Tag Archives: Kathy Schmidt

Cooks Illustrated Kitchen Tools and Equipment List: Gadgets and Handy Tools, Part One

The Christmas Mathias was 13 (now 28), when asked what he would like with his name on it under the tree, he said he wanted either a cat, a gadget, or a laptop.

That Christmas he became the proud Chief of Staff of a laptop cat named “Gadget.”

However, other than her daily habit of rubbing those glossy saucy haunches up against every surface at kitty level in a blatant ownership move (“See this bakeware cabinet? Mine. That fridge? Mine.”), this particular Gadget hasn’t proved to be notably handy in the kitchen.

So, in addition to sharing her sweet mug with you, we thought another Cook’s Illustrated “best of” list from their fabulous book, The Science of Good Cooking might be more helpful for those starting to think of their own Christmas lists, or for anyone who may have recently punctuated a vigorous opinion by accidentally shattering their favorite wooden spoon on the tiled counter for emphasis.

Whoops! (Not me, obviously. At least, not recently.)

OXO Good Grips 12-Inch Stainless-Steel Locking Tongs

Tongs: the go-to gadget for bacon lovers everywhere. The key factors? Scalloped-edged slightly concave pincers, be able to open and close easily, be long enough to keep delicate fingies out of hot oily spots, and lock closed for convenient storage.

‘Nuff said. OXO delivers again.

Bamboo Wood Cooking Spoon

After reading the Cook’s write up—who knew there was so much to say about a wooden spoon?—and the glowing reviews on Amazon about how stain resistant, comfortable (apparently a squared-off handle is WAY more comfie in your hand than Grandma’s traditional round one) sturdy, smooth, and well-designed this puppy is, I realized how shockingly ill equipped our kitchen is in the wooden spoon department.

J.K. Adams 19-Inch-by-2-Inch Maple Wood Rolling Dowel

Okay, so here’s a new spin on a time-honored kitchen must-have for those hearty souls still left in the pie game. Gone are the days of the pedestrian pin, says Cook’s Illustrated. Any dough boy worth his weight in his Emile Henry pie dish now uses a rolling “dowel.”

Essentially, a dowel is a pin without the handles. In truth, I’m not sure exactly what advantage this buys you in the pie-making department, but as the owner of one of said maple dowels, I can tell you that it works beautifully on delicate dough, especially when combined with a lightly-floured Roul’pat Countertop Roll Mat.

Bonus usage of a rolling dowel? it’s a comfort to have on hand in my “What happens if a burglar breaks in when Rick’s not home?” fantasy. I’ll just keep it under the bed, and at the first inkling of a midnight intruder, I’ll hand it to Winston, who will relentlessly pester the poor bastard to play fetch until he runs screaming down the driveway into the night, never to be seen again.

Kool-Tek Nomex Conventional Temperature Protection Oven Mitt

You just have to love a “best of” kitchen gadget described as “machine washable,” “form-fitting and not overly bulky for easy maneuvering,” “flexible,” and “heat-resistant.”

Oh, my! I’d give my best wooden spoon for lingerie that lived up to such claims.

And at a list price of roughly $45 PER MITT, (actual price around $30), it seems that the “black box” pricing rationale between the two markets is remarkably similar.

However, Cook’s Illustrated may have recognized that for most of us, this price point spikes the needle, so they have graciously offered a “best buy” option at under $15:

OrkaPlus Silicone Oven Mitt with Cotton Lining

You must believe me that I didn’t see the lingerie/silicone connection coming before it was too late, and now it’s time to move along, people, to ladles.

Rösle 10008 Ladle with Pouring Rim

We here at rickandkathy.com are HUGE fans of good industrial design, especially those involving spouts and hot or sticky liquids.

And we don’t yet own a Rosle Ladle with Pouring Rim. As it currently scores an Amazoning full 5-star rating with 29 raving reviews, some would say this is an error in judgement.

