My wok will follow me where ever I roam:
soups/stews
braising
pan fry
stir fry
and
I make Chinese omelets in it.
(special thanks to my good friend who gave it to me-after 10years in his closet-b/c he doesn't cook)

You did not mention sauce pans, and I use those quite a bit, but then I do not have a Dutch oven, and I make soup in a large stainless steel sauce pan that is decades old.

I have a couple of 9x9 Corningware pans with glass lids, and I use those quite frequently - probably because they fit in the toaster oven, and I do not use my large oven unless I have to, although in cool weather I don't mind using either one.

I recently bought a reversible grill/griddle that covers two burners, and that's what I use for pancakes now, and it saves me a lot of time, since I can cook four at once. I haven't used the grill side yet, but I will. I like it for vegetables, but I have two grill pans that I've been using for vegetables and fish - a wide spaced grill for fish and narrow for vegetables.

I used to have the clear glass mixing bowls with lids (made in France), but when I moved to back California in 1989, I stored them at my sister's house, and she wanted to keep them. That's not all she kept, but she's been generous with me otherwise. She's just not good at shopping and picking out the correct items.

I have several pizza screens, and I use those frequently also, but lately I've been making a quick pizza with ciabatta bread that I slice in half lengthwise. Kevin likes it, and it saves me a lot of time.

I keep my Kitchenaid mixer on the counter with the grater attachment on it, and I use that for grating all cheese. I use the mixer for making dough and ice cream, but I use a handheld KA mixer for whipping cream or egg whites. I use the KA stick blender frequently and lately I've been using its chopping attachment for mincing vegetables, especially for pasta or chicken salads.

Those are my top items, I guess, although I have many more that I would not want to part with.

Lars

As a wok won't follow me over to the dishwasher as I roam, it's superfluous here. Besides, I don't have a sublime exhaust fan to make the best use of it.

However, my food processor and mixer will follow me to the ends of the culinary world along with a roll of parchment.

Immersion blender. I have a regular blender, but never, ever use it. I use the whisk attachment for whipping egg whites.

LOL @ EJ!!

My toaster oven and grills would be on my list. Toaster oven is great and cuts down on heat in the kitchen even though I have a second range/stove in the garage. My nephew uses the toaster oven all the time for reheating things and making a few cookies from dough in the freezer, junk food that he likes. It is a great second or third oven when entertaining and for big holiday meals. Still have a toaster though as I think it take to long to make toast. LOL!

I'm curious about the cleaning of your grill that you have. I just leave the burners on after cooking for a few minutes to burn off the grates and scrap with a wire brush. Most of the time I just shut it down and do the burn and scrap thing the next time I use it.

David

That's the way I clean the grill too, David. Saves gas that way.

Items that I would have to take along if stranded on a desert island...

1. Pressure Cooker.
2. Panasonic microwave with 'quick minute', 'sensor reheat' & 'turbo defrost'.
3. Carbon steel wok for searing (first) and stir fries (second).
4. Calphalon skillet because it heats up quickly and fries sooo evenly.
5. Big honkin' T-fal, Wearever, etc. 'chicken fryer'...looking to upgrade this pan but can't find one that I like SO, I'll just buy a new one with intact non-stick to take along.
6. Half a dozen of silicone spatulas, asst'd. sizes.
7. Weber natural gas grill.

Since I probably have one of the tiniest kitchens of CF members with limited storage and counter space, I have adapted my cooking style and equipment to the environment in which I do it.

I am able to produce good meals, bake for my community and entertain without some items like:

Dishwasher
Stand mixer
Garbage disposal
Pressure cooker
Convection or toaster oven
Rice cooker
Electric juicer
Waffle iron
Deep fryer
Pizza pan or stone
Wok
Any Le Cruset or Lodge cookware
Single serving coffee maker
Nesco roaster
Bundt pan
Panini press
Bread machine
Anything silpat

That doesn't exactly answer your question but might illustrate that what are considered kitchen necessities can vary greatly from one cook to another.

