Kitchen Essentials: Stirrers and Scrapers

I'm so glad I had the perfect picture for this post--not only is this a Throwback Thursday shot, it's one of my all-time favorite pictures of my offspring.

What would you say is the best part about this picture of Boy#3 foretelling his future career as a music teacher. (Really!) Is it the upside-down hymnbook? The natty striped sweats paired with a plaid flannel shirt? The vigorous song that would be the soundtrack if you pushed 'play'?

No! Of course not! It's the pan on his head! And that, my friends, is a perfect TBT segue into the never-ending saga of MomQueenBee's Kitchen Essentials. Today, as promised, we have stirrers and scrapers. Without further ado here are the must-haves in my kitchen.

1. A slotted spoon. I know, I know. Real cooks would go for the wooden spoons first, but I just...can't. I have tried for years to cook with wooden spoons because that's what big kids do, but my mom's slotted spoon that I rescued from the off-to-Goodwill box is still my favorite.

2. A spatula (pancake-flipper-ish type). You will use this when you flip pancakes, and also when you scramble eggs, and also when you take cookies off the cookie sheet, and also when the bottom drops out of the bag and you have to clean five pounds of flour off the kitchen floor.

3. A spatula (scraper type). Yes, get all three sizes of these. You will use the the large one for scooping potato salad out of the enormous mixing bowl on July 4, the medium one for icing sheetcakes and folding egg whites into waffle batter, and the small one for getting every last delicious dab out of the peanut butter jar.

4. Tongs. Do not get the tongs I linked here, these are for illustrative purposes only and are far too expensive. The tongs I use every single day were $1 apiece at the hardware store, and I have three sets impaled on the side of my utensil crock. That way I can flip the fish, dish up the vegetables, and serve the spaghetti with no cross-pollination. (Oh, who am I trying to fool? I do all of those things with the same set, no washing between tasks, because I forgot to run the dishwasher and the other two are dirty.)

5. Whisk(s). If I had to choose only one whisk, I'd make it the small one because lumpiness occurs in every sauce I make, and the small one is the perfect size for remedying that disgustingness. But the large whisk is essential for sausage gravy, and since this list is for Boy#4, who is a sausage gravy connoisseur, get the set.

Oh, wait--I just realized this was to be stirrers and scrapers and I put tongs on this list. Please distract yourself from that by going back to the top of the page.

Look! It's a cute kid with a pan on his head!

Next up: Small appliances and other things that sort of plug in. Oh, also, I am receiving no kick-back whatsoever from Amazon or Oxo or anything else I've linked on this page. Darn it.