used them the other day when I made pulled pork. SO much easier than using two forks of any kind! Also great for lifting chicken, turkey, ham, roast...I wish I would have invented these. I guess what I really like is that they are like an extension to my own hands!

 

[Kathleen]

or, it was for a very dear daughter....

Exactly! That is why I treasure it so much. Plus, the awesome job it does with tomatoes with the jagged edge.

 

[Addie]

View attachment 12798

I know I posted a picture of these lifters not too long ago, but they belong on this thread too! I just used them the other day when I made pulled pork. SO much easier than using two forks of any kind! Also great for lifting chicken, turkey, ham, roast...I wish I would have invented these. I guess what I really like is that they are like an extension to my own hands!

I got these for my daughter a number of years ago. She constantly uses them.

 

[chopper]

I got these for my daughter a number of years ago. She constantly uses them.

 

[CWS4322]

Dishwasher. Believe me, a knife, a KA stand mixer, without a dishwasher, not happy.

 

[PattY1]

What one tool in your kitchen do you treasure the most?

Mine is not a tool per say. I treasure my Fiesta ware Dishes the most. It took me years to collect what I have and about 1/2 of my place settings are no longer being produced. He is a picture of a few in the dish drainer.View attachment 12799
I don't know how I forgot about the small flat lid from my mothers first set of pots and pans. It is the only surviving piece of that set. I got it after she passed away. I cleaned it with a SOS pan and now it shines like it hadn't in many years.View attachment 12800

 

[chopper]

What one tool in your kitchen do you treasure the most?

Mine is not a tool per say. I treasure my Fiesta ware Dishes the most. It took me years to collect what I have and about 1/2 of my place settings are no longer being produced. He is a picture of a few in the dish drainer.

Pretty colors.

 

[Addie]

Dishwasher. Believe me, a knife, a KA stand mixer, without a dishwasher, not happy.

I live alone. A dishwasher would be a waste of engergy for me. More work to load and unload. It would take me weeks to get enough dirty dishes to fill it up. So I use paper plates and bowls.

 

[Timothy]

I hear you Addie, I also live by myself, (excuse me Dinky), and I make myself treat myself as a guest, every night. I eat on my best dishes, and have every item that would be most appropriate for that meal.

I have a "Counter-Top" Dish Washer that works flawlessly for me and saves me countless hours of washing. It rinses at 160F. That's the part I like the most. When my dishes come out of that thing, they're sanitized! The Anti-everything dish soap and heat combined. One of my gadgets that gets used every single day.

 

[Claire]

We, too, do not have a dishwasher. People think we're insane. Other people have legal pre-nups, but we have two agreements, made 30 years ago. S/He who cooks does not clean up, and s/he who is doing a job does not get criticized, period, unless you want to do the job yourself. Years ago my husband decided he preferred most of my cooking to his own, so does the dishes. Exception is entertaining, when we both do whatever needs to be done, period.

My mom believed that if you can't use the good stuff with your family, what's the point of having it? We didn't have china and crystal every day, but most Sundays in the winter and holidays, we stayed in our church clothes and ate off china and drank from crystal goblets (all things my mom bought as factory seconds in Germany). Cream soda was the drink of choice, because my sibs and I liked it, and it looked enough like champagne for us. For years hubby and I used the good stuff every day, until I realized that when I scraped the dishes, I was occasionally losing a $40+ piece of flatware! So we bought every-day stuff. But we still do use it pretty often.

 

[PattY1]

I live alone. A dishwasher would be a waste of engergy for me. More work to load and unload. It would take me weeks to get enough dirty dishes to fill it up. So I use paper plates and bowls.

I live alone also. But I would LOVE a dishwasher. That way I could rinse them and hide them in the DW until it was full. Sometimes I will let the few dishes I use (daily) go as it seems like a waste of soap to wash them. Next thing I know I have a kitchen full of clean looking dirty dishes!! I have several place settings so I have enough for company, so sometimes I do let it get out of control.LOL But I did not spend the time and money buying the dishes I wanted to not use them. Yep a DW is on my bucket list for the next place I live along with a Bath Tub, in house Washer and Dryer, more then One Closet and a full size Stove.

 

[Biser]

But there are cabinets that are empty and will stay that way. One is over the fridge and the other is over the stove and hood.

