10 Magazine Editors Share the Best $10 They Ever Spent on Their Kitchens
Magazine editors are constantly interviewing other people. (Same for website editors like me!) But I wanted to turn the table a bit. I asked 10 high-ranking editors at top national magazines to dish on the best $10 they ever spent on their kitchens.
Their answers included all sorts of things like ingredients, organizers, and tools. Can you guess what the Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appétit called out? Keep reading to find out.
1. Pre-Cut Parchment Paper Liners, $10 for 100
“I just started buying pre-cut, 9-inch parchment rounds online (I got 100 of them for $10!) and I can’t believe I went for so many years without these things. I’ve been cutting out misshapen, oversize, undersize, and otherwise wonky parchment rounds for years, but now when I’m making cakes, I just slip these into the pans and move on to the fun part.” — Maile Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief of Food Network Magazine
2. Secondhand Cast Iron Skillet, around $10 on eBay
“A 12-inch cast iron skillet that I bought at a yard sale 20 years ago on the way to a wedding in Roanoke, Virginia. I like to think that I make a really good pan-roasted rib eye, and this skillet is a major reason why.” — Adam Rapoport, Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appétit
3. Chef’n Salad Shears Lettuce Chopper, $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond
“I like my salads chopped — for some reason, chopping them makes them taste better to me! This is the best salad chopper I’ve ever found. It’s plastic, so it’s safe and easy to use. The curved design means you can chop up a salad when it’s in a bowl. And, bonus, I toss it in the top rack of the dishwasher.” — Sara Peterson, Editor-in-Chief of HGTV Magazine
4. Chef’n Looseleaf Plus, $10 at Bed Bath & Beyond
“My favorite $10 buy is my Chef’n leap stripper. We actually featured it this year in Real Simple‘s Little Helpers page. It makes prepping salad greens and fresh herbs so much quicker and easier. You just pull your dinosaur kale or oregano stems through one of its holes and the leaves just zip right off. It has a scissor option so you can snip fresh herbs from your garden or cut through a thicker stalk.” — Leslie Yazel, Editor-in-Chief of Real Simple
5. Onion Goggles, $10
“This kitchen eyewear might not be the most fashionable, but it totally saves me when it comes to the tortuous, mascara-ruining task of chopping raw onion. No more tears!” — Michele Promaulayko, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan
6. Dough Scraper, $7
“We make our own pizza dough and bread, so it gets used in the obvious ways every week. But it’s out of the drawer daily to scrape crumbs off the counter, scoop prepped veggies from cutting board to bowl, and even to roughly chop herbs, cheese, you name it. I’m obsessed!” — Liz Plosser, Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health
“I bought these baby food storage containers when my son was an infant, but he’s 4 years old now and I still have them and use them for everything: bits of leftovers, freezer storage, snack bowls (for my son). Sometimes I make ice cream at home, and I just realized they’d be great for single servings.” — Joey Bartolomeo, Executive Editor of Seventeen
8. Debbie Meyer Green Bags, $9 for 10
“These bags are less than $10 for 10 big ones and they have fixed my habit of turning my crisper into a produce graveyard. Stuff just lasts in these things, and I don’t have to wash, dry, store in an airtight container with paper towels, etc. I just drop produce in as is and wash when I’m ready to use. (I clean the bags after — don’t worry!) And since it means my family and I are eating healthier, they might have literally saved my life.” — Lauren Iannotti, Editor-in-Chief and Content Director of Rachael Ray Every Day
9. Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, $6 for 8.5 ounces
“The best $10 I’ve ever spent (actually, more like $6), in my kitchen was a box of Maldon sea salt flakes. I sprinkle it on all sorts of foods, from cookies to roasted vegetables. For under $6, it makes everything pretty and delicious.” — Susan Spencer, Editor-in-Chief of Woman’s Day
10. Steel Mesh Magazine File, $7 at Target
“A simple magazine holder has saved my sanity. I used to genuinely get distracted from cooking, what with school papers, mail, coupons, and other random slips of paper piled up. I’m not organized enough to put everything in its proper place the second I touch it, so I sort through this once a week and deal with everything then. In the meantime, I have counter space! Never underestimate the power of calm when it comes to whether you choose Brussels sprouts or potato chips to go with dinner.” — Sarah Smith, Executive Editor of Prevention