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Using "Utensils": Epinions is Covering a Lot of Ground!Feb 12 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Take inventory of your kitchen drawer, and make a list of the function of each item for the less kitchen-savvy person in your house. The criteria here are pretty broad-based: "What advice can you offer for using utensils?" That depends upon how you define "utensil." Are we talking about common table service here? Or does this also cover corkscrews, can openers, bottle openers, Chicago Cutlery, wire whisks, pastry blenders, egg separators and the like? How much space can we have to cover this topic thoroughly? I can tell you all about the utensils I know how to use, and I can ask readers to help me figure out what some of them actually are. What's This? A Pickle-Olive Thing? Yesterday when my mom went to some kitchen utensil stores (and I swear to God I had not yet discovered this unique category), we looked at lots of stuff that is supposed to be handy in the kitchen, but neither one of us could figure out the purpose of some of them. Mom picked up a white plastic tool that looked like a needle for self-injecting drugs, and when she pressed the plunger, three wicked looking little wires emerged. I thought it looked like something I saw in a catalog of sex toys once that wound up in my mailbox instead of my neighbors (but I didn't know what that thing was, either). "That's a pickle and olive fork," said the lady behind the cash register. Oh! Okay! But I have lots of toothpicks at home, so I didn't get one. I also don't have any pickles or olives. My Husband Bought a Potato Masher Men -- can't live with them, can't kill them! A couple of months ago, my husband bought an industrial strength, shiny chrome potato masher. I don't make mashed potatoes, we don't eat them unless we're at someone else's house. "Why did you buy this potato masher?" I asked him. "It's an orange juice crusher," he corrected me. "Why do you need that?" Silly me, I really didn't know what this tool -- utensil -- had to do with making orange juice." "Because if the can of concentrate comes out of the freezer and it's too hard, then I can use this to crush it and blend it." "But that's why you bought that wire whisk," I said. "Too wimpy," he said. "I want to crush my orange juice into submission." "You could always leave it in the fridge overnight and just pour it into the pitcher of water in the morning," I suggested. "No. I want to crush it into submission. I like crushed orange juice." Whatever makes him happy. My Husband Hides My Utensils We have one large drawer in the kitchen where all "utensils" go. Knives of every kind (bread knives, chopping knives, serving knives), wooden spoons, spatulas, slotted spoons, soup ladels, meat forks, corkscrews and the entire gamut commonly found in most homes. But when the drawer looks too crowded, my husband "helps" me by taking all of the utensils he doesn't ever use (but that I sometimes use) and puts them in a big Rubbermaid container in the basement. This includes important items that I need on certain occasions, but not daily. If he doesn't know what it is, then it's not "useful." So picture me when I'm opening the oven at Christmas to baste my turkey and -- no turkey baster! GONE! Banished to the basement graveyard of unknown utensils! I have to go find where he buried the bodies and hope it's there. And I can't tell you how many times I've had to run to the store to buy another flour sifter, flat knife for frosting a cake, rolling pin, fine grater, or garlic crusher. If it's not shaped like a knife, fork, or a spoon, my husband doesn't know what it is, or what it does. Plastic or Metal? I have more than one spatula (the flat utensil with a handle that you use for flipping eggs or pancakes), one made from Teflon-safe plastic that won't scratch my pans, and another plain metal one that's good for all other surfaces. I use them both, depending on the cookware, but my husband thinks they're redundant. Pizza Cutter, Chopper Scraper -- Same Thing The other night when my husband made a pizza, he took my flat metal chopper-scraper (a straight piece of metal with a handle and a sharp edge) and said, "Hey, can I use this to cut the pizza?" I didn't see why not, it did seem to be a little easier to use than the traditional wheel-cutting tool we usually use that doesn't quite cut all the way through. Tongs -- The All-Purpose Wonder Tool! My chrome tongs do so much more than reach into hot water to grab hard-boiled eggs, vegetables or reach into the deep fryer to get a mozzarella stick. They help me reach things that my husband has put on the highest shelf, just out of my grasp. They also work well for retrieving stuff I drop down the garbage disposal. For the purposes of this particular editorial, I will presume that all of you reading this know how to use traditional flatware. But if you want to know multi-purpose uses for potato mashers, I'll have my husband write a review, too.  |
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