#142 – Best (and Worst!) Kitchen Tools with Anita of Nose to Tail Recipes

Years ago on Instagram I came across an amazing creator, generously sharing delicious and nourishing recipes. I fell in love with her recipes and they became staples in our kitchen to this day, and over time a friendship developed as we began to chat and then text back and forth. One day i got up the courage to ask her to be on the podcast and she said yes, and you’ve heard her first episode; it’s way back on Episode 55 where Anita and I discuss her process of creation and her incredible recipes, all shared for free on her website, now nosetotailrecipes.com.

Anita and her family visited our family farm in Washington State and we sat down together to record what turned out to be this hilarious episode where we shared with each other our favorite and least favorite kitchen tools. Things got hysterical, or we did anyway, as we could not always agree on whether a tool was primarily useful or useless, and we surprised each other with some unexpected tools that neither of us would have ever thought of and we both wanted to purchase by the end of the episode!

I have shared as many resource links as possible in the show notes as well as a rough list of the subjects we covered. You can also view this episode on our Ancestral Kitchen Podcast YouTube channel, with the video that took us several hours to figure out how to make. For supporters of the podcast, there is a bonus Aftershow where we talked about travel food and more.

If you have wondered about our real thoughts on ice cream makers or juicers, or whether cast iron waffle makers really work or not, this will be an episode you are going to enjoy. Do you think we put the right ones on the dud tool list, or did we get it wrong? Let us know your  favorite tools and which ones we missed!

What We Talked About:

• Getting off social media
• What we last ate
• The Pork Cookbook
• Discord and the AKP community
• Pasta and Dumpling Makers – Pelmeni Maker, Phillips Pasta Maker
• Food Processor Favorites – Andrea’s Food Processor
• Blenders and Mills – Mockmill (US and UK links)
• Instant Pot and Slow Cooker – who wins?
• Surprise Gadget: THE STAR!!! Travel Egg Cooker
• Ice Cream and Juicing – Anita’s Mini Cold Press Juicer, Andrea’s old fashioned ice cream churn (4 qt and 6 qt available), our favorite modern ice cream maker with frozen churn, and listener-recommended top compressor brand, Whynter (various sizes and models available)
• Rice Cooker Praise – Tatung Electric Steamers: Anita uses this for rice and steaming!!! HUGE Favorite!!
• Vitamix and Blending – Andrea’s favorite model of Vitamix and her blog post in praise of 70 Ways to Use the Vitamix
• Food Mill Favorites – Andrea’s mill for tomato sauce, apple sauce (also available from Azure Standard)
• Knives, Meat Slicer, and a Liver Hack – Anita’s meat slicer used for liver, bread and more!
• Vacuum Sealing Meat – Weston Vacuum Sealer (not a compartment sealer, since we do so many large items like turkey and whole ham – one day we would like to add a compartment sealer to our library of tools, though!), WeVac bag rolls, maintenance kit for sealer, sealer bar tape,
• Sauerkraut and Tiny Fermentation Tools – kombucha lid
• Mason Jar Attachments – pouring handle/spout for wide mouth jars, honey dipper for regular mouth pint
• Kefir Whey Lemonade: Anita is Shook
• Little Gadgets: Cherry Pitter and Milk Frother – Tabletop Cherry Pitter and Handheld Cherry Pitter , Anita’s milk frother which they use daily  – after 1 to 2 years of heavy use started to act up
• Vintage Tool: Potato Ricer – a modern stainless steel model
• Thermometers – ChefAlarm thermometer
• Cheese Slicers – Copenhagen
• Let’s Discuss Weird Kitchen Gadgets! (WILL SHE WON’T SHE?!!!)
• Kitchen Nightmares: Dud Tools and Juicers
• Are they really necessary? Spiralizers and Mandolines
• Epic Fail: Orange Juice Press – AFTER we recorded the episode, Anita found a juicer she LOVES!
• Controversial Throwdown: Microwaves and Reheating Coffee
• Waffle Iron Terror: Brittney’s Great Flames and Crying Children
• Listener recommendation: Copper-Plated Waffle Iron
• Last Minute Additions We Couldn’t Forget: Immersion Blender and Turkey Roaster
• Top of the line Vitamix Immersion Blender
• Little workhorse KitchenAid Immersion Blender
• Turkey Roaster – both of Andrea’s are old models no longer available online but there are many to choose from

The personal views and opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect our own personal views or opinions. We recognize that our guests are whole persons and this may include views we or our audience actively disagree with; our guests are invited to the show because we feel they have something valuable to share with us all, and we do not ask them to censor their personal views on air. Our sharing of their work is not necessarily an endorsement of their personal views.

 

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Transcript:

Andrea:
Hello, Anita. Welcome to Ancestral Kitchen Podcast. I’m here with my friend Anita, who has come all the way up from the West to visit. So welcome, welcome.

Anita:
Thank you. I’m very glad to be here. Honored to be here.

Andrea:
Anita has been on the podcast before. I meant to look up what episode that was, but it was like early days. You were on very way back. I was nervous to ask you because I was like, she’s so cool. She’s so famous. Will she even say yes? And you did. And you were so amazing. And then afterwards, I was like, I’m in love with her. She’s so awesome.

Anita:
And here we are at Antonia’s house. And here we are.

Andrea:
So we’re also, if you’re listening to this on the podcast, we are attempting to record this on video, which took us an hour and a half, I think, to set up.

Anita:
I have a degree in computer science.

Andrea:
Everyone, and I’ve been recording podcasts for five years. Between the two of us, we should have this down, but here we are. This is a new frontier for us. We got in the wagon. We didn’t have a map. So we’re trying to record this for the YouTube channel, you guys. There is an Ancestral Kitchen podcast YouTube channel because that is the number one thing I’m asked is, is the podcast on YouTube? I didn’t know that. So if you’re listening to watching this on YouTube, then you already know. But I did not know so many people listen to podcasts on YouTube. So this is all fun and new for me. So we met on Instagram, like me and Allison, and like me and Tara, and also like those none of us are on Instagram anymore.

Anita:
I’m off.

Andrea:
We’re off. What drove you off? It was because I left. You were like, what’s the point?

Anita:
It was really because Andrea left, number one. I think it’s because when I got on Instagram, it was actually images, and then it turned into TikTok. It did. It all became short-form videos. Yeah. And it didn’t feel good anymore. It was very, very addictive. I gave up all social media for Lent in 2025. And I found I really wasn’t missing Instagram. Yeah. But then when that was over, I got on it again, and it’s just so addictive. I just started scrolling again, and it just wasn’t feeling good. And I just said, you know what? I’m just going to get off this thing. I set up controls on my phone so I couldn’t get on it without… getting through a few prompts and that sort of broke the the sort of addictive automatic habits i had where i would reach for it and i it’s, i’m off facebook and instagram and actually instagram is the one i don’t miss at all, at all yeah facebook i still go on sometimes i try to find stuff for my family my friends but are you sifting through it’s all garbage bots and it’s all bots and AI and stuff I don’t even follow. It’s very difficult to even find content I follow on Facebook.

Andrea:
Before we started recording, you were saying you went on and you said, let me see how long I have to scroll before I get to someone I’m actually following.

Anita:
It was a long time.

Andrea:
I haven’t been on in a while.

Anita:
And then there was a batch of people I was following. All of us. It’s like I made it and then I got a batch of posts from people I was following. But it was a lot of scrolling from just garbage I wasn’t following, AI and stuff, to get there.

Andrea:
Terrible.

Anita:
So I feel like both platforms have just deteriorated tremendously.

Andrea:
When I met you, your Instagram and your website were westinapricerecipes.com, but you’ve changed that now. So I’ve got the new website is in the show notes, so you can go see your new, fresh new website that you’re setting up. I was immediately smitten by your recipes because I kept telling people, I’ve never had a dud. I’ve made so many of your recipes. Never has one been bad ever. They all work with the food we eat because we eat the same things. And they’re all like you really strip them down to like these essentials that actually fit real life. Instead of this like saute in here, trim in there, steam in there, and then do this thing and then mix them together. You’re like, hmm, I think we could break this down to one pan, one bowl, like life savings. So, that’s been amazing. So, speaking of food, what is the last thing you ate?

Anita:
I ate your beans and rice, Andrea, and they were so delicious. One thing I actually have no idea how to make is rice and beans, and I’m going to get Andrea’s recipe from the Ancestral Kitchen Pork Cookbook.

Andrea:
Yes, it’s in there.

Anita:
It is so good. I couldn’t stop eating it.

Andrea:
I’m so glad. That is a dish that, like you were saying, it’s just nice to have it in the fridge. So, high in protein, there’s like everything’s in there. There’s meat, there’s beans, there’s like that one I put in. Every recipe, every time I make it is a little bit different, but like we shredded kale in there. We had kale stems trimmed up in there. We had cooked black beans in there. Just everything. All kinds of garlic, scapes, everything. So we have, you also joined yesterday the ancestral support. Well, if you’re watching this, we’re recording it ahead of time a bit. So she’s been in there for a bit now as you’re listening to this. But you joined as a sponsor of our show. Thank you. So that has been awesome. That’s our, we have like a Discord group where people get together and talk about, well, food. It’s food and psychology. I feel like there’s a lot of mental stuff. We were talking about this yesterday, how if you eat this way, you’re kind of the odd one

Anita:
In most groups. And I’m so excited actually to have this community because I was in a couple of groups like this on Facebook before. All of them are gone or I’m not in them anymore because it’s like a members-only group. And I’m not on Facebook anymore anyway. And it’s one thing I really, really miss. So I’m very excited to have this community on Discord.

Andrea:
It’s been awesome. It’s been awesome because you are kind of, well, we’re weird. And you’re kind of like the weird one everywhere you go. And like, oh, your kids don’t die. It’s strange. Don’t you love them? Also, Anita and I are recording a KTC bonus. So if you’re listening and you’re a supporter of the podcast or you want to become a supporter, you can go check out Kitchen Table Chats which is our additional podcast for supporters and we have um We have so many more episodes there than we have on the main feed. It’s insane. There’s so many episodes there. But that’s really fun. So we’ll record an extra bonus for that. And I’m wearing my first time recording in my new T-shirt. When we said we’re going to record a video, I was like, I need to wash my shirt. I want to wear my new shirt. And I got my notes in my podcast notebook that I made. So I’m feeling very swagged out, very on brand, all the things. So, and you don’t read emails, but.

Anita:
Don’t count on me. I’m just going to bus Anita.

Andrea:
Drive over. But we have a newsletter that goes out every month, which I write it. So I’m just saying.

Anita:
Emails stress me out. There’s too many of them. Mine, I have too many.

Andrea:
But if you’re wondering, like, what are all the things, what I do in the email, because I thought, what would I want? and I thought I would want like a list of everything that came out this month.

Anita:
You should put it on Substack. I am on Substack now. And I like Substack. Maybe you can have any of that. It’s actually a great deal. I think it’s a good platform in a lot of ways.

Andrea:
If you’re watching this and I’m on Substack, then you know Anita got to me.

Anita:
And that way, like that’s a feed I check. I’m like, oh, I want to read something interesting. I check just the people I follow. That’s a good idea. And see what they’ve published. So if you just put your newsletter every week or however often you publish it on Substack. Every week?

Andrea:
What do you think I am? She ripped my hand in me.

Anita:
Every other year when you publish your newsletter.

Andrea:
I’m going to write this with a quill pen.

Anita:
You can put it on Substack, and I will. Then I definitely will read it.

Andrea:
Yeah, okay. Well, I’m convinced she sold me on it. So, yeah, the newsletter just sums up everything that came out, whether it was for the public feed or for private so you can kind of see everything and get a handle on it so okay so we’re going to be talking about tools today um we were discussing what should we record as a podcast episode because when i knew you were going to be here i said will you record with me and you said obviously yes i will and we decided to talk about kitchen tools machines gadgets things that are worthwhile having in the kitchen and i also asked you about a couple duds. So things that we don’t find useful in our kitchen. So we’re going to do that at the end. But let’s take a quick ad break and then come right back. Okay. So when I asked you what your favorite kitchen tools are, you immediately jumped out with one. And it’s probably your most expensive one.

Anita:
It is. It’s not going to come as a big surprise to a lot of people, but it is my KitchenAid stand mixer.

Andrea:
Yeah. So what do you use it for?

Anita:
I use it for so much more than I thought I would use it for when I bought it. When I bought it, I thought I was just going to use it for baking, which I don’t do very often. But as it turns out, I use it several times a week. One of the most important, I’d say one of the most important uses is for mixing ground meat. Oh, yeah.

Andrea:
So you’re talking like ground meat, herbs, eggs. Anything.

Anita:
When you make meatballs. I make a lot of meatballs. I make soup. We have a lot of ground meat, a ton of ground meat. I get— See her recipes.

Andrea:
It’s true.

Anita:
I get a pig and a cow, and we end up grinding—like, we grind all the ham. We don’t like the fresh ham. And we grind all the beef round. I prefer those grounds. So we have—I make a lot of things with ground meat. The other—I also love ground meat because you can defrost it within, you know, less than an hour. So it’s like a very quick food to make when you haven’t planned ahead. And I mix all that ground meat, you know, unless you’re making burgers, you’re mixing it with salt, with eggs, with other things, and the stand mixer just does all of that work for you. You do not need to have cold ground meat hands ever again if you have the stand mixer.

Andrea:
For those of us with defective thyroids, this is good news.

Anita:
Well, that’s just not a nice feeling, the cold meat, I remember it so well.

