One Simply Terrific Thing: Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)

Want to take your baking up a notch? Try adding turbinado sugar to your kitchen pantry arsenal to give your baked goods an added level of crunch and sweetness! Continue reading “One Simply Terrific Thing: Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)”…

Want to take your baking up a notch? Try adding turbinado sugar to your kitchen pantry arsenal to give your baked goods an added level of crunch and sweetness!

Continue reading "One Simply Terrific Thing: Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)" »

Why I Love Nut Milk Bags (For More Than Just Straining Nut Milks!)

Welcome to One Simply Terrific Thing, our ongoing series highlighting the small tools and kitchen goods that make life better!
The nut milk bag’s terribly-specific name screams unitasker! but it’s actually an incredibly useful tool that can r…

Welcome to One Simply Terrific Thing, our ongoing series highlighting the small tools and kitchen goods that make life better!

The nut milk bag’s terribly-specific name screams unitasker! but it’s actually an incredibly useful tool that can replace many single-use or clumsy, large items in your kitchen and/or home bar.

In terms of practical value, it’s right up there with a reliable cocktail shaker.

The nut milk bag is made of fine, breathable mesh. Because of the airflow, you can use it as a container for drying herbs or edible flowers. It can also replace cheesecloth, fine strainers, coffee filters, and any of the other unwieldy gear you reach for when you need to separate solids from liquid. (And oh yeah, and it strains nut milks, too.)

These bags come in various sizes, but this wide 12-inch size is the best overall. It can hold quite a lot (I used mine recently to strain chicken stock scraps), but also doesn’t seem excessive for straining smaller items like a batch of fresh ricotta cheese. The wide opening also ensures that you can fold it over a bowl or a measuring glass.

I’ve had my current nut milk bag for around four years now and only just recently needed to grab an extra one, since quarantine life had me straining cold brew coffee and homemade cheese concurrently. Not only is this a versatile kitchen tool, but if you’re also a home bar enthusiast (like me!), then this also comes in handy for infusing liquors or straining that batch of homemade orgeat.

The best part of owning one is saying goodbye to so many single use items, and those annoying threads from cheesecloth. And when you’re done with it, it folds up teeny tiny into your drawer until next time.

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Why I Love OXO’s Garlic Press

Garlic presses get a bad rap, but if you find a good one it’s an incredibly useful, helpful tool. The OXO garlic press beats all others! Continue reading “Why I Love OXO’s Garlic Press” »

Garlic presses get a bad rap, but if you find a good one it’s an incredibly useful, helpful tool. The OXO garlic press beats all others!

Continue reading "Why I Love OXO’s Garlic Press" »

Why I Love Weck Juice Jars

Traditional water pitchers are fine, but Weck Juice Jars are the best—not just for water, but for iced tea, cold brew, or even as a wine decanter! Continue reading “Why I Love Weck Juice Jars” »

Traditional water pitchers are fine, but Weck Juice Jars are the best—not just for water, but for iced tea, cold brew, or even as a wine decanter!

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Why I Love the OXO Fat Separator

If you love making meals like short ribs, bone broth, and meat roasts in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot, then you need this fat separator. It’s the best one! Continue reading “Why I Love the OXO Fat Separator” »

If you love making meals like short ribs, bone broth, and meat roasts in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot, then you need this fat separator. It’s the best one!

Continue reading "Why I Love the OXO Fat Separator" »

Why I Love the Sweese Butter Dish

Welcome to One Simply Terrific Thing, our ongoing series highlighting the small tools and kitchen goods that make life better!
I went a very, very long time without a butter dish.
There’s no good reason why. I just never got one, even a…

Welcome to One Simply Terrific Thing, our ongoing series highlighting the small tools and kitchen goods that make life better!

I went a very, very long time without a butter dish.

There’s no good reason why. I just never got one, even as I winced every time I crumpled the ends of a butter wrapper to close it back up, smearing a bit of butter on my hands in the process, and knowing some of that butter was going to end up smeared along the bottom of my refrigerator drawer, too.

It was an ineffective system that I have now remedied thanks to the large ceramic Sweese butter dish ($21 from Amazon).

I like its classic looks and the tight-fitting beech lid, which has a silicone ring seal you can also remove if you just want the top to rest loosely on the container.

But most of all I love its size: it measures 6″ x 3.5″ by 2.7″ inches, which means it’s deep and wide enough to hold two standard sticks of butter (four if you really pushed it) or one European-style stick of butter, like Kerrygold or Plugra. It’s really more like a bowl for butter, and because it’s so deep it also prevents butter from hitting and sticking to the lid – a mess-free bonus! And while you have to hand-wash the lid, the container can be put in the dishwasher. (Yay!)

When I’m in bread-baking mode and baking a couple loaves a week, I just keep the butter container on my counter so the butter is always soft and ready to use.

Claudia has a butter dish very similar to this, and is also a major fan:

I love that I can scoop the butter out rather than have the butter sit on a tray. It also holds a lot of butter (which is great for my family) and stays clean thanks to it being more of a bowl. I also leave it on my counter. I haven’t had an issue with butter going bad, but we go through a lot of it!

Cheers to good tools that solve messy problems!

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Quarter Sheet Pans

While we’ll never give up our half sheet pans, don’t forget about quarter sheet pans! These smaller-sized pans are perfect for small-batch cooking and prep. Continue reading “Quarter Sheet Pans” »

While we'll never give up our half sheet pans, don't forget about quarter sheet pans! These smaller-sized pans are perfect for small-batch cooking and prep.

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Precut Parchment Paper

It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Precut parchment paper for sheet and cake pans is a time-saving, annoyance-busting product that is worth having in the kitchen. Continue reading “Precut Parchment Paper” »

It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Precut parchment paper for sheet and cake pans is a time-saving, annoyance-busting product that is worth having in the kitchen.

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