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Kitchen Tools I Could Live Without

Published on January 7, 2012 By Emily. Updated on January 7, 2012

I love kitchen gadgets. If there’s a kitchen store around, I have to go check it out, even if it’s one I’ve been in a million times before. I frequently manage to escape with my wallet intact because, between the wedding and subsequent Christmases and birthdays, we’ve amassed a pretty decent number of kitchen tools. Almost all of them get used on a fairly regular basis, even ones I had doubts about, like the slow cooker and my KitchenAid mixer. But there are definitely some kitchen tools I don’t even know why we’re holding on to:

pizza peel

The pizza peel – When Brian’s mother asked us if we wanted her pizza peel, I quickly said yes. We make pizza at least monthly, if not more often and it seemed like the peel would be fairly helpful in that venture. But I have never once used it, despite my good intentions to do so. I just find it simpler to move the pizza to and from the stone by hand.

can opener

The smooth edge can opener – We bought this can opener thinking it would be an improvement over our previous one (which had stopped working entirely), but it’s really not. There are some cans it wouldn’t open at all and that number seemed to be increasing daily. We bit the bullet and bought a new (super-basic) one that seems to work much better, but still haven’t gotten rid of the old one.

pepper mill

The spices with the built-in grinder – One of the gifts we got before our wedding was a fabulous gift basket from my mother-in-law’s church. A group of women had put it together; each of them had included a recipe and ingredient or tool that would be used in the recipe’s creation. It was a pretty quality collection, but one of the items was red pepper flakes with a built-in grinder that cannot be removed.  It takes forever to get any sort of volume out of it and it’s impossible to measure. I keep saying I’m going to buy a different container of red pepper flakes, but I have a hard time throwing out perfectly good food.

cocktail shaker

The cocktail shaker – I think I picked up this cocktail shaker at Goodwill early in our marriage.  At that point, I was very interested in creating mixed drinks and trying different cocktails.  Come to find out, we’re not really cocktail people, we’re beer and wine people, so the shaker is largely unused. At least I can take solace in the fact that it was only a couple dollars at Goodwill.

cheese grater

A flat cheese grater – The uselessness of this item has nothing to do with the amount of cheese consumed in our home—we’re still consuming a lot of cheese. But this cheese grater is difficult to use; it’s a little too large for any of our bowls and the feet don’t stay in one place, so anytime you use it grated cheese ends up all over the kitchen. I’d much prefer to grate cheese in my food processor or rotary grater.

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Filed Under: products Tagged With: kitchen

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Comments

  1. Allison says

    January 7, 2012 at 10:15 am

    It’s funny–we’re on our 2nd pizza peel because we bought a cheap one not being sure if we would use it, and we used it pretty much to death and are now on #2. I’d be happy to take your cocktail shaker off your hands though ;-) we needed one at Christmas and I ended up using a Solo cup and on the rocks glass. Alton Brown would have been proud, but it was a little messy. Flat graters seem like a good plan because they’re so much easier to store, but you can’t beat an old-school box grater.

  2. Ryn says

    January 7, 2012 at 10:17 am

    Gimme yo’ cocktail shakah!

  3. Cynthia (It All Changes) says

    January 7, 2012 at 10:18 am

    Use the cocktail shaker to make milkshakes! :-)

  4. Whitney says

    January 7, 2012 at 11:22 am

    I bought a very similar can opener when ours wasn’t working very well… not a great idea. However, I would never admit that to my husband… because I bought it, he didn’t want to get a new one and he hates it. So I use it and pretend to like it. I love my cocktail shaker! I find we use it more when we have guests over, but sometimes I will mix up juice drinks… or a yellow cake martini.

  5. Kelly says

    January 7, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    Save the pizza peel and give it to your brother in law next Christmas. He would be totally delighted!

  6. Carol Pious says

    January 8, 2012 at 11:41 am

    Dangerour post Emily. Now we know what you think about stuff we give you….smile….the mother-in-law. I have the same can opener and LOVE IT!! Do you need a lesson on how to use it?….smile….the mother-in-law.

  7. Kitchen Girl says

    February 24, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    I think it is more difficult to work with lots of gadgets at kitchen, a real chef only need a good knife and some pots :)

Trackbacks

  1. » Kitchen Tools I Could Not Live Without » Relishments says:
    January 17, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    […]  Posted by Emily at 8:21 pm Jan 172012   A couple weeks ago I posted about the kitchen tools I could live without; those items in my cupboards that I’m not always sure why I’m holding on to.  Come to find […]

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Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
- Citrus Braised Beef Tacos
- "Chicken and Waffles"
- House Fries with Garlic Aioli
- Fried Chickpeas
- Blood Orange Cheesecake
It was no surprise that Public was close to full on a Wednesday night - everything was so good. 

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New year, new theme word! This year's word is "enr New year, new theme word!
This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post. It's It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post.
It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
1. A pasta salad reel that took longer to create than the recipe took to make.
2. A reel from North Carolina where I could have watched birds all day.
3. The @thelazygenius book giveaway.
4.@plantconnector 
5. @berkshiremuseum 
6.@sculpture.now at @themountlenox 
7. @massmoca 
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9. The #AshuwillticookRailTrail
New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

I was able to get back to many activities that were meaningful to me this year and I'm calling this theme a success. Follow the link below or click the link in my profile to read more.
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New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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Read the post by visiting the link in my profile or 
https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-favorite-recipes-of-2022/
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#RecipeRoundUp #BestRecipes2022 #FavoriteRecipes
@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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It has been a while, but there is finally a new CS It has been a while, but there is finally a new CSA menu plan on the blog! Visit the link below or in my profile to see how I plan to make use of some of the @mightyfoodfarm produce seen here.
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Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but t Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but this year we've had weather that has also been outstanding. The past 2 weekends have included time at Jaeschke Orchards, the Greylock Glen, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail as well as stopping to photograph any random foliage I see. 
Check out the last slide for video of some feathered friends we saw on a walk.
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@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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