Andrea:
Plus, you can

Anita:
Turn it on and walk away and do something. and you come back. So I would say the number one use I have for it, is the ground meat. And then anytime if I’m baking a cake, cupcakes, muffins, anything like that, which I don’t do very often, but still fairly regularly, that all gets done in the stand mixer. Whipping cream, you know, that’s easy to do with a hand mixer as well. But like you said, with a stand mixer, you put the cream in and you walk away. With a hand mixer, you’re sitting there doing it yourself.

Andrea:
Yeah, my food processor is kind of like, like I call it like my scolarly maid. Because as somebody who’s doing a task that… I would do normally, that I’d be standing there and doing. But if the machine can be doing it, I can be off doing something else that I don’t have.

Anita:
And it does it much faster. And if you look at the numbers, it has a lot more power. It would take you much longer to do what the machine is doing yourself by hand.

Andrea:
Nothing wrong with doing those things by hand, but sometimes it is nice to…

Anita:
Especially if you’re cooking for a crowd.

Andrea:
And you’re cooking everything at home. When you’re doing everything at home, it’s like… You’re cooking all the time. So the tasks need to be whittled down or stacked.

Anita:
So that’s, I’d say, the stand mixer overall. But then I have an attachment to the stand mixer that I bought a few of the attachments. And there’s one that I use very often. Okay. And I love. And that is the pasta roller and the pasta cutter. So there’s two. You can buy them separately or you can buy them as a pack. The pasta cutter. Pasta cutter will cut. So the pasta roller will roll out a thin sheet of pasta. And the cutter will cut it either into spaghetti or fettuccine.

Andrea:
Oh, so it’s going to roll the sheet and then you put the

Anita:
Sheet through the cutter.

Andrea:
Oh, I didn’t know that. Okay. Okay. All right. Cool.

Anita:
So I do use it for fresh pasta, which I’ve started making recently. And it’s been, it’s really changed things in my house. I can’t, like I learned how to make fresh pasta and it tastes, number one, it tastes just so much better than even very good quality store-bought pasta. But two, it’s actually a lot more nutritious because it has a lot of egg in it. When you buy pasta at the store, that’s just semolina. It’s just made with semolina.

Andrea:
And water. And water.

Anita:
But when you make pasta at home, you’re using usually the zero-zero flour. Yeah. And quite a bit of egg and water. So it’s actually a far more nutritious final product.

Andrea:
When I was making our pastas, I didn’t put water in. I put in broth. Uh-huh. Because I was like, well, it’s a little extra. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anita:
Goodness. Yeah, and you can put in, you know, you have all the different colorful pastas. You can put in beef and spinach.

Andrea:
I made these noodles, and I used chickpea flour, duck broth, and turkey eggs.

Anita:
And I was like— How’d it come out?

Andrea:
I was like, that’s a lot of birds. Chickpeas. It was delicious. Oh, that’s sweet. I like that.

Anita:
But then even more than pasta, what I use the pasta roller for is dumplings. I love dumplings.

Andrea:
So you’re rolling out a sheet. Mm-hmm. And then you’re using that sheet to—

Anita:
That’s your dumpling wrappers. And so there’s a lot of different types of dumplings. I make different dumplings. But if you make them by hand, you will either cut them usually into squares or circles. So I have a little cookie cutter set that I use to cut them into circles. And that’s fun. But what I have been doing lately, which has just been… has been a real, really changed things in my kitchen, is I bought a very simple dumpling mold. It’s called a pilmenitsa. It’s a Russian type. So pilmenia are Russian, they’re Siberian dumplings, but they’re eaten all over Eastern Europe. And I’ve made them by hand before. It takes a long time to make dumplings by hand. It’s kind of like, get some people together and let’s make dumplings for fun.

Andrea:
A true gift of love.

Anita:
Yeah, but dumplings are actually like an amazing convenience food because if you have homemade dumplings in your freezer, you freeze them and then they’re in your freezer and anytime anyone wants to eat, like you have like a real good meal.

Andrea:
We want it.

Anita:
Ready within, you know, 10, 15 minutes. You just boil water and boil them. And the way that the dumpling mold works is, And it’s hard to describe in a picture. Imagine sort of like a diamond with a bunch of little holes in it. And you put your rolled out pasta dough over it. And then you kind of like indent it into the holes. And then you put your filling in there. And then you put another sheet of the pasta over it. And then you use a rolling pin to roll it all out. And they just pop out. And they look perfect. And you freeze them. And I can, you know, I easily make over 100 just in one go. It’s not a lot of work. I stick them in the freezer. And then I don’t have to worry about any time, you know, the kids saying, oh, I’m hungry. Oh, I didn’t, or in the mornings, I didn’t have time to pack lunch. Whatever. Like, I’ve got real food that’s homemade. I know what’s in it. It’s delicious. Everyone in my family likes it, which is very rare, as anyone with small children will know. And it’s ready to go.

Andrea:
Are any of the pasta, or any of the KitchenAid attachments done to you?

Anita:
I got the meat grinder attachment. and I don’t want to, it was great when I had it, but it broke. It broke a little over a year after and I tried contacting KitchenAid and nothing. So I was pretty angry about that.

Andrea:
I think I’ve heard that from multiple people.

Anita:
It was one little part that broke. So if you want a meat grinder, I definitely don’t recommend the KitchenAid attachment.

Andrea:
You can get a pretty decent meat grinder for like 200 bucks online. Yeah, I would do that. And like we have a more industrial one because obviously we’re grinding a ton of meat at a time, but not everybody’s trying to grind an entire beef cow in one go. So, you know, if you just want to be grinding like some sausages or get whole pieces of meat from your farmer and grind it with spices and whatnot, you can get a really good meat grinder. And I feel like it’s, I mean… it’s worthwhile because it seems like all the attachments i’ve heard about have been

Anita:
Flops the kitchen aid attachments there’s no way it can.

Andrea:
Handle that kind

Anita:
Of volume anyway it’s.

Andrea:
Not and you can grind in a vitamix you have to cube the meat and do really small batches so it’s not the same like it’s feasible if you’re like making it for yourself and you’re in a hotel room and you just brought your vitamix but you know

Anita:
If you want something really inexpensive You can get a manual meat grinder, the kind that clamps to the counter. I still remember my top grinder.

Andrea:
Every thrift store, antique store has those.

Anita:
And they work great. Yeah, yeah. And you get a workout.

Andrea:
Allison grinds, I think she grinds fat through hers, her rendering. Speaking of, I asked Allison, so you’re going to get Allison’s comments in here because I asked her about her favorite tools too when I told her we were doing this episode. And I asked her, is your pasta roller, you know, I thought that was one of her favorite tools. and she said she’s not been using it so much lately. So, um…

Anita:
I have to teach her how to make dumplings with the dumpling mold. Yeah, yeah. And then she’ll be made. She’ll be… Do all…

Andrea:
Does Allison’s roller, I suppose, must make the flat sheets, right?

Anita:
Yeah. Yeah, so any pasta roller will make the flat sheets, and normally it’ll have the cutter aside that will cut them into noodles. And the truth is that homemade pasta is a treat. That’s something sort of special I make, and it’s a hard thing to scale. So if companies are, I can’t really make it. I can’t make it for that many people with my machine, and it’s a lot of work. But unlike that, the dumplings are a very, very practical food.

Anita:
It’s something I’ll do on the weekend so that I know I have those in the freezer coming ahead.

Andrea:
Yeah. So then I’ll mention my pasta machine, which I showed you last night and is new to me. I’ve never had a pasta machine before. I’ve done pasta by rolling sheets out on the counter and then cutting them or whatever. And you were saying, oh, if you didn’t have a pasta roller, you could still roll the sheets out to use your dumpling.

Anita:
Absolutely. That’s how most people will do it. The pasta roller saves you time, but you can just make the dough and just use a rolling pin and roll it out by hand.

Andrea:
I feel like if I had to choose between the two, I’d go for your dumpling maker because I know I can roll out the sheet. Yeah,

Anita:
So why not— And.

Andrea:
Then I’ve got the machine to make the—

Anita:
One nice thing about the pasta roller for making dumplings is, and this will depend on your dumpling, but with these Russian dumplings, with pilmeni, you want the maximum meat-to-dough ratio. Like, you want them to have a ton of meat inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s different from something like wontons, where you actually want a lot of dough.

Andrea:
A lot of dough, yeah.

Anita:
And if you’re making the kind of dumplings where you want a lot of meat and not a lot of dough, then the pasta roller is going to roll them really thinner than you probably— I mean, unless you really have, like, a really good at it, it’s probably going to get them thinner than you can get it by hand.

Andrea:
Yeah, yeah. No, and I do, I mean, to me that sounds very appealing, having that. I just don’t know if I could justify the space. But you know what? If it turns into a thing, maybe.

Anita:
Well, the KitchenAid stand mixer is very heavy. It’s the only kitchen gadget that’s always on my counter because it’s, one, because I do use it often, but also because it’s too difficult to move. There are other things we use every day that I still put away in my pantry.

Andrea:
So this is where I want to add that what you, what we’re going to say, what you and I are going to say about like, I love this tool, I don’t love that tool, this is a yes, this is a dud. is not even an objective measure of the value of that object because it’s really dependent on your household. If you guys are like, we do dumplings once a year, I doubt if you would be investing in a dumpling maker or if it would be worthwhile. But if you say, maybe you make dumplings once a year because it’s a giant hassle, but now that you have the machines, you say, I want dumplings to be a part of our culture and you’re making them weekly, then now those tools become invaluable. So, for each person, it might be different. Like, I might say this tool I absolutely love, and someone else is like, I had six of those, and I threw them all away, you know?

Anita:
It also depends on your household size, one, and on the age of your children. So, when I had a one-year-old, I was not going to be doing any of this stuff. It was minimal. I just had to make the simplest stuff possible. Yeah, the simplest things possible. Now my youngest is six. I have a lot more time that I can spend in the kitchen on these things.

Andrea:
And your kids are super helpful. they’ve been doing chores this whole time um i got a pasta machine this was a conversation we had on one of our live calls a couple months ago and i got a pasta machine after another one of our supporters lizzie who’s um she’s doing like series on you’re gonna love her articles because she tastes different grains and things and does like reviews on the different varieties and of wheats and things. But anyways, she got this pasta machine and I decided to give it a shot. And what you do with this machine is you put the dry ingredients in and it tells you the volume of wet to put in. And then you put the wet in and it mixes it and extrudes it on its own. And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try that or like the roll it out. But I decided to go with this one because the main thing that my kids wanted was things like macaroni noodles and stuff, which I can’t do in a pasta roller. So I was like, well, it also does spaghetti, which a pasta roller does. And I can roll the sheets out by hand myself. So I decided to go for this machine. And it’s been a ton of fun.

Anita:
And it’ll need the dough for you and everything. It does everything. Yeah, it’s kind of like a bread maker for pasta.

Andrea:
It’s kind of like a bread maker for pasta.

Anita:
Yeah. Oh, another note on the pasta roller. So when you make pasta, you have to knead the dough and a nice thing about, about doing it all with the KitchenAid is you have the KitchenAid with the dough hook that’ll do the dough kneading for you as well.

Andrea:
Yeah, yeah. Now, if you had no room to store things, I don’t know if I would say to get a pasta machine.

Anita:
Well, the attachment, if you already have a KitchenAid, the attachment takes up very little space.

Andrea:
Yeah.

Anita:
Oh, another big plug for the KitchenAid pasta attachment, or just for a pasta maker in general, the kids think this is the most fun thing ever, and in the second part stage where you take the pasta sheet and you put it through the cutter and the noodles come out yeah i mean they get so excited about it every time it looks like magic, you know you get spaghetti literally.

Andrea:
When our machine is going for the pasta um my friend was over with her three boys and it was like the kitchen you you’ve been in my kitchen imagine all of our kids in the kitchen they’re like

Anita:
Oh like.

Andrea:
Watching it and then they don’t cut it don’t credits we made like really long spaghetti noodles and i told the kids you’ll get one noodle for dinner you know because it’s super long spaghetti noodles they’re having so much fun

Anita:
I have a 10 year old daughter and her uh best friend who comes over all the time her favorite thing to do is to make dumplings so what i’ll do is i will perfect yeah so lately i’ve been just doing it with wonton dough which is a bit different it’s very very eggy it’s really delicious but i will just roll the dough well i’ll help them roll out the dough they want they take turns putting it through the different thinness settings and then i just leave them to it i have the filling for them which of course i mixed with the kitchen aid and i have the dough and they cut it up they make all the they do all of it it’s like a craft project i like you.

Andrea:
Can mix it in the kitchen aid so i was telling you i have a stand mixer that i’ve had for years like 14 years but last year it just stopped working and gary said he needs to replace the motor in it or something so i would love to have that back but there are things that i realize i just kind of avoid making because i don’t want to be mixing it and i i didn’t think i would i thought oh i’ll still make these things. Apparently not. It’s too much of a hassle. I also didn’t have a hand mixer for years and years. I think I had one when we lived in Virginia, but I’ve not had one ever since then. And I just got one again recently, and it’s been nice having it. I was like, oh, this is actually really convenient. So, okay, another machine that you mentioned that I think we both love is the food processor. And I know Allison uses her food processor as well. Also, I just realized I did not check the time when we started, and I don’t have it. Oh, there’s a timer on the top. I’ll say there’s no timer on here. I’m using all—we’re on your phone. It’s all different equipment. I’m not accustomed to what’s happening right now, so I’m like, wait, where do I look? Where’s the thing?

