There are certain kitchen tools that I adore having around at my disposal.  Of course, I love keeping parchment paper around so that baking and cleanup is a breeze. Plus, the brand I like using the most is a natural brown color and allegedly doesn’t contain silicates that could make us ill. My sieve is another favorite tool because it has a fine enough mesh to help remove any undesirable clumps or lumps when making custards, pastry creme, or smooth batters. And because I don’t have a flour sifter, I sometimes use this fine mesh sieve to help with my flour when cooking. One of my most favorite kitchen tools is my kitchen shears. It makes me feel like a big kid when I’m holding my kitchen shears and slicing through parchment paper, plastic wrap, or cutting up small vegetables. Forget about pulling out a knife to slice and dice scallions, leaves of lettuce or cabbage, and other tasty foods. Sometimes, it’s worth pulling out the kitchen shears to tackle breaking down meats, prepping in...

Don’t have the desired tools to get cooking or working with a smaller budget? Don’t worry. Improvise. Get inspired. And come out on the other side with some delicious results worth raving about to anyone who will listen. Pull up a chair. I’ll tell you what I mean without taking too much of your time. Listen. We all aren’t able to immediately get access to the funds to outfit our kitchens with copper cookware, the latest appliances, or high-end gadgets. Know that this doesn’t mean that you can’t accomplish to pull off a fantastic bread roll, chewy cookie, or savory sauce or soup.  Re-think how you approach your process and what tools are absolute deal-breakers. Imagine the disappointment of shelling out thousands or hundreds of dollars on top-of-the-line equipment, only to end up with a food fail. So, what does this tell you about cooking and baking? It’s not always about having the best tools or the “right ones” to do the job. Case in point, I managed to churn out some highly addic...