"kitchen utensils" news and stories

Moms are hard to find gifts for -- they claim to want nothing, seem to have everything and are the most skilled shoppers you've ever met (or is that just mine? Hi Mom!). But we'd argue that mothers who love food are the most difficult to please, as they have particular tastes and a kitchen full of gear. This Mother's Day, surprise your family's gourmand with the perfect present -- whether her poison is coffee or dialing for restaurant delivery.

Check out our product picks after the jump.

Back in December, my friend Roz bought her first house. The day she moved in, her mother came over with food in a slow cooker and a pot of peeled potatoes that were destined to be turned into mashed potatoes to celebrate the new home. However, when it came time to mash potatoes, Roz's mom discovered that there wasn't a potato masher anywhere to be found in Roz's fairly extensive collection of kitchen paraphernalia.

Because of this utensil encounter, Roz was not at all surprised when, for Christmas, she received her very own potato masher. The thing is, she's just not much of a mashed potato girl, so this new item didn't fill her with excitement. However, just last night, she turned to me and said, "I'm loving my masher, although I still don't use it for potatoes. Guess what I'm making with it!"

Turns out, it has become her new favorite tool for whipping up batches of guacamole (a trick I plan on trying out this weekend). Now I have a question for the rest of you. Do you have a kitchen utensil or appliance that you resisted for a long time but now you adore? Or, do you have something that you use all the time, but not for its intended purpose?

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When it comes to my pots and pans, I don't like to play favorites. I don't want my cast iron skillet to think that it is any less loved than my giant stock pot or the 8 inch non-stick saute pan that I always use for eggs (I realize this might sound a little nutty, but go with me here). However, there is one pot that I love above all others in my kitchen. That yellow Dansk pictured above is my very favorite vessel for small batches of soup, steaming bunches of broccoli and boiling up two servings of pasta (it also makes a mean batch of fondue). I also love the way it looks on my turquoise stove from 1966, cheery, bright and ever so vintage.

Do you have a favorite kitchen item? It doesn't have to be only a cooking vessel, it could also be a bowl, spoon, cutting board or knife (to name a few possibilities). Add your pictures of your favorite stuff to our Flickr pool so we can see your beloved objects.

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In most conversations about kitchen tools, I'll be the first to step up and say, "Yeah, it's important to use good tools. They make everything easier." And yet, when it came to pastry blenders, for the last 8+ years I have not been following my own advice. I picked up that green-handled one that you see on the left sometime during college at a thrift store. It never worked well and yet I soldiered on, trying to cream butter and sugar together with wires that were constantly bending and spreading so wide that they allowed an entire stick of butter to pass through unmolested. Oh, and did I mention that the handle spins around?

Several weeks ago, I was down in Washington, DC visiting a friend. During the full day I was there, we spend nearly five hours going to three different thrift stores. During the course of that day, I picked up the pastry blender on the right for $.80 (I like good tools but I'm also cheap). I didn't really think much of it until I used the new one tonight. What a difference! The butter broke down easily, the wires didn't bend and the handle stayed right where it was supposed to. Good tools make such a difference!

Ever since I went away to college, I have found myself accumulating cooking utensils. It started out innocently at first. A spatula here, a wooden spoon there. But then suddenly it turned into 12 wooden spoons, seven different rubber scrapers and a cacophony of whisks, slotted spoons and hand beaters. And then came the knives. I acquired a terrific knife from a boyfriend as we were breaking up and it changed my cooking life drastically. It was a world away from the nearly dull knives I grew up with in my parents' house and there was no going back.

I now have a minor obsession with good, sharp knives. A couple of weeks ago, I found myself surfing a restaurant supply website on a Saturday night (it is an exciting life I lead) looking at knives. I couldn't help myself, I placed an order. They arrived Monday and they are better than any new toy I got as a child (not that you would give sharp knives to children). I'm finding myself looking for excuses to chop and slice, just to get another opportunity to take these puppies out for a little exercise.

One of the nice things about buying knives from restaurant supply companies is that you don't have to pay a whole lot of money to get good stuff. Both the knives I bought hovered right around $20 and are fantastic. And they make cooking even more of a joy than normal.

photo by Marisa McClellan