Cooking On Sale

While saving on food is easy, it is almost impossible to cook good food with a bad kitchen. Take some of the money you save on food and spend it on cookware. These are my favorite splurges and I recommend them to all. They make navigating your kitchen easy.

Grill Pan – I bought a grill pan at IKEA this summer. It was somewhere in the range $40, but totally worth it. Grilling is a healthy way to make food – it lets fat run off of your food. I had a George Foreman grill last year, but this year I upgraded to a cast-iron grill pan. It distributes the heat more evenly and gets much hotter. The downside to this is that it isn’t non-stick, so it requires a lot of cleaning every time I use it. I’ve been thinking about coating it with crisco and baking it to make it more non-stick, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll let you know if/when that ever happens. It also gets really hot which sometimes causes smoke if I’m not careful, so I have to keep the vent over the stove on while using it. It is a bit of a hassle, but makes such good food (especially steaks!) that I can’t live without it.

Blender/Food Processor – You actually may only need one of these. I have both and find that it is actually useful to have both. I use my food processor mainly for grating potatoes/sweet potatoes for latkes and carrots (which are really great just sautéed in a pan with adobo seasoning and olive oil). It will also chop oats for cookies or toast to make breadcrumbs. The blender is great for making drinks and liquid-based things. It’ll do anything from margaritas to the smoothie you need when you wake up after the night of margaritas. Just don’t use either while your roomies are sleeping (they’ll be mad).

Thermometer – I have a thermometer for cooking meat, one for poultry, and a candy thermometer. Excessive? Probably. Useful? YES. It makes cooking meat easy (I like my meat medium-rare) and you’ll never have raw chicken (eww salmonella). The candy thermometer is great for tempering chocolate (I could’ve used it for my chocolate covered strawberries post had I not make my chocolate more like gnash) and for anything else involving sugar. I have a goal that my the end of the semester I’m going to make a cake covered in fondant, and I’ll need the candy thermometer for the fondant.

Cutlery – Wait for a sale at Macys or any department store that sells kitchenwares. Then buy a good set of cutlery (mine is from the Martha Stewart collection). A good set of knives is important. Bad and dull knives are actually dangerous because you need to use more force with them. Then you run the risk of losing control and slicing fingers. The downside to my knife set: handwash only. They get dull and blotchy if they go through the dishwasher.

Tea Brewer – I drink mostly loose-leaf tea, so this tea brewer from Teavana is my best friend in the mornings (and afternoons and nights). It may seem pricy at $18, but it is totally worth it. Also, the tea itself is fairly expensive, but again, I think it’s worth it. Looseleaf tea is easy to make and tastes better than bag-teas.

Olive Oil Dispenser – This only cost me $5 at Bed Bath and Beyond, but it makes cooking much more easy. It has an easy pour spout to drizzle olive oil onto food (which is handy when making things like my roasted vegetables and fish) It pours at a steady pace so you can coat things evenly. I keep it right next to the stove along with the salt and pepper (I use a fresh pepper grinder. Much more flavor).

Tin Foil / Plastic Wrap / Tupperware – You need an easy way to store your food after you’ve made it especially if you’re like me and you’ll use your free time to make food for the rest of the busy week. Tupperware is wonderful for this. There are sets that have different size containers with the same size lids. I say buy one of those so you can always have a decent size container for your food. Tin foil and plastic wrap are useful too. I recommend tin foil for storing things that can be exposed to a little air, such as pizza, and plastic wrap for things that should be kept airtight in a bowl, such as chicken salad. Also, to store meat in the freezer wrap it in plastic wrap, then in tin foil. That should help prevent freezer burn. Write down what it is and when it was frozen on the tin foil so you know what it is while desperately pillaging your freezer two weeks later.

Currently Cooking To:

Jenny Lewis. She’s amazing. All the time. From Rilo Kiley, to The Postal Service, to her solo album, she can do no wrong. And so I present Jenny Lewis from different groups:

Rilo Kiley – The Frug (1998?)
Rilo Kiley – Always (2001)
Rilo Kiley – Pictures of Success (2001)
Rilo Kiley – With Arms Outstretched (2002)
Rilo Kiley – A Better Son/Daughter (2002)
The Postal Service – Nothing Better (2003)
The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes (2003)
Rilo Kiley – Portions of Foxes (2004)
Rilo Kiley – It’s a Hit (2004)
Rilo Kiley – A Man/Me/Then Jim (2004)
Jenny Lewis – You Are What You Love (2006)
Jenny Lewis – Big Guns (2006)
Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining (2007)