Wednesday, March 9, 2011

My Kitchen Must Have

I have never been a fan of the "must have" item.

I know that Oprah, Rachel Ray and all those other materialistic gurus are always telling us what we NEED to have to make our lives easier, more fun, more efficient etc.

I have only one must have item in my kitchen.

This beauty:

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This is my super huge measuring cup.

It's really big.

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Yes, that reads EIGHT cups.  Or two Quarts.  Either way, it holds a lot of stuff.

It is also made of glass.  Very thick glass.  And has a nice deep, lipped spout.  See?

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And it comes with a super tight lid.

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You may wonder what a person would do with such a large measuring cup.  Well, I originally bought it to easily whip up a few days worth of formula for our little lady.  But now, I'm finding the uses endless.

We use it for mixing batter for cup cakes and pancakes.  With the spout, you can easily pour the batter in to cups or pans without the dribbles and have less to clean with pancakes because you don't need a spoon to scoop the batter.

The other plus is that it fits perfectly in my mixing stand so I can mix it all up and don't have to hold the mixer.  I'm lazy like that.

We also use it for cooking rice in the microwave, straining stock from boiled chicken (we never had a bowl big enough and always had to use two), and making batches of chocolate milk. If you warm the glass before, you can easily melt chocolate without it burning.  Add milk, stir and presto!

It is also wonderful for putting bread in to rise.  I warm it up for 10 minutes in a 150 degree oven while I'm mixing the ingredients, coat it with some oil and then place the bread in.  Because our house is drafty, it is really hard to keep glass at the right temperature for rising, and I don't have glass bowls thick or big enough for a loaf of bread.  This fixes both problems perfectly!

AND, big bonus here for us butter-fingered people.  It is pretty much indestructible.  I have dropped it on the wood floor a handful of times and the only thing damaged was the floor.

The best part?  It is only $7.00 at Walmart.

Can't beat that!

Cheers!
Marina

4 comments:

  1. Just take a look and see if it is tempered. If it is I have another use for you. It can become the skirt of a barbie doll cake =)
    I have one from Pampered Chef...didn't cost me $7 but it is still well worth it.

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  2. It is! While I don't think I'll be making any cake skirts for a few years, that is an awesome idea!

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  3. Lol, I have one of those and hate it. The spout dribbles and whatever I try to pour winds up all over the kitchen. Matthew and I made a huge mess making dinner yesterday with it. :-P

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  4. Oh and my must have? A good wisk, in several sizes. I have found that they are irreplaceable for doing any number of things. :-) Especially cooking Pioneer woman recipes, lol.

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