5 Unnecessary Kitchen Tools I Love

Recently, Bon Appétit posted a collection titled “Totally Non-Essential Kitchen Tools We Can’t Live Without”.  The post got me thinking about the unnecessary tools I utilize regularly that definitely aren’t needed, but totally make my time in the kitchen more enjoyable. 

1. My Bookweight – It’s hard to hold open a cookbook when your hands are dirty.  The bookweight does a great job of holding open a book, while making it easy to read.  Mine almost always lives in the kitchen and I use it regularly, though the bookweight could also find uses in other rooms of the house.

2.  A garlic press – lots of professionals will recommend learning how to properly mince garlic, thereby getting better flavor and removing the need for another “unitasker” in the kitchen.  But I love my garlic press.  Regardless of what a recipe’s instructions say (mince, smash, slice), I almost always press it. I find chopping garlic to be such a pain and this press works wonderfully.

3.  Lots and lots of storage containers – I believe that I’ve commented before about my possibly too big collection of storage containers.  And just a few weeks ago, Brian and I bought another big set of Pyrex from Woot.  The size bowls in this set are awesome and they’ve allowed us to use even more glass instead of plastic.  (Also, you may be thinking “that picture doesn’t look so bad…”, but many of our pieces were in the dishwasher.  It’s a big of a puzzle to get everything to fit.)

4.  Podcasts – I like company in the kitchen.  Oftentimes, this company comes in the form of podcasts.  I enjoy listening to podcasts while I cook because they’re not as distracting as a show, but I still feel like my brain is getting some benefits while my hands are busy.  I use iTunes to manage the podcasts on my laptop, but I’ve also been listening using AntennaPod on my Android phone. 

5. Pastry Mat – My love of my pastry mat is no secret and I’m still using it on a very regular basis, most often for pizza dough.  Can you roll out dough on the counter?  Of course, but I’m not good at keeping my counters quite as clean as maybe I should.  Plus, it’s much easier to wash the pastry mat in the sink than it is to clean a flour-covered counter, at least for me.

What are your favorite unnecessary kitchen tools?