If you're lucky enough to have a mom who cooks, chances are you grew up with deliciously nourishing homemade meals and a repertoire of heirloom family recipes. This Mother's Day, thank Chef Mom for years of hard culinary work with pretty gifts to beautify her kitchen! We've picked out our favorite fetching accessories to make her smile when whipping up the next family meal masterpiece.
Graduation is such an exciting time, and for many former coeds, it's a chance to try out a new city, pursue dream jobs, and rent an off-campus apartment. It also may mean stocking and maintaining a "real" kitchen . . . at least one that's used for more than steeping ramen noodles and unpacking fast-food bags. We've rounded up 10 kitchen items that are essential to any postcollegiate kitchen (hint, hint, gift givers).
Sure, multisided box graters offer different sizes and shapes, but for us, the most essential grating tool to have in the kitchen is the classic Microplane ($15), which produces a pillow of fluffy, lightweight, snowflake-like zest. Almost every chef has one, and here's why: it's portable, handheld, produces even shreds, and is super easy to clean.
The Microplane was originally used as a woodworking tool, yet in 1994, by pure accident a housewife picked up her husband's new Microplane tool and used it to zest an orange for her cake recipe. The company realized her accidental genius and rebranded the item for kitchens, too. See what makes the Microplane so great.
As part of Eco Month on YumSugar, we've been exploring the different ways to eat, cook with, and utilize the sustainable plant known as bamboo.
With its status as a rapidly renewable resource, bamboo is the golden child of the eco-friendly marketplace. In the kitchen, it's indispensable, forming the backbone of a myriad of products including cutting boards, utensils, dishware, and even textiles. Here's a roundup of some of our favorite products made with our favorite green material.
If you've ever tackled a recipe that calls for honey or peanut butter, you've undoubtedly felt the pain of trying to scrape every last bit of gooey goodness out of your measuring cups. Last week, I faced the challenge of accurately measuring out 2/3 cups of goopy sourdough starter — a task rendered unbelievably easy thanks to my adjustable measuring cup! This cylindrical tool measures both wet and dry ingredients in cups, ounces, milliliters, and pints, but the best part is the interior plunger that guides sticky ingredients out of the tube and scrapes down the sides in one push. Corn syrup, jam, and molasses are no match for my wonder tool.
Still, I won't let go of my standard measuring cups, which are still the best for measuring flour out of the tub and for small jobs, but the KitchenArt Adjust-A-Cup is an important member of my tool arsenal. Are any specialized tools must haves in your kitchen?
