Category — Kitchen Supplies

Sometimes little used spices sit in our spice racks for years–even decades.  After all, how many times a year do you really need poultry seasoning or pumpkin pie spice?  But, did you know that ground spices can lose their flavor after a few years?  Here’s how to know when to throw out your kitchen spices, and start over:

Basic Guidelines: How long do spices last? According to OChef, ground spices maintain their freshness for 2 to 3 years, and whole spices such as cinnamon sticks maintain their freshness for 4 years, and probably even longer.

The Nose Knows: Open up the container and give it a little shake.  Does it have the same robust smell you remember?  Is there any smell?  If not, pitch it.

Cool Tool: McCormick offers a How Old Are Your Spices online tool for determining the age of your McCormick spices.  Enter the code on the bottom of the container, and they’ll tell you exactly when the spice was packaged. Just FYI- if your McCormick spices are in metal tins, they are at least 15 years old!  Time for a shopping trip!

The spice rack above will hold 16 different spices.  It’s made of sugar maple, has a rotating base, and the bottles are included.  If found it at Kitchen Universe.

Have you ever cut into a fresh tomato with a dull kitchen knife? Splat!!  The kitchen cutlery you use on a daily basis can make a big difference in the overall quality and appearance of the dishes you cook.  Sharp kitchen knives allow for precision chopping, uniformly thick or thin vegetable slices, and quick preparation of meats and veggies.

Although most of us are confined to a budget, consider the fact that well-chosen kitchen cutlery should be designed to last a lifetime in the kitchen, and is worth a little extra investment.  When choosing a new set of kitchen knives, look for quality blades which can be sharpened time and time again, and sturdy wood or metal handles.

The cutlery set above includes a paring knife, utility knife, sandwich knife, cook’s knife, kitchen shears, and a wooden storage block.  Made by Wusthof, the blades in this German cutlery set are made of a “high carbon alloy”.  I especially like that the wooden block with this set includes extra slots for expanding your kitchen knife collection.  The cutlery set is available at Cooks Plus. Com for $349.95.

Ever just want one quick cup of coffee with out all the trouble of making a whole new fresh pot?  When I was in the mood for just that, I remembered these plastic gadgets from a trip I took to a cabin run on solar power in St. John’s.  Two weeks of morning coffees made from what I now know to be called, the aptly named, “coffee filter holder” and I’m a believer.

These are great because they’re so easy to use and clean up is a sinch.  All you have to do is put a cone coffee filter in the holder, boil water, put coffee in the filter and pour the hot water through over a coffee cup.  Then you just toss the filter out, give the holder a quick rinse and you’re done.  Hot coffee, no mess.  And compared to the prices I saw online for single cup coffee maker machines from $40-100, this beauty above definitely beats the pack at $2.99.  For less than the cost of one coffee at Starbucks, you could have a kitchen supply that will perk you up for a life time.

Suddenly, eating a kitty cat looks good to me! This was made from one of the cool cookie cutters I found while searching online. It came from Copper Gifts.

Now the dilemma for this and other spooky Halloween cakes and cookies is… how do you make black icing? Beware: it’s not as simple as adding black coloring to your white frosting. You’d have to use so much of it to make it black that it will ruin the taste. Some better ideas include starting with chocolate frosting and adding black coloring, or better yet, black gel coloring. Or you could add Hersey’s Cocoa powder to your white frosting. If you don’t want to mess with mixing, just buy some edible black sparkles. That might be better in the long run because the black icing is sure to turn your guest’s teeth a fowl-looking color. And that would be a real stroke of black cat bad luck!

I’ve been on a mission this summer to organize and beautify my kitchen.  A friend helped me this weekend with one of the finishing touches.  We added brass handles to all the drawers and cabinets.  It was amazing what a small change made to the entire look of the room.  I chose brass to go with the brass pots and pans and the whole French country kitchen look I’m trying to acheive.  But you can find all types of knobs and handles online and at thrift stores and markets.  I found mine at a garage sale.  This weekend I saw a fabulous selection of handles at our local hardware store.  There’s a big price range - from .50 cents to $30 per handle, so look around.  But you don’t have to feel you’ll lose your investment because if you move, you can always take them with you.