Instead, we’re dribbling along with a robust ancient thing, with appropriately long handle and broad and deep enough spoon but whose pouring spot was designed by Picasso: it’s more art than science.

It’s too solid and familiar to throw out now, I’m afraid, and we’ve reached a detente of sorts over the years where I agree to not expect a clean pour and it quietly concurs.

Some utensils just become fixtures in that sweet entity known as “my kitchen,” and it wouldn’t be the same without them.

Want more? Check out “Cook’s Illustrated: Best Kitchen Gadgets and Handy Tools, Part Two”

More Kitchen Recommendations

How To Prime A Cornhole Board

1. Begin with the end in mind.

Cornhole (and this link is worth reading for the glossary alone!) is a really fun game that is equally well suited to a wild and wooly family reunion by the lake as it is to a friendly four-person round at cocktail hour. ([easyazon-link asin=”B007B8ED3Y” locale=”us”]In case you don’t want to build your own, this one has great reviews on Amazon.[/easyazon-link]) Everyone from two to ninety-two can play.

This is important to remember, because by the time you’ve primed the fourth board and then are told: “Whoopsie! We primed the wrong side of the first board and now have to do that one over again,” you’ll need to have a firm grip on why this was a good idea in the first place.

It’s because cornhole is a lot of fun, and people will enjoy the labor of your efforts, possibly for generations, as long as no portly drunk uncle sits on the board at a family reunion or something.

2. Do your priming at the height of a spectacular Teton Valley fall afternoon with a built-in painting expert in residence.

It also helps if he’s your best friend, an artist, an ex-house painter, and handy with a belt sander.

3. If you’re a newbie to the painting world, prepare yourself to be tutored.

There are things you’ll need to know about covering a piece of plywood with white paint that you didn’t know you needed to know, but now do.

These gems of wisdom don’t come in a well-formatted handout at the beginning of the afternoon. They sort of meander forth in dribs and drabs as the project progresses. But who’s in a hurry?!

Look around you at the amazing scenery, take a deep breath, really hear the rustle of the autumn leaves in the cottonwoods and aspens by the creek, and just chill yer irritated hormonal self.

This is another reason why it helps to have a built-in painting expert who also happens to be your best friend: he knows what he’s talking about–even if he only thinks to tell you after you’ve already done it the wrong way–he means only the best, and he loves you.

4. Only dip the paint brush an inch (give or take) into the bucket per reload. The closer the paint gets to the point where the bristles meet the frame (the ferrule), the harder it is to clean. And paint seeps north, my friend.

5. Check for drips as you go.

6. Wipe (aka, swipe vigorously with work gloves on) the surface to get rid of any dust or debris just before priming. Otherwise, you’ll seal all that schmeebage right into the primer.

Ignoring this actually works well for “artistes”: “Oh, look! There are the horse hairs from when He was a poor, undervalued plein air artist working out of his horse trailer!”

Not so good, however, for cornhole craftspeople dealing with pine needles and dead wasps mysteriously adhered to the raw plywood.

7. Put the paint bucket on a short ladder so you’re not having to stoop over every time you reload the brush: saves the back.

8. Brush with the grain (although everybody already knows that, Walt).

9. If you happen to disappear for 11 minutes to whip together some grilled cheese sandwiches, sliced apples, and beer for lunch, DON’T LEAVE YOUR BRUSH EXPOSED TO THE SUN AND AIR!

Apparently, it will dry out and be IMPOSSIBLE to clean and will need to be THROWN OUT!! (Wrap it in plastic wrap. In fact, have a large piece of the wrap of your choice handy right from the beginning of the project. You might not end up needing it, but it calms the nervous types on the job site.)

10. Two thinner coats are better than one thick one. (This tidbit showed up a full 24 hours after I had cleaned the brush, which just goes to show that this is one robust field of expertise.)

11. And this is my very own well-tested theory, put to use in the field with occasional wind-gusts, which only turbo-charges the proof-worthiness of it:

Wear good jeans, your favorite fleece, and current “best” trail shoes while you’re painting. It will completely change the way you look at “cleanliness on the job.”

