wedding registry: kitchen tools

Good Morning!  Today I want to talk about kitchen tools.  AND, not just any kitchen tools, but kitchen tools you will actually use.  I know it's easy to go into Williams Sonoma, Sur la Table, or any other kitchen shop and think that you absolutely won't be able to start your married life without that melon baller, pasta maker, or jam spoon.  Rest assured dear readers, I'm here to tell you that you can and will make it without them.

If you are like me, going into a kitchen store can be an overwhelming task.  When I was registering, I had never had my own kitchen, I could make approximately three things (scrambled eggs, cereal, and toast), and I relied heavily on my mom and mother-in-law to tell me what I would actually need.  So today, I want to pass that wisdom along to you.  Keep in mind, this is a list of the basics that I think every kitchen should have.  As you cook and find favorite recipes and meal preparations, you might want to invest in the sushi maker or pastry bag.  Starting off though, these are the essentials...

ladle / tongs / slotted spoon / flipping spatula / oversize spoon / mixing spatulas

A few quick notes:

1. While most stores sell a "set" that has all the kitchen tools you will need, I found it was much more fun and useful to customize a set myself.  We got the set Williams Sonoma advertises, but I have gradually taken things out and added things of my own over the years and now it houses the most used and functional tools in the kitchen.

2. I prefer non-slip tongs - they much easier to use and I am much less likely to drop the chicken, kale, or whatever else I am picking up than I would be with regular tongs.

3. The oversize spoon can be metal or wooden, or you could use both.  I switch between the two, but you could go either way.  One word of warning- a metal spoon gets HOT if you are using it to stir soup or something else on the stove.

4.  Mixing spatulas are definitely the workhorse of our kitchen.  Whether we are baking cookies, roasting sweet potatoes, cooking eggs, or almost any other recipe you can imagine, we are using these guys.  I have four of these and they are all well used and loved.  These are a MUST.

I will be back in the next few weeks with more items geared towards baking and other specialized cooking to round out the list.  In the meantime, do you have any other kitchen tools to add to the list?

xo,