Handiest Kitchen Tools-Wooden Spoon
I have been busy in the kitchen this week! If you follow my Instagram (and if you don’t check it out HERE) you have seen me giving a roasted chicken multiple uses as cream of chicken soup and as chicken stock. That’s not even counting the two additional meals and treats from my pets I got out of it. That’s one hard working bird!
When I prepare soups, stews, stocks and just about anything else that needs to be stirred, I am quite fond of this week’s can’t live without kitchen gadget, the wooden spoon.
To me, there is something very soothing and comforting about cooking with a wooden spoon versus a plastic one. It feels as if I’m cooking with lots of other folks from times past, before plastic and convenience foods existed and all there was were hot cast iron pots, spoons made from wood found in the forest and food you grew and hunted for yourself. It’s a way to connect to the past while still being firmly rooted in 2017 Honestly as much as I love some of the ideas of the past, I am not sure how well I would fare without some of my modern luxuries (washer, dryer, indoor heating and cooking and dishwasher I would miss you all so!)
The beauty of wooden spoons is that you can find them from the dollar store to high end fancy cooking stores, so whatever your price point, there’s a wooden spoon for you. With proper care (I hand wash my wooden spoons as opposed to putting them in the dishwasher), these babies will be stirring food for you for years to come. They are also very sturdy tools that don’t bend or crack under the weight of heavy or hot food. I have had a few incidents where a plastic spoon warped due to the heat from the food or just simply broke into the pot! I have not had this happen with my wooden spoons.
Even better, wooden spoons can do tricks! A neat one I learned from Jim’s grandmother is that if you lay a wooden spoon across a pot you are boiling water in (for pasta or potatoes for example), the spoon will greatly reduce the chance that the water will boil over and spill all over the stove top. This is not to say stick a spoon over your pot and wander away, but it does help tremendously and I have avoided quite a few spill-overs by simply placing my wooden spoon over the pot. It is also helpful because I don’t have to go searching for it when I need to stir the food!
That’s my gadget of the week. I am always curious what tools and gadgets get actual love from folks and which ones sit in their boxes on a shelf. Drop me a line below or find me on social media and let me know what your must haves are in the kitchen. See you next week!