Andrea:
Okay, so the food processor. I got one at Christmas, and I had wanted one for years and years. And, I mean, I have shredded everything. I have diced everything. I have sliced everything by hand. I think I have earned my food processor. I love that thing.

Anita:
Absolutely.

Andrea:
I love that thing. Things that I hate doing the most, shredding cheese.

Anita:
Oh, yeah. Well, so what I do for the most is the slicing blade and the shredding. So I like to make these big carrot salads with shredded carrots or grated carrots, really. Yeah. I mean, so you just put that through the machine really quickly. And then for sauerkraut, you just run your cabbage through the slicing blade and it’s all done for you.

Andrea:
Weirdly, I have been making sauerkraut in it, and I don’t like the sauerkraut as much.

Anita:
Really? I don’t know. I like it. I get smaller pieces than when I do it by hand.

Andrea:
I don’t know if it’s mental. I feel like it tastes different to me. Is this even possible?

Anita:
I mean, so for me, I end up with smaller pieces of cabbage when I run it through.

Andrea:
I think I don’t like them because I’m not used to them being so small.

Anita:
I like it small.

Andrea:
I think possibly I’m not accustomed to it. I remember looking at Allison’s like if you look in our very first cookbook there’s a picture of her sauerkraut and I was like how did she get her sauerkraut so small oh she was shredding it in the machine but I chopped mine by hand and I think I’ve become accustomed to that I mean

Anita:
It’s different yeah you’re gonna taste different when they’re bigger.

Andrea:
Pieces I don’t know how to explain it but I feel like like the beets when I shred in beets it’s like foamy like the ferment foamy it’s not foaming foaming isn’t the right word but like if anybody i don’t know how to explain it but it’s different to me somehow so that could just be beets

Anita:
I usually i grate by hand on the box grater because it’s so satisfying because they’re so soft it just comes right through whereas carrots you’re there like ah yeah.

Andrea:
Oh no that was my finger yeah exactly

Anita:
Oh every time every time.

Andrea:
It looks like a carrot for a second yeah you have a mini food processor also

Anita:
I use that thing almost every day. Yes. So a mini food processor, you know, is probably like $20, $25. It’s like, it’s about this big.

Andrea:
Okay.

Anita:
Okay. And so again, anytime you need to process just a little bit, like if you actually need to process just a little bit, like grind it up, the big food processor isn’t actually good at it. Like there’s not enough volume for the blade to get to it.

Andrea:
You just get like three chunks in the bottom.

Anita:
Yeah. meatloaf, something, you know, like that, which I do very often, you know, I need to put onion, garlic, and herbs in there. And so very easily I put one, just one onion, you know, a couple of cloves of garlic, a little bit of herbs into the miniature food processor. It does it perfectly. And then it’s very easy to clean. It’s tiny. It’s the size of a mug. You know, it’s the size of a large coffee mug. I rinse it, put it in the dishwasher. It does not take up much space in the dishwasher. And then I’m done.

Andrea:
I am thinking, when you were telling me about the mini food processor. I was like, would I use a mini food processor? I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have one. So I don’t have like a structure in my day for it, but I do not do anything in a small quantity. And the way I figure that is like when I’m chopping like the meatballs and stuff, I feel like eight pounds of meat at a time. So I’m trying to do a bigger batch also. But then what I do is I mix, I start with, um, I mix in the food processor, herbs and onions and anything that I would want to put into like dressing and um and um uh meatballs or like whatever it is i’m making because it’s usually all weekly and then i you i start with the greatest common denominator so then i take out what i want for that and then i’m maybe add in the other ingredients that are going to go on you know the other thing you know what i’m saying well sure i just like dice all the i dice all the onions first maybe then take the onions that i want for this out to the side then put in all the herbs for the dressing and dice it the rest of the way

Anita:
I think i told you i do but i think i told you in my last episode i’m not much of a planner so it’s just not how i cook i think you did and it’s not how my parents cooked it’s just not something i’m used to no i.

Andrea:
I i wonder if as the kids get bigger i’m like i wonder if i’m gonna get more into that like not just batch cooking everything

Anita:
Yeah yeah you know.

Andrea:
I don’t i just tend to do big batches because well like that rice i made like the biggest pot i

Anita:
Have well and that in particular keeps very and it disappeared in 24 hours yeah so we did uh another thing for the mini food processor um i make a lot of indian food if anyone’s making indian food one thing you need in pretty almost every dish is uh garlic and ginger you mix together now a lot of people in cookbooks and stuff they recommend you do it in advance and you freeze it in in like the freezer in ice cube trays but again i don’t know if it’s just my own personal psychology if i stick it in the freezer i just don’t remember it it just sits there forever, so for me i always do it fresh and i it’s a very small quantity compost you know so the mini food processor is perfect for it yeah otherwise you’re grinding.

Andrea:
To the idea very much so as i’m thinking about like what if i was making you know not

Anita:
Well, I don’t know if any of you have grated ginger, but grating ginger is a pain in the gut. Yeah. It’s a literal nightmare. Yeah, so you want to put that in the machine.

Andrea:
I will find so many workarounds to not have to grate ginger.

Anita:
Yeah, absolutely.

Andrea:
Like anything.

Anita:
So that, yeah.

Andrea:
You have a mini blender also.

Anita:
Yes, and the reason I have a big blender and a mini blender, I use the mini blender probably 10 times as much as the other one. And the reason is just because it’s so easy to clean. So unless I have to make, you know, smoothie for a ton of people, if two kids come to me for smoothies, I’d rather use the mini blender twice. And again, it’s because it takes up so little space in the dishwasher. And I don’t even have to put it in the dishwasher most of the time. I just rinse it. Whereas the big one takes up half the dishwasher and has the big scary blade and all of that.

Andrea:
Yeah, I wonder too. My mom got me like a mini blender that goes on top of my Vitamix. I never use it. but you saw like we only make like a gallon at a time so i again i think maybe when i’m in a phase where i’m not doing my mom has she got it for me because she’s like she’s like using the heck out of this thing she’s using it um the same way you are so i’ve pulled it out occasionally but i’m like oh i just can’t imagine at this time making less than a gallon of smoothies i’m like yeah i I think this is something I’m going to use more maybe when, like, well, you know when I did use it was when I was pregnant. Because I was making myself a smoothie that had like all, like everything I could pack into it to try to keep me alive the rest of the day. So, yeah, I think if I’m doing more things for me, then I’ll go back to using that more. Um, Allison also has a blender attachment that goes on top of her food processor. Uh-huh. She said she uses that a lot. I like those things where you can use the same motor.

Anita:
Absolutely.

Andrea:
For different blades and things. It’s like Gary has, you know, these giant batteries that he can use on different types of saws or something. It’s like, okay, they’re really expensive. These are pieces that can just be moved around with different equipment.

Anita:
And that’s the motor also. The motor is the expensive part.

Andrea:
Of all that. You know what Allison’s most used kitchen tool is, though? It’s her mock milk.

Anita:
Oh, see, I used to use my mock meal a few times a week to make my own bread, and then an organic sourdough bakery opened in my city. I think it was 2021 now, and I’m telling you, I’ve not made a single loaf of bread since.

Andrea:
You know what? This is, again, the phases and times for outsourcing things. It would be really hard to outsource your dumplings and find good dumplings. Actually, it’d be impossible.

Anita:
Like, impossible. Yeah, but they make fantastic bread.

Andrea:
For somebody who’s doing really good bread, and then you can put that time and energy and creative power onto your dumplings.

Anita:
Well, and also, some people really love bread and find it really rewarding. I was just making the bread because there was no good source of bread. Like, I liked it, but it wasn’t something I found. It wasn’t your passion project. Not at all. Yeah. So as soon as I actually found a good source of bread.

Andrea:
I stopped doing it.

Anita:
But I was using— Because you’re not the planner.

Andrea:
You’re like, I don’t want a 3D. No.

Anita:
You know, but I was—I still have my mock mill sitting there, and I was using it all the time. It was great when I was making my own bread.

Andrea:
So, Allison, we did an episode in the summer, which you might find very interesting, which, obviously, how do you not listen to every minute of everything I put onto the airwaves? No, she was telling me all these other things to use as a mock mill for. Really? You’re kidding. Yes. What? So, I asked her. I said, is the flaker? Because I remember when she was in Italy, they used the flaker all the time. And she said, I just used the mock mill for cracking her oats. So she has, like,

Anita:
Fresh-eared oats. Oh, that’s neat.

Andrea:
Which I want. I want that in my life.

Anita:
I still don’t eat oats because of all the anti-oat propaganda I’ve learned, but I’m going to have to go to Allison, so maybe she needs to re-educate. She will— I do like oats.

Andrea:
She will re-educate you. It sounds so violent. We’ll re-educate you

Anita:
To the cult of oats.

Andrea:
From your current cult to the oats cult. Allison has me so sold on oats that I’m like, I want to try growing oats. I want to actually see. They’re delicious. She grew oats in Italy.

Anita:
I love oatmeal raisin cookies and stuff. She’s so wild. It’s such a treat.

Andrea:
I know. So good. So good. Anti-oat propaganda. I love that. Okay. You have a tool that I have and Allison has and all three of us like, which is the Instant Pot.

Anita:
Yes.

Andrea:
So how do you use yours?

Anita:
So I used to use it for more things. I’ve actually switched to using different gadgets for those same things. I guess we talked about steaming. I guess I did use it for steaming in the past. I now use my rice cooker for steaming. But the thing that nothing else can do except for a pressure cooker, like the instant pot, there’s other pressure cookers, but it’s cooked things really, really fast. So for me, I’ll have a roast in the fridge and I’ll say, okay, to have that roast on for dinner, I’ve got to get it on the stove or in the oven by 2 p.m. And 5 p.m. rolls around, and I have not because I’ve been out and about and busy. This is just a you problem.

Andrea:
Anita. I’m the only busy person on earth. Nobody else has been in this boat.

Anita:
No, I’m the only busy person on earth. And 5 p.m. rolls around, and if I have a beef roast in the oven, and I want it for dinner that day, there is only one way it’s getting on for dinner, and it’s via a pressure cooker. And there’s nothing else like it. thing it’s amazing, and another great thing about the instant pot another reason uh you can use it is let’s say you want to put your roast on think of things that need to take a long time to cook so i put my roast on at at two and i need to turn it off at whatever you know, five well what if i’m not going to be home at 5 p.m what if i don’t know yeah with the instant pot you set it you set your time that’s it you don’t have to think about it that’s another that’s another really.

Andrea:
Done that A

Anita:
Really good reason to use it.

Andrea:
A timer thing or whatever? Yeah. Does my Instant Pot do that?

Anita:
Yeah, yeah, they all do. Uh-huh. Yeah, you set your time for the prep. And then that’s it. Then you just leave it. And then you can come home at 7, and it’s in there. It keeps it warm. It’s good to go. Okay. Instead of stressing out at 5 p.m. that I’ve got something in the oven. You know, I don’t want to leave the house for hours if I’ve got something in the oven. And on the stove, I won’t leave the house at all. I’m paranoid about that. Really? Yeah. We have, like, doors that blow open in my house, all sorts of stuff.

Andrea:
What? I’m going to pull to you guys.

Anita:
I think I just have a windy house and low-quality doors.

Andrea:
Your doors are very light.

Anita:
I have a lot of doors, actually. Well, what I mean is I have a lot of outside doors, and they’ll blow over, and suddenly, you know, if I have a house. I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t want that either.

Andrea:
I wouldn’t want that either. Allison uses her Instant Pot for—she said she’s been using it more for broths, and she uses it for rendering fat. And she and Rob have this, like, morning porridge that they make in it. So she put the recipe in I have to show you our menu Menu booklet So

Andrea:
We put this shout-out into our community asking people to send in a week of your menus. Anita, it was amazing. Literally, it was— Allison and I were like, this is meaning more to us than, like, we ever expected. Oh, wow. Seeing what somebody’s feeding their family for a whole week, for one, it’s, like, such an intimate portrait. But also, we felt so normalized. You know what I mean? There’s, like, repetitive breakfast, leftovers. reverse, prepped ahead, soaked things. And you’re like, it’s not just me. I’m not alone. I don’t know. It was. And then both of us, we were like, the inspiration was just waving over us as we read them. So I’m going to show you. I put out another shot again in the summer, got a ton more menus for it. So I’m going to show that to you. But she put, anyways, she put her instant pot recipe for porridge in there. I want to try it because I really don’t use my instant pot for much at all i did when we had it in our house in town but out here i hesitate just because of how much power it takes and so it’s a little trickier to time and i can’t always predict i’ll have power at the time i need to use it so what i’m using it for right now which

Andrea:
This alone is making it worth having in my it is in my kitchen in a in the front of a cupboard and it comes out once a once a week i tell you uh-huh to boil three 18 packs of eggs

Anita:
Yes which you actually should lead me to uh no that’s the same way to my finger.

Andrea:
You teased me on this and i was like what so let’s take a quick break and come back and you’ve got to tell me about this thing that i you need to convince me All right, so you brought this up before we started recording,

Andrea:
and I needed details, but I said hold the details because I want it on the recording. So please, what is this gadget that you have?

Anita:
I’ll give you some background before I reveal the gadget.

Andrea:
Okay!

Anita:
So for years, I have been on the search for how do I make hard-boiled eggs that are easy to peel. So I tried the thingy that punches the hole in them. I tried putting vinegar in the water. I tried putting baking soda in the water. Nothing worked until I found the Instant Pot.

Andrea:
Actually.

