Domesticity: Kitchen Gadgetry Workhorses

Over the weekend I cleaned out and re-organised ‘The Drawer’ – the second one down, that holds allllll of the utensils. You know how it is, you jam all manner of spoons, spatulas and salad servers in there and shut that sucker tight, praying a set of Ikea tongs won’t become a projectile weapon whenever you next open The Drawer (which let’s face it will be in approximately 0.72 seconds).

Clearing the clutter and ditching weird implements made me realise just what I do use on an everyday basis, the workhorses if you will. It even made me appreciate the things that I really don’t use that often, but when their number is called up they perform well each and every time.

Apple Slicer Dooverlacky

This thing gets a workout multiple times a day with a toddler who does not stop eating in the house. Apples apples apples. Bang bang bang. Out the apple slices come. This thing is a game changer if you don’t have one, I first discovered it when I was a nanny almost ten years ago (whaaa?!) and the one in my current arsenel I believe is an Ikea one…not fantastic, blades aren’t that sharp so I would like to upgrade.

Rolling Pin

On our trip to Tasmania in 2009 (again, whaaa?! Time to go back!) Matt bought me this beautiful Huon pine tapered rolling pin. That right there is love. Look at it! Isn’t it beautiful? Honestly I don’t use this everyday, so I’m not sure it’s worthy of a ‘workhorse’ title, but I do use it a fair bit (pastry, biscuits and pizza dough abound in our kitchen) and I know it will be one of those things that I have forever in my kitchen, and will one day remind my girls of ‘mum’s kitchen’ like that God-awful dented grater and grey scales on the wall reminds me of my mum’s kitchen. And I use it just as often to bash the lid of a stubborn jar. #multipurpose

Rubber Spatulas

Have these things not changed the kitchen landscape forever? There is nothing that can escape my rubber spatula scrapings. Especially with the Thermomix (whose spatula that comes with it I never ever ever use because: useless). Wastage is next to zero with a rubber spatula in my hand when I’m baking. Love them, need to get more actually as one went for an unfortunate spin on the bottom of the dishwasher and filled the house with a most unpleasant burnt rubber smell. Aaaanywho…

Tupperware Chopper

I bought this possibly over ten years ago at a Tupperware party. It was not cheap, obviously, because: Tupperware! But it has paid for itself. Before I got my Thermomix this was the only way I chopped onion. And still if I’m making something not in the Thermie (often) and I want a nice finely chopped onion or garlic or herbs: into the Tupperware chopper it goes. No tears. It’s good to make pesto with too, whack in your basil, parmesan, pine nuts, oil, salt and pep and get a’twisting. Chop chop!

Ice Cream Scoop

This is another thingy-ma-bob that gets a fair work out…and never for ice cream. I use it for baking mostly: scooping out cake mixture into muffin tins, dolloping pancake batter into pans and perfect measures for biscuit dough. I also use it to make meatballs! Yup, meatballs. My girls are meatball mad, so this thing gets used several times a week. Scoop da loop.

Microplane

Many moons ago when we looked after our friend Nic and Amy’s dairy and egg farm for a week while they went to New Zealand to see family, as an unnecessary thank you gift Amy took me to (the old original, before it burnt down) Henrietta’s in Leongatha and told me to buy some things. “What do you mean you don’t have a microplane?!”  I believe was the astonished words uttered. So I went home with a microplane, and have since been finely grating and zesting to my heart’s content: citrus, cheese, ginger, garlic…and try to miss some fingertips and/or knuckles in the process, not always successful. But it makes me feel all chef-y and fancy when I have finely planed zest or Parmesan.

What workhorses do you have in ‘The Drawer’ in your kitchen?
What implements do you use every. single. day?
Or don’t use that often but are absolute essentials anyway?
Condolences if you’ve lost a knuckle or two to a microplane.

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Domesticity posts are random ramblings of a stay-at-home mum and farmers wife, feathering a nest and perfecting the art of ‘home making’. Mundane to most, thrilling to some.