The Big Six– The Necessary and The Absolutely NOT Necessary (but wonderful) Kitchen Gadgets

For me there are three absolutely can’t live with out kitchen appliances:

• Heavy duty food processor – I wrote a piece not long ago about choppers of all kind
• Toaster oven – a multipurpose device for warming up food, toasting bread and quick heating instead of a microwave.  It is great in the summer for baking something small and not having to turn on the hot old oven!
• Crockpot– Year round convenience. It is wonderful for soups, sauces and casseroles. Start a meal and walk way.  I use it instead of the oven or stove top in the summer.

And then there are the ones that are absolutely not necessary, but sure make life a whole lot easier appliances:

Choppers! I love them!

Not the noisy big ones, the other kind. . . So you can imagine my excitement today when I  made a great find today: a small food processor (chopper) for $5.00 at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  This may be the most exciting purchase I have made all month! I told you, I love choppers!

Here’s the deal: choppers make life easier.  And as far as I can tell, there is no such thing as having too many choppers in my kitchen! The picture here shows my three favorites (just try and ignore the 60’s vintage orange counter top).

What you see on the right is my full size Cuisinart food processor – top of the line and a gift from my parents my years ago.  I have had to replace a couple of small parts but it is truly a workhorse and has served me well. I use if for soups, making nut butter and just about anytime I make a large casserole.

Cookbooks as Suggestions (or a few words about my recipes)

First of all, lets be clear that I consider cooking more art than science. The important disclaimer as that we are talking cooking not baking. Baking is kinda fiddly and requires much more science. But that said, I think of recipes as crude hand drawn maps. They give you a rough idea about the general direction you are planning to go.

My Pantry

Of course I have a stash of the must have foods.  As long as I have the things shown here plus a few basic veggies and herbs I can always figure out how to cook a meal.  Here’s my pantry

• On shelves 1,2 and 4 are glass jars full of
• beans – black, white, red, garbanzos, lentils and fava
• rice – black and brown
• grains – cornmeal, quinoa, buckwheat
• nuts – almonds. cashews, pecans
• seeds – sesame, chia, sunflower
• On Shelf 3 are jarred items:
• Oils
• prepared mustard
• salsa
• raisins
• honey
• minced garlic
• dried chopped onions
• On Shelf 5 are canned items:
• white kidney beans (most red ones are canned with sugar)
• diced tomatoes
• black beans
• garbanzo beans
• green chilies
• brown rice pasta – fusilli, penne and shells

In the fridge, freezer or stored in a cool dry place you will find:

• onions
• celery
• carrots
• spinach
• potatoes (either red, white or sweet)
• jar of lemon juice
• nut butter (almond is our favorite)
• ak-mak crackers or corn chips (preferably baked)

Finally, salt and pepper and a few dried herbs:

• basil
• thyme
• oregano and/or marjoram
• dried chipotle chilies
• bay leaf
• cinnamon
• nutmeg

Because we buy most of these items in bulk at either Costco or from various online sources the packages shown are very large. The good part is that a lot of this stuff only needs to be replaced every month or two (sometimes three). Just to be clear, we did not stock this pantry all a once!  We, like most people, have a food budget. What we did was to just started adding a couple of things each time we shopped and before long we had a surprisingly full pantry with no damage to our budget!

During the summer our garden supplies all the fresh food except the potatoes.  During the winter we buy either at Costco or by watching the paper for weekly specials and stocking up.

I could feed anyone tasty vegetarian or vegan food for a week just using these few items.  And trust me, so could you!

Mirepoix - The French Secret

Every cook has their basic ingredients.  You know, the 10 essential things you NEED if you are going to cook! Let’s assume that salt and pepper are already in the vicinity. 

What else do you need? What I need are:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Celery
• Carrots
• Olive Oil
• Basil
• Marjoram
• Honey
• Cinnamon
• Cloves

Many of my entrees and soup start with the first five – onions, garlic celery, carrots and olive oil.  Sautéing them up every time I want to cook is a time waster and a nuisance! So I use the traditional French approach and keep mirepoix in my fridge. For those of you who have a little trouble with weird French pronunciation -- it is pronounced meer-pwah.

About once a week I pull out the food processor and make a good size batch. There are as many ways to make mirepoix as there are French and Cajun cooks.  Remember, making it is an very inexact science. It is a matter of taste and what you have available.  Honestly, it is a trial and error process. 

To help you I have written down my recipe as a guideline. There is really only one rule -- HAVE FUN!!


MIREPOIX – Flavor Magic
1. Lightly Cover frying pan bottom with olive oil and heat
2. While oil is heating chop the following in the food processor

• Celery (6 stalks or about 1 cup)
• Carrots (2 or 3 or about 1 cup)
• Onion- equal to celery and carrots (2 or 3 or about two cups)
• 4 or five fresh basil leaves or 1T of dried Basil

3. When oil is very hot add:

• Contents of the food processor from above 
• Garlic to taste*

4. Stir well and cook on high for about 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

*A note about garlic: I would not even attempt to give you a measurement on the garlic! Especially since it would be hard for me to define “too much”. We love the stuff and buy it at Costco or Sams Club in 48oz jars. It makes no sense to me to spend time peeling, crushing, dicing etc!   I won’t even tell you how long (actually short) 48 oz lasts us; you'd be appalled!