Anita:
Okay. Like you said, the Instant Pot will cook them perfectly, and they will be easy to peel. However, the Instant Pot is big, right? It’s a big thing, and I have to haul it out of my pantry. And guess what? My kids put all sorts of stuff around it. So I have to move that aside and feel annoyance at how people are messing with my pantry and pull them out. It’s a emotional journey. It is.

Anita:
So let me give you a little bit more background. So I have a daughter that does dance competition. And last year, our nationals were in Las Vegas. So if anyone stayed in Las Vegas, the way Las Vegas is kind of set up is the hotels are actually inexpensive. But they’ve got to make all their money on the food and on the… And on the casinos, of course, right? So what I learned is some of the hotels won’t even have mini fridges. Our hotel did have a mini fridge. But none of them, like most of the time if you stay in a hotel, there’ll be access somewhere to a microwave or something. No, they will not have it. Like you’ve got to be dining at their restaurants. That’s why they make money. Oh, they do not want you. So we were flying there. I wasn’t going to have a car. And we were there for six days. So I was like, you know. It’s a long time. And I don’t know if anyone’s seen prices on food in Las Vegas on the strip. tell me it’s nuts a latte at starbucks there is nine bucks yeah something that’s five bucks everywhere else so what the yeah so the the restaurant prices are insane and also i just i can’t get by in restaurant food for a whole week so i had to make a plan and i was like okay so everyone super pro tip on traveling in hotels instacart will deliver to your hotel what yes you can get groceries to any hotel and almost every hotel but none of the hotels in las vegas on the trip but normally hotels will have a microwave okay so again when your options are the food in the hotel or you can get some you know some decent frozen thing and a whole bunch of stuff from the grocery store there you go that’s an easy thing to do let me.

Andrea:
Tell you the food in the hotel is probably microwaved too so everything’s like

Anita:
Just relax okay and you’re gonna spend less money just order some stuff however in las vegas you do not have the microwave so i was like okay how do i at least yes but one thing i was like what can i bring in there that i can actually like at least get like what like get breakfast and lunch in the hotel room and then we’ll eat out suitcase yeah and then we’ll eat out for dinner okay and i bought it must have been twenty dollars it was this little egg cooker it’s a very simple gadget you put a little bit of water in the bottom and on top of it there’s little you put a little sort of tray with indents for eggs and it can hold i think six eggs okay and it comes with a little puncher okay it’ll you can punch the little hole at the bottom of the egg, And then depending on how—it automatically turns off when the water’s gone. It steams the eggs, which is exactly what the Instant Pot does. It’s an Instant Pot. But what’s neat is it comes with a little cup, and if you want a soft-boiled egg, it has a little line. Fill the water up to here for soft. Fill the water up to high for hard-boiled eggs.

Andrea:
We know in his podcast floor that Andrea has never had a soft-boiled egg.

Anita:
You can’t, unless you want to sit there and wait until the water boils. I’m not doing it. It’s always hard-boiled.

Andrea:
And I love soft-boiled eggs,

Anita:
Andrea. They’re one of my favorite things. But I can never get, I always catch it too late if I’m on the stove top. Andrea, this is the greatest gadget ever. So one, the eggs come out always easy to peel.

Andrea:
An egg cooker I would have thought would be like the most superfluous tool.

Anita:
That’s what I thought. When I bought it, I was like, I’m just going to buy this for Las Vegas. Then I’ll just take it to Goodwill. And I use that thing, no joke, like almost every day. I love hard-boiled eggs. And guess what? Now, for the first time in my adult life, I can have soft-boiled eggs. I don’t overcook them on the stove because it turns off by itself and it beeps and lets me know.

Andrea:
You are selling me all these products.

Anita:
And then if you go to Las Vegas, make sure you bring one. Although, actually, you’re probably not actually allowed to. I hid it from housekeeping every day.

Andrea:
You think you would have been upset about your house?

Anita:
I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s a weird place, Vegas, because, again, the way they make their money. The hotel rooms are actually not expensive, but you better be spending money and everything else.

Andrea:
There are beers that are acceptable in Las Vegas, and here you are, like, secretly cooking eggs. Like, I’m hard-boiled. I’m not the only one. I’m not the only one.

Anita:
They’ll never know. There was an article I read last year about how the high prices on Las Vegas restaurants are now driving, actually, people away. Like, tourism is down, and someone said how they were in their hotel, and they went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, and all they got was a bagel and a coffee.

Andrea:
And it was $35.

Anita:
And I’m not surprised, having seen the prices there.

Andrea:
And let me tell you it wasn’t a bagel like we can make a bagel

Anita:
I don’t know what it was like. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Andrea:
I’m going to tell you right now, we came off the back of a Costco truck. It was like some sort of frozen us foods. They’re in the desert, okay? It’s like getting shipped in.

Anita:
So to be fair, Las Vegas has every type of restaurant, and they do have a lot of great food. The food we did eat when we ate out was delicious. There’s a 24-hour Korean restaurant at the north end of the Strip. I’ve been to Las Vegas twice now.

Andrea:
Did you just stay there for 24 hours?

Anita:
Right. Just eat your food. So I’ve been to this restaurant, I think, like three or four times between my two trips, and it was just delicious. So there’s a lot of great food around there. But if you don’t have a car, which I didn’t, then you’re really stuck. You’re really limited. And we were there in the summer, so it’s hard to even walk outside.

Andrea:
30 degrees with, like, radiating pavement all around. I did not.

Anita:
But I did, in one of the hotels, what was it, in Harrah’s, spend $9 on one slice of pizza at the food court.

Andrea:
Yeah. I think the thing I would like the egg cooker for really is the traveling and the soft-cooked eggs. The soft-cooked eggs.

Anita:
And it’s very small. It’s very small.

Andrea:
Because I make a weekly batch of boiled eggs. And it’s three 18-packs of our eggs. You want to know. I put them in the Instant Pot. I add, like, three cups of water. And I set that thing to three minutes. And the second it hits the timer of three minutes being done, I vent it. I take them out. I put it in cold. immediately. And then they don’t get, you know, that green line around them. But that’s for three 18-packs. If you’re only doing a dozen eggs, probably the whole time would be different.

Anita:
So it holds six eggs. Maybe there’s bigger ones.

Andrea:
Yeah, but the beauty of it is that it’s not bigger.

Anita:
It’s not. It’s tiny. It’s so easy to clean.

Andrea:
For me, I have to make a ton of eggs anyway, so everybody can have them. And Gary takes a couple eggs for breakfast every week or every day. So having that many eggs all at once is good. But if we were on a trip, I’m not batching ahead for like the next week, you know, so I could totally see that. You have some really creative travel hacks. So let’s talk about that more on the KTC, your traveling food tips.

Andrea:
Okay, another machine that you and I both love is the ice cream machine.

Anita:
If you like ice cream, there’s nothing like homemade ice cream. And you’re not making homemade ice cream without an ice cream machine.

Andrea:
So I want one like yours, too, though. I used to have one of those, and I got rid of it because we never used it because it made such a small quantity.

Anita:
It is a small quantity, but I never end up freezing it. We always eat it straight from the machine, which is nice.

Andrea:
Our ice cream never makes it to the freezer. and I have a friend who bought multiple of the frozen inserts which I think you did too didn’t you I just have one oh you just said I always

Anita:
Keep it in my freezer I don’t freeze it it’s just.

Andrea:
Always in there just always stays in there she always keeps them in her chest freezer so she can do multiple back-to-back batches so I thought maybe I’ll do that I used to have that but I got rid of it and just got the like the one that does like a half gallon with ice and salt which works fine because it’s always us, you know, and visiting friends and kids. We always need a ton of ice cream at a time. So for us, that works better.

Anita:
And to tie back into the food processor, for me, I always do fruit ice creams. That’s what I like. And I mix that up. I blend it in the food processor.

Andrea:
I started doing that, too. Now that I have the food processor, I’m like, let me see what happens.

Anita:
And what’s nice is with fruit, something like strawberries, you do, I think it’s called maceration first, where you just put the fruit and sugar, and you just have to pulse. So like something you can’t really do in a blender. You pulse a little bit, so it just mushes it up. You leave it for 15 minutes, and then you add everything else in and mix it up. So that’s another nice use for the food processor.

Andrea:
Okay, and on fruit, you had a juicer, but you got rid of it.

Anita:
So I had a big juicer. My parents had it. They never used it, so they handed it off to me.

Andrea:
And the person you gave it to probably never used it.

Anita:
Exactly. The problem with the big juicer is it’s so much work to clean.

Andrea:
Agreed.

Anita:
It’s a lot of big pieces.

Andrea:
We were given one by someone who never used it because they had to clean it.

Anita:
However, I got rid of it. We never used it. And then I had a very sick family member, and there was a point where all he could really get down was fresh juice. And we were going to a, like, juice shop, you know, like a few times a day to get juice. And I said, no, let me just get a juicer for him. And the juice shop had, like, a big cold-pressed juicer, which is different than the one I had.

Andrea:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Anita:
You know?

Andrea:
Those things are— Yeah. I worked in a restaurant kitchen for a cold-pressed juicer shop, and they’re huge.

Anita:
Huge they’re huge and they’re different i like i really like the juice the way it came out so i said how do i do this at home and i was actually shocked to find a very small cold pressed juicer you could get it’s very small it’s about the size of a miniature blender i’d say it’s even smaller the footprint is really like a glass you know and it’s a little taller um, it it presses the the juice out slowly, and you have to cut up the fruit into small pieces.

Andrea:
This is the thing when you told me about this last night when we were brainstorming i was like of all the things you’ve said i am the most interested in

Anita:
This yeah and so what you know for this especially i would just you know this is my dad i would just make it for my dad whenever he wanted it it was very easy for me to make you know one big glass of juice that way if i had to make juice for a lot of people this would not be a good machine because it’s slow no but it was very easy it was cold pressed which was nice it meant the juice was not heated up at all so you know you’re not losing yep um nutrition that way yeah And it was very easy to clean. It was a few things to pop out. And since then, my kids love using it. What’s fun is I will just cut up the fruit into tiny little pieces for them, and they think it’s a big—and you have to drop in the pieces one at a time. They’re having a blast. They drop in the piece one at a time. They watch it get squished, and they watch the juice come in. What are you putting in? What are you juicing? Apple and citrus. You know what I juice a lot is especially—.

Andrea:
Can you do ginger? Or is it too fibrous?

Anita:
I’ve never tried. What I use it a lot for, I do apple and orange and carrot normally, but what I use it in the summer for is if I’ll have, like, stone fruit, like, you know, peaches, plums, nectarines, I’m very picky on those. And once they get squishy, I don’t want to eat them. But juicing them, but I juice them. They’re delicious. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, in the summer, I’ll do a lot of stone fruit juices for anything that’s, sat around and gotten squishy. I live in an area famous for its peaches, So we have a lot of peaches in the summer. What’s a peaches season?

Anita:
Really August. Late July and August.

Andrea:
Yeah. Everybody else is like a month ahead of us. Your rice cooker?

Anita:
Oh, my gosh. Yes. I can’t live without a rice cooker. We got a rice cooker as a housewarming present about eight years ago. And I was like, who needs a rice cooker? Like, you can just cook it on the stove, right? Game changer. It always comes out perfect in the rice cooker. And, um, and… I made rice so much more than I ever did before because it’s so easy. You just rinse the rice, put it in, put it to the line, and you have perfect rice. About a year ago, so that one, it was a present, and it did have a nonstick bowl. And I was very, very careful with it. But at that point, I was looking at it, and I’m like, it’s still scratch.

Andrea:
It’s going to get, yeah.

Anita:
So I said, look, I want to get a new one that’s stainless steel. And I did a lot of, yeah, with a stainless steel bowl. A lot of them. There’s ones with ceramic as well. I did a ridiculous amount of research. you um so first of all okay so first of all i i gave it away to someone the the other rice cooker i said you can just order a new bowl for it you can’t get a replacement bowl um and then in the meantime i was like okay i’m gonna take my time to pick one and i’ll just make rice on the stove like what’s the big deal okay i couldn’t make it on the stove anymore it was awful it was.

Andrea:
You you were

Anita:
Broken i was broken i was like what my husband was like what are you getting the rice So, I ended up getting one called the Tatung. It is the rice cooker that almost every household in Taiwan has. It’s a really simple design. It’s really a double boiler. So, you have… Wow. Yeah, so you put your insert, which is just stainless steel. It’s stainless steel on the outside. You put your rice and your water inside, and you pour water on the outside. Okay? So, it cooks it and it steams it at the same time. Okay. The rice comes out better than any rice I’ve ever had, and it functions very well as a steamer. You just put a little, they have a little steaming tray. I just use my little steaming basket. So that rice cooker is out on my counter most of the time because we’re either making rice in it or we’re steaming. We actually do a lot of steaming. I like steaming. And actually, here we go. No, dumplings and vegetables. Vegetables and dumplings. And I find I am steaming vegetables far more than I used to because it’s just so easy and convenient. It’s already there. It’s not another gadget. It’s so easy to clean.

Andrea:
I want to see this. So we had a rice maker when I was growing up. And we use that thing all the time, you know, and then we had a Gary and I had a rice maker when we first got married I don’t know a lot of stuff didn’t survive moves you know how it goes and then I’ve just never replaced it and I just always cook it on the stove and and because it doesn’t take power to cook on the stove then I’m like why would I maybe I don’t want a powered tool for it but I do remember loving making like porridges and stuff and then it doesn’t burn to the bottom you know so maybe there’s a time and a place I’ll be convinced i’m not convinced yet on a rice cooker just because we make it on the counter and it doesn’t take power or make it on the stove and it doesn’t take power absolutely and there’s so many things like that for me where i’m like well that would be nice but i could only use it like in the summer or i could only use it like at 12 o’clock in the afternoon or something

Andrea:
you know for rice i use rice

Anita:
You want it to be.