In other words, if you can’t afford to make a mess, you just have to get through the project spot-free.

Almost.

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Cooks Illustrated Kitchen Tools and Equipment List: Teflon Pan and Non-Metal Spatula

We used to have a thing against non-stick cooking pans. Something in the mental archives about Teflon + metal spatulas + time = flaking Teflon + cancer…

Didn’t own one, didn’t want one, and besides, the plastic spatulas of my acquaintance over the years have all been frustratingly flimsy and melted on contact with anything hotter than, say, 98.6°.

Eating a melted plastic spatula was also reputed to be not fabulous for your health. So, being seriously in love with each other and wanting a decade or six to enjoy that state, we resolved to not eat plastic or Teflon, even if it meant living a deliriously happy life with food stuffs stuck like chuck to our frying pans.

Then last month, I cooked the world’s most pristine, perfect omelet in my mom’s new Teflon pan, and I changed our minds. (About Teflon, that is, not about my dear Rick and I living happily ever after until one of us tips off the perch.)

I had some research to do though, before I could in clean conscience introduce Teflon to our kitchen.

First was to check on the current health science around Teflon and how likely it was to mess with our mutual plans to stay alive for a goodly while.

An article titled The dangers of Teflon: The truth without the hype provided a great starting point, complete with a Teflon cooking temperatures infographic.

I also found this from the American Cancer Society website:

“Teflon® is a brand name for a man-made chemical known as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). It has been in commercial use since the 1940s. It has a wide variety of applications because it is extremely stable (it doesn’t react with other chemicals) and can provide an almost frictionless surface. Most people are familiar with it as a non-stick coating surface for pans and other cookware.”

Apparently, it never really was the Teflon, per se, that caused the cancer scare:

“Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, is another man-made chemical. It is used in the process of making Teflon and similar chemicals (known as fluorotelomers), although it is burned off during the process and is not present in significant amounts in the final products.”

The website goes on to say (and here I paraphrase): fuggedaboudit.

Plus, T-Fal, the leading supplier of Teflon-based cookware, has taken this a step further.

According to the informative packaging, T-Fal don’t have no truck with PFOAs anymore. So, we’re good there.

Secondly, I couldn’t remember what brand/style/size/etc. of Teflon saute pan Cook’s Illustrated had recommended in their List of Best Kitchen Equipment, Pots and Pans section.

Fortunately, every once in a while, our own past blog posts comes in handy for things beyond remembering how ADORABLE Winston was as a puppy, or what fun a trip on a narrow-gauge railway can be, or how jaw-dropping gorgeous Teton Valley is in January. One quick trip through the “Food & Recipes” category here at www.rickandkathy.com, and… Bingo!

One flick of the wrist, click of the mouse, swish of a credit card… and two days later, we’re the proud owners of a new T-fal Nonstick 12.5-Inch Fry Pan.

(Note: farm-fresh eggs and home-made spelt sourdough toast not included.)

Don’t let the Escheresque pattern or elegant red logo-looking thingy in the center of the pan fool you into thinking this T-Fal is just a another pretty place to scramble a couple of eggs.

This is one high-tech frying pan, my friends. That red dot, for instance?

It’s nothing less than an officially trademarked “Thermo-Spot,” evidently engineered at great expense to indicate when your pan is hot.

Personally, I usually just wait for the smoke to start, but apparently, that’s not a good idea with Teflon products.“The Science of Good Cooking” (Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks) recommends adding a little oil to the pan while heating. The oil will start to smoke at around 400°, well before the 600° necessary for non-stick cookware to start fuming the nasty stuff.)

At minimum, the dot’s existence demonstrates a commitment to the crafting of new millenium cookware that inspires a robust confidence in the rest of the unit.

For instance, the packaging also states that the entire pan, including “ergonomic, stay-cool silicone handle,” is oven-proof to a temperature of 350°, and that the pan is “safe for use with metal utensils.”

