What I've Been Cooking Lately and My Favorite Kitchen Appliances

It's been a while since I've shared what I've been cooking lately, so I thought I'd do a post.

Two years ago I purchased a KBS Pro Stainless Steel Bread Maker because I wanted the ease of baking my own bread in my home without the fuss of kneading, setting to rise, etc.  I also wanted to control the ingredients that go into my bread:  no preservatives for me!  This bread maker is one of the best investments I ever made.  It's so simple to use and it makes large enough loaves for the whole family and each loaf comes out perfect every single time. 

The bread maker comes with a recipe book of many different varieties of bread from classic honey white to rye bread.  We have enjoyed every loaf we tried in the book.  If you've tried a bread maker before and have shied away from them since, let me reassure you that bread makers have come a long way from the ones in the past.  First of all, they make full size loaves;  remember those tiny little loaves the old ones used to make?  They were pretty much single-serving only.  And the ease and simplicity is amazing!  I just put in the ingredients in the instructed order, pick the right setting, hit start, and wa-la, about three hours later I have the perfect loaf of bread!

I slice my bread with this Bamboo Bread Slicer, and I keep it fresh with this Bread Box.

I've never been one for kitchen gadgets but with all the time consuming food processing I do I've been finding that investing in kitchen gadgets has been a great convenience and time saver.

Another kitchen item I invested in was a food sealer.  I purchased it at Menards but unfortunately can't find it on their website.  There are lots of options on Amazon if you're interested.  I love this product mostly because it saves me a lot of freezer space, but also because it really does keep food fresh.  It is so easy to use too.  Just place your item in the bag, insert into the machine, press "wet" or "dry" and "start" and the machine does the rest.

I had some opened Apple Butter in my fridge that really needed to be used up so I made this incredible Apple Butter Crumb Cake.  Oh my goodness, is this delicious.  I love the crumb topping too.  And the Apple Butter in the center makes it moist so it's not as dry as most coffee cakes.

It is such a pretty cake standing alone, or when sliced because of the Apple Butter in the center.  It's the perfect cake to serve when having tea with friends!

After I enjoyed one serving of the cake, I froze the rest.  I used my vacuum sealer to freeze the cake and I am happy to report that when I took it out of the freezer and popped it in the microwave it tasted as fresh and delicious as the day I made it!

I always label anything that goes in the freezer as it's sometimes hard to tell what it is after it's been frozen 😃.  I also date it so I know how old it is.

A couple of other kitchen items I invested in was a food dehydrator and a spice grinder.  When you grow your own food and there are only three people in your household, even with the best planning you end up with more produce than you can possibly use.  I found if I dehydrate a lot of my veggies, it makes them smaller for freezer storage and some veggies even taste better dehydrated!  My favorite vegetable (or fruit) to dehydrate is cherry tomatoes.  Oh my gosh, in the heat of the summer I can pick a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes a day!  We couldn't possibly eat that many cherry tomatoes.  But if I dehydrate them, I can enjoy them all year long.  I purchased the Cosori Food Dehydrator and it is still going strong two years later.

Spices are so expensive and the organic ones in the store are even more pricey.  But with a dehydrator and spice grinder I can make a lot of my own spices.  One year I accidentally bought chili pepper plants.  Oh my goodness, I had so many chili peppers! I didn't want to waste them so I dehydrated them first using my Cosori Food Dehydrator and then I ground them up using my spice grinder and created a chili pepper seasoning.  I purchased my spice grinder at Menards, but it doesn't appear to be available anymore.  There are plenty of options on Amazon, and did you know spice grinders aren't just for spices?  You can also grind whole coffee beans with them!

Here are what my red chili peppers look like after they are dehydrated.

And here is what they look like after I grind them in my spice grinder.  Amazing isn't it?  You can do this with any herb.  I make my own basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano and more using the same process.

One more new item I purchased was rice cooker.  I always thought rice cookers were unnecessary because you could just cook it on the stove in a pot.  But I kept having issues with the pot boiling over if I took my eyes off it for a second.  I also couldn't cook brown rice to save my life.  So I finally decided to try a rice cooker and boy! What a lifesaver this has been!  I purchased the AROMA Digital Rice Cooker and couldn't be happier. You can cook white or brown rice with it plus steam vegetables.  This has made cooking meals so much easier;  I simply put the water and rice in the bowl, push two buttons and walk away!  I don't have to stand there and watch the pot to make sure it doesn't boil over plus it makes perfect brown rice every single time.

Finally, I have last recipe to show you.  If you don't already follow Half Baked Harvest on Instagram, you should.  She has the most amazing, easy, clean ingredient recipes with super fast fun videos to watch.  I've loved every recipe I have ever made of hers.

These Chocolate Chip Zucchini Banana Muffins with Cinnamon Honey Butter were AMAZING!  And they were a great way to use up zucchini from my garden too!

 I hope you enjoyed this cooking/kitchen appliance post.  What about you?  Do you have any kitchen appliances you could not live without?  I'd love to hear from you.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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