Wednesday, October 8, 2008

CONTEST! Favorite Kitchen tools!

I love cooking and baking, and over time have discovered some neat tools to use that make the job easier. The first tool to talk about is the handy cookie dough ball scoop. You can get these inexpensively at Bed, Bath and Beyond (under $5) and other stores that carry kitchen utensils. The cool thing about the dough scoop is that you get a uniform cookie every time. It was tough getting these pictures, because I'm right handed, so if it looks a bit funny...sorry! You scoop the dough into the scooper, level it off on the bottom, then push the top outside of the scoop (it is flexible which enables the dough to come out easily) with your thumb. Here is the finished product, yummy chocolate swirl cookies. See how nice they look?
My next favorite product is the silicon muffin baking cup. I love these....so easy to use and to clean. Gone are the days when you have to grease and flour muffin tins, or hope you have paper cupcake liners in your cupboard.

I made some oatmeal muffins (after I finished baking the cookies) to demonstrate. Above the dough is in the cups. Notice you don't have to have these in a muffin tin. They stand up on their own without the need of a tin.

Here is the finished product.....so good......so easy.....everyone needs some of these if you bake your own muffins. I just pushed the muffin out after they came out of the oven. They come out nicely with little stuck to the sides when hot or cooled. They wash easily. I just put them upside down on a dish towel to dry. Stack to store. You can get the silicon muffin cups in a variety of sizes and shapes. I got these particular ones in Target. They were $1 for a container of 6, which is a great deal. I have seen them in TJ Maxx for about $5 for 6. They had larger cups and some square ones, too.


OK, the contest is this.......leave me a comment on my blog...this thread (yes, please do tell your friends to share!) telling me a favorite kitchen tool that you like to use, or a recipe for a favorite muffin recipe. I will send you 12 silicon muffin cups! If I get more than 15 comments, I will include a cookie dough scoop! How fun! Yes, if you are from outside of the US, I will try and ship to you also, or send you a Betty Crocker recipe pamphlet! Contest ends on Tuesday Oct.14th, 2008 at 12 noon MST.


Tomorrow I will post the oatmeal muffin recipe. It uses yogurt!

10 comments:

colds1 said...

Love, love, love my Pampered Chef Chopper! Can't imagine living without it!

Trish said...

I cannot live without my microplane zester! For zesting citrus and grating hard cheese like parmesan. Also for grating whole nutmeg which is a thousand times better than pre-ground nutmeg. I LOVE it!

Also, my Cutco knives. (Chef and Paring)I can get free sharpening for life and they really need sharpening. But I love them so much that I can't part with them for the length of time that they'd be unavailable to me. :( I need to find a local shop to take them to. Even if I have to pay. It's worth it to keep them in my possesion. LOL

lorigrant said...

My favorite kitchen item is my cutco kitchen shears. I use them for everything, cutting chicken, veggies and plastic. The clean up is easy. You need to be very careful because they cut every thing including you.

Jenn said...

My favorite kitchen item are plastic gloves! I hate the feel of raw meats, I'm slowly getting over it. I also love my IKEA scrubber with a handle & suction cup on the bottom. I hate that metallic smell that dish rags get so this is great & only $0.99. And lastly I'm learning to love my food processor. With a picky & skimpy eater it's the only way she will eat meat.

Norah said...

My favorite kitchen tool is Pampered chef measuring spoon. I've rid the house of most things plastic but I love the conveince of having one spoon for all the different sizes.

Angel said...

I didn't make up this recipe, but it is my family's favorite!

Bannana Strussel Muffins

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 mashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg - lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 and grease 10 muffin cups. Mix dry and wet ingredients seperately then mix them together until just combined. Put batter equally into muffin cups. In a seperate bowl mix together brown sugar, AP flour and cinnamon for the topping. Cut in butter until it is combined. Sprinkle topping equally over muffin batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

They are heavenly!

Oh and as for a kitchen tool I can't live without? It would have to be my Pampered Chef can opener.

Diane said...

Here is my favorite muffin recipe. I'm sure there's a better title, but they are always the muffins we take camping, so that's what we call them:

The Muffins We Take Camping
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c. oil
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)
1 c. milk
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips
2 c. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Combine eggs, oil, nuts, milk, brown sugar and chocolate chips; mix well. Add dry ingredients. Fill greased muffin tins or cupcake wrappers just over 1/2 full. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

So yummy! Enjoy!

KMDuff said...

My favorite kitchen thing is my kitchenaid mixer. I love it because it makes so many tasks so much easier!

Small things I love are a cookie scoop and a microplane. And my french rolling pin.

Romie said...

These silicone baking cups could be my new favorite...!I just had to buy Sponge Bob cupcake liners because Walmart was out of plain ones...I'm not a fan of Sponge Bob.
I love my silicone basting brush. The hairy ones always grossed me out, and I know this one gets clean. Plus its bubble gum pink!

Mom of Three Wonderful Children said...

My favorite item is parchment paper. I use it all the time for frosting cakes to leave no mess, to shredding cheese onto it, and especially because I am lazy and want easy clean up for my baking sheets when making cookies, or fish.