Well, Bethany just had a great blog post about her favorite household products, and the housewife in me is happy to respond! Here are my favorites:
1. My Pampered Chef stones–I started out with this bar pan and discovered that things don’t burn on a stone, even if they’re left in the oven for an extra hour. Then I had a party and earned the amazing deep covered baker, in which I can cook a chicken dinner in half an hour in the microwave. (I’ll post it sometime…) Recently, my in-laws gave me the Deep Dish Baker, which I also love. Yep, I’m pretty much a Pampered Chef junkie.
2. It’s apple season, so I’ll be using my PC Apple Peeler/Corer ($3 at a garage sale) a lot in the next month or so! Derek and Tommy love this contraption, too! I just found a crockpot applesauce recipe that I can’t wait to try…
3. I use my wooden spoons for everything. They don’t hurt my pans, and they’re so much sturdier than my plasticware. I also love recipes that tell me specifically to “stir with a wooden spoon!”
4. A friend who’s in charge of cooking for 100 people ten times a week once told me that the most important investment I could make for my kitchen would be buying good knives. I use my Wustof paring knife for pretty much all my food prep. Going back to cheaper knives at church or wherever is quite frustrating! =)
5. Sorry to repeat, Bethany, but baking soda is my best cleaning friend, too! I recently read an article about how you can basically clean your whole house with baking soda, vinegar, and Dawn. I am slowly using up my fancy chemical cleaners and moving towards simplifying my cleaning bucket. I use baking soda for diaper odor, laundry, freshening carpets, absorbing odors in the fridge, cleaning, and, of course, baking.
So, I’m wondering, fellow housewife bloggers, what are your favorite household products?