Turble, I think I love you. Now to convince my husband that we neeeeeeeeeed it.
My parents used to have the Pizzazz and I seriously miss having that thing around.
The Shun knives are insanely fabulous. I started buying them for my Dad one at a time (Christmas, b-day, etc.). He’s a cooking geek like me, and he says they are the most incredible knives he has ever owned.
I was happy with my Henkel 4-stars before, but now I dream of the Shuns. After I finish with the ones Dad wants, I’ll start on my own collection, for sure.
I’d give this a +1 if you weren’t already dead to me for dissing Jennifer Tilly.
We’re semi-lusting for a Keurig coffee maker. We’ve got enough other ways* to make coffee, that it would be a pure luxury item.
- two electric percolators, one stovetop percolator, a French press, a stovetop espresso pot, a church basement-sized percolator (makes 60 cups, I think) and our daily-driver timer-controlled drip brewer.
I love grinding my own meat for chili – that’s the only way you can be sure of getting the proper extra-coarse “chili grind.” I have a hand-cranked meat mincer; someday I will have an electric one. Maybe a stand-mixer attachment, though I never bake and have no other conceivable use for a stand mixer.
Update: I broke down and got the #!#@ vacuum sealer. I figured the Gods wanted me to since they were kind to me on Tax day. It’s coming Tuesday. happy dance
Anyone need anything vacuum-sealed? I’m yer girl!
A bit of a zombie thread revival, but I thought I might report on the amazing bit of kitchen equipment, and renew my lust for one at home.
I had the opportunity to use the oven twice this year. Once at a French & Indian war event in the spring, and once this last weekend at a Revolutionary War event. Both events saw multiple loaves of fresh whole wheat bread in the oven, and they came out better than I could have hoped. This has only strengthened my desire to build one in my backyard. The one at the Fort at no 4 (Charleston NH) is clay, rather than brick, but the concepts remain the same.
What a treat to be able to use such a piece of gear, and someday, I hope to help rebuild theirs, and build one of my own.
Thanks to this thread (and bump’s other mention of it), we got the 13" skillet. It’s amazing–I love it, and my wife calls it her favourite pan. We’ve had nicely seasoned cast irons for years, but this has them collecting dust.
Its three best features are exactly what we expected. At its heart, it’s a cast iron pan with all the cookery goodness thereof. But it’s spotless between uses. To put it to the test, I seared steaks in it, deglazed it with a rich wine sauce, then after washing used it again in the same meal to make dessert crêpes. The third benefit: the dishwasher. Cleaning regular cast irons isn’t necessarily arduous, but the ability to put it in with the rest of the dishes vastly heightens the conveinence.
We’ve gone so far as giving them as gifts to a couple people.
Great thread, great pan, great thanks!
Next up: a a sous-vide machine.
The chest freezer is definitely just shy of the “essential” list but is well ahead of the nonessential stuff - on a rank of 1-10 where 1 = literally must have, like a couple of basic knives and a saucepan and 10 = something like a sous vide setup or a kitchen blowtorch… I’d rank the chest freezer at a 5. Hugely useful and pays for itself with 2-3 loss-leader sales at the grocery store!
Another vote for a Kitchenaid mixer. I cook 3 meals a day about 300 days of the year and bake quite alot. I could use the shit outta one-a-those. Alas, we are poor. Not gonna happen, but we have talked (in jest) about getting married just for the mixer.
Automatic Bread machine.
I’m resisting because I would eat too much of that delicious hot bread. Way too many calories.
As I posted above, I got the vacuum sealer I’d be lusting over. And holy crap, do I use the shit out of that thing. No, it’s not your standard kitchen item, and even I had reservations about buying something that had to sit on the counter all the time (cuz it’s 50 FOOKIN’ POUNDS) and might not get much use.
I was so wrong. It’s one of those things that once you have it, you use it all the time. Pretty much everything that goes in the freezer (which is a fair bit - I like to cook with the future in mind) gets sealed up quickly and (if you just count the cost of the bags) cheaply. I buy big chunks o’ cheese, divide them up, and seal a few for use in a few weeks (no, it doesn’t retard mold altogether, but it makes it last a lot longer.) And it’s super great for sous-vide, I never have to worry that my bags are going to pop open halfway through cooking.
Plus, it’s super fun to watch seal things. Mr. Athena and I both sit and watch it when it finally releases the vacuum and the bag seals. Yes, we’re easily amused.
Psssst! No equipment required. You’re welcome. 
I have a very small kitchen with hardly any counter space after 'im indoors decided we absolutely could not live without the most humungous microwave in the entire world. However, that does not stop me lusting after KitchenAids and bread makers, especially after I found a daily loaf machine.