I have more kitchen gadgets than I can count, but some get more use than others. Here are the top kitchen tools in my house!

I am a kitchen gadget fanatic.  Try as I might to cull the ever-growing craziness that flows from my kitchen cabinets, counters, and shelves….it’s a losing battle.  I can’t stop, and when I get rid of something, I have to replace it with something else.  There are a few that I probably don’t use enough to really justify keeping them around, but when you are DIY-er like I am, you can stand to have a stash of useful tools.  Still, there are some I use more than others.  Here are the 10 top kitchen tools in my house, including small appliances.

10) KitchenAid food processor.  After using a basic, no frills Cuisinart for years, I ran into this one dirt-cheap at Tuesday morning.  It has a mini work bowl, a dough blade (that I’ll admit I never use, since I make all my dough in my stand mixer), and shredding/slicing disks. I use it for salsa, pesto, hummus, pastry doughs, etc., etc. Plus when I have a ton of cheese or cabbage to shred it makes my life so much easier.

9)  Vitamix. I had a pretty nice KitchenAid blender before, but when Philip came home with this baby I was beside myself. I use it mostly to make smoothies, salsa, and dressings, but you can use it for any number of things…including making soup. Like, from start to finish. That’s how fast the motor runs – it heats the food up eventually. You can even get a special container for grinding grains (I haven’t made it to that point yet). The Vitamix is pricey, but I have heard of people who have owned theirs since the seventies. If you do a lot of blending, this will be your kitchen workhorse.

8)  My KitchenAid stand mixer.  Not only can I mix things in it…but when I have über thick bread doughs that are too exhausting to stir by hand, I use it for bread dough.  I also make ice cream in it, and use it to whip cream.  Oh, and I grind meat with it (using a special attachment).  I have the grain mill attachment but I’ll admit that I don’t use it much, and one of these days (when I’m a lot wealthier!) I’m going to get the pasta roller attachment.  By the way, the one in the link is very similar to mine, but a little bit bigger and a little more expensive.

7)  Instant Pot. This is a new one. I got it for Christmas last year and I am pretty much obsessed with it. It’s a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a rice cooker, a saute pot, a steamer, a yogurt maker….it’s pretty much amazing. I’ve been working on developing some pressure cooker recipes, so I can’t wait to share them with you. I am so glad I asked for this handy-dandy tool…I use it at least twice a week.

6)  A kitchen scale. I know a lot of people probably think that I’m crazy, but I use my kitchen scale every single day. I use it for cooking, baking, and weighing out nuts, chips, etc. to pack in my lunch (I’m really not obsessive about portions, but it’s really easy to over-do it).

5)  Metal half-sheet pans.  I have three and I want more.  I buy them for like $9 at the restaurant supply store.  They’re strong and sturdy and a much higher quality than the much more flimsy and much more expensive ones that you can purchase at Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, etc.

4)  I have ten different mixing bowls in nine different sizes and I use them all frequently, sometimes simultaneously. And I need more, to be perfectly honest with you.

3)  Wooden spoons and spatulas.  Lots and lots of wooden spoons and spatulas.  Actually, most of mine are bamboo, which I love because I can stick them in the dishwasher.  They’re super sturdy and they’re great for stirring in my nonstick cookware.  I use them every single day.

2)  My Shun knives.  Philip bought me a set for my birthday several years back and completed it with a slicer last year.  They are sharp and gorgeous and decorate my wall on the magnetic strip better than any purchased art could.  I am totally obsessed with honing them.  The odds are good that I’ll never have to purchase another set of knives.  They were expensive but totally worth it.  If you don’t have good knives, know that they’re worth the cost to have good, sharp knives (dull knives are a real danger in the kitchen!).  Do it!

1) Lodge Cast Iron.  Lodge is manufactured 50 miles from my house, so I feel like I’m supporting local business when I buy Lodge (and I usually buy it from their factory store, located right by the manufacturing facility, so even better!). I have the skillets in four different sizes, from 6 inches to 12 inches, a 6-quart Dutch oven, and several gratin dishes. It’s the best stuff in the world…indestructible, conducts the heat well, etc. There’s no better vessel for making a burger or a pan of cornbread.

It’s quite a collection I’ve amassed over the years.  These are the things I use daily or weekly…my top kitchen tools.

What are your top kitchen tools?

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We all have guilty pleasure foods that we can’t resist. This is a list of foods that I can’t keep in the house, or I’ll eat all of it. What are your guilty pleasure foods?

1.  Kettle Chips

Topping my list of guilty pleasure foods is kettle chips. If I’m going with chips (besides my homemade microwave chips), these are definitely my first choice.  Preferably Kettle Brand, but I’ll really eat any kettle-cooked chips I can get my hands on. In my mind, they really aren’t all that bad….they only have three ingredients (potatoes, oil, and salt) and they taste so good they couldn’t possibly be bad.  The problem is that once I start eating them I can’t stop.  My justification is that “I need to get them out of the house”.  Because it’s obviously better to eat them all at once and have them gone than to eat them a few at a time…right?