Andrea:
For dinner or i want it like right at breakfast time or something so um yeah all right i’ve got a couple more high dollar tools i’ve talked about them a little bit before, so I’m not going to go into as great of detail, but I’ll just say my pasta machine is slowly working its way into my heart. My Vitamix has been a mainstay from the day I got it. My mom had one when I was growing up, and I always knew I wanted one one day.

Anita:
So how is it so much better than a regular blender? And I only ask because I’ve been considering it for years, but I’ve never Okay.

Andrea:
The Vitamix, well, for one, it can hyper rupture the cells of fruits the way those giant cold press machines do it. That’s the only other machine that can do it is a giant cold press. So you could run things through it and then put it through a juicer if you wanted the hyper rupture. It has, it’s like a horsepower engine,

Anita:
So it’s like beefy.

Andrea:
So there’s that. You can overheat it, which I typically do with nut butters, you know, which is fine. Um… And when you put, because it has that super high speed blend, like if you put in, I have frozen cubes of kefir or milk or coffee and you put it in with your, you know, cold fruits and some milk and things you can make. Basically, it’s ice cream. It comes out as thick as a soft serve ice cream. That was like one of their big selling points.

Anita:
That’s what the Costco samples always were. I know.

Andrea:
I know. They are so good. They are very easy. It’s also fairly large. So, like, you saw the smoothie I made yesterday for the kids, and we all—everybody had, you know, a little cup of it. That was good.

Andrea:
I just love the Vitamix. I just feel like it’s tons of fun. And if you put in hot broth and raw carrots and raw onions and turn it on high, it’ll cook it. So you just run it for,

Anita:
Like, seven minutes. My grandmother swore by it because she had diverticulitis. Oh, okay. And she could not have fruit seeds. So, for example, for strawberries, the seeds could trigger the diverticulitis. and the only machine that you could put a strawberry in and it will pulverize the seed is a Vitamix. Yeah, so she swore by it. She made a lot of fruit smoothies with it.

Andrea:
I like my grain grinder. I really want a mock meal. I honestly think that I would be baking more if I had the mock meal because I… It’s traumatizing to run a really loud piece of equipment. Is that wrong? Like, I don’t want to hear the extremely loud.

Anita:
Yeah, the mock mill’s not loud.

Andrea:
I don’t want to hear the extremely loud sound. So I do look forward to the day that I have my mock mill. My food mill? I don’t know if you’ve ever used a food mill.

Anita:
I have been on the fence about a food mill for a long time. They take up a bunch of space, which is why I haven’t gotten one yet. Not necessarily.

Andrea:
Okay, what do you mean by food mill?

Anita:
Like the one like you run tomatoes through for tomato sauce? because since making fresh pasta, I said I’d really like to make my own sauces, but you need a food mill for tomato sauce.

Andrea:
I’ll show you my food mill upstairs. It doesn’t take that much room.

Anita:
Okay, I’d love to see it.

Andrea:
I just keep it on the deck, and it all comes down into little component parts. I would love to see it. It’s very small. It was storing in the box until somebody left the box outside, and it got flooded.

Anita:
I also live in the desert, and we have prickly pears, and I’m very traumatized by them because of the prickles. They’re microscopic, but they are delicious. And anyway, if I ever were to make a prickly pear juice, if I were brave enough to, which is very healthy also, you have to, like, freeze them and then boil them. You have to get those prickles out. But then eventually you do have to run them through a food mill.

Andrea:
I absolutely love the food mill because one thing that we make a lot of is applesauce. And most of my family members do not like chunky applesauce. They want it smooth. I know there’s families that want it only chunky, but most of my family members want it smooth. and also that works great for making like jams and things but um We get a lot of, like, we don’t just buy a bunch of huge same-size apples. We get, like, they’re all off of trees from out here. So we’ll get, like, the culled apples in the beginning of the year that are really small. We get a bunch of, like, odd-shaped ones where you hack pieces off of them or really little varieties or crab apples, things like that. And you can just have those bad boys up and throw them all into a pot. I put a little water just so it doesn’t stick and then let them cook.

Anita:
Oh, so you don’t even have to peel them?

Andrea:
Nothing. and then just pour that into the top of the food mill, crank it out.

Anita:
I think I would make applesauce much more if I had it.

Andrea:
A hundred percent. A hundred percent, yeah.

Anita:
You’re selling me on the food mill.

Andrea:
The berries. I have, like, you know, the cone that you mash the berries through to get the seeds out. Apparently, this is just an American thing. We had this discussion on, like, seedless jams, and everybody in Europe was like, what’s seedless jams?

Anita:
Yeah, I like them with seeds, too.

Andrea:
But if you wanted them, the seedless, or you had the diverticulitis, or there’s some issue somebody had, then pressing the seeds out is a giant mess, and it’s like an entire afternoon. So being able to run it through the mail is helpful. And then, yes, the tomatoes, you can get, like, most of the seeds out and the skins and things.

Anita:
And gazpacho. I am such a gazpacho fan, and it’s better when you— I’ve made it just in the blender, and it’s delicious. I need to make some gazpacho. But it tastes better when you run it through the food. I had a co-worker from Barcelona who would always bring it to our company, Potlucks. And he told me he ran it through the food milk.

Andrea:
Okay, I didn’t know that. I am always looking for more ways to use the tools I have. And I like hearing that I can use the food milk with a spatula.

Anita:
It’s smoother and it does taste better. So you blend it first and then you run the blended stuff through the food milk.

Andrea:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing. That I love is just saying gazpacho. Gazpacho. It’s just fun to say. Okay.

Anita:
Revenge is a dish best served cold, like gazpacho.

Andrea:
Okay. So those are some. We have a lot of crossover and tools that we like, you, me, and Allison.

Anita:
I think we’re also at similar stages in our lives. Yeah.

Andrea:
Your kids are a little ahead of mine. If I hadn’t thrown in this last baby number

Andrea:
four, then I’d be like right behind you in pace. But we—oh, Allison also, you know, and I know same for you, because you commented when you used a good knife, like good knives in the kitchen. I mean, that’s how I got by without having a food processor for such a long time, was I had really good knives, and having good knives for your bread. Somebody was asking about, you know, problems with their bread, and Allison, I think it was, said in the Discord, do you have a good bread knife? Because you can kind of wreck your bread with a bad knife. Oh, yeah, I can squish it. So, speaking of bread, also, there’s a couple—you had a couple more. I would still put them in, like, a semi-high dollar category. Tell me about your slicer. Because I was shocked.

Anita:
This is an interesting device. So imagine like a big deli slicer when you go and you ask for them to slice a prosciutto or ham. They have versions of that for home use. And it’s, you know, the time I got it, it was under $100. So at that time, I was baking my own bread. And it’s the easiest way by far to uniformly slice an entire loaf of bread. If I wanted to slice that whole loaf of bread at once.

Andrea:
I had no idea you could slice bread on it.

Anita:
Yes. And what’s nice about it with bread is you don’t really have to clean it after. You just kind of wipe it down. It doesn’t really get dirty. It is a lot of work to clean from dirty things.

Andrea:
Gluten-free bread is even easier to slice because you don’t— It doesn’t crumple the same way. You can press a gluten-free bread to slice it. You don’t necessarily have to saw. Like, you can cut gluten-free bread with a knife with no teeth. You know what I mean? I still don’t prefer to, but you can. So I’m thinking, wow, that would really— That’s great for that. The deli slicer is, like, electric, right?

Anita:
Yes.

Andrea:
Plug it in?

Anita:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you plug it in. And then the thing I use it now, I don’t make my own bread anymore, but the thing I use it for, which it’s really indispensable for, is to process large livers, beef livers and pork livers. Okay, so you get large livers. So what my system is, I get the whole liver. I about half thaw it, so it’s still half frozen. And then I use the slicer to thinly, uniformly make slice, make thin, uniform slices, which then I can use for fried liver.

Andrea:
Slicing liver is scary. It’s very hard. Because you’re slicing it and then it moves.

Anita:
Absolutely. And because liver is such a delicate thing to cook, then if you have a slice of liver, you want to make liver and onions, and it’s not cooked uniformly, it’s not going to be right. Some of it’s going to be overcooked or some of it’s going to be undercooked. It’s really important that it’s actually a uniform slice. So my system is I get out my big old beef liver, half thaw it, run it through the slicer, and then I use a vacuum sealer. to actually vacuum seal and freeze the pieces. I like that. So I only have to—I don’t have to do this once or twice a year, but I couldn’t do it without—before I—, had the slicer, I really struggled. And I never—I really like liver and onions, where you have a thin slice of liver. Oh, yes. And I never made them. I would just have to make dishes where I would cube the liver, because that’s the only thing I could do by hand well. Yeah. And now I have these nice liver slices. My husband and I both like liver and onions. Again, it’s a thing I can defrost really easily and make very quickly.

Andrea:
I’m going to yell upstairs to stop playing with him. Hey, Camille! We will talk if I see who’s on the piano. Hey, who’s on the piano? Can you start the piano? Thanks. Okay. I hope that didn’t sound like I can do it. I think that is still some… Okay. All right. Well, I—OK, I love the thinly sliced liver, and I do not like slicing liver, which is why I ended up making so much pâté,

Anita:
Because— Same. Pâté and stuff where you cube it inside, stir-fry it.

Andrea:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you—when I make meatballs, I also throw a ton of herbs. I throw herbs, pepper, and chunks of liver into the food processor, and I blend it all. And then I mix the meat in by hand, which I guess I could do in a mixy-mixy.

Andrea:
Okay, you also have another tool that we have, which is the vacuum sealer.

Anita:
Yes, and again, this is the one thing I use it for, but if you have whole organs from animals, and if you’ve ever seen a beef liver, it’s like this big, it’s going to take you a long time to get through that. But the only way you’re going to cut it into pieces and then freeze it without getting freezer burned is vacuum sealer. There’s really no other way.

Andrea:
Yeah, I agree.

Anita:
It’s an inexpensive machine.

Andrea:
How big is your machine?

Anita:
It’s very small. It’s kind of like this.

Andrea:
Is it like the flat kind of?

Anita:
It’s flat. It’s flat. And then you just have to buy the plastic actual bags. But it doesn’t end up being expensive at all.

Andrea:
I want one of those small ones because you’ve seen our—no, you weren’t here. We butchered the day before you got here. We have a big, it’s not huge, like Leah’s got, they’ve got like a giant industrial one. Ours is like somewhere between kitchen use and industrial, right? So it’s like a biggish one. I’m sure yours works better. But it’s way too much, it’s way too much to get out for like, I’m going to freeze a pack of cheese. It’s just too much for that.

Anita:
Oh, yeah. So I’ve thought often.

Andrea:
Like, this is literally one thing where I wouldn’t mind duplicating my resource because of how many times I wish that I could just vacuum seal quickly a couple of things, but I’m not willing to go get the box down, set up the machine. We’ve been discovered so many times. Right down at the time, and see if somebody’s catching him, and Jake was on it. He probably didn’t yell about the pan. That’s probably what it was. I don’t know. I’ll wait until he’s screaming things again. If I hadn’t yelled, he probably could have finished. If they put him back in the stroller, he’d go back this way. He’s only been out for, like, a long time.

Anita:
How long was he nap for you.

Andrea:
Sir? Like, two hours. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah. He might go back in the stroller, and he still sounds really tired. Can you get him back to the stroller? Jacob, go help. Don’t be on the phone. I don’t know. I’m so soft. Speaking of five stages, I can definitely see how it will be so much easier when he’s big. It is really hard with a baby to record. No, but it’ll— Because we can only do it if Gary’s home, typically.

Anita:
The recording?

Andrea:
The podcast, yeah. Oh. Okay. Wait. And Gary will be home in like 20 minutes. I didn’t know he was in the bedroom when I yelled at him. I wouldn’t have yelled at him.

Anita:
I’m going to have the piano.

Andrea:
I would have just walked up to the piano. Usually he sleeps in the garage though, so I didn’t. Okay. I think I did. Okay, so we were talking about the vacuum sealer. I’ll say we jump back in it. So the vacuum sealer that we have being so big, it’s just not convenient for little uses.

Anita:
Casual uses.

Andrea:
Yeah. And if we had a little one, we burned up multiple little ones. You couldn’t use a little one for packaging up, you know, two whole pegs.

Anita:
No, the little ones, too, occasionally, you know, the seal fails. They’re not very high quality, but they are very inexpensive.

Andrea:
Yeah. And they’re good for—there’s so many things that I throw in the freezer that I end up just doing in gallon bags, which you don’t like, because then you get those crystals. But I’m like, well, I’m going to be using it within a month or something that I can justify it. But I’d rather seal it.

Andrea:
Okay, you have a Kraut Pounder.

Anita:
Yes.

Andrea:
I have a Kraut Pounder also that I found in an antique store. It’s giant, though. It’s for, you know, the families getting together and doing a Kraut Pounder situation. And I usually, I have like a long wooden rolling pin that is straight and has like a straight end. So I’ve used that

Anita:
For Kraut Pounder. It’s a similar thing. The Kraut Pounder, it’s made for wide-mouthed mason jars.

Andrea:
Oh, it’s made for a jar?

Anita:
It’s made for a wide-mouthed mason jar. Wow.

Andrea:
I thought you were talking like a crock.

