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5 Pieces Of Kitchen Equipment I Cannot Do Without

I’m not a big user of kitchen gadgets. I don’t have a rice cooker, or a juicer, or an icecream maker, or anything like that really. My mother lent me her slow cooker earlier this year, because I thought I might use it. It wasn’t useful enough for me to justify the space it took up so I gave back. All my cooking and preserving is done on our makeshift kitchen bench (you can see what my kitchen looks like here), in cramped quarters. Because of this, any kitchen item I own must be able to be used for lots of different jobs. So here are my top 5 pieces of kitchen equipment – the items I use regularly, that make life easier!

5 pieces of kitchen equipment

Japanese Mandolin

This gets used to slice potatoes for potato bake, beetroots for pickling, cabbage for coleslaw, and vegetables for stirfry (just to list a few things). We had an old orange 1970’s version I had picked up on a garage sale 15 years ago, but just recently we have up graded to a new model. These things are sharp and dangerous, so be super careful with them, but ours gets used at least once a week – usually more often.


5 pieces of kitchen equipment I use all the time-3

Jam Funnels

We are always bottling up something, whether it be jam, or pickles, or tomato passata. These funnels sit in the top of the jars and prevent the neck getting gunked up, and jam being spilt everywhere. When I first found out these existed, I raced straight out to buy one – game changer!

5 pieces of kitchen equipment I can't do with out

Potato Brush

My mum brought this down for me one time when she came to visit, and I admit that I made derisive sounds. Turns out she was right. Our potatoes don’t come nicely washed like shop bought ones, and this brush is just perfect for getting all that dirt off. We use it for all our root vegetables. Our brush is starting to look a little sad, so I’m keeping an eye out (or getting my mum to) for a new one.

5 pieces of kitchen equipment I use all the time-2Half Moon Scrapers.

These are the bomb. Any time I need anything scraped out properly I grab one of these. Cake batter out of the bowl, or jam out a saucepan or even left over casserole that needs to be binned. The round side goes around the edge of the bowl, while the straight side and corner gets right into saucepans, and they are so much more effective than those long scrapers on a handle. Best of all these things are super cheap (only a couple of dollars), so I have several in my kitchen drawer so I always have a clean one on hand!
5 pieces of kitchen equipment I use all the time

Magnetic Knife Rack

I’m a bit thingy about my knives. I don’t have super expensive ones, but they aren’t cheap either, and they stay sharp longer if they aren’t thrown in a drawer with all the other bits of random kitchen paraphenalia. In our previous house we also had a knife rack, and when we decided to move down here, I bought this one, and stuck it up straight away. Having my knives easily accessible as well as knowing that they are sharp makes life so much easier.

5 pieces of kitchen equipment I use all the time-4

 

So tell me, what kitchen equipment are on your ‘must have’ list, and what items do you just not bother with?

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Comments

  1. jan2132 says

    October 16, 2015 at 9:45 am

    Magnetic knife rack, my set of Furi knives which was a gift and the Global big knife I bought myself. My grandma’s finely serrated bread knife. It does not get a lot of use, but is just right. Oven thermometer. My oven is temperamental. Baking paper saves a lot of mess and makes washing up easier. Grandma’s big baking dish. I am sure it cooks better because it was hers.

    Reply
    • Jo@CountryLifeExperiment says

      October 19, 2015 at 8:18 pm

      I do love my meat thermometer for checking whether a roast is cooked to perfection too.

      Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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