I don't know if this is what you are asking, but I made a list of the stuff I use 90% of the time:
- 8" flea market cast iron pan (searing, frying, stirfrying - wish it were bigger)
- Kuhn Rikon 8 qt pressure cooker (fast "slow cooking", 15 minute chicken stock)
- heavy 20 qt French copper stockpot (soups, stocks, crustaceans, hitting people)
- small (2 qt?) Le Creuset enameled iron pot (sauces, side dishes)
- 8" All-Clad stainless steel omelette pan (sautes, fish, omelettes)
- wooden spoons
- plastic spatula
- large ladle
- chopsticks (turning stuff over, stirring)
- metal tongs
- spider (getting stuff out of hot liquid, e.g. deep frying)
- colander
- 10" chefs knife
- 8" santoku (thin slicing veggies)
- 18" x 24" heavy wood cutting board
- measuring spoon set
- can and bottle opener
- corkscrew
- small brush (for glazing stuff, etc)
- fine grater (for cheese, citrus zest)

That's it. Everything else gets used every couple of weeks at most.

When my kitchen was being remodeled I lived pretty happily with a makeshift kitchen that included my toaster oven, coffee maker an electric frying pan. The fridge was a cooler on the porch (it was January). Amazing how well I go along with just that -- and take-out.

Doing more with less is certainly doable, but if I had to keep specialty appliances/pots/gadgets under the sofa for when I do use them, I would rather do that than not have them.
In fact, I keep my electric griddle under a sitting room sofa because it is so unwieldy. It's the perfect place to store it and I love using it although it's usually only once a month or so for pancakes.

Same with the Belgian and the regular waffle maker.

I need one of what JessyF has!!!

I'm the proud new owner of a plain ol' stainless steel frying pan with straight, tall sides (from Ikea). I've abused it unmercifully, and it always comes clean. A two minute soak, if it's really horrible, and then I scrub it with a stainless steel scouring pad. It's big enough to cook spaghetti, and the handle is metal, so I could even bake in it. The (ancient) set of cookware I had been using was the worst of both worlds- it theoretically had a nonstick coating, so I didn't want to use metal utensils or a scouring pad, but it didn't actually have the coating, so everything stuck.

Well, I use the "heat and scrub" method for the gril, but since it's a Weber gas grill, it has a big honkin cast iron grill with small holes, more like a griddle really than a grill, IMHO. So not all the "bits" come off easily and those that do fall into the bowl of the grill. And those are bits of greasy cooked food. So now I have a bowl full of grease scum and burned food bits and a grill with some burned on charcoal stuff and that sticky coating that comes from grease that only partially seasons on cast iron. I'm sure lots of people just don't look that well, but I live in a row house neighborhood so these food particles attract mice, and I don't want to do that. I know they attract mice because when we were using just the "heat and scrub" method one night I went to move the grill and a bunch of mice scrambled out the bottom. I don't want to cook on a surface mice have been licking. So to avoid that whole situation, we use the grill but put a cast iron skillet on it. Occasionally we grill on it, but I take it out and clean the bowl and take the grill inside and clean it in the sink so the bits fall into there and I can wipe them out easier because I don't have to wipe around the gas outlets. It's heavy so I consider that to be a pain. Anyway, I'm sure other folks' mileage may vary on this, but that has been our experience.

I would consider my crockpot and bread maker and Cuisinart very important items in my personal kitchen, because I use them ALL the time, at least once a week. They definately all do a LOT of things for me. But all of their tasks could be done by other utensils, so if I'm just trying to pare it down to the bare essentials, I know I could live without them and make slow cooked meals in my dutch oven inside my big oven, make bread by hand in the mixing bowls, and use a knife, fork and potato masher to do what I do with the Cuisinart. Although I know I wouldn't make beans, bread, hummus or pesto anywhere near as often.

So I'm probably eventually going to have to move back into a tiny apartment and I'm trying to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of. Also, I am interested in hearing what utensils other folks get the most mileage out of. I find it very interesting.

