Summer is here! Better get ready, aspiring home chefs, because it is one of the best seasons for cooking! The plethora of produce means that there’s plenty of room to experiment with fun foods. There are farmer’s markets stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs can even be picked straight from the garden and, in some places, you can even pick your own berries! It’s the time of year for backyard barbecues, classic grilling, poolside cook-outs, bonfire roasts, and so much “s’more!”
With all that ahead, there are a few tools that will make time in the kitchen just a touch easier. Whether your struggle is chopping garlic, planning dinner, or getting the perfect grill marks on your steak, we have all the essential tools you’ll need to spend the summer cooking!
1. Veggie Spiralizer
Ever heard of “zucchini bombing?” It’s a prank when a neighbor (with a green thumb and an abundance of squash) leaves a massive pile of zucchini on your porch. People have done it with zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, even tomatoes or cucumbers! Seriously, these garden vegetables grow in such massive quantities, they’re in danger of taking over your whole kitchen!
A vegetable spiralizer can help cut down on the plant invasion by turning your zucchini into noodles. They can get expensive, but this one is available for less than ten dollars each and is super effective. We like the handheld one – it’s easy to use and you can make the vegetable noodles as long or as short as you want thanks to the manual control.
Once you have a giant pile of vegetable noodles, try sautéing them with a little sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic (see below on how to chop that garlic). Throw in a little chicken or shrimp and you’ve got a healthy (but FUN!) meal! You can also use any variety of sauce and toppings — try all of your favorite pasta dishes, but with far more health benefits!
2. Rolling Garlic Chopper
Garlic is one of our favorite flavors – it’s earthy, zesty, a little tart, and perfect in every season of the year. What’s not to love? Well, we don’t love chopping it. While it’s not as aggressive as onions, garlic juice can sting when you’re cutting it. Then there’s trying to pin the clove to the cutting board, only to have the knife slip and knick your fingers! If you’ve ever battled a traditional garlic press, then you know the pain of garlic juice in your cuticles! The solution to the sting? This rolling garlic chopper!
We love that it’s covered so you’ll barely have to touch the garlic before it’s ready to use. It looks like an adorable little car or something out of a kid’s movie but it’s actually helping you get the most flavors out of every clove of garlic. Not only will this be great for summer, but you can use it all year round! Imagine your favorite garlic bread, now with fresh garlic you chopped yourself – YUM!
3. Meal Delivery Kit
Do you love spontaneous summer cooking, but sometimes just need to get dinner on the table? Do you hate planning dinner? Do you find yourself frustrated, staring into the fridge at six o’clock every evening and thinking, “How in the world am I going to put all of this together?” We’ve been there.
That’s why we tried EveryPlate meal delivery kit. Fresh ingredients get delivered straight to the house (good-bye, weekly supermarket trips!) and the planning is DONE. If you’re new to cooking, this can also be a great way to step into the kitchen without feeling overwhelmed. You don’t have to worry about spending the electric bill on an open fridge door because the recipes have already been chosen. Since the ingredients have already been bought, it’s easier to enjoy a variety of meals while staying within your monthly budget. The best part is that you can customize the meals based on diet (i.e., vegetarian, gluten-free, keto). If you’re too busy to make it to the local farmer’s market, don’t worry! These services come with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
4. Stainless Steel Locking Grill Tongs
Is it even possible to barbecue without tongs? How else could you perfectly turn a steak to get those delicious grill marks? Plus, no cook out is complete without corn and salt potatoes! Tongs are necessary to wrangle those plants from a boiling hot pot.
We love these locking tongs because the stainless steal makes them strong enough to handle heavy food (like burgers and ribs) while their ridged texture can grab a wide assortment of different vegetables. They’re strong enough to, say, pluck a lobster from the pot but delicate enough not to crush its shell. The insulated grips protect your hands from the heat and a locking hinge makes the tongs easy to store.
5. Digital Meat Thermometer
It is so disappointing to pull a nice, juicy-looking hamburger patty off of the grill only to cut into it and discover – IT’S RAW. Now it has to go back onto the grill for… how long, again?
What if one person wants a medium rare burger, and another wants theirs well-done? Even the most experienced grill masters can get distracted. With this thermometer you’ll never doubt the temperature of your burger patties again!
We recently upgraded from an old-fashioned thermometer to a digital one, and it has gotten so much easier to lock in juice and flavor. The digital meat thermometer is easy to read and can tell you the temperature in as little as three seconds! Now you can ensure your food is cooked safely and is extra delicious!
With all of the plants grown and harvested throughout the summer, it can be tricky to know where to start! Remember that summer is for fun, and so is summer cooking! Hopefully the devices we’ve listed will help you get started in the kitchen until you’re comfortable enough to host your own barbecue!