Have You Met My Friends?

In going through my postings up until this point, I have noticed that there are a lot of "repeat offenders" in the photos of equipment used in my kitchen. The main reason for this is predominantly blamed on the fact that the kitchen in our little tree house apartment is not exactly set up in the most condusive manner (as in we do not have any drawers-seriously), but I love it nonetheless. Kyle and I actually spent a good chunk of this weekend re-organizing our kitchen to make it more user friendly, and it was just about the best Valentine's Day I could ask for. We now have our most loved and well used pots & pans easily accessible from wall hooks near the sink, installed plastic sliding drawers in one of the lower cabinets, added mug hooks and a wine rack under an upper shelf and put in some wire pantry shelves for dry good storage. Ah, it's the little things!

While sorting through and organizing all of our cookware and kitchen tools (and there's a lot!), I was happy to be able to purge a few of our older items and duplicate pieces for donation and it got me thinking about the staple pieces of cookery that I can't live without- these being the pieces that keep showing up in my blog photos. If pressed to pick my favorite, it would easily go to our laminated cast iron Dutch oven. That bad baby has served up more meals than I could begin to count in its years of service. It's the perfect size for stews, braising, roasting vegetables and baking pasta dishes. It cleans easily, is hearty enough to retain heat for long periods of time, and is presentable enough to bring to the table. It is also worth noting that it is quite heavy, and can leave a good size welt on one's foot if you're not paying attention while rifling through the lower cabinets! About a week ago, my husband went to turn on the stove to start the water for coffee and shuffled away without realizing he had switched on the wrong burner. Much to my dismay, he had turned on the burner under our empty Dutch oven,which spends most of its life on our stovetop. Needless to say, the bottom of the pot turned black, and I was sure that it was the end of the road and proceeded to have myself a little mini-meltdown over the potential loss. Being the magic man that he is, my husband was able to save the pot in perfect form, and all was right with the world yet again. With that in mind, I began to think about those kitchen tools that you just can't live without, and so I posted the question to my friends on The Nest and on Facebook. The answers ran the gauntlet from the traditional (stand mixers, cast iron, indoor griddles) to the slightly more modern approach (vodka, corkscrew,turkey baster, husbands and microwave), but there were a few resounding leaders that kept showing up:

-Good quality knives
-Kitchen Aid stand mixer
-Saute pans
-Dutch oven
-Cast iron skillet
-Spatulas/Wooden Spoons

I would definitely be inclined to agree with these top choices as they pretty much reflect my desert island cooking survival kit. I have already professed my love for my enamel Dutch baby, and my only additions would be my immersion blender, kitchen shears and French press, although I think these might be second tier to the top six mentioned above. I'm pretty sure with my top pieces I could pull off a dinner party even under the Thunderdome, although I may have to tack vodka on to the list to calm nerves and dull the taste buds of those attending (it never hurts!). Do these pieces apply to you, or is there something else out there that you just can't live without in the kitchen? Maybe something really cool that we don't even know about??? Food for thought...