The Reamer, the Pitter, the Egg-Separator

This past weekend I found myself puttering around the kitchen again.  I had purchased 2lbs. of Bing Cherries the previous weekend and I needed to do something with them before they went bad.  So, I decided to make a cherry pie.

Bing Cherry Pie

But this isn’t really about the pie.  It’s about the tools I used to make it.  For the majority of my life in the kitchen, I got by with just the basics: wooden spoon, spatula, tongs, corkscrew and can opener.  But that all changed several years ago when I suddenly found myself in possession of a $300 gift card from The-Housewares-Store-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.  I decided that no less than 1/3 of it would be spent on gadgets.  (I was working there at the time and during the between-rush hours I would gaze longingly at the gadget wall.  I gazed longingly a lot  there….)

I stocked up on spatulas and serving utensils.  I bought a garlic press, vegetable peeler, ice cream scoop, garlic peeler and pizza cutter.  And after that initial gluttonous gadget binge, I began picking up tools as I needed them.  It was while I was squeezing fresh lemon juice, pitting a million cherries and whisking egg whites that I though it might be nice to introduce you to a few more of my favorite gadgets.  I now present:

THE REAMER

Citrus Reamer, about $4 at housewares stores

Not only did I get the juice of half a lemon in no-time flat, the next morning Madison and I made fresh squeezed orange juice with over a dozen oranges in about 15 minutes.  This handy little tool is also indispensable at the bar – especially when it comes to making margaritas with fresh lime juice.  I held off purchasing one for a long time, but during a recent visit to my friend Rob’s I noticed he used one to add fresh lemon juice to our cocktails.  I promptly returned home and bought one for myself and I love the fact that NO juice is left in the citrus after a turn with one of these.

THE PITTER

OXO Pitter - good for cherries and olives

Even though I don’t use this tool very much, (after all cherries are only in season about 2 months out of the year here and I don’t make that many things that require pitted olives,) I love the pitter because of the little plastic guard that keeps juice from splattering all over everything.  I pitted 2lbs. of cherries in about 20 minutes and the cherries actually looked “professionally pitted”.  I’ve only used it once for olives, but it worked like a charm then too.  I also like the fact that it pitts quickly – with strength – so the cherries and olives don’t look mangled.

THE EGG-SEPERATOR

Separate yourself from the dollar it costs for this nifty tool. You won't be sorry. (Ha! see what I did there?)

Okay, so this is one of the gadgets I purchased on my grand gadget spree, but it’s one of the tools I use the most.  (Really, does one need 7 spatulas?)  And yes, I know how to separate eggs with just the shell, but really this tool makes it so much easier.  (And shell free!)  Crack, shake and plop.  Simple as that.  The eggs separate so much more cleanly.