Anita:
No. So what you use it for, you’re not using it for squishing, for like, you know, scrunching the kraut. It’s for when you’re packing it into the jar and you have to compress it so it gets under the liquid. And it’s just a perfectly— How.

Andrea:
Big is it? Okay, just a…

Anita:
It’s just a wooden… It’s tapered. Not tapered, what’s the word? It goes in in the middle, and then it comes out. Okay. So it’s very comfortable to hold. It’s wooden. It’s just perfect for squirming. If you’re making… And again, it’s a very inexpensive tool. If you’re making sauerkraut with any regularity, I highly recommend buying the pounder, the glass fermentation weights, and the silicone fermentation lids. All three are very inexpensive items, and they’re going to make things so much easier.

Andrea:
Did you talk about this or did Rebecca talk about this? When somebody said, like, it seems like such a luxury item, but it, like, they work it. They really use it. It was like the, I think it was the glass weights.

Anita:
They’re very inexpensive.

Andrea:
Yeah. And how, like, it just seems like, I guess, like, oh, why couldn’t I just use this or that? But they were saying it just makes it easier.

Anita:
Well, it just pops it in. Yeah. Before I used the glass weights, I would cut, like, yogurt lids to size and put a rock on them. I mean, why do that when you can just buy the lid? I have one ceramic lid as well. Well, not lid. I’m sorry. When I said lid, I meant weights. Yeah. Why do that when you can have the weights? I have one ceramic weight as well. The glass ones are nice because they’re heavier than the ceramic ones.

Andrea:
I have a stone one that, like, it looks like it’s broken in half. It’s two pieces, and I got it at somebody downtown.

Anita:
It just, again, if you’re doing this on a regular basis, you want to make it easy. You want to make it easy. You don’t want to make it a whole production. It’s just part of your routine.

Andrea:
This is the thing with tools, I feel, is… Like I was saying last night, there’s activities that are so complicated to do or so much physical labor that you don’t ever do them. And then on the opposite end, there’s the tool that is just so laborious to deal with and so much to wash that you don’t use it. And then in the middle, like of your bell curve, you’ve got this sweet spot of where the tool actually serves you as a servant and helps you to literally make the job.

Anita:
And saves you time.

Andrea:
Easier at something you can do. And, yeah, and when you are making every single thing at home and when every meal is made by you, like maybe there’s a romantic ideal where you wouldn’t, you know, everything would just be, you know, you’re digging up the rocks in the yard.

Anita:
See, I don’t understand this romantic ideal. I love technology.

Andrea:
I’m just saying, yeah, that’s a computer science nerd over here. I’m just saying, like, there are things that, like, if you’re,

Anita:
I don’t find manual labor to be a romantic ideal, everyone, okay? It has no appeal for me.

Andrea:
Okay, stuff. Which could become cluttered. Not even— This is a challenge

Anita:
In the kitchen. Yes, of course. It’s a clutter issue.

Andrea:
Don’t deceive yourself about, like, well, Anita uses it all the time, so I should value it equally. Maybe I would use it. Maybe you won’t use it. And, you know, it works for—maybe you’re never going to use the dumpling thing, but, like, that thing is your workhorse.

Anita:
And another thing is, you know, you have to evaluate this based on your own, budget and the price of the item. But a lot of the time it’s worth just trying it out. And if it doesn’t work out, you resell it if it’s a more special item or you give it away.

Andrea:
Especially if you’re in a cooking community, there’s somebody who, like I have tools right now that I can think of. I don’t use them and I won’t because they maybe have become extraneous to me. And there are other people who, they don’t have the other tools that I have, and they wouldn’t use this thing. I’m like, I should let it go to somebody who can use it.

Andrea:
Um, there’s a couple lower dollar tools that you and I find really, really handy. I mean, you mentioned the fermentation weights. Mm-hmm. You mentioned the fermentation lids. Can you describe the fermentation lids? I don’t have those. I don’t have those.

Anita:
I wish I had one with me. They’re really simple. They, if you think about a mason jar lid, you have the little flat disc, and then you have the bit around it, the ring. So it replaces the flat disc. And imagine just a little silicone ring with a nipple on top. And all it does is it lets air come out, but it doesn’t let air come in. Now, if you’re doing something that’s a very long fermentation, you might need a more complex solution, which really ensures that no air comes in. There’s ones with water. But if you’re, you know, when I make sauerkraut, it’s a four-day ferment, so I don’t have to worry about that at all.

Andrea:
Okay, okay. I have thought about trying. I’ve never had, like, really gadgets like that. Now, I used the airlocks with water in them back in Virginia.

Anita:
And those are good, but they’re— But that was more because we were— Yeah.

Andrea:
We were doing big projects that went for a long time, and I wasn’t using them for, like, my at-home type things. Because they can also get contaminated, and then you can’t clean them out. So that’s a problem. So I kind of was not, like, in love with those. They did not suit the—you know, they are too far on the complex side of the bell curve. they weren’t in the like actually making my life easier part um i weirdly love these i have these tops on my kombucha upstairs and they’re made for i think kefir but they’re like a screen top that’s mesh not a screen like you would sprout sprouts in but like a mesh top and it’s just a flat lid that goes on top of a mason jar i do not know why this just makes my life so much easier. And if I say this to somebody, then they say, oh, I just cut a cloth and put it on top of the rubber band. I’m like, yeah, I did that too. Thousands of jars of that. And I don’t know why, but like it’s fiddly.

Anita:
You know what else? It feels good to have something you have to throw out every time and find a rubber band or a string or whatever. Well, yeah.

Andrea:
And I’m putting on like three rubber bands to make sure if one breaks then it doesn’t get bugs inside because I’ve had that happen before. And then I’m like adjusting the fabric, trying to make sure there’s not like It can’t be too thick a fabric. It can’t be too thin a fabric. You’re not supposed to use colored fabric. But, you know, it’s like, then you have to wash the fabric. And then you have to store the fabric. And these flat little lids, I can put them in the dishwasher and just throw them back into the drawer with all the other flat lids. And I just love that.

Anita:
And then it’s not another— If I thought more of anything.

Andrea:
It would be those. I love those.

Anita:
And then it’s not another sort of consumable item, you know? Like, you just reuse those. I’ve been using them for years.

Andrea:
Like, since they came out. Years. I also got back in the OG days of, you know, mason jars coming out of grandma’s, you know, garage and onto the kitchen counter. These, the brand is ReCap, and they were the only people making these lids that you could put on top of a mason jar for drinking. And now Ball and everybody and their cousin sells them, you know, but I still have those original ones. And I have like the screw top with like a pop lids.

Anita:
I use those for milk, yeah.

Andrea:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, and for milk, I have that, you know, you saw on top of my salad dressing. Yes, I have those exact ones for now. Yes. Oh, I love those.

Andrea:
So there’s some handy little jar gadgets you can get. One jar gadget that I’ve got that I thought would be really useful that we just really don’t use is the honey dipper. So it pops into a regular mouth lid, right, and it goes in the jar. It is just not worked out for us.

Anita:
I have yet to find, I buy maple syrup, I buy a gallon or two a year, and I have yet to find like a…

Andrea:
What? Oh, that’s fine. That’s fine.

Anita:
I buy a lot of maple syrup. We buy a gallon or two a year, and all these years later I’ve yet to find a solution I really like for pouring it without dripping and making a mess.

Andrea:
I should show you a picture I have. I think it’s from the 70s. I think it’s from the 70s. I don’t know that there’s anything that’s kid-proof 100%. Like you still have to— No,

Anita:
It’s not even kid-proof. I just want to be able to pour it without flipping.

Andrea:
You have to have a little care. But it’s this old jar, and I had seen one growing up, and so then when I saw this at a thrift store, I got it. It’s like a glass bottle with a screw-on plastic lid. I’m sure they have a name. I’m sure you can buy them now. And it has, like, a lever on top, so you can, like, lever open the lid and pour. I had this. You had one. It didn’t work?

Anita:
I got it. I don’t remember. It would get jammed up. It would still drip.

Andrea:
Really?

Anita:
That’s okay But speaking of What.

Andrea:
You could do is just

Anita:
Lick the side of the That’s what I do It’s not very hygienic What else am I going to do?

Andrea:
We’re wasting it.

Anita:
We’re not wasting it. But going back to those mason jar lids with a little pop top. So I get my milk comes in mason jars, so I use those for milk. But I use those for a lot of things. So one thing I love, love, love, love, love in the summer is lemonade. And so I just keep simple syrup in my fridge. And I just put it in a maple, in a mason jar with one of those lids.

Andrea:
If you love lemonade, I’m either about to tell you something you already know or you’ll love this.

Anita:
I don’t know very much about the lemonade beyond the basics.

Anita:
So I think I’m going to get my mind blown.

Andrea:
Okay, okay. So when I strain my kefir, because I make a batch of kefir cream every week, and so I strain a half gallon of kefir, and then I have this whey in the bottle. Then it’s a good quart of whey, and I’m not necessarily using that up in a week. What I do is I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it, and then I have big bags of kefir whey cubes. Then when I make the lemonade, I throw in a handful of the kefir whey cubes.

Anita:
So you serve lemonade over the kefir whey cubes.

Andrea:
You can either then let it sit and ferment on the counter for two or three days, or you can just serve it and just put a kefir whey cube into any drink and have like a probiotic drink. It is so good.

Anita:
You have blown my mind because I never know what to do with cultured whey, and I feel so bad.

Andrea:
I know. You’re like, I’m throwing away literal like treasures, but how to make it.

Anita:
You end up with a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Andrea:
But if you just put one in, anytime you have a cold drink, I mean, you could put it in any cold beverage. I love it. I love it.

Anita:
Pro tip.

Andrea:
You and I also have the same, a tool by the same name, but they’re very different. You have a cherry pitter and I have a cherry pitter.

Anita:
I have the tiny little one, okay? You just pit them by hand. And what I found it really useful for.

Andrea:
Was— It looks like a hole punch. Our neighbor has one.

Anita:
Yeah, it looks like a little hole puncher. I haven’t used it really in a couple years, but when my kids were young, it was so handy because I loved cherries. We’d always buy cherries, but when the kids were too young to eat the cherry themselves without swallowing the pit, that’s how you easily make a little bowl of pitted cherries for the kids.

Andrea:
So you have that, and I’m going to show you the one I have, which is like it suctions down to the countertop, same company that makes the food mill. Uh-huh. And you pour cherries into the tray, and then you just push this handle down, and it kind of punches. Every once in a while it misses one, but it punches the cherries out.

Anita:
Sounds like magic.

Andrea:
It is magic, and we usually get like big boxes of cherries, and so we have to be able to punch. Did I say that you’re in Washington? Yeah, I think it’s in the intro.

Anita:
You’re in Cherry Central.

Andrea:
Yeah, there’s a lot of cherries out here. Lots of different varieties. Okay, we both love our milk proper.

Anita:
Oh, my gosh.

Andrea:
Which brand do you have for a milk product? Which brand? Like a stick?

Anita:
No, no, no. I have kind of a little fancy one. We had a simpler one, and it gave out after a few years. Mine, you set the temperature. So that’s one thing I love because I can set it to 120.

Andrea:
I’m curious.

Anita:
That’s pretty close to raw, and it’s not too warm for the kids. Yeah. And then you set like a froth level. So my husband and I use it for lattes. My kids love to use it for steamers. So for a steamer, I’ll just put in milk and a little bit of vanilla extract, set it to 120 for them. And it’s the best thing for hot cocoa. You put your milk and your powder in, and it does it all for you.

Andrea:
Okay, is this like the plug-in one? Yes, it’s a plug-in.

Anita:
It has a little pitcher that goes on it.

Andrea:
Okay, which one is this? Because we have one that plugs in,

Anita:
But I don’t remember the brand. I have to look it up. I can look it on my online.

Andrea:
We have one that plugs in. We have not used it on like two years. We were using it like every single day, and then we haven’t used it in a while. And I think it’s because with our batteries, we were in a routine where the power was off every morning. And so we just turned to everything that didn’t use power.

Anita:
I’ve had the little handheld battery one.

Andrea:
I do not like those. I do not like those.

Anita:
And it doesn’t warm it up for you. You still have to warm up your milk.

Andrea:
I heat it on the stove and I froth it with the frother. For that much work,

Anita:
Andrew, you might as well get in the car, drive a half hour into town, and have them make one for you.

Andrea:
Go to Las Vegas and put dollars on it.

Andrea:
Yeah, that’s true. Okay, do you have a potato ricer? Mm-mm. You don’t? Okay. I have a potato ricer I really like it I feel like What do you use it for? It’s I have an old one

Anita:
Is that where you Smush the potatoes through?

Andrea:
Yeah It’s like a basket You put your cooked potatoes in And then you Push it down

Anita:
I guess you use a masher.

Andrea:
I always just mash them Typically But you know If there—tell me if you know, if there’s a better way to riced potatoes than just doing a little bit at a time in the flattener outer thing, those riced potatoes are superior.

Anita:
Really?

Andrea:
Far superior. Okay, I have to taste this because I can’t imagine a superior mashed potato.

Anita:
I know.

Andrea:
Could potatoes be better? Mm-mm. We wonder.

Anita:
I would like to—I want to taste these potatoes.

Andrea:
This is why Ireland is so safe because people are so happy there. With all the potatoes.

Andrea:
Do you use an oven to monitor?

Anita:
I don’t have one that’s very good. I have a couple of cheapy ones. Well, I don’t have.

Andrea:
You just have like, I don’t. It’s like five.

Anita:
The thing is stick it in. So, okay, I used to have the one where you stick it in the oven and it comes out with the wire. It didn’t work. Oh, no, no.

