Kitchen Basics

I get a lot of questions about what you need the most in the kitchen. There are so many things I can't live without, I think I will have to do this in two or three installments. These are great for your registry if you're looking to stock your kitchen from scratch, or if you just want a couple ideas about how to make it a little bit more efficient.

Food processor. I have the 14 cup Cuisinart. I mostly use this for doughs, but of course it’s great for sauces, shredding, slicing, chopping large amounts.

Stand Mixer. I use this for bread and batters mostly. I’ve read complaints about kneeding bread dough with this mixer, but I have a refurbished model and have never had an issue. 

Heat proof spatula. 

Microplane and zester. When we moved to Oregon we were staying with my parents for a few weeks until we found a place of our own. My mom has an old school zester (or at least did, since I convinced her to buy a Microplane) and it took me about 30 minutes to zest a lemon and my wrist was killing me afterwards. You can't beat the Microplane graters and the zester I listed is great for an easy garnish for anything.

Disposable pastry bags. Obviously these are great for piping and decorating, but I've also used them to pipe out the cheese layer in a lasagna, fill cupcake cups with batter, pipe out cookies, and just about anything that requires wrangling things that are liquidy. I have a few flex bags, but the disposable bags are great. 

Sheet pans. I use for pretty much everything I put in the oven from roasting vegetables to baking cakes like roulades or petit fours.

Knives. We're very proud of our knife collection (especially our new Bob Kramer Santoku knife). We have Wusthof and Shun knives, but what's most important is that they're a good quality and it's comfortable for you to hold. The only knives you really need are a chef's knife, paring knife, and bread knife. 

Candy thermometer. These I use for sweets and deep frying. Basically, everything that's good in this world.  

Dutch oven.

Storage containers. Besides saving leftovers and storing food, I use these to keep all my dry goods to make baking and cooking easier. It makes it much quicker and cleaner to measure out flour, sugar, salt, etc. 

Parchment paper. I posted a link to the parchment paper you would find in the grocery store. I don't love it, but it's usually all I can find without ordering online. You can use parchment paper to line cake pans, make cones for piping, and cut into squares in place of muffin wrappers. It's also great to help with baking and cooking, you can sift dry goods onto it and it makes it easier to pour.

Circle cutters. Again, there are many uses for these. Cutting biscuits, cookies, doughnuts, cakes, fondant for decorating, and they make cutting pie crust for tartlets simple.

Pasta maker. This I use for pasta (duh), but you can also use for pastry doughs like cannoli.   

Mandoline. I bought this Zyliss mandoline because it was cheap, but it works great and I actually love the fact that it folds up.

Fine mesh strainer. This you would use for things like pastry cream, sauces, sifting dry goods, etc.