"spatula" news and stories

The other night I was making some cookie dough for later in the week, and as I gazed at my vast amounts of cooking utensils I found myself wishing for another rubber spatula. How is it that I have so many ladles, tongs, metal spatulas, and slotted spoons and only one rubber spatula? Granted, I get a lot of kitchen stuff as Christmas and birthday gifts, but at some point I should have realized which utensils I use the most and stock up. Here are some of my favorite cooking tools. What are some of yours?

1. Rubber spatulas: great for getting every last bit of food out of a bowl
2. Wooden spoons won't scratch my non stick pans
3. Cake spatulas may not see the light of day very often, but I still love them
4. I use my eight inch French knife just about every time I cook
5. Tongs make cooking so much easier
6. I like to use a whisk rather than sift.
7. Kitchen shears are for everything from opening packages to prepping fresh herbs
8. I don't know if my Kitchen Aid counts, but it belongs on my list anyway.

After a while, if you spend enough time reading food blogs, your computer is going to become a sort of virtual cookbook as you add more and more recipes to your list of favorites. Unless you keep your computer in the kitchen, though, you're still going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned cookbooks (or printed pages) as references. This reliance on the printed recipe probably won't always be the case, as designer Philipp Gilgen, a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland, has just invented a digital cookbook that perfectly suits the kitchen environment. The coo.boo. is shaped like a spatula and synchs with a personal computer via a wireless docking station to download recipes, how-tos and other content. The digital "cookbook" is sturdy, washable and can be stored with regular kitchen appliances so that it is always on hand. It is still in a prototype stage, but it may not be too long before we see a real release, as there is sure to be a demand for such a handy tool/reference.

[via cool hunting]

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When the holiday season comes around, I find myself pulling out plates with snowmen and little colored lights, as well as variously shaped cookie cutters and a few other choice holiday pieces. I don't usually intend to let the holiday spirit bleed into my regular cookware collection, however. After all, a spatula is a spatula is a spatula - right? Well, that may be true, but the snowman and snowflake spatulas that Williams-Sonoma is offering this year are pretty tempting. They have nylon heads that are heat resistant to 400°F, stainless steel handles and are dishwasher safe - just like my standard spatulas, but with the added bonus of an adorable design on each. A snowman and snowflake seem like seasonal icons that could be enjoyed all winter, as well as for much of fall and spring, without seeming inappropriate, so it might not be a bad idea to tuck these into someone's stocking this year. I know I wouldn't complain if I saw one.

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Clever piece by C. Monks, where he lists the top 10 utensils of the year. No big surprises on what he picks; the surprise lies in why he picked them:

3. Whisk: I admit that Whisk has an unfair advantage because I simply love saying the word "Whisk." But that aside, Whisk had another solid year. While its versatility is limited, it is great at what it was made for: whisking things.

9. Steak Knife #5: In past years I've found it terribly difficult to select one steak knife above the others, but this year it was no contest. Steak Knife #5 makes all the other steak knifes  (especially the overrated and pompous Steak Knife #2) look like butter knives at a Dull Convention.