Kitchen Stewardship

As we work through the stages of Kitchen Stewardship together, there may be a few items that will be helpful to have around.  You can check the list here as you make your birthday and Christmas wishlists for family members!

NOTE: This page is in dire need of updating, which should happen soon.  You can view some of what will end up here at this wish list post.

Books I Recommend

• Nourishing Traditions
• Real Food
• Real Food for Mother and Baby
• Food, Inc. (DVD)
• Food Rules
• In Defense of Food
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma
• The Schwarzbein Principle
• The Untold Story of Milk
• Wild Fermentation

Others have recommended:

• Eat Fat, Lose Fat
• The Vegetarian Myth
• Good Calories, Bad Calories
• Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

• Foaming Hand Soap Dispensers to refill (with non-antibacterial soap)You can buy these in designer styles or just re-use a store brand bottle.
• Blender
  • for bread crumbs
  • smoothies
  • homemade butter
• Food Processor
  • for bread crumbs
  • for almond power bars and walnut-oat pie crust
• Misto olive oil sprayer
  • for croutons, french fries

• Food Chopper
  • for chopping vegetables, nuts (especially onions)

This one is from Pampered Chef; you can also find them at Bed, Bath and Beyond and the like.

• Ice cube trays
  • Not everyone owns these, but they’re imperative for easy freezing of certain items, especially chicken stock.  I also use for kale cubes and refried beans.
• Stainless Steel Water Bottle
  • Keep what you drink safe from leaching plastic.  Find links and places to purchase here.
• Gargantuan stock pot
  • If you want to make a huge batch of chicken stock, this is a fun item to have on hand! Also good for corn on the cob…
• Glass measuring cup…I especially love my 4-cup size.
  • You can use the big one with a handle for scooping and measuring chicken stock, among other things.
• Picnic cooler
  • My favorite method for incubating homemade yogurt.
• Spoonula
  • The ultimate tool for scrambling eggs in the pan, plus my fav for browning ground meat.  Made of silicone with a wooden handle, so you can leave it in the pan without worrying about melting anything.
  • It’s hard to tell in this picture, but it’s a spatula that’s extra thick, like a spoon.
• Steamer Basket
  • The easiest way to steam veggies without using a microwave.
• Toaster Oven
  • Another near-imperative if you’re trying to avoid microwave use.  I love my toaster oven!  It can bake a whole pie or roast a whole chicken, toast 6 slices of bread at a time, and does a great job on our leftovers.  I like to be able to bake a dozen cookies with frozen homemade cookie dough and not heat up the whole house, or bake a quick graham cracker pie crust.
  • Here’s a photo (it’s a Cuisinart, selling for about $60-80 nowadays):
    

    You can move the rack around, which is a nice feature. It's pretty basic, but does everything we need.

• Vegetable Scrub Brush
  • This may seem like a silly item to have on a wishlist, but I think it’s important to really get in the grooves of things like carrots, potatoes, celery, and peppers (see the Dirty Dozen post).  I know some people don’t have one…

  • 

    This is more or less the one I use right now, found at Target.

• Glass storage containers
  See this post for what you can do with them!
• Garlic Press: so you don’t end up like me.  There are lots of different version of a garlic press; one pictured below (Marc Pinter).  Some of them even let you keep the skins on, which is a lot less work and smell.
  
• Stick or Immersion Blender: good for blending soups (like garlic soup) or making guacamole or Caesar dressing.
  
• Silicone Baking Mat:  makes cleanup of cookie sheets easy without using aluminum foil, and if your cookie sheets are aluminum and/or all scratched up, you can avoid having your food touch them, too.

See Aluminum Foil Post

• Cookware and Bakeware to avoid aluminum and keep safe materials:My favorite: the Pampered Chef Rectangular Stone
  
  View post on avoiding aluminum cookware/bakeware.
• Shaklee H2 for camping and cleaning.
• Inexpensive (but not cheap) spray bottles from a dollar store or big box grocery store for your natural kitchen cleaners.
• Salad Spinner
  A must if you want to buy whole heads of lettuce (Farmer’s Market, anyone?)  You’ll have to go to the post to see it; I can’t get the picture link to work here!
• Lettuce Knife:  Read about the reasons behind this little wonder at this post.  It’s one of my can’t-do-without gadgets!
• Biokleen Dishwasher Detergent – My favorite ever!!!
• Have you heard I get to give away a Nutrimill grain mill?  I’m so thankful to Pleasant Hill Grain for sponsoring the giveaway.  Another fun gadget they offer helps preserve food -  Tilia Food Saver vacuum sealers for home use as well as ARY industrial vacuum sealers. (They also explain the differences.)

Yes, these are mostly affiliate links.  Amazon will share a bit with us bloggers if we send people their way.  But feel free to shop at a store with a coupon, instead!  It’s just nice to see a picture of what someone is talking about.  Pleasant Hill Grain sponsored a grain mill giveaway in exchange for some advertising, a fair trade to be sure!