The FunnySpoon Five: Utensil Must-Haves

In an ideal kitchen, we'd have a utensil for everything. I mean, just walk around a specialty kitchen store and you'll see stuff you never dreamed of (and some stuff you had but just never got around to buying)! But for various reasons - limited kitchen space, cost, realization that you only eat fresh grapefruit once a year and therefore don't need a special grapefruit knife - you probably won't buy every utensil you see. So here's our top 5 list of utensil must-haves:

The FunnySpoon Five: Utensil Must-Haves

1. A variety of good knives: Don't skimp on quality here - have a good butcher knife, bread knife and smaller paring and dicing knives. You'll frustrate yourself if you try to cut something with the wrong knife, and a cheap-o dull knife will just waste time (and will probably break quickly anyway).


2. Vegetable peeler: There really is no substitute for a good peeler. Who wants to spend the time to use a knife? Plus, when you use a peeler you get rid of the tiniest amount possible - less waste, more veggies!


3. Rubber spatulas: I get a strange sense of personal satisfaction when I get every last bit of batter/dressing/whatever out of the bowl, and my handy rubber spatulas help me do that. Plus you can use them for stirring (which means one less utensil to wash up!)


4. Kitchen shears: This is another multi-tasker. Just a few things I use kitchen shears for are: cutting pizza (way easier than a pizza cutter!), slicing gross/fatty bits off meat (especially chicken) before cooking, and opening difficult packages. Saves time and saves room in my utensil drawer when I can use one utensil for so many things!


5. Blender: Every now and then a recipe will call for a food processor. Or maybe you love margaritas as much as I do. Get your kitchen gear to do double duty and buy a good-quality blender (I know it's not technically a utensil but ...). You don't need to go top-of-the-line, but don't skimp either. You'll feel like a star the first time you successfully blend a block of ice or puree some veggies!

What are your fave kitchen utensils? Which ones serve double-duty and which ones can you not live without?