We had a small cabinet over the electric cooktop before we remodeled the kitchen. One dark and stormy night I knocked a jar of powdered Chinese mustard out of the cabinet and onto a hot element. The results were simply amazing!

No eye watering, no sneezing but also the complete inability to inhale. My wife and I ran out in the rain and dark leaving the front door wide open. And I got to run back in to get that stuff off the range and open windows while she stayed in the car. In and out, in and out to breathe. Not an experience that I want to repeat.

The remodeled kitchen does not have cabinets over the cooktop, nor over the refrigerator.

 

[LPBeier]

I have a one year old all the bells and whistles dishwasher, but what is more important to me is the "custom accessory" I have for it! My dear sweet hubby has taken on the roll of emptying, refilling and starting the dishwasher, which in our household of 3 can be often. I have problems bending and reaching so this is a huge help. Sometimes I will have to pull things out but he wants me to leave the bulk of it for him.

When Dad is here and I am doing his medications 5 times in a day (they must be crushed and mixed with applesauce), the custard cups/ramekins and spoons alone add up fast. Then there are all my choppers and blenders for pureeing his food.

So, I guess I amend my list to my best kitchen accessory (I won't call him a tool ) is my DH!

 

[Addie]

Like I have said before, I do not want to spend my last days on earth cleaning. Paper Plates for me. And if I do have company coming, I can hide what ever is dirty in the oven.

But having company is another thing. I have two folding chairs that I keep out of sight. I will bring them out if I have to. But I would rather you not stay long enough for that. I will come and visit you instead. Or we can go down to the very large beautiful community room. If you have kids with you, they have plenty of room to run around. There is a full function kitchen, I can make you coffee in and serve you snacks, or cook a full meal along with two dishwashers and two stoves with self-cleaning ovens.

 

[Bigjim68]

Like I have said before, I do not want to spend my last days on earth cleaning. Paper Plates for me. And if I do have company coming, I can hide what ever is dirty in the oven.

But having company is another thing. I have two folding chairs that I keep out of sight. I will bring them out if I have to. But I would rather you not stay long enough for that. I will come and visit you instead. Or we can go down to the very large beautiful community room. If you have kids with you, they have plenty of room to run around. There is a full function kitchen, I can make you coffee in and serve you snacks, or cook a full meal along with two dishwashers and two stoves with self-cleaning ovens.

I look at it from the other side. I would not want my last meal on earth to have been eaten off a paper plate. Over the years I have accumulated about the same amount of china that my dishwasher will hold.

The truly fine stuff stays in the china cabinet until guests arrive.

 

[Timothy]

I live alone also. But I would LOVE a dishwasher.

You may wish to consider a counter-top model like I use, Patty. It hooks directly to the kitchen faucet and works fabulously for me.

I've had the EdgeStar one shown there for about 5 years now and have no complaints.

 

[CWS4322]

I live alone. A dishwasher would be a waste of engergy for me. More work to load and unload. It would take me weeks to get enough dirty dishes to fill it up. So I use paper plates and bowls.

I live alone 5 days/week. I manage to fill it Thursday nights and on the weekends 2-3 times. It isn't the plates, glasses, and silverware that is overwhelming, it is all the pots, pans, mixing bowls, and other such things. I did use it last night, I ran all the dog dishes and Kongs through it (I know, stainless doesn't look as nice when it comes out of the DW, but these are dog dishes). I don't mix human dishes with the dog/chicken dishes, so that's a separate load and I have enough dog dishes that I don't have to wash the dog dishes more than once a week, except when all the dogs are here. Because we don't use canned goods, I also have a lot of canning jars to wash...and I hate doing those by hand. The DW does a much better job.

 

[GLC]

I've tried, since this thread began, to think of what I had that is most important to me. I haven't been able to choose. I like just about every utensil and piece of cookware I have, I guess because each was a conscious, studied decision. But there's not one that I couldn't be just fine without and most of them that I could. But it occurred to me that if I just had to pick something I was glad I had more than anything else, it would be the long "L" shaped stainless steel counter, all one piece with the sink. No worries about damage. No worries about water. No cuts and no stains. Easy to clean, even easy to sterilize, if I wanted to go that far. I kind of take it for granted anymore, but I'd miss it if it were to leave.