I know you are still probably lamenting the end of summer but let me remind you that Holiday season is just around the corner.  Sometimes it’s good to plan ahead to make those hectic moments run a little smoother.  Maybe you’d like to spend a little extra time in the kitchen this year draped in holiday cheer.  If that’s the case, check out some holiday aprons.  You can find them online for just about any occasion, including Jewish and other International holidays.  Some companies make personalized aprons like these Christmas clothes with embroidered names.  Maybe that could entice your young one into the kitchen with you for some quality time together, that is, if the cookie dough doesn’t!

If there’s one thing a chef doesn’t like, it’s a picky eater. It seems like a battle that just can’t be won and many moms have already tried. Having picky children can leave you a bit worried about your kid’s health, but studies have shown that the diets of picky children weren’t too different from healthy-eating children – besides the fact that the picky eaters didn’t consume as much fiber and calcium.

For the moms who have a picky eater at home, there are some things you can do to ensure your kid eats. First off, when doing business with children, you need to learn some psychology. Make them feel like they’re getting their way when in reality you’re getting yours. A great example is serving them dessert for breakfast. The idea is to make them feel like they’re getting something yummy – this can be from fresh fruits, cottage cheese or even eggs and plain yogurt.

Then you can try sneaking in some healthy foods. For protein, you can serve peanut butter, nuts, egg salad, boiled eggs, rice pudding or chicken salad. Then for veggies you can give your kid a V8 Splash fruit juice, veggie lasagna or some carrots and cheese in tortilla bread. Other ideas include granola and yogurt (like the parfait) or veggies with ranch dip. If you have a blender, fruit smoothies are fun to make and drink. You can even get creative and let them create their own pizza.

Recipe for fruit smoothie (get creative with the fruits!):

1 banana, cut into chunks
4 strawberries, stemmed and cut into chunks
8 oz. milk
1 TBSP almond butter
2 tsp. maple syrup

Pour the fruits into the blender, pour in the milk, then add the almond butter and syrup. Turn on the blender until the contents are smooth.

Speaking of blenders, you can also try the smother attack; this is when you puree all types of foods with a food processor (the idea is to place veggies, fruits and other healthy foods into nonsuspecting items). You could blend veggies in foods like brownies and cakes or grind up broccoli and zucchinis in pasta or pizza. Get creative with your cooking skills!

I asked for a French press three years ago for Christmas. My parents bought me one that I love and use every day. It’s by Frieling and I highly recommend it. It’s very sturdy and has stayed completely functional over the years. It has a thermal system that keeps the coffee hot all morning. The design is comfortable to use, modern and chic looking, and I’m not the only one who shares this opinion. I was out at one of L.A.’s hippest restaurant, the Phillip Stark designed Katsuya, and they serve coffee in the same pots. I felt so cool when I saw that. And to think that my parents were the ones that picked it out in the first place… they upped their hip-factor by leaps and bounds with that single move!

We have a lot of open shelving in our kitchen that was becoming a chaotic mess. I wanted to have a sense of pleasure when looking at my kitchen, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money rebuilding the whole thing. Here are some cheap and easy ideas to help beautify your kitchen clutter.

• spice rack - I found mine at an antique mall for $12, but they’re also relatively cheap brand new. Mine is pretty and practical; it hangs on the wall close to the stove where I use it. It has a drawer for extra, odd-shaped cooking ingredients (like boullion cubes, etc) and an extra shelf for taller condiments.
• cookie jars - Once again you can pick up a flee market bargain or buy new. These are great for anything you want to keep fresh or for any extras like plastic flatware and take-out condiments.
• canning jars - I picked up some of the old style at the antique mall, but you can still buy them new online. These are great for beans, rice, nuts, pasta, tea etc. or even silverware and cooking spoons.
• trays and bowls - You might even have extra decorative ones around. Putting things like vitamins, condiments, tea boxes, etc. on a tray or in a bowl suddenly makes it look organized.
• utility racks - with these you can hang almost anything from utensils to bowls and pots.