Really? That just seems cruel, somehow. If we were going for the Teflon pan, it only seemed right that we spring for whatever Cook’s Illustrated recommends in the non-metal spatula department. (I had great intentions last year to do a “Cook’s Illustrated List of Handy Tools” but got distracted by why I’m crazy about Rick, fabulous buckwheat pancakes, and a great horned owl who showed up next door, and I never quite got around to sharing the list. Stand by… said list to show up in the next post or two so I can find it when I need it down the road.)

Meanwhile, I went to our own well-loved hardcopy of Cook’s Illustrated, “The Science of Good Cooking” and discovered their “plastic spatula” of choice is the “Matfer Bourgeat Plain Pelton Spatula Exoglass.” At around $12, I figure you’re paying $2 per word and the spatula’s free!

I had never heard of “exoglass” before, but, per wiki answers: “It is a special hi-tech plastic developed by Matfer of France. It is used in the handles of their pastry utensils. It is extremely durable, hygienic, and heat resistant (both hot and cold extremes).”

Flick, click, swish… and thanks to the good folk at Amazon Prime, we own one highly rated, light-weight yet sturdy, well-engineered, and guaranteed Teflon-friendly spatula that’s heat resistant up to 430 degree and cleans like a snap. It doesn’t scratch our new pan, feels nice in the hand, is wide enough to support and flip a pancake, has a perfect thin edge to skootch under delicate fish or eggs, and as far as we know, doesn’t cause cancer.

See how easily our scrambled eggs are liberated from the perfectly preheated surface?!

It’s a keeper.

And see how nice our new spatula looks in Rick’s fine hand as he cooks me breakfast?

He’s a keeper, too.

Links:

“Matfer” rang a bell as a brand, but we couldn’t think why until we remembered they’re the folks who make the non-stick baking mat we use all the time in a sheet pan when baking cookies. No need to grease the pan with butter, food really doesn’t stick, and clean-up is super easy:

Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat

Here’s the go-to volume on our cookbook shelf for all things “why” in the way we cook:

The Science of Good Cooking (Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks)

…and our two new kitchen tools covered in this blogpost:

Matfer Bourgeat Plain Pelton Spatula Exoglass

T-fal E9380864 Professional Nonstick 12.5-Inch Saute Pan

More Kitchen Recommendations

Something In The Tastebuds

We woke up to the first frost on the ground two mornings ago, and today it was overcast, calm, and smelling clean, so naturally I got up thinking about apple and cinnamon muffins.

Autumn is starting to gently ring its dulcet doorbell through hearth-based memories of fireplaces, root vegetables and warm spices. I begin thinking about how, over candlelight dinners, we’ll sustain ourselves through the long, cold, and quiet winter nights ahead with the telling and retelling of cherished stories set in the heat and sun and merriment of high summer. And we’ll plan with unblemished optimism for the days to come.

I think I’m finally getting the value of this “seasons” thing.

I made the Apple Cinnamon Muffins found in [easyazon-link asin=”1551522349″ locale=”us”]Get It Ripe[/easyazon-link] by the great and magical Torontonian cookbook author, [easyazon-link asin=”1551522543″ locale=”us”]Jae Steele[/easyazon-link].

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Jae can’t help being a Canadian vegan who cooks AMAZING things that even omnivores love to eat. That’s just how she rolls. (And by the way, that’s a very teeny demographic, as yet.)

I only had two apples, and by the time I had made a quarter recipe of the jiffy-quick homemade applesauce (also in Jae’s book) with the only two apples we had in residence, I realized I was one apple short of a load for the muffin recipe. So I used a peach we had canned last year instead.

So… technically this is a Peach Cinnamon Muffin with Apple Sauce.

Autumn can be unpredictable. You just need to go all French cuisine with it and roll with what’s available.

That’s why the French enjoy their food so much. No one year is the same as the next, and the combination of what’s available today for tonight’s dinner and what’s available next week, next month, or next year will never be the same. You just need to fully appreciate what’s in front of you, now, knowing this meal and this moment will never pass this way again.

