I’m a “comfortable” minimalist. I have 4 small appliances- a good food processor, aroma rice steamer, convection toaster, and a small neat fryer. Love these products and I don’t really need any others.

Also, my oxo salad spinner works well as a strainer, spinner, service and crisper. So for $24, it was a steal and hardly a unitasker.

[...] The Minimalist and the No Frills Kitchen @ Get Rich Slowly [...]

“Jeff Says:
May 15th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
instead of a slow cooker or crockpot a dutch oven will cook all the same stuff with a lot better results.

Crock pots make mush of everything. A dutch oven lets you sear and create a ‘fond’ (the brown crusty stuff on the bottom of the pot). You deglaze the pan and instant flavor results. Turn down the heat to a simmer or ut it in a low oven and you are all set. You can never get that with a crock pot.”

Can’t leave the Dutch oven cooking all day when you are away!

When I set up my first apartment, I also inherited my grandmother’s things (old pyrex measuring cups and bowls, etc). I swear by the old cast iron. To keep the seasoning on cast iron – after you wash them, turn on the burner of the stove, put the empty pot/pan on the burner and let all the dampness inside evaporate. While the pot is still hot, take a little oil on a paper towel and coat the cooking surfaces. Wipe off the excess with a fresh paper towel after the pot dried.

[...] The Minimalist and the No-Frills Kitchen I prefer making my own bread, then baking it separately in a normal breadpan. Breadmakers never seem to get it … right. But I’m digressing from the main idea of this interesting article. (@ get rich slowly) [...]

Ironically, I learned to cook a particular Colombian dish and went on a trip to Colombia, and tried to impress my friends there telling them that I was able to make this dish. However, it took me 3 hours to cook the dish, but it only took them 30 minutes, because they used a pressure cooker, and I just used a normal pot (I now have caught up with them because I got a pressure cooker as a gift). So, everyone will find one essential item on the ‘inessential’ list, the pressure cooker is mine. Imagine all of the power it saves!

I know steaming inserts are cheap, but I just keep forgetting to buy one. I put about 3/4 inch of water in the pot and the veggies green up beautifully.

Crock pots make mush of everything. A dutch oven lets you sear and create a ‘fond’ (the brown crusty stuff on the bottom of the pot). You deglaze the pan and instant flavor results. Turn down the heat to a simmer or ut it in a low oven and you are all set. You can never get that with a crock pot.

Crock pots are good for keeping stuff warm but the results are poor when cooking. A cast iron lodge wear dutch oven is dirt cheap too.

Other than that:

Good solid pans that aren’t too heavy.

An electric steamer – I absolutely love mine, it gets used at least two or three times a week and we’re eating a lot more vegetables now.

A blender for smoothies

Oven gloves

I know a lot of cooks sneer at them but our garlic press gets used almost every day

I’d second Amy Jo’s advice to study what you cook before buying. It’s far too easy to get sucked into gadget lust if you like to cook – try and get things like slow cookers and bread machines on freecycle, that way if it turns out you don’t use them you’re not out of pocket.

Of course, I hadn’t totally found my kitchen “style”, and I bought some things I barely use now (like a blender – but I did use it a lot back then). My husband went through a similar kitchen-building phase in his first apartment, and by the time we got married we had a better idea of what we actually needed.

And then there was the wedding registry. Nice set of dishes? Never used them (um, yet). But the kitchen aid mixer? I wouldn’t call it essential, but I love it for bread and he loves it for ice cream. Otherwise my most-used kitchen item is a nice big Joyce Chen wok. I made a list of my most-used and most-loved kitchen tools here.

However, if you do spend any quality time in the kitchen, I’m a big believer in buying a NICE knife or two (and learning how to care for them) when you can afford it. It really makes your cooking experience that much more enjoyable. My best investment was an $80 Wusthof Santoku Knife…. super versatile, and chops through anything you throw at it. Even though I have a full Wusthof set now, it really is the only knife I need 90% of the time.

I’d also get one really nice pan when you can afford it. Watch Amazon for housewares sales… I picked up a nice big 3qt Calphalon professional non-stick pan for a steal and use it religiously.

For a salad spinner, go to Ikea. $3-$5 buys a basic spinner that holds a decent amount of greens. I use mine ours the time…and have found we’re eating more salads because it’s so convenient!

If there was anything I’d add to my kitchen (which is pretty basic), it would be a steaming basket. Still need one of those.

