All the extra cooking and baking I've been doing over the past month has really made me appreciate my well-appointed kitchen. Over the years I've amassed so many tools, gadgets, knives, pots and pans and appliances that I have to find spots for them in other parts of my house, like in plastic tubs in our storage shed, or stacked high on the shelves of our laundry closet. But for every 10 gadgets I rarely use, there's one that I use every day.

In case you're starting off the new year by cooking more at home (the best way to shave off those extra holiday pounds), allow me to present a roundup of my can't-live-without kitchen items.


1. Microplane grater
I use this effective little grater for sprinkling drifts of Parmesan cheese onto a bowl of pasta, for creating shavings of chocolate to adorn cupcakes, or for grinding fresh nutmeg (infinitely more flavorful than the ground nutmeg that comes in a spice jar). But I also use it any time a recipe calls for minced garlic or ginger. It quickly turns a clove of garlic or a knob of ginger into a pulp that is fine enough to meld subtly into a recipe, without all of the painstaking knife work.

2. 4-inch utility knife
I discovered this knife in culinary school — it can do everything that a shorter paring knife can do, and more. I use it for anything that's a little too small for my chef's knife, from peeling apples to slicing mushrooms.

3. Adjustable measuring cup
Particularly for baking, this genius invention eliminates having to wash a sinkful of individual measuring cups. It has measurements in seven different scales (including cups, ounces and milliliters), and has a separate measuring scale for liquid ingredients that leaves space at the top to prevent overflows. I particularly like using it for sticky or messy ingredients like peanut butter or molasses-you can just slide the base up like a plunger, and there's no need to scrape the inside of the cup with a spatula. Be sure to measure your dry ingredients before the wet ingredients.

4. Parchment paper
I am constantly finding new uses for parchment paper. I use it to line sheet pans to prevent cookies or roasted vegetables from sticking. I sift flour onto a sheet of it, then roll it like a funnel to pour it into a mixing bowl. I use strips of it to skim grease off the surface of a pot of soup. I wrap fine cheeses in it to store in the refrigerator. It's like the Duct Tape of the kitchen.

5. Large commercial-quality metal mixing bowl
It may not be as pretty as my collectible bowls (I collect vintage earthenware and pottery mixing bowls from the 1950s), but my metal mixing bowl is lightweight, durable and versatile. I use it most often as a refuse bowl next to my cutting board, for tossing carrot peel, plastic wrappers, meat trimmings and other waste before taking the whole bowl to the garbage can or compost pile. But it also comes in handy as a double boiler for melting chocolate or making custard, and as a popcorn bowl. And metal is the best bowl material for whipping egg whites or cream.

6. Small soy sauce dishes
Every time I am in New York, I head to Pearl River Mart in Chinatown to stock up on cheap soy sauce dishes. They're great for mise en place, holding chopped fresh herbs or minced garlic until they're ready to be added to the dish. I'll use them as an ad hock spoon rest. At the table, of course they serve their purpose holding individual servings of soy sauce or pats of butter, or some fancy sea salt. And they're the perfect size for a handful of animal crackers for my daughter's snack.

7. Color-coded flexible plastic cutting mats
They're not as pretty as my wooden cutting boards, nor are they as easy on my knives. But my set of plastic cutting mats, which are coded with icons for meat, poultry, fish and vegetables, are much more safety-smart for sectioning a chicken or boning a fish; they keep animal foods from touching other foods. The mat designated for vegetables also gets used as a pastry mat or a funnel for pouring frying oil back into the bottle.


What are some of your favorite kitchen tools — and the unexpected uses you've found for them?