I think that everyone knows that I really love “all things kitchen!” I started a conversation with Kim as I was spinning yet another beautiful bunch of lettuce courtesy of Birdsong Farm about how I could not survive without the trusty Oxo salad spinner! Kim said that while he likes the salad spinner too, he really only needs one really good quality knife and a cutting board in the kitchen. While I respect that, I will continue on that my next favorite kitchen tool, completely unecessary I know, is the Oxo cherry pitter. I probably just thought about that because I sat outside on the deck and ate so very many wonderful cherries yesterday, not struggling with them because I could pop out the pit!
I know that this thinking is only enjoyable and lighthearted- we are not solving problems of the world or anything- it’s just summer fun!
What is everyone’s favorite kitchen tool that you are using with all this gorgeous produce?
Carolyn
Lettuce Never Squash Our Love 
My favorite tool is simply an 8 or 10″ Chefs knife that is sharp and well balanced. With out that I am lost.
I enjoy my micrplane. I zest a lot of lemons & limes for seafood marinades.
Microplane! forgot the o!!!!
What is a microplane??
My favorite kitchen tool is Tom – seriously I would be lost in so many ways without him but particularly in the kitchen. How many times can you eat Mac and Cheese or Noodle Roni before you want to barf? Tom has brought so much spice, flavor, and depth to flavor to my life 🙂
So completely sweet, and true!
Carolyn
Is this what I have to do to get some baked goods in my life? If so, I choose Tom as well.
Ha – I love it – Tom will bake you anything you want too – just remember he’d be on loan though 🙂 This is why we love living next to Kim and Carolyn. Most desserts are large enough that they leave too many sweets laying around so we always run some of our excess over to them. Then we all get to enjoy it – always extra for you and your hubby too.
Carolyn has also made me a cherry pitter convert! My newest tool that I love is my citrus squeezer (the yellow aluminum kind with two handles that turns the lemon inside out). I thought I was getting a lot of juice out of my lemons until I started using one of these. I usually don’t buy tools that only do one job, but this is worth it!
Jeff-ask Tom. Just kidding. It is a very fine grater. I use it alot for gratting the skin off of lemons & limes. And, that is so sweet about your favorite kitchen tool!
Ah ok – I’m sure you sometimes also grate your skin too. So would it be in the zester family – oooohhhh look at me with my knowledge 🙂
I’ve struggled to find a good answer to this question (while I also blush at Jeff’s answer and the responses to it). I’m not much of a gadget-guy in the kitchen. It might stem from a shared philosophy with Alton Brown and his antipathy toward “uni-taskers.” The few things that I can think of are a bit genre specific. I can’t live without my immersion blender for soups. My pastry blender gets a lot of use, as do my ramekins and mini tart pans. But the single utensil I use the most is my teflon rubber scraper. I know that isn’t exciting, but I’m a neat freak who is always scraping mixing bowls for the last drop of cake batter, or stirring the contents of a frying pan for the last browned bit to incorporate into a pan sauce. It’s the neat freak in me that makes it one of my favorites, I suppose.
Thanks for all of the ideas! Tom, I think that you are a lot like Kim in that you could still make a meal in the wilderness! You both would be out there collecting what you know are mushrooms and those ramp things so that both Jeff and I could eat dinner!
I now could not live without an immersion blender because it has changed my “soup” life. Also, I made poached eggs last night using my new little silicone cups that float in the water! My problem is where to store all of my “one use” items. Alton Brown would not like all of the stuff that we have!
Carolyn