Andrea:
I mean like one that sits in your oven.

Anita:
I never had one of those. I just trust my, trust that it’s close enough.

Andrea:
I have trust issues apparently.

Anita:
Well, to be fair, I’m not making any soufflés or anything that’s very sensitive. If I were to be doing serious baking, then yes.

Andrea:
If your food’s not coming out, then, you know, if your food’s not working, you can assume your oven thermometer is very wrong. They’re usually off by, like, 50 degrees. It’s ridiculous.

Anita:
But most food works in a range. Most food works in a range. But if you are making, you know, things where you need a lot of precision, like supplies. But do you have the probe thermometer?

Andrea:
No? Now that you brought that up, the sticker inner, the prober thermometer?

Anita:
Like the cheapy ones, but they’re not very good. I do have them. I’ve been wanting to get a good one. My understanding is a good one’s about $90. Yeah. So, I’ve been wanting to get one because I just have a few cheapies, and if I’m not sure about the meat, I’ll stick all three cheapies in and see what the, consensus is. Wow, why is this so dry? It is really important. I mean, if you’re not really, you know, experienced in that particular cut of meat, and if it’s a cut of meat where it needs to be cooked through like pork or poultry, then, you know, you need to make sure it’s safe.

Andrea:
Yeah, no, that’s good, that’s good. We have two. I can show them to you upstairs. One I really, really like. It’s from New England Cheesemaking. And I got this for cheese, and Gary uses it for butchering because it’s magnetic for one. It has the cord, like we’re talking about, so you can magnet, like when we’re outside butchering, he magnets it to the side of the bus,

Andrea:
and then the cord goes in his water, and you can set it to alarm when it hits a certain temperature. This is helpful for cheese because, you know, when you’re like slowly trying to bring it up to like 180 or whatever and you’re like oh I’m checking it constantly or I walked away for two seconds and it frots you know when the alarm goes off it’s really helpful also you can have a bottoming out alarm so like it’s lowering temperature and it hits that alarm when you know you’re like I want to get it down to 90 degrees so I can put my yogurt culture in so you can have it set for that that’s really helpful um and then I have another one that’s just like the one you saw me using the other night on the meatballs like a handheld one that you just stab the probe yeah so I like both of those um do you have a like a cheese slicer like for just slicing a cheese I’m obsessed with a cheese slicer I don’t know but I don’t have very big pieces of cheese yeah we always have a like well not no I shouldn’t say that we don’t always we often have big blocks of cheese yeah um

Andrea:
Okay we’re going to take a break and then come back and talk about duds. That was, shall not suffer a dud tool to live in thy kitchen. And we do not tolerate, we do not tolerate dead weight.

Anita:
Our kitchens aren’t big enough for it. There’s not room!

Andrea:
Okay, so let’s take a break, pay some bills, and come back for this. All right.

Andrea:
Please tell me, you might not have this, but just tell me like maybe one of the weirdest. I can tell you one of the weirdest tools I’ve ever heard of is a banana slicer.

Anita:
I’ve never heard of a banana slicer, no.

Andrea:
So it’s shaped like a banana and it has slices in it and you peel a banana and you lay the slicer

Anita:
So my son is in Santa’s sliced bananas, so I’m on top of my list!

Andrea:
Well

Anita:
He could do it himself then.

Andrea:
Maybe that’s what it by next tool maybe that is what it was for it was like a little kid but it just seems so funny to me because like there are tools

Anita:
Like the little do i have to clean every one of those no i’m sorry i’m not no i take it back she’s.

Andrea:
Recanting she takes it back okay what about you you’re going to have some really weird

Anita:
I don’t remember them. You remind me.

Andrea:
Okay. Bell peppers ring a bell?

Anita:
You were telling me of a tool? I don’t even understand. There’s like this spirally tool used to clean out the inside of a bell pepper.

Andrea:
I can’t even picture it, though.

Anita:
You can’t scrape the inside of the bell pepper. Now, to be fair, I really never make stuffed peppers. Okay, this is for stuffed peppers. All right. No, I get it. I just don’t make them much. Do you know why I don’t make stuffed peppers? The pepper to filling ratio is too high. There’s like too much pepper on the outside. And my kids don’t like it. i like pepper yeah but um i understand that if you’re getting those gigantic.

Andrea:
Peppers at the store maybe that’s why people like them because

Anita:
That’s what i get this huge pepper it’s still too much pepper but i get the organic ones they’re a bit smaller they are smaller yeah and we get.

Andrea:
Whatever peppers either somebody we know grows or and they’re small and they’re weird in shape

Anita:
So i don’t want to malign the pepper scraper if you make a lot of uh stuffed peppers it might be a It’s a tiny little inexpensive doodad.

Andrea:
Okay, this is where we get back to objective values. Maybe you have, like, arthritis in your hands, but the thing you love most is sliced bananas, and you’re just like… Totally. You know?

Anita:
Oh, absolutely.

Andrea:
Now I give myself a patient.

Anita:
I’m still thinking about the banana slicer. I’m going to look it up when we’re done.

Andrea:
I think there’s avocado slicers, too. But here’s the thing again.

Anita:
I’ve seen egg.

Andrea:
Slices i’ve seen people that we never eat avocados oh we’re in washington i don’t even know where i would get an avocado i guess basically yeah well i’m not a safe way so therefore no avocados so i it’s um you have

Anita:
To take a road trip down to california but.

Andrea:
If i was you know what the one avocado in cities i had was when i was road tripping down to california They stopped me at the corner and there’s like six organic avocados. And I was like, Gary, we have to eat these avocados.

Anita:
That’s hilarious.

Andrea:
They’re like, you got the avocados. Like, hold on, at least let me eat one of them.

Anita:
They’re like $5 a seat, okay?

Andrea:
That’s so sad, Gloria. It was sad. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. But they’re like, no, you’re going to buy fresh avocados. You don’t want your, you don’t want these avocados anyways once you’re to California. But, okay, we both, neither of us. Okay, again, objective. value for the tool doesn’t really exist because it’s your lifestyle your patterns in my case it’s even you know how much electricity you have access

Anita:
To what if nothing made me happier than perfectly sliced bananas.

Andrea:
I mean in that case you wouldn’t have maybe like every color probably only comes in

Anita:
Yellow i mean i’m gonna we should do an update in the notes about whether please comment because i’m actually probably gonna buy the banana slice.

Andrea:
We want to hear the duds i really want to hear the duds because sometimes people talk about tools and i’m just like that i had no idea such a thing i couldn’t even put myself in the situation of needing that tool to imagine it and then other times people have these tools that i think is the most wasteful thing ever and then you see them using it and you’re like that totally fits

Anita:
Well i’m sure i know i brought up the big uh juicer before i used to have a big i don’t remember if i did i used to have a big juicer my parents had it and never used it and gave it to me i never used it and passed it on and um it’s so much work to clean yeah you know and i’m sure that a lot of people uh, would share that sentiment with me who have bought one of those uh big juicers however if you’re someone who’s actually juicing a lot then then.

Andrea:
Then it would great

Anita:
But there’s there’s a great comedian everyone shang wang and he has a whole bit on buying his juicer and he so he starts out saying you know like he would buy fresh press juice at the store and it was ten dollars he’s like this is ridiculous so he buys this 400 juicer and he uses it like once and then he goes to the store he’s like this is a great deal like 10 bucks for that was a lot of work i would.

Andrea:
Gladly pay 10 for this juice yeah i’ll pay you anything anything so I don’t have to wash that

Anita:
Little grill out yeah the grill that’s why the cold pressed one is great it doesn’t have that.

Andrea:
And I think your use of it was perfect, you know, being able to make those on-the-spot juices because you were going and buying a juice multiple times a day. Whereas when we lived close to a cold-press restaurant, I was just like, I don’t, I will pay. Like, I don’t. Also, I know how much it cost me to bring the produce in, and then, yeah, for me, it was better to just buy it, the juice. Neither of us really uses a slow cooker.

Anita:
No, we don’t. You know, I’ve used it sometimes for beef roasts, but they come out better elsewhere.

Andrea:
Yeah.

Anita:
It’s so big. It’s so heavy.

Andrea:
It does put off a lot of heat where the instant pot doesn’t really.

Anita:
It puts off so much heat. I mean, if your kid touches it, they can burn themselves on the outside.

Andrea:
I used to just put mine out on the back deck, you know, and like slow-cooked beans out there. But here’s the thing. A slow cooker, it’s in the name, is going to be basically their huge power draw. And so I can’t be plugging that thing in.

Anita:
New to the show.

Andrea:
We’re off-grid. I feel like I should have maybe said that in the beginning. But we’re off-grid, and so the power— And we’re from Washington State. Western Washington State. So sun is few and far between. And so we’re really conservative of power as much as we can be.

Anita:
And if you do have an Instant Pot, it can function as a slow cooker.

Andrea:
Yeah, it could. So I still have my slow cooker in the garage. I’m not sure.

Anita:
I still have it. I use it for potlucks. I was saying, you know.

Andrea:
I can’t— How many years do I keep it before I’m like, I still am not using it. I think decluttering experts are like, you’ve already passed that mark some time back. Let her go.

Anita:
I’m trying to even remember the last time I used it.

Andrea:
Oh!

Anita:
I am going to eat my words.

Andrea:
Oh, here we go.

Anita:
It’s the Ancestral Kitchen Cookbook, everyone. And it’s the heart. It’s the beef heart. I stick that in. That’s the only thing I use it for. I’m keeping it. I am keeping it. That is the only thing I use that slow cooker for.

Andrea:
But I’m not saying not do this, but I make Allison’s slow cooker heart, but I do it on my stovetop. But see, then you can’t, you don’t want to leave or whatever.

Anita:
I don’t want to leave.

Andrea:
Yeah, I do it on the stovetop.

Anita:
But I could do it in the instant pot on the slow cooker setting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrea:
I’ve never used a slow cooker setting.

Anita:
I never have either. I’m telling you, it’s the only thing I’ve used the slow cooker for probably in three years. Other than I think I brought it to a potluck.

Andrea:
How lazy are we? Like, I never pushed that button a centimeter over from the other button.

Anita:
I just never have. Slow cooking is a weird thing. Most things don’t really taste very good that way. I feel like beans. But it’s very good for something like hearts.

Andrea:
But, you know, Brittany, who you’re going to be meeting in the Discord group now, She said, you know, she does her beans, all her beans in the oven. And she’s like, once you put them in the oven, you just can’t go back.

Anita:
I do everything in the oven. The lard I do in the oven. I do as little as.

Andrea:
Possible in the oven because of the power pole.

Anita:
I do it for the safe. I don’t want to flame.

Andrea:
Yeah. No, I think those are good reasons. Neither of us uses a spiralizer anymore.

Anita:
No, we both have the spiralizer. It was so cool. Look, we have zucchini.

Andrea:
It was really fun. I had endless zucchini at the time I got it. I was just trying to come up with ways to use it, and I did love the zucchini spaghetti, honestly.

Anita:
It is. It’s delicious, but I haven’t used it in years and years.

Andrea:
I don’t know. If I had a zucchini plant, maybe I’d use it. Yeah, yeah. I might. So am I going to save it in case I get a zucchini plant? I don’t know. Decluttering. People are like, stop!

Anita:
Mine is in a KitchenAid attachment, and it comes with a grater. I don’t know. I’m going to give it another chance. Okay.

Andrea:
Yeah.

Anita:
But I use the food processor grater if I want a machine.

Andrea:
I know. Okay, mandolin.

Anita:
No, that thing is scary. I have one. I’ve used it like twice. Yeah. And I’m always like, am I going to be in the ER?

Andrea:
Call your husband. I’m going to your job. No, no.

Anita:
I don’t like it. I don’t know. But I don’t, you know, there’s all these fancy dishes you need it for, and I just don’t make those. So maybe. I don’t.

Andrea:
Like ratatouille or something?

Anita:
Precisely. So maybe at some point I’ll want to make them, and then I’ll really need it. And it takes up very little space. So I’m not even considering getting rid of it.

Andrea:
The declutterers are going to use this video as, like, the example of psychology. Like, this is the question that people ask themselves. I haven’t used it in five years, but if I wanted to run a dilly, I would wish I had that mandolin. I don’t know.

Anita:
Listen, decluttering is not like an assumed good. Like, nobody wants to live in a hoarder house, but I don’t feel like minimalism is something that we should all assume is something we should aim for.

Andrea:
I’m not a maximalist, but I’m not a minimalist either. We have a fair library of tools for the kitchen, both of us, like we do. And there are tools that they don’t. Maybe. It’s like music. You don’t listen to all those pieces all the time.

Anita:
But are you going to get rid of it because you haven’t listened to it in?

Andrea:
Delete Beethoven.

Anita:
Yeah, right. Exactly. Okay. That’s when you’ll feel like it.

Andrea:
OJ Press?

Anita:
Okay, okay. So I had the mechanical press. I got one. They’re kind of expensive. They’re over $100. They’re very heavy, and they take up a lot of space on your counter, and they end up covering it.

Andrea:
Is it electric?

Anita:
No, no. It’s manual. Oh, okay. And you end, you know, it’s like you see them, like, at a farmer’s market where they’re making fresh juice. They’ll be like, psh, psh. push it down with a lever um they’re a lot messier than they look you end up kind of getting juice on the legs and stuff i did, um however they do they they do extract all the juice very quickly but mine broke in like two years and i was kind of bummed it was an expensive tool to break now i don’t remember the brand um if i had one now would i make more orange juice than i do, i bet i would i’ve been considering it what really lemonade what really stopped well yeah what really stops me is well the fresh lemonade it depends how much if i’m just making it for myself that’s two lemons i’m going to use it a little my little yeah hand one i’m not it’s not worth it.

