Few More of Our Kitchen Favorites

I missed a perfect excuse to bake a pie yesterday (3/14) and share that with you, but to make up for that, I will share a few more of very useful items we have in our kitchen. These items aren't necessities in the kitchen, but they are certainly very helpful and convenient, and none of them are expensive.

Oil mister

I think I got this cute little gadget because it was on sale. But once I started using it, I actually purchased two more - these things are great! They are sold by Williams-Sonoma: click here for listing. This is the most natural way to spray a fine mist of oil as no aerosols are involved.

Some of My Favorite Kitchen Items

That's right, no fancy recipes today, just some pasta for dinner. Instead I want to share some of my biggest helpers in the kitchen. These items will help you with organization, storage, and efficiency when cooking. Some people will say that a lot of women in the world cook without any fancy gadgets, with very limited equipment. I know that and I respect that - ability to do a lot with very little is certainly admirable. But that is not my point here. None of the items below are so essential that you can't survive without them (we do go overnight camping into wilderness -  no cars, no electric outlets, just what we bring on our back! we do know minimalism!). What I am about to share here are nice-to-have extras in your kitchen for when you can afford to spend a few extra dollars and you can also afford some space to keep them, although some are meant to save you money in long run and others are meant to optimize your space usage - planning ahead and considering all scenarios does help. Despite their non-essential nature, once you have these items, you'll appreciate them and will wonder how rest of the world functions without them.

General Thoughts and Quick Dinner Tonight - Chicken Liver

Efficiency in the kitchen

Sometimes I love spending hours and hours in the kitchen, but often, especially on weeknights after coming home from work, I want to be done with dinner fast. After being in a restaurant kitchen and watching chefs cook, it gave me a new perspective on my own kitchen. It isn't really a secret. But growing up, cooking was just that, and not much thought was given to why things are done a certain way, but rather it was simply doing things the way previous generations of women (my mom, my grandmothers and other female relatives) had done. With new gadgets, better technologies, simply more space in my kitchen (compared to my grandmother's that measures 2 by 2 meters/about 6 by 6 ft!) and just having the financial means to acquire more and better tools, the new name of the game is efficiency.