 Good kitchen tools make life easier
I enjoy cooking but don't always have the time for elaborate meals, so most of my meals are pretty simple. I'm always looking for ways to make cooking even easier. Good tools are a great way to simplify your life in the kitchen. Here are a few of my favorites, and with Christmas coming up, you might want to add one or two of them to your wish list.
Last Christmas, I received a toaster oven. Mine is big enough so that I can cook two small casseroles in it. It was wonderful during our long, hot summer. I was still able to cook easy oven meals, but without heating up the whole kitchen. It also uses less electricity than my big oven. What I didn't know until I started using it was that it cooks faster than a regular oven. Because it's small, it preheats faster and the cooking time is shorter. For example, a meatloaf will take an hour in the oven, but only 45 minutes in the toaster oven.
Another gift I received last year was a stick blender. I had no idea how handy these are; I use mine every day. I make a lot of shakes and my stick blender handles ice just as well as a regular blender and cleanup is much easier. I have also used it to make my own salad dressings. This allows me to control the fat content. I mix together fruit, balsamic vinegar, spices and a bit of olive oil. It tastes great.
I also get a lot of use from my slow cooker. Nothing beats setting up dinner early in the day and being able to just forget about it. If you get a larger one, you can cook ahead and freeze.
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