Category: Tool Review

I’ve been making a ton of cookies the past two days, and thought this would be a good time to talk about my amazing cookie sheet of DOOM!

 

It measures 21″ x 15″ and *just* fits in my oven:

 

I love it, as it makes making my triple batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies much quicker! They also make a mega muffin pan, mega donut pan, mega mini-loaf pan, mega mini muffin pan, and a mega mini fluted pan. Yes, these are all on my wish list now. 🙂

The other tool I wanted to talk about is my oven thermometer. Now, my mother had one decades ago that irritated the hell out of me because I inevitably would knock the thing off every time I put something in the oven. While there are a lot of different options for an oven thermometer, I went with the reliable stand by that my mom had. These people have making thermometers for over 100 years, so I’m going to go out onto a limb and say they’re accurate. 🙂

 

 

I found that it is almost a necessity for me now. First, my oven is NOT preheated when it says it is. My oven ‘beeps’ when the preheat cycle is over and lets me know it is now at whatever temperature. But it really isn’t and the thermometer bears that out. It’s almost 100 degrees cooler than it should be!

With the more recipes I’m doing, I want to make sure the temp is accurate. I’m also using it to work on using my oven as a proofing box for yeast breads. I need to know what temp it gets to under “warm”, as it doesn’t say in the book the oven came with. I have some great British recipes, that has everything in celsius, so it’s a quick reference there too!

From time to time, I’ll review some of the tools I use because there are some I really like. 🙂

For a very long time, I did not own a mandolin. I just cut everything with my knife and dealt with them not all being perfectly the same thickness. Nor did I worry about things being pretty – that’s usually what my brother Paul is for when we cook together. However, I finally caved in and bought one, mostly because I’m lazy. Seriously, using one takes half the time of cutting things with a knife.

The one I ended up purchasing is this one:

(Btw, that’s an affiliate link – in case you feel like buying one. A small percentage goes onto an amazon gift card for me, because I spend most of my money on Amazon anyway. LOL)

It works GREAT and comes with a lot of options.

• The blades are hardened stainless steel and hold their edge. I’ve had mine for a year now and use it frequently and have not noticed any dull spots at all.
• Simple to adjust in thickness – from 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4 inches. 
• Straight and wavy blades for straight or crinkle cuts, and julienne blades for French Fries or fine julienne strips.
• The food holder is fine for those who need it (I like living on the edge) and the ‘runway’ is designed well to keep food from sticking.
• The dial on the side is easily turned to adjust thickness, and also locks it when storing and unlocks it for cleaning.
• Love the non-slip feet to keep it in place when using and they fold up so it stores flat.

The only thing I wish could be changed about it is the ease of cleaning. The blades come out simply enough to clean, but the rest is all connected together, so makes it a bit awkward to clean after you’ve used it. Still, I recommend it highly!