Most Useful
"Do not eat after 7PM! Eat lots of plain toast and pasta! Avoid raw vegetables! No gluten! No dairy! Eat only fruit before 10AM!"
With a diagnosis and (healthy) recommended diet, I jumped off the dizzy-making food-go-round. I simplified my repertoire of meals and got serious about cooking gear.
My pick for Most Useful kitchen purchase of 2007 is the 12" Le Creuset® skillet - we use it 1-3 (or more) times every day. It took some time to get used to the weight of this cast iron baby; indeed my wrist still aches after a vigorous sautée--oh, why I don't use our All Clad® stainless pan for sautée? Proper choice or not, I've simply assigned my loyalty to another.
A close second place for Most Useful is the 7" Wüsthof Santoku. That knife outsharps all others--except its Very Useful paring companion.
Did you make any noteworthy investments in your kitchen last year?
posted by Jasmine at 8:27 PM
9 Comments:
Great tips!! I'm going to start budgeting for these babies...
I love my Santoku too! I got a few new Global knives for Christmas and they are life-changing! I am going to have to pull out my old cast iron pan...I am having a heck of a time with pancakes now that we don't use nonstick pans.
Another SCD lifesaver is my old Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker. I won it in an internet cooking quiz contest about 12 years ago and didn't do much with it for ages, but it sure makes cooking SCD veggies much faster. It is also not aluminum (another no-no on our list...) I am loving it.
Emily, we'd gone through so many non-stick frying pans it didn't make sense to buy another. Since my body is prone to absorb more iron than it should, the coated LeCreuset was a good choice. How does your pressure cooker work?
Jilluck, hopefully this is the last time we have to drop $100 on a skillet!
Do you make pancakes in your LeCreuset coated enamel? I have a Le Creuset Dutch oven and shallow pan, but I haven't tried pancakes in one. I have always used them for braising lamb shanks and osso bucco. They are the best - a bit heavy for my arthritic hands, but really great. (I have been lucky so far with the tools needed for SCD...I have always loved to cook, so the majority of the gifts I've gotten over the past several years are cookware-related).
The pressure cooker has a lock-on lid and sits on the stove. I bring the liquid in it to a boil and then lock the lid on and watch as the pressure indicator pops up. Once it is up, I level off the heat. I have been using it for squishy carrots and green beans and it reduces the cooking time by about 70%.
It is interesting about hemochromatosis...my mom is prone to it too...I think the Le Creuset is probably the safest and best in terms of protection from absorbtion...they hold up beautifully too.
Yes, Emily, I have made pancakes (1/2 cup almond meal, 1 egg and a 1/4 tsp soda per serving) in the skillet BUT I have to use a lot of grapeseed oil to float the 'cake and prevent stickage--honey IN the recipe does not work ... not even LeCreus is that good! We've had the skillet a few months now and it's just starting to develop that browny "patina." Honestly, with arthritis I don't know how you do it. Maybe we could get wrist braces or something?? ;^)
Good advice...you go girl! HUGS
I have to agree with Emily - my Santoku knives changed my live! My favorite item of '07 is the knife magnet I received as a gift - no more knives floating dangerously in drawers, no more knife block taking up counter space... Just grab and go!
I love me some Le Creuset and some Wusthof. Mmmmm.
A ha, BeanMa! Would that I had some wallspace ... I'd love a knife magnet!
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