What can't you do without in your kitchen ?

There are many new fangled implements that we can buy for our kitchens, some of them quite useless. Like the orange juicer that looks like a metal rocketship, only if you were to use it the juice would go everywhere.

But for every useless bit of equipment there are plenty that once we kitchen queens buy and use, we wonder how we every cooked without them.

Some of the essentials that we need are good sharp knives that are well balanced. Many years ago my old set of knives that hadn't cost me much money really couldn't be sharpened any more. The were more dangerous than a sharp knife.

Mr CLI suggested we go to my favourite kitchen shop in Ballarat - Le Kitchen, to look for a better set of knives. Now I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on the knives, but by the time I had looked at Myer and returned to the shop Mr CLI had discussed knife options with the helpful staff and showed me a knife set made by Wusthof, which were just under $1,000. Now I wasn't going to spend that sort of money, but MR CLI insisted that is was false economy to buy a cheaper set, that would have to be replaced in a few years.

Well I walked out of Le Kitchen with a new set of Wusthof knives. Now 10 years later they are still as sharp as the day I bought them, mind you I do sharpen them regularly, and I still enjoy using them.

Now I don't mind expensive kichen equipment as presents. Another purchase from Le Kitchen was a bamix blender, in pink of course. It has whizzed many a sauce and soup, also Miss Fish has whipped many a container of cream, to have with scones and jam.

This year I got for Easter the small processor that it fits into, so now I am armed to wizz small amounts of herbs, garlic and the like.

After a holiday in Adelaide, a very heavy mortar and pestle returned home in the boot.

Small tongs now you would think that they might be useless, but they aren't they are terrific if you have a small portion of salad or a small bowl of cooked meat instead of large tongs falling out of the bowl, these just sit in there quite comfortably.

Silicone, now how did we manage without silicone baking sheets, cake mix scrapers, brushes, spoons. egg lifters. The list goes on and on. Everytime I look in a kitchen ware shop I see more silicone equipment.

Now I could go on and on about the new bits of very useful equipment. How many pieces of equipment do you have that you can't live without ?