Aaaand tonight, in our latest episode of “Karen Can’t Cook,” we discuss bulky things hidden away in cabinets, spaghetti noodles and new kitchen tools, also known as “kitchen doohickeys and thingamabobbers.”
When the Progressive Wedge & Pop Apple Slicer entered my life and subsequently rocked my world, I realized that I have a weird thing for kitchen tools. I don’t always know what to do with them and can’t always figure them out, but deep down inside I like having them around.
I got some new ones last week as part of my ongoing effort to eat less processed food and learn more about cooking.
Truth: cooking? Not my forte. Most of the time it amounts to me throwing a bunch of stuff into a pot and praying for it to be edible.
But I’m trying! 🙂
So, here are the new kitchen tool additions…
First thing: the Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler ($17). Basically, it’s an improv spiralizer (a tool to turn fresh veggies into faux-noodles). I’ve been wanting a spiralizer to make zucchini noodles, but seriously, the last thing I need is another bulky appliance stowed up on a high shelf in my cabinets, but I figured that with the Kuhn Rikon, because it’s smaller, I could just store it in a drawer for easy access.
How does it work? Well, you just rake the blade across the top of a vegetable to cut it into long, thin strips that look a little like spaghetti noodles.
Very cool, but it’s kind of scary to clean because those teeth are hella sharp.
The second thing: the Dual Slice Mandoline ($20), also by Kuhn Rikon. I grabbed this the other night on a trip with El Hub to our local hardware store (we needed lightbulbs). It’s for slicing very thinly. I used it last weekend to make scalloped potatoes for Easter lunch, and it worked great. You just stick that hat-looking thing to whatever you want to slice (it has prongs that insert into the vegetable), place the soon-to-be-sliced veggie on top of the slicer, hold on to the hat-thing, and run it back and forth across the slicer. The result? Thinly sliced food.
The third and final thing: the Rada Cutlery Vegetable Peeler ($8.99). How I made it this far in life without a vegetable peeler, I have no idea. Honestly, this one isn’t very exciting, but I needed a peeler…and this one gets good reviews on Amazon. So far I’ve used it to successfully peel carrots, potatoes and beets. It feels in my hand and gets the job done.
Oh, and P.S. — did you know that peeling beets is much easier if you cook them first? Yeah, lesson learned. 🙂
Just have to give a shout out to the Rada cutlery/knives/doohickeys! For some reason people at my church (when we used to go that is) sell the Rada knives and stuff as like a fundraiser or something, so we have a bunch and my mom always gives them for wedding gifts. They rock!
Hi Rachel!
Ooh, that’s good to hear. I’m going to look for more Rada doohickeys on Amazon. 🙂 If you have any to reccommend please let me know!
I can’t even boil eggs….that is until my mom put the perfect egg timer in my Christmas stocking! Holy frijoles, I love that thing ( should have put it on my top 7 list earlier ). Now I have boiled eggs all the time ( chopped for salads mainly ) and they come out perfectly each time!! She bought it from William-Sonoma but Amazon has it too.
Another kitchen gadget I love…was another Christmas gag stocking gift…onion goggles. I’m very sensitive to onions ( tear up and headaches….and why waste mascara crying over an onion? ). It helps me quite a bit.
One other thing….it’s not an doohickey thingamabopper, but bottle cleansers tabs from The container store. My Vitamix stained something horrible and these tablets cleared 85% of the gunk off my pitcher.
Karen, use a toothbrush to clean the julienne peeler (or any other of those spiral cutters really (I’m using GEFU’s Spirelli), works great and will keep your fingers save. 😀
I love kitchen gadgets, my husband likes them even more than me, i guess. I am scared to use some of them! Lol. I have a Mandoline slicer too and it’s handy but I hate dragging it out…A vegetable peeler is a must!
I know you don’t eat meat but we even have “bear claws” for shredding meat, lol.
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I cannot live without my vegetable peeler! I’d never eat pototoes anymore, ever, if I didn’t have my peeler 🙂
I’m the exact same way about kitchen tools and appliances! I feel like maybe just owning them would get me cooking. So far the results are mixed. I’ll cook a day and pat myself in the back for a week.
Oh please, please be careful using that mandoline! I sliced off some thumb using one nine years ago and it was So Horrible. My son, who was 3 at the time, still talks about “bloody Sunday.”
You’re smart to skip the spiralizer. I had one that I eventually gave away because I just can’t abide single-use kitchen tools.
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I am obsessed with Rada products. I actually used to live in the town in Iowa where they are made and, in addition to being great kitchen implements, the family who owns the business is lovely and very philanthropic.
Besides the vegetable peeler, which I am so obsessed with I actually carry an extra around in my purse just in case I happen to be cooking/eating at a friends and they have not found the glory of the Rada peeler, I would also highly recommend the tomato slicer and what I think they call the cook’s utility knife. It’s basically a chef’s knife, but with a shorter blade. I also heavily use their serrated pie server for serving desserts because you can actually use it to both slice and serve with one tool. You know, for all those times (cough, cough, 2a.m.) when finding a knife and a serving tool is just too much work for the piece of cake you will be eating anyway.
Vegetable peeler and the slicer are life saver.. that slicer could be handy if you plan to have some onion sliced for salad over potato for chips! 😀
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Love, love, love Rada knives and gadgets! I have tons of them because our local 4-H clubs have sold them for fundraisers for years. Their paring knives are wonderful, as is the tomato slicer and also the steak knives. Have had them for several years and they are still quite sharp. Also, they have this little whisk thingy that looks like an angled triangular spring on a handle, but it is AWESOME for making gravy and sauces. No lumps! Have fun and be careful with your cooking adventures, Karen 🙂
OK, I think I’m going to have to get that paring knife and the tomato slicer! 😀 Thank you for the recommendation, Susan!
I rarely peel veggies but have 3 peelers somehow! I need a spiralizer!
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I only got into cooking now that Little Bean is sharing our food. Forces me to eat healthy-isn most of the time.
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Hey, Karen, funny coincidence…but did you see lifehacker’s linked video on how to use both sides of a vegetable peeler when peeling carrots? It’s a simple step, but, gosh, it looks so neat! Here’s a link to the video if you’re interested: https://youtu.be/XycmTVcmV2k
I’m getting that vegetable peeler you talked about! I read your post and was reminded how much I hate my current vegetable peeler. Today’s post was the gentle nudge I needed to move forward and you made it so easy for me. Yay!
LOL @ the beets comment at the end. You’re awesome.
I love making vegetable “noodles”! I have a Veggetti, which works well enough (and is small enough for easy storage). I also love my mandoline; I use a cut-resistant glove (Sewrch “Kevlar glove”–they are less than $15 on Amazon) to keep my fingers safe and so I don’t waste so much food (the guards cause you to lose so much). I also love my oil misters–they save so many calories. Kitchen gadgets are the best.
I don’t have a vegetable peeler and I basically eat vegetables all day every day! Time for an upgrade in my kitchen tool box? 😀
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Congrats on the new kitchen tools! I have a drawer full of all kinds of fun gadgets, myself. Nothing gets as much use as my mini chopper, though. I have had the same OXO vegetable peeler for probably 12 years and it’s the best I’ve ever used. It gets rave reviews from guests who (for whatever reason) peel veggies at my house. http://www.oxo.com/p-223-swivel-peeler.aspx