Tag: kitchen gadgets

What to Do When the Turkey Baster is Basted…

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Pan left from this view and you can see how many empty growlers are on the kitchen table…

How do you get your Thanksgiving Turkey safely from the roasting pan to the carving board? Your crispy, tender, perfectly cooked bird is at risk of taking a spectacular dive onto the kitchen floor- it’s probably twenty pounds of hot, slippery yumminess.

And what if the head Turkey Chef is cooked? And all the other family Sous Chefs are probably equally toasted by this time in the family’s day, too.

You think ahead and equip your kitchen with the equivalent of a Turkey Gaff, that’s what you do!

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This bird was perfect, by the way… way to go, Chef!

This Good Grips Poultry Lifter is a good idea, way better than the two wooden spoons that we have traditionally shoved unceremoniously into either end of the bird… ouch! We hardly knew him, after all, how rude! But seriously, anyone with grip issues (arthritis, strength, etc…) will appreciate the big, rubber, ball-shaped grip at one end and the fork-y hooks,  general physics, and gravity proved that this design is way better than two flimsy spoons.

I should thank the family for letting me throw them under the bus in the name of humor (“Artistic License,” is just another way of exaggerating for the sake of a good laugh, really).

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies- And a Gadget Recommendation…

It’s Cookie Time!

imagesI can’t go very long between baking cookie baking sessions. I think I’d revert to some sub-human level. Picture something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. I’d like to register a complaint to The Board of Fairness- I bake for a hobby, my husband gets cookies; his hobby, biking, just has me occasionally bonking my head on the bikes hanging from our garage ceiling. Not. Fair.

I have way too many cookie recipes on a Pinterest board for desserts. With too many things on my plate this week and a a spare hour, I crammed in making this recipe. I made the dough for these Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookies, ran carpool while it chilled in the fridge, then came home to bake.

Get a rasp grater, really.
Get a rasp grater, really.

Several years back I read a short writeup in a magazine about hardware store rasp graters being bought by home cooks and chefs alike to grate hard cheeses and citrus rinds. If you haven’t bought one for your kitchen and are passing up recipes calling for citrus zest because you don’t like wrestling with a round fruit and a sharp paring knife, go get a rasp grater! I don’t like to own many tools that do only one thing- a good knife can probably replace half of the gadget wall in any store’s housewares department. Even though I only use a rasp for parmesan cheese and grating citrus rind, I keep it because it really works well-  finely grated lemon rind with practically no effort.

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Refrigerated dough, sliced, now ready to bake.

This recipe hails from a great travel and food blog, TinyUrbanKitchen.com. I love it when bloggers mention where they originally found a recipe, and she respectfully credits The Joy of Cooking in her adaptation of this shortbread. I followed the recipe, but with one small change- instead of two teaspoons of vanilla I used one, and added a teaspoon of lemon extract to really get the lemon flavor to pop. These were delicious! The recipe would work well as a plain shortbread cookie or almond flavored with sliced, toasted almonds on top… yum! I might need to make another batch tomorrow… do I have enough almond extract?

Click here to go over to TinyUrbanKitchen.com for the Meyer Lemon Shortbread Cookie recipe. These were great!

Really Good Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Really Good Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Mmmmmm… Lemon Drop Cocktail

Yea! Talked The Husband into picking a couple of lemons off of my little Meyer lemon bush… it was after dark, and that is when the black widow spiders come out. Ick.

It was worth his trouble, since I let him make cocktails for us. I’m nice like that.

Lemon Drop Cocktail-

Per drink you will need:
1 1/2 oz vodka
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 teaspoon simple syrup
1/4 oz Cointreau

optional- lemon flavored sugar to put on the rim of the glass

Anchor Hocking 5 oz. Measuring Glass (Amazon has them, click the photo to go to Amazon)
Anchor Hocking 5 oz. Measuring Glass (Amazon has them, click the photo to go to Amazon)

And as far as kitchen tools are concerned, this little bugger (pictured left) is great. For this drink tonight, we wanted to measure out these fussy, small amounts correctly to decide if we really liked this recipe. We use it whenever we need to take the pains to accurately measure small amounts of liquids. Like tonight.

Small, easy to clean and inexpensive and store citrus juicer.
Small, easy to clean and inexpensive and store citrus juicer.

I’d also recommend a small, easy to clean and store citrus juicer, like the one pictured on the right. Unless you have all the space in your kitchen for cute, green for limes, larger yellow for lemons and largest for oranges citrus squeezers, go right ahead. I don’t. (Click that link to see…)

This was really tasty, by the way! The Husband recommends having well chilled vodka for this, or shaking the concoction with ice before pouring into your glass.

Cheers!