Savor whatever muffin emerges warm with cheddar cheese so old it schisms into techtonic plates of creamy, pungent flakes.

With virtually no salt, less than a teaspoon of olive oil and sugar (in the form of maple syrup) per muffin, and loaded with whole-grain spelt flour, apples, peaches, walnuts, raisins, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of cinnamon, there are worse ways to welcome in your own personal autumn.

Catching Up

Last we were tuned to this station, we were roughly here.

I was completely gobsmacked by the once-in-a-lifetime pink moon ascending over the Seine as we stood with our evening bike tour on the Pont des Arts, surrounded by young lovers asking one another if they would care to dance at a mutual until-death-do-us party.

And then I got gobsmacked again by riding a bike around the almost completely empty courtyard of the Louvre at sunset on an incredible warm April night with my own as-long-as-we-both-shall-live partyner.

Apparently, two gobsmacking events in close proximity was enough to shake me loose of my blogging saddle for a month or four.

It’s time to catch up.

So here we are the next day reflected on the top of one of the highest and most ugly modern buildings in Paris, Montparnasse, which is really ideal since the view affords you the magnificence of the city without the visual blight of the building you’re standing on.

Those French. They really know how to make a gobsmacked tourist feel right at Pluto, n’est ce pas?

To sum up, we ate at a lot of these…

… and did a lot of this. (Picnicking in parks with a lot of incredible cheese and baguettes, I mean.)

We marveled at a lot of these…

… and visited a fair amount of old that.

Not everything was old. Young love blooms everywhere in Paris.

We indulged in a bit of shopping…

… sampled a fair whack of this…

… and did some of this that we could come back some day.

You know the French departure farewell, “Au revoir?”

It means, “Until we see again,” which turns out to be now, except this time, I won’t wait so long.

Pink Moon in Paris

Please… if anyone knows where to apply for a parallel life, tell me.

I’ll pay, even for a partial extra day.

It’s just not possible to live it all and record even some of it, all in the same 24 hours.

A thousand moments crush in, with barely time to breath in the big ones before the next day dawns.

And the next, and the next, and the next…

Le Jet Lag

There are a thousand posts that should, and with any luck/discipline will, come before this one, retroactively.

For instance, “April in Salt Lake City” doesn’t normally come with its own song, except for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal we accidentally stumbled on. However, it’s where the dreamlike state began in our British Airways’ First Class pods (a first for us!), so there are two posts in the queue right there.

And then there’s the post that will be called, “Finding Your Paris Apartment with a Misnamed Door In A Foreign Language, With a Sweet Cab Driver Who Speaks No English at Eleven at Night, in The Dark Because You Can’t Identify A French Light Switch.” This will be a particular favorite of mine.

Extreme inline skating aeronautics, how to buy a multi-day Paris museum pass (and why you might not want to), and why Boursin cheese is such a great calorie deal…

These will all wait for another time.

Maybe I’ll get to them on the flight home. Or not.

Today, it was a mildly hallucinogenic experience with three big takeaways, the first two thanks to the phenomenon known as “le jet lag.

1. When in a foreign land, completely sleep-deprived and in need of a reality anchor, embrace cultural stereotypes for the sake of stability.

Yes, this is a multiple-choice option. You can either go with “package-ladened European swallow dad,” or, “white-haired, red-scarved Parisian cafe sitter in April.”

The “Jet-Lag Cafe” was purely coincidental.

I’m pretty sure.

2. When in Paris and completely under the influence of le jet-lag, choose a companion who is a head or two taller than most of the local inhabitants, extremely handsome from all aspects, and readily identifiable in a crowd. And then ask him to wear the chic burnt orange sweater that you gave him for Christmas.

3. Even if it feels a little chilly when you head out in the morning to mosey around the city, wear sunscreen on your upper chest.

See?! Who foreign said travels were difficult?