Category — Kitchen Utensils

No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a heaping helping of piping hot and buttery mashed potatoes.  There are several ways to make delicious mashed potatoes.  Here are a few variations on “mashed potato recipes”.

Old-Fashioned Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes made with a hand potato masher, like the one above, will give you that irregular, a little bit lumpy, texture in your mashed potatoes.  For those who want mashed potatoes like Grandma used to make, this is probably the way to go.  Peel potatoes, boil, and drain before mashing.  Add milk, butter and salt to taste.

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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.