My Favorite Things - In the Kitchen

These are a few of My Favorite Things.

You're humming it aren't you?  I don't know anyone who can read that first line without either singing it in their head or humming a few bars.

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens.  Eh, doesn't really do anything for me.  I tend to fall for the schnitzel and noodle categories, hence the need for new running shoes a few times a year.  My favorite place in my home is my kitchen and I thought I'd share a few of my favorite kitchen related things.  5 that I own right now, and 5 that I'm coveting.

1.  My Soapstone Counters.
I love their silky smoothness and run my hands on them all the time.  I love the veining, particularly in my prep area.  I love being able to grab multiple trays out of the oven and just dropping them on the stone without first looking for a trivet. I love, love, love them.  Okay, so counters are a bit of a budget buster, but a handy DIYer can fabricate these counters themselves like CG and I did.

2.  My Monster sized Professional Series Kitchenaid Stand Mixer.
First off it's just a thing of beauty.  Love the red color.  This thing has power.  I've been putting it to the test with double and triple batches of cookies all month.  I love how it starts up just a hair slow before coming up to speed so that you don't get that "poof" of flour if you forgot to put the guard on.  CG bought me this earlier this year and there was a bit of drama when I said we couldn't afford it, but I'm over it and love it.

3.  My ceramic knives.  CG gave me a couple of ceramic knives for my birthday a couple of years ago.  You can cut paper thin slices of meat with these babies.  This is the exact set that CG bought for me.  You can get them at Williams-Sonoma.

4.  My pullout pantry.  We have a closet type pantry on the far end of the kitchen where I keep canned goods and snacks.  I can gather up supplies before I start cooking and snackers stay out of my way.  The pullout pantry is my baking pantry and is in the main work area.  This is where I keep my gazillion gluten-free flours.  Baking tends to be a fast and furious activity and it's nice to have everything at my fingertips to be used and put away immediately keeping my work area clear for all those in progress shots I post.

5.  My Backsplash.  For those of you unfamiliar with the story, we reno-ed our kitchen a couple of years back.  The whole process stretched out over the course of a year or so.  I looked at tile like it was my job.  I searched the internet and went to the local tile shop to ogle tiles.  One day, I came home from the local tile shop with a sample that I just fell in love with.  It was gorgeous and different, sparkled from one angle, business like from another angle - in short I needed this tile.  Then I found out how much it cost.  Ouch.  Tears.  I needed to find a new love.  So I looked.  And looked.  And looked.  And a few months later I opened up a box of tile for my birthday.  There was only enough for it to be used as an accent, but it's such a star that an accent was all it needed to be.  The tile is Interstyle glass tile.  The style is Barcode and the color is Dragonfish.

Do you notice a theme through these first five?  CG is a prince among men.  I purposely waited to post this until most of the way through December because I don't want him to be buying me anything on this next list, since we said we're only buying gifts for the kids this year.  So this is what I'd love to buy for my kitchen in the next year.

1.  A Scraper Beater for my Stand Mixer like this one here at ChefTools.   Stopping the mixer to occasionally scrape down the bowl is a minor inconvenience, but since these can be had for less than $30 - totally worth it.

2.  A MoMa Satellite Bowl which can be purchased at the MoMa Store or crazily enough at Target.  Who knew?  We actually bought one of these years ago when we were in New York, but my brother's dog chewed it to bits.  Ours was a natural wood color not the lacquered black that they currently have, but I think the black would look nice on our stretch of cherry countertop.  Is $50 too much for a fruit bowl?  Not if it's displayed all the time.

3.  A Set of Microplanes like this one at Williams-Sonoma.  Less than $50 for all three.  I could retire my current zester and grate fresh nutmeg for my holiday baking.

4.  A Microwave Drawer.  Ridiculously expensive for an appliance with a short life span, I know, but I'm tired of a so called vent that sucks.  Or doesn't suck as the case is with our over-the-range microwave.  I really don't have a good countertop space for a microwave and the spot I have picked out for the drawer is on the end of the peninsula and will keep snackers out of my way.  This Sharp brand mw drawer at AJ Madison is tall enough for a starbucks coffee cup.

5.  This kitchen knife hook.  It's totally subversive and maybe even a little creepy, but I love it - in red of course.  I'd love one of these to use as an apron hook.  Unfortunately they've been discontinued and I'm going to have to haunt e-bay for one.  They still have the smaller throwing style knives in production, but that's more of a hunting cabin/ crazy person look to me.  I like the 'get out of my kitchen' look to the larger chef's knife.

  Thanks for popping in and checking out my favorite things.  I'm linking this up to Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It Christmas Party and A Few of My Favorite Things's Favorite Things Friday.