The kitchen equipment I did accumulate during college was kind of random (it filled the gaps in my roommates’ existing collections) and included a steamer (double duty: big pot + steaming), a blender (morning smoothies), a meat tenderizer (bought at the Bins & almost never used as such: mostly served as hammer), muffin tin (many occasions require cupcakes), and ancient hand beater. That’s it, to the best of my memory, and then I sold it all (okay, the tenderizer and the ancient beater didn’t go) before I left Portland. I still don’t have a full kitchen set (again, roommate’s stuff + boyfriend’s stuff + my stuff = kitchen), so when I finally get settled in a stable place of my own, I’ll probably have to do it all over again.

6-inch santoku knife
Grandma Minnie Velma’s cutting board
Grandma Minnie Velma’s colander
10-inch cast iron skillet
All Clad 10-inch skillet
All Clad 12-inch saute pan
All Clad stock pot
Henckels peeler
Grandma Minnie Velma’s Pyrex measuring cup
stainless steel dry measuring cups & spoons

Other tools I use with some regularity and I am really happy to have; all except for the salad spinner and rolling pin were gifts:

microplane graters (3 sizes)
oxo mandoline
salad spinner
French wooden rolling pin
Set of Clay City Pottery mixing bowls
immersion blender

I do not use the countertop appliances I have on daily basis: Kitchen Aid stand mixer, blender, and Kitchen Aid food processor. I bought the food processor a couple of years ago after resisting the pull for a long time. I could live with out it, but it has come in handy. I rarely use the blender, a wedding gift, and the mixer, also a wedding gift, is on the fritz.

Before investing in kitchen tools, one should take a good hard look at how and what they cook and eat. I’m a scratch-cooker and baker who makes a lot of stir frys, soups, braises, and breads and pies so the tools I value are not going to be the same as someone who eats a lot of prepared foods. I think a lot of folks forget that kitchen tools are tools not status objects. That said, I only want to invest in something once so I am willing to pay the price tag (on sale, of course).

Unlike some other people, I am happy with no food processor–I use a knife or cheese grater. I also use a hand-held mixer (or a fork or a wire whisk), not a giant stand mixer that’s practically an extra piece of furniture. I don’t use heavy pots and pans, but then most of my cooking is either baking or requires continuous stirring (so it doesn’t matter if the heat isn’t perfectly even).

Equip Your Kitchen For $300, Seriously….

If you, like us, watch the Food Network, you’ll no doubt have noticed all the nifty gadgets and high-end cookware the star chefs are using. It’s pretty, and we’re sure it sells well after Bobby Flay chops his omnipresent mango……

Also, I’m also a cast iron addict. I have three in different sizes – and for eggs, I just spray on cooking spray beforehand and no problem. My husband, on the other hand prefers to use his non-stick “omelet pan”.

And I respectfully disagree about the salad spinner. Mine cost a fortune from tupperware, but I LOVE it and use it often. We make a lot of salads and drying by paper towel is just messy.

We also like our pampered chef slicer, pizza stone, breadmaker and Kenmore gas grill (which far exceeds your budget – another wedding gift!).

I second (or third?) the notion of garage and thrift sales for kitchen items. That’s where I got all my cast iron pans (and camping gear) and even an expensive, unused espresso machine. Ross and TJ Maxx are excellent for handy department store brand utensils like spoons and whisks.

Brides. Brides registering for gifts. Couples that have not had individual apartments before, just leaving parents homes, possibly having only lived in dorms.

1 George Forman Grill
2 Slow cooker
3 Foodsaver
4 collapsable steaming tray that fits in any size pot.

You can’t heat up day old pizza with a 7″ Santoku.

But you could cut it up into smaller pieces, I guess.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend the cheap cooker

When you remove the pan, it will be black and glossy, non-stick, and beautiful on the inside.

Another cast-iron tip: NEVER let soapy water sit in the skillet. If you absolutely must use soap to clean it, wash it quickly and rinse and dry thoroughly. Personally, I never use soap on my cast-iron – I clean them with boiling water and a scrub brush.

And only one lid?

Gosh, this makes me glad I got married … we got three high-quality stainless saucepans (with lids) at TJ Maxx with some of our wedding-gift money and they are still cooking in perfect shape 12 years later, along with the chef and paring knife.

My husband would add a silicone spatula and a small nonstick omelet pan, available inexpensively too.