apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Tongs. They're almost constantly in use: browning meat, flipping things on the BBQ, tossing and serving salad, for holding chicken breasts or sausages while carving (no fork holes to leave behind), plating spaghetti....

Silicon spoonula.  I use it for stirring everything!  It is 
perfection - even though spoonula is annoying word.

My apron! Keeps my front clean, lets me wipe my hands off quickly so I can check a recipe online or answer the phone, works in a pinch to wipe crumbs off the table. Mostly, though, keeping my front clean is the real favorite. I'm forever leaning in what I'm working on or pouring water out and getting it on the counter and sloshing it all over me. Having the boiling water hit the apron is WAY better than it hitting my tee-shirt.

If it was 100% cotton, I would also use it in a pinch for pulling things out of the oven, but it's not so I won't. Despite all of the abuse over the years, it still looks like new so I can't complain about the blend.

My pizza cutter! It's great for cutting kids' food into pieces, shredding chicken, cutting quesadillas and just about anything.

My chef's knife.

I love my silicone tongs. They always end up resting on the side of my dinner plate because I sit down to eat still protectively clutching them in my hand.

Chefs knife, hands down I use it for cutting up just about everything.

I use cheap plastic chopsticks for a zillion things (stirring, poking, getting coffee grounds out of my french press, etc.). Sometimes I also use them for weird cleaning dilemmas (getting lint out of the exterior dryer vent was the last thing I used one for), so I have to keep the kitchen chopsticks in one place and the multi-tool household chopsticks in the toolbox.

5" blade Chefs knife. It's the perfect size for nearly everything!

Like kljmlace above, I love my spoon spatula. I used to be a big fan of the (now defunct) Lechter's medium sized one, but I've recently switched camp to a smaller one sold by Williams-Sonoma.

Chopsticks.

You can whisk with it. You can use them like tongs. You can use them to eat. You can do some of the things you do with skewers with chopsticks. They are also extremely inexpensive.

Well I feel like a big doofus. I don't have any skewers or chopsticks, nor do I have a silicon spatula (but I've been wanting one for ages). I guess a trip to Williams Sonoma is in order, and I'll stop for lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant :)

I use my OXO metal serving spatula for everything -- it scrapes, turns, flattens, flips, scoops, stirs -- I love it. It's thin enough to easily get under delicate things like eggs over easy without breaking the yolk. The handle fits perfectly in my hand and gives great control -- unlike long handled spatulas that are so awkward.

Well the Chef's knife, silicon spatula, and tongs have gotten much deserved love, so I'll make a pitch for my mini silicon whisk. Excellent for stirring sauces in pans and works wonders for the small quantities of liquids I'm usually blending - even salad forks have problems whisking in small prep bowls when making salad dressing for 1 or 2. Plus I quickly run out of cutlery if I need to use it to prep, since I've only gone in for 4 setttings.

Meanwhile I have 3 sets of tongs (2 sizes of silicon and a metal BBQ pair), 2 chef's knives, and 4 silicon spatulas (2 sizes of both spatulas and spoonulas). Multiple tongs are key when prepping meat and pasta at the same time - no worries about transfer from raw meat to just finished pasta.