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What's your most versatile utensil or appliance or cookware in your kitchen?
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My toaster oven: it cooks or warms up small portions that would otherwise be uneconomical to cook in a full size oven or in a pan.
Cork opener and paraphernalia of a serial eater
Tough one, but I'd have to say a charcoal grill because you can cook even if the power goes out (for those with electric stoves).
Any of my cast iron skillets (closely followed by the cast iron dutch oven). Super low maintenance, can toss em in the oven, on the grill, even straight in a fire and they don't care. Can cook a cake, bake bread, make a roast, or a stew, and they wipe clean when done. (Also heh, I thought this post was in the post-apocalypse group, and answered from that perspective lol! Still, I use one every day, and can't imagine how anyone cooks without one. So answer stands.)
Nice one, Alex! I like using a silicone spatula to pop cupcakes out of the tin :).The flavor of anything grilled over charcoal is my absolute favorite! Hmm. I use the toaster oven quite a bit. Probably what I use the most in the kitchen is the pan scraper! I had some bad experiences with nonstick pans (the coating ended up in food) so I only use copper bottom stainless or cast iron now. Unfortunately, getting them clean is another story. So the pan scraper is pretty handy :).
Krazykiwi wrote: "Any of my cast iron skillets (closely followed by the cast iron dutch oven). Super low maintenance, can toss em in the oven, on the grill, even straight in a fire and they don't care. Can cook a ca..."I love cast iron for homemade pizza. The crust turns out insanely good!
My most used utensil is a knife. Surprising how often you have to engage in size reduction. My most unusual piece of equipment is a Mettler analytical balance (not that it balances). I have taken up trying to replace as much sugar as I can with Stevia extract, which is 350 times sweeter than sugar. Not everyone weighs to the milligram.
Hmm, it would have to be my coffee makers :) (there is no life before coffee), percolated when I feel like being more labor intensive as far as making, timing, etc., the good old drip coffee for starters, and Keurig K-cups for afternoon.
Great. Now I'm craving a cupcake :) I'd have to say my microwave. I remember that I bought my first one back in the '80s and thought I'd rarely use it. Now, I use it to heat up water for tea, to thaw out something for supper, to heat up leftovers, to heat my ham and swiss sandwiches, and even to cook meals like Lean Cuisine. I use it every day.
Those cupcakes look so delicious. And I want to thank-you, Alex G. for stirring me to epicurium.com (I hope I spelled it right) I've been looking for a recipe for chocolate pie. I found one, and it was good. That's my place to go for recipes now:)
Back to subject, I bought a Ninja food processor for healthy drinks. Now all it does is chop and blend:) So mostly it's the microwave. How did we get along without them before?
The best appliance if that is what you would call it would be the electric icemaker. No more putting water in ice trays and sticking them in the freezer then having to wait for the cubes to freeze. Just pour water in the ice maker and it starts making ice in no time - then I just have a container for the ice. :)
My ice maker in my freezer is hooked to a water line and makes ice until the container is full. I use all of it in 2 days. I like ice in my drinks, alcohol and non-alcohol.I suspect a wooden spoon is my most useful utensil. I use one for everything from baking, to sauteeing, to stirring cake mixes or spaghetti sauce.
I don't have an ice maker. I use my microwave several times a day. When they first came out and I bought one, I thought I'd probably never use it. Wrong.
What's your most versatile utensil or appliance or cookware in your kitchen?