2.  Salt & Vinegar or Dill Pickle Lay’s

Actually, I don’t think that they make the dill pickle variety anymore.  It’s been ages since I bought a bag of Lay’s potato chips.  Not because they’re “bad” but because the flavored varieties usually only come in gigantic bags.  It’s dangerous to have these in the house.  I used to buy bags of chips for Philip to parse out to take in his lunch, and every time we would have salt & vinegar or dill pickle chips, I would eat them until my mouth burned and the corners of my mouth started to crack from the salt and the acidity of the vinegar.

3.  Nacho or Taco Doritos

Okay, does anyone see a pattern here?  Chips are my weakness…my trigger food…my kryptonite.  They are literally the only food that I just can’t. Stop. Eating.  My number one guilty pleasure, for sure. I love Doritos.  Love them, love them, love them.  I know they have approximately 18,000 ingredients.  You know what?  I don’t care.  I love the fact that the orange cheese powder coats my fingers. It’s like second snack.  I cannot cannot cannot purchase these in a large bag to bring home with me.  I only eat them in a restaurant (say, Subway or Firehouse Subs) where I can purchase a small bag and not see them again once I have finished my meal. By the way, I recently discovered that my cat loves them too. Weirdo.

4.  Boxed Cake Mix

I don’t do it very often.  It’s hard to justify.  But when I make cake balls, it’s much easier to just mix up a cake from a box and stir in some canned icing.  I love to scrape all of the excess batter out of the bowl and straight into my mouth (I married someone who doesn’t care for this practice-what?  Who doesn’t like cake batter?!?!-so more for me!).

5.  Homemade Cream Cheese Icing

This is a guilty pleasure that I share with my mom and my sister.  If you’ve ever had cream cheese icing out of a can, you know that there is no comparison to the homemade stuff.  Cream cheese + butter + powdered sugar = perfection.  If I could get away with it, I would make an entire batch just for eating with a spoon.  I think that would probably evoke the evil eye from my husband, so it’s doubtful that this is ever going to happen.  Plus there’s the whole problem of needing to fit into my jeans….but can you imagine a world where you could just eat cream cheese icing with a spoon and never gain an ounce?  That’s the way it’s going to be in Heaven.  I’m sure of it.

6.  Bacon

Duh.  I don’t know that I can really call this a “guilty” pleasure because I really don’t feel all that guilty about it.  I probably should, though.  Bacon is a perfect food.  It’s salty candy.  And it’s practically religion in this house.

7.  Crusty Bread Dipped in Olive Oil

So, bread and olive oil may not seem like a “guilty pleasure” food to many of you, but when you consider the volumes of it that I could eat, it might.  I can throw this stuff down.  Carb and fat overload, I tell you.  And let’s be honest, wheat bread generally doesn’t make the cut for this purpose.  Oh boy.  This is my favorite thing about going to Tony’s (where they serve garlic-studded ciabatta with an olive/canola oil mix).

8.  Peppermint Patties

I remember my grandmother buying these when I was a kid. These days, they’re in my freezer at all times. I buy the minis and eat them, one at a time, each night. I don’t eat a lot of candy but this is a 50-calorie indulgence. Like bacon, I call this a guilty pleasure but honestly I really don’t feel all that guilty about it. I ❤️ peppermint anything. I tried to make my own peppermint patties and it didn’t go so well. I’ll keep buying them, thanks.

9.  Cheese

I’m pretty much an equal opportunity cheese lover, as long as it’s a cow’s milk cheese.  Goat and sheep milk cheeses have not quite grown on me yet.  I won’t lie, since Philip and I started eating less meat, I pretty much eat cheese every day.  I do portion it carefully, but still.  The sharpest cheddars are probably my favorite, especially when I make a grilled cheese and some of the cheese falls into the pan and burns.  I love to eat those little burnt cheese crusts.  Mmmmmm.  Chips and queso?  Well, think about that one….two of my weaknesses rolled into one.  Stick a fork in me…..

10.  Firehouse Subs Cherry Limeade

Really, Firehouse Subs anything (I usually order the steamer, with pastrami and melted cheese…gah). But there is something about that giant cup of high-fructose syrup sweetened non-carbonated cherry drink with a bunch of limes squeezed into it. Philip and I are both addicted and we can look right past that sugar rush to slurp down this syrupy sweet but still a little tart goodness. If you ever see me looking like a kid who’s been slurping cherry Kool-aid, you’ll know where I’ve been.

Can any of you commiserate with me on any of my guilty pleasure foods?  Do you have anything to add?  Tell me your guilty pleasure foods – inquiring minds want to know!