Weekend Plans Post: Specialized Kitchen Tools

I’ve mentioned the silly little $20 one-button rice cooker that I got before the pandemic. I say “silly” because you’d think that I would be able to make rice on the stovetop. But I can’t. Not consistently well, anyway. I got this little tool and, holy cow, it makes perfect rice each time, every time. I’ve been going through the 5 pound bag I bought in March and I’m more than halfway through it, thanks to this little guy. I haven’t made oatmeal in it yet, but I’m told that it’s *PERFECT* for that. We’ve got a cold front coming in tonight… maybe it’d be perfect to try that out this weekend.

I’ve got a pizza cutter. Definitely in the middle of Top Ten Silly Kitchen Tools. How often do you need it? I mean, really? Can’t you use kitchen shears for thin-crust and a big ol’ butcher knife for thick crust? Nope, apparently I can’t. I have a pizza cutter that gets used, in a heavy week, twice. (Oh, but it cuts the pizza pie perfectly, doesn’t it?)

I finally broke down and bought a reamer for the weeks where I make lime cilantro rice. I don’t really ream a whole lot of things other than limes, and, before the pandemic, I rarely had need to ream much of anything. Why would you? You get OJ from the store, on the rare need for a lemon for juicing, they sell those plastic lemon juice things and, quite honestly, wouldn’t you be happier with a bottle of pre-mixed sour mix? A bottle of Mrs. T’s will run you less than 4 bucks. What do you need a reamer for?

Well, you need one for lime cilantro rice. You need one very, very badly for lime cilantro rice. With my reamer, I got more juice and debris out of a half lime than I was used to getting from a full one using brute force and a spoon. Very little effort, over in seconds. Point your reamer at the lime half and just pull your wrist back like you’re revving a motorcycle and, holy cow, do it three or four times and the lime is *SPENT*. *AND* you get all of the debris from the lime too.

The reamer is *AWESOME*. I’m tempted to make homemade lemonade with it. If a cold front weren’t coming in, of course. It’s just that efficient and fun to use. It improved my rice. That’s how good it was. It made my lime rice even better.

The dumbest tool in my kitchen now is my zester. Within minutes of reaming my lime, I daydreamed about the different things I could make with it. Orange juice! Lemonade! Lime cilantro rice!

My zester? I just look at it and think “the only thing you can do with this is make lime cilantro rice and, let’s face it, it doesn’t improve it *THAT* much.”

The little fine print on the zester webpage talks about making cocktails and I suppose I recall putting various orange zests in gin drinks or using a lemon zest to stir one’s espresso to remove the worst of the bitter bite but… man. What a silly tool.

At least the salad chopper knife could conceivably be used in self-defense.

Anyway, it’s time to make more spaghetti sauce this weekend (what could I ream to put in spaghetti sauce?) and I am already looking forward to the pizzas that will be made with it.

And, otherwise, I’m not doing much of anything.

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is “Garlic press” by Steve A Johnson and is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)