Tools of the Trade

Lessons I've learned as a food blogger. These are the tools I can't live without. Why? The smaller the size of a kitchen, the less space you have. Most professional kitchens don't have the space for one-use products, and a home kitchen is even more restricted with storage. I love tools that can multitask. And these four things are invaluable to me.

1. A Good Pair of Kitchen Shears, preferably ones that can be disassembled for easy cleaning. From chopping vegetables and herbs to opening packages, cleaning chickens, or spatchcocking a turkey, these are great.

2. A wooden spatula is essential for not sticking pans or creating sauces

3. Kitchen tweezers, from pasta plating to manipulating hot food, these tweezers do so much. They can also double as a fork or whisk.

4. The All Star Kitchen Scrapper it chops, it is perfect for scooping, and it can crush garlic like a champ. I use it in so many ways. It is a versatile tool for scooping & transferring chopped ingredients, portioning & cutting dough, cleaning sticky messes off counters/boards (like dough, frosting), and even smoothing batters or frosting, saving your knife from dulling and keeping your workspace tidy. It's great for everything from gathering vegetables to dividing cinnamon rolls.

Annotated Cooking Notes. If I knew now what I didn't know then, the only thing I would judge a new stove/ oven on is BTU. I'd look for a cooktop with the highest BTU burner, and also has a low BTU burner for simmering.