A Few of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things about cooking and baking are all the neat tools out there. I could spend days in a kitchen supply store just playing with all the neat tools that are available to the the cooking nut like me. So here are some of my favorite kitchen tools and how I use them and how they make my life in the kitchen easier. I've also list and link the brands I use, but you don't have to use the brands I recommend. And lets face it, when you cook and bake allergy free you spend more time in the kitchen making things from scratch.

Pampered Chef: Serrated peeler

I use this peeler for squash and hard vegetables, they get through that hard skin very quickly and easily. Also, I like like to use these on any vegetable, because they make little grooves in the food and then flavor can adhere to it better .

Small scoop

I use this for making cookies, muffins, and cupcakes. This puts out the perfect about of dough for all sorts of bake goods, and they always come out nice and even.

Pampered Chef: Batter Bowl

I use this for everything. It is an awesome measuring cup that can hold large amounts, and it's great for pouring batter into a pan or pancakes on a griddle. I like to use this for making ice cream too, because it pours neatly into the ice cream maker better then my blender does. The lid is neat if I want to chill dough or jello or pudding or I have left over pancake batter.

Pampered Chef: Measure All

I love using this measuring cup for peanut putter, honey, brown rice syrup, or anything sticky.

Pampered Chef: Oil Sprayer

Sometimes when you are on an allergy free life style some oils are off limits. I like this sprayer because I can fill it with what ever oil I want to use for my cooking; whether for a fry pan or to grease a baking dish.

Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer

I love my Kitchen Aid. It's is the most worked tool in the kitchen. I use this to mix everything. I can whip eggs without wearing out my arm. I have several attachments and it's like having several kitchen appliances, but without taking up space.  

Kitchen Aid: Ice Cream Maker

I love the ice cream maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid. It is so easy to use too. I can make whatever kind of ice cream my family is craving, and it works great for sherbert too.

Kitchen Aid: Fruit and veggie strainer/grinder

I used this attachment alot when my daughter was a baby. It did a great job of making the perfect textured baby food.

Kitchen Aid: Food Grinder

I use this one the next most after the ice cream maker. This grinder is great for grinding up meats and veggies. When I make my zucchini pancakes or carrot cake, this is the tool I use to get finely grated veggies.

Pampered Chef: Salad Chopper

I use these funny looking double bladed scissors to cut up my daughters food. Instead of using a knife and fork to cut up her food while mine gets cold, I just run threw her food with these one or twice and her food is now in bit size pieces and they also work great for chopped salads.

Kitchen Scissors

A good pair of kitchen scissors is a must. My new favorite way of preparing chicken for roasting is by butterflying and they easiest way to do that is to cut out the back bone and flatten the chicken. The scissors make a quick work of butterflying a chicken.

Sanyo Rice Cooker

Out of all the rice cookers I've seen and use, Sanyo is the best. I have a much older version of this rice cooker that I got from my brother in law that is the real deal, from Japan in Japanese. This one pictured here is the American up graded version. I use my rice cooker all the time and it can be used for quinoa, and brown rice. It makes cooking rice a cinch and to be honest I don't get other kinds of rice cookers. The whole set up doesn't make since to me nor do they do a good job in my opinion.

Oster Bread Machine

I've already talked about my bread machine, a.k.a the Baking Fairy. This is a great tool. I don't care if you use Oster or not. This one doesn't have a gluten free setting, but I find that isn't a necessary function.

Pizza Stone

I have one without the handles, but whatever. I don't think that makes much of a difference. I love that I can still make pizza on a stone. I use put the dough on parchment paper then onto the stone and I can cook my pizza.

Black and Decker: Coffee Grinder

I have an older version of this one, but it works great. I use my grinder of chai seeds, flax seeds, and rice. It has stood the test of time and keeps going. It works great on whatever I need to grind.

Crock Pot

I love crock pot cooking. I use mine almost every other day. I have the one pictured and a Rival one that is large. I use the one shown here the most, the other one I keep for large dishes or for cooking for guests. I use my crock pot to cook beans, squash, soups, roats, whole chickens, sauces, and pretty much everything else. I've done chicken nuggets to pot pie. Crockpot365.blogspot.com is a great site for crock pot meals that are gluten free and crock pot tips.