Andrea:
The little reamer like the

Anita:
Wooden not even the reamer i just have like it has like a little cup with the little oh okay.

Andrea:
Yeah my sister thing on top

Anita:
It strains the seeds um but it takes up a lot of counter space that’s right now my big thing i’m like i really don’t want to get this gadget and and i’m not going to use it if i don’t keep it on the counter you know what i mean again i feel like.

Andrea:
This is the thing If I lived in Florida and I was

Anita:
In a citrus capital.

Andrea:
I would be getting that fresh fruit juice.

Anita:
I would want that. Totally. My grandma had a grapefruit tree. She used that thing all the time.

Andrea:
I think the things that are really complicated to clean are the things that we, like the spiralizer is a lot of bits that goes into things hard to clean. The, um… uh the oj press is a is a lot of work probably to clean because i imagine it’s juicy and sugary like you have to wash it off

Anita:
It’s not supposed to be you’re supposed to only clean this one piece but i feel like the the one i had the juice ended up coming out places it wasn’t really supposed to and dripping and i ended up i’m climbing the whole thing i’ve got juice on the counter yeah the juicer i don’t want to say no to the oj press if you want to make fresh orange juice for your whole family every morning i feel like the mechanical i do not have access.

Andrea:
To fresh orange I don’t even know how somebody was telling me was it you who was telling me that there’s somebody who someone someplace where you can get like, you know, from the cellar straight in Florida, you can get citrus and that might be worthwhile getting a bunch of freezing trays or something.

Anita:
So in the TJ Maxx parking lot in my city, there are guys with pickup trucks

Anita:
pretty routinely with trays of oranges you can buy.

Andrea:
Yeah, I don’t know. Okay, you have a microwave that you use. I don’t have a microwave.

Anita:
Oh, you better use it. So here’s what I use it for. So I make, and please, if you have a solution for this that doesn’t require more work, I want to hear it. But I’m the only one in my house that drinks coffee. I make pour over. Pour over takes a while, which means by the time the coffee is done, it’s not very hot anymore. And then I go and add cold cream to it. So it is not hot at all. And at that point, I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Andrea:
Okay, this would be my solution, which, because I don’t have a microwave. Okay, and I I don’t want to use a microwave anyways. I’ve heard all the arguments back and forth, like, they’re bad, they’re good. And I’m like, I don’t know. I can’t run one anyways. So it’s a moot point run. So I… If I like a hot beverage, I do not like a cold beverage. Gary’s always like, when he makes coffee or something, he brings it to me first because I want it, like, scowling hot.

Anita:
Yeah, that’s how I like my coffee, too.

Andrea:
I want it scowling hot. I do not like a tepid drink. But, um, so I heat cream or milk if it’s going in.

Anita:
Almost always. The problem is my coffee’s not hot to begin with because it’s pour over.

Andrea:
Well, yeah, that’s true. It does get, okay, I see what you’re saying. So when Gary does his pour over, you’re talking, like, the gooseneck and everything like that?

Anita:
Yeah. Yeah, so we—I mean.

Andrea:
It does start out with a pretty hot—I mean, we put it into a hot mug, so we heat the mugs first, so the mug gets hot water

Anita:
Poured in it. This is a lot of work for 6 a.m. I’m just telling you. I’m just telling you. This is me at 6 a.m.

Andrea:
Okay, all right. I’m just telling you our solution, I guess. I’ve already boiled a kettle of water to fill the gooseneck, so I also put boiling water in.

Anita:
So if I were to—if I were to avoid the microwave, I would probably, at the point where it’s done and I have—, i have an electric kettle.

Andrea:
Okay so can you pour heat enough to just if you just put like a cup in your mug your mug heats up because it drops like what is it like 20 degrees or something maybe even 30 degrees when you put a hot drink into a cold ceramic mug well

Anita:
It’s a room temperature.

Andrea:
A lot of that energy comes out into the ceramic so we always heat the mugs first

Anita:
Well i also could put it in an insulated mug and then report in the mug i want to drink from that’s another.

Andrea:
Solution I do Gary’s insulated mugs. I heat those all. So I put hot water in those, and then I pour the hot water out. So the cup is like steaming when I put his coffee into it. It’s all doable.

Anita:
I can see it, but it’s still more work than what I have. But the pour over.

Andrea:
But then I do use, I use a closed thermos if I’m not drinking. If it’s not a small drink, I’m drinking rapidly.

Anita:
I’ll tell you, the other thing I do use the microwave for is sometimes I don’t have time to heat up leftovers on the stove, especially because I pack my kids’ leftovers for lunch at school. If I’m ahead of the game, I pack those up on the stove. But if I’m not, it’s microwave, thermos, lunchbox, up the door.

Andrea:
Gone, gone.

Anita:
But, you know, I do try to minimize it.

Andrea:
I don’t have a toaster oven. Yeah, but I don’t have a microwave.

Anita:
If I had a toaster oven, I would be doing some of these things in the toaster oven. No question. And I don’t have one, and I don’t have much kind of space.

Andrea:
And you’re going to heat the oven for 45 minutes to put— Oh,

Anita:
Well, yeah. The other thing is— Well, no, no, no. Actually, to reheat it, if I have time, I’m doing it on the stove. the microwave’s you know when I’m in a pinch yeah.

Andrea:
Okay, the last dud, and this is a big one. This generated an entire conversation in Discord. If you were there for the Discord conversation, you know Wafflegate.

Anita:
Oh, I wasn’t there for Wafflegate. So I have, yeah, I have the cast iron.

Andrea:
You weren’t there for it, but you brought it up.

Anita:
Well, yeah, because I think I was the one that posted the waffle from the cast iron waffle maker. Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying this totally depends on your life circumstance. The actual cast iron waffle maker is awesome. It works really well. You have to be careful. I found that I couldn’t do blueberry waffles in it because the blueberries would stick. Yeah. But otherwise, I had it down. But the problem is, you know, I have three kids, and often there’s kids over and stuff. And if I’m making pancakes for waffles, this is a weekend thing. I’m not doing this on weekdays. So I’m feeding a lot of people. So I’ve got my batter. Do you know how long it would take to use the little waffle iron to make waffles out of all that batter versus pulling out, I have two cast, iron crepe pans, they’re not big, but I pull out two on the stove, boom, boom, boom, boom. I’ve knocked out that batter in not a long time. So I haven’t actually made it in so long, but the waffles are delicious.

Andrea:
Brittany in the Discord, she was just… I mean, she was like,

Anita:
You guys, I know.

Andrea:
She has the cast iron. I have a cast iron waffle iron also. And she said, you have to put so much fat in it to make sure it doesn’t stick. She goes, and then the batter has to have so much fat in it. That helps too, she found. So she goes, I’m putting the waffle iron in. I’m trying to close it over. She’s like, the waffle batter is going everywhere. Flames are coming up. The children are crying. She’s like, it was.

Anita:
She should not use this device. It’s not for her.

Andrea:
You know what? She persevered. I don’t know how she did it.

Anita:
I don’t like waffles enough to persevere through that. I don’t know. I don’t actually like them that much. They’re good.

Andrea:
I got a cast iron waffle iron. Like, I salvaged one. And so I cleaned it and I greased it and I have made waffles in it. And, um… It’s too much.

Anita:
It’s slow.

Andrea:
It’s too long.

Anita:
Yeah.

Andrea:
This is the thing where I could see if I had multiples of these things so I could.

Anita:
Or if it’s a big one.

Andrea:
You have to heat both sides.

Anita:
Okay, who’s been to a hotel and seen at the breakfast, at the included breakfast, the waffle line? It’s huge.

Andrea:
I know.

Anita:
If I had one like that that was cast iron, I would be using that thing, no question. But this little stovetop one’s so small.

Andrea:
But the cast iron one can’t be that deep.

Anita:
No, it’s not a deep.

Andrea:
They have to be so shallow. I do love, I do love the thin crispy waffle. I prefer those.

Anita:
Look, if you’re in a small household, let’s say you have one or two people in your household. Oh, how delightful is it to make yourself waffles? 100%. No question.

Andrea:
100%. I’d be making myself one,

Anita:
Those strawberries. And I’d be making the fresh pasta all the time.

Andrea:
I’d be making strawberry ice cream.

Anita:
Yeah. Oh, it’s different when you have to cook for a crowd.

Andrea:
So when you’re cooking for a crowd. So do you have a waffle iron, like a non-cast iron, like a non-stick one?

Anita:
No. One, I don’t want to avoid non-stick. One, two. In fact, I don’t think I have anything left that’s non-stick.

Andrea:
We had a non-stick waffle iron.

Anita:
It died.

Andrea:
I thought this would make me so desperate. I’ll use the cast iron one.

Anita:
No, and then it takes up—waffle arms take up a lot of space. They’re big, and I just don’t like waffles enough.

Andrea:
My kids love waffles, and if I can figure out a way to have us waffles all the time, I would.

Anita:
But the thing is, the same batter will make you pancakes.

Andrea:
I know, I know.

Anita:
And I’ve been doing a lot of crepes.

Andrea:
And crepes are quick.

Anita:
And crepes are fancy.

Andrea:
And they’re delicious.

Anita:
Ooh, it’s a crepe. They’re fried. It’s so fancy. And I’ve been doing sourdough

Anita:
crepes, but then my sourdough starter died. I have to go procure one again.

Andrea:
No. Well, this was awesome. All of these tools, I feel like we have so many fun tools, so many fun things to make. Go check out Anita’s website and see all of her beautiful recipes, which use some of these amazing tools. All your amazing recipes that you have. You’ve given us permission to put a number of your websites, your recipes. Like, your recipes, you have a recipe in our postured porn book, did you know?

Anita:
I didn’t know. I’m so excited to see it.

Andrea:
I did ask your permission. I have no

Anita:
Doubt that I said yes to Andrea. I don’t remember all these things. You can share my website, by the way. Yes, yes.

Andrea:
What was it? Can you say?

Anita:
It is nosetotalerecipes.com.

Andrea:
Nosetotalerecipes.com. Awesome. Okay. All your recipes are good. Your panna cotta. I swear by your panna cotta. Your liver mousse, which we had for a snack yesterday.

Anita:
The student has become the teacher. It was better than mine. So good.

Andrea:
What was funny was how your family was raving about it. I was like, this is your mom’s recipe. This is your wife’s recipe. She’s telling you, like, I got this from her.

Anita:
Speaking of panna cotta, the next thing I want to try is posset. Have you heard of posset? What? It’s like panna cotta. Oh, I’m sure Allison knows about posset. It’s a British Isles thing.

Andrea:
Okay.

Anita:
And it’s kind of like panna cotta, only they use, like, a fruit acid to curdle the cream.

Andrea:
I’m into it.

Anita:
So it comes out a lot like panna cotta.

Andrea:
Make a recipe that is one that someone like me can make and put it on your own side.

Anita:
All right, I’m going to test out posset next.

Andrea:
She takes the complex, she makes it into, like, realistic, something that you’re actually making. I do— Your roast chicken— is my staple, your roast chicken and your gluten-free gravy that goes with it.

Anita:
Yeah, that’s right. There are zero, zero extra steps.

Andrea:
Oh, do you know what totally forgot to mention? This is just going to get an honorable mention here at the end, the immersion blender.

Anita:
Yeah, I can’t stand pouring soups back and forth into the plastic blender.

Andrea:
It’s like, what are we, a chemist over here? Yeah, no, I love the immersion blender. I love it for pasta sauce.

Anita:
If I am blending soup in a big blender, I’m always afraid it’s going to explode and I’m going to get scalded. I don’t know. It’s scary when it’s hot.

Andrea:
I have exploded hot ketchup on my—and I got huge burns at my arm. So, yes, it’s a valid fear.

Anita:
So, actually, it happens. It’s a valid fear. Valid fear. Yeah, immersion blender will prevent that.

Andrea:
Yeah, immersion blender. I also was going to mention the turkey rooster. While I don’t use a slow cooker, I love my turkey rooster.

Anita:
I don’t even know what a turkey rooster is.

Andrea:
I know. It’s a—it’s a—I don’t love a slow cooker because it’s a slow thing. But give me a giant slow cooker, baby.

Anita:
You raise turkeys. I eat one turkey a year.

Andrea:
Yeah, we raise turkeys. We cook turkeys every month. So I also roast lamb in it. And I love it for roasting big things because my big oven is broken right now. And that’s not really a problem because I’ve been doing everything in the toaster oven. But, like, if I want to roast, like, I roasted legs of lamb or things. You can roast them in there.

Anita:
Hey, did I tell you about the two-hour turkey?

Andrea:
The what?

Anita:
We have to save this for another episode. We can talk an hour about the two-hour turkey.

Andrea:
I could talk for hours about turkeys. We can have a—it’ll be an all-turkey episode. Okay. And we’ll be drinking Boza the whole time because that’s some turkey.

Anita:
Oh, what? Oh, some turkey. Okay. It’s like, that’s turkey in it. I couldn’t taste that at all. That’s kind of weird.

Andrea:
Well, thanks for listening, guys. Let’s go record the after show, which I want to grill you on your travel tips. You’ve got, like, really good camping food. You’ve got really good camping food and travel food solutions.

Anita:
Yeah, hotel and vacation.

Andrea:
Amazing. I love it all. Thank you, Anita. So good to talk to you.