“The absolute best pepper mill I've ever used. Yes it's heavy, yes it's expensive, yes it could easily double as a weapon during a home invasion if needed — but it is an absolute must-have for anyone who loves flavor.”
A heavyweight, splurge-grade pepper mill — built like equipment, for serious flavor people.
“Rikon makes great Y-peelers that are so inexpensive that they are often sold in 3 packs.”
A sharp, inexpensive Y-peeler often sold in three-packs, with a heavy-duty Titan version for tougher jobs.
“Now, this little crab holds my cooking spoon in place or keeps my pot lid in place.”
A crab-shaped silicone gadget that holds a cooking spoon or props a pot lid to vent steam, under twenty dollars.
“Always with my supervision, my kindergartner will slice fruit or chop nuts with his special green knife.”
A child-safe knife that lets a supervised kid graduate from washing produce to slicing fruit and chopping nuts.
“I love their pots. Right size. Right weight. Right shape. Cadillac.”
Italian-made cookware with the right size, weight, and shape, easy to scrub and built to last.
“Incredible little ladle. Sounds weird, but for anyone who makes lots of soups, sauces, and whatnot, this thing solves a huge kitchen irritation – the different colored lip of the scoop is flexible allowing you to get in all of the nooks and crannies of any pot you're using.”
A flexible-lipped soup ladle that gets into pot corners other ladles miss — small fix, big quality-of-life win.
“The last jar of peanut butter I finished got super clean before I recycled it!”
A tiny scraping spatula-spoon that gets jars genuinely clean down to the last bit.
“The FireKylin rice paddle stands on its end (no sticky mess anywhere!) and it's made of silicone.”
A nine-dollar silicone rice paddle that stands on its end so it never makes a sticky mess on the counter.
“Part of his history study of course put him on eating knives and eating daggers from the middle ages.”
A historically faithful medieval knife-and-pricker eating set, hand-recreated with classic methods.
“I took an axe, a saw, a Leatherman, which is like a multi-tools, it's a knife and pliers and stuff.”
The do-everything multi-tool he chose for Alone: pliers, a knife, and more in a pocketable package built to last.
“These fine woodworkers make real ones that last, look beautiful, don't wobble, and make chopping a pleasure.”
Heirloom-grade wooden cutting boards that sit flat, last for years, and make chopping a pleasure.
“With this foldable whisk, you'll have easy storage and easy whisking. Plus, the metal wires are coated in silicone which means it won't make a scratchy noise against the mixing bowl.”
Foldable silicone-coated whisk — solves the utensil-drawer jam, won't scratch nonstick.
“The PoulTree is a rod that attaches to your cast iron skillet which catches all the drippings while you roast your chicken on the grill. Brilliant.”
A rod that attaches to a cast iron skillet to catch drippings while roasting a chicken on the grill.
“It has 8 temperature sensors along its length so it understands not just core temperature, but the way heat is moving into your food.”
A probe thermometer with eight sensors that reads how heat moves through food and predicts when it is done.
“With the Garject, you'll have a garlic press that presses unpeeled garlic and scrapes itself clean.”
A garlic press that handles unpeeled cloves and scrapes itself clean, fresh garlic without the fuss.
“Sprinkle in a little FryAway and wait. As the oil cools, it solidifies into a flexible puck that you can toss in the trash.”
A plant-based powder that solidifies leftover frying oil into a puck you can toss in the trash, not the drain.
“Eventually, I found my way to these washable paper towels.”
Washable waffle-weave cloth paper towels with enough texture to scrub stains and absorb spills.
“I always carry also just a ferro rod, which is very — it just makes sparks, basically. You scrape it and it makes sparks.”
A ferro rod he always carries as a fail-safe fire starter, throws sparks when matches and lighters quit on you.
“This year we switched from regular white kitchen towels to dark gray bar mops and, my goodness, it classed up the joint.”
Dark gray cotton bar mops that hide stains and look more put-together than standard white kitchen towels.
“Geraldine gifted me this cookbook (I think after she saw me staring at on her kitchen counter), and I squealed with delight as I flipped through the pages of beautiful photos. It's become a page-turner for me as I plan to gift cookie boxes this year to teachers and neighbors.”
Beautifully photographed cookbook of not-too-sweet Asian cookie recipes — a gifting cookbook even cookbook-skeptics page through.