Oh, and David that's the reason I haven't gotten a toaster oven, I can't find one that makes toast as good as my little 10 buck toaster, and since my kitchen is so tiny even now, I can't justify the counter realestate. For everything else I just use the electric oven! If I got a toaster oven it would have to be small anyway so really no point. My folks have a big kitchen and they use theirs all the time, and if you have the space, a toaster oven is the way to go if you're single or just a couple of people in the household.

I'm sorry you might have to move! I hope everything is going ok. I have lived in a tiny apartment before and it can be challenging!

Here is a suggestion. The biggest problem in a super small kitchen is counter space. After all, you can always hang pots overhead, keep occasional appliances under the bed, etc, but when you have a "one cookie sheet counter" and you are trying to make three sheets of cookies . . .

So think vertically. Get some wood and bang together a freestanding cabinet that is waist high and as big (width x depth) as a half sheet pan, and put rails or notches on the inside so that you can slide multiple half sheet pans into the cabinet with about 4-6 inches vertical clearance between them. Now you have a bit of work surface on top and room for 7-8 half sheet pans, which is enough for a really big cooking project. Add casters if you like.

This can literally be slapped together from 2x4s, glue, and drywall screws. Bare bones materials cost might be $8. Time to build - maybe 30 minutes, more if you want it pretty.

If budget is greater, then you can buy a bun pan rack at a restaurant supply store, like this small one for $65.

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/half-height-bun-pan-rack-mobile-end-load-unassembled-10-pan-capacity/600PR103K.html

"This fully-welded, half height aluminum end-load bun pan rack is the perfect way to transport up to 10 full size sheet pans or 20 half size sheet pans throughout your commercial kitchen or bustling bakery. With 3" of space between each shelf, you have ample room to store items such as doughnuts, pastries, cookies, and much more! Measures 20"L x 26"W x 38"H. NSF Listed."

Kind of like building a multi-story parking garage if there isn't enough land for a huge flat parking lot.

Oh John you have really hit the nail on the head with my kitchen, and other tiny kitchens. It's not a storage space issue as much as a COUNTER space issue. You can always store kitchen items in another room. I am actually trying to cut down on the number of utensils I cook with. Less dishes to wash, less fumbling to find stuff. I once lived in an apartment that had a tiny kitchen, because it was narrow, but it was a galley kitchen and had a lot of counter space. Much more enjoyable to cook in there than my current kitchen which has almost zero usable counter space. It has plenty of storage space, lol! I have two racks like you describe, and another two in the dining room and one down in the basement!

But my kitchen is a one butt kitchen and BF and I call the one butt space "the power postion" because it's the only place you can stand and have any power to get anything done in the kitchen. Otherwise you're just flitting about the exterior. The fewer utensils I use to cook, the easier it is to do the cooking, IMHO. I do set up my crockpot or bread maker in another part of the kitchen ahead of time so it can be cooking away on something while I am making something else in the "power position."

I'm not visualizing what John is talking about, got any photos? I have about 3 linear feet of counter space in my kitchen...UGH!

AG, here's John's link.

/t

Here is a link that might be useful: Rack

Lpink, I still remember your kitchen layout from a picture from long time ago.

If you remove the large radiator on the floor with a wall mounted radiator, you can have lots more counter and cabinet space.

dcarch

I streamlined my diet and therefore my cooking utensils about two years now. I'm overdue for packing away a lot of unused items for the Salvation Army.

I haven't used my oven for months - I use the outdoor grill as a roaster. I was never a big oven user since I don't bake. I've tweaked recipes like stuffed peppers to make completely on the stovetop.

My favorite pots and pans? A Le Creuset dutch oven. I use it for almost everything except frying eggs. I didn't get a Le Creuset until recently because they are so heavy. i bought this at an outlet and I use it so much I just keep it on the stove.

I also have a lot of unused cookbooks now. I need to figure out what I want to do with those.

I like having a big kitchen for the counter space, and since my house has an open floor plan and the kitchen has an island, that's where everyone tends to hang out when I have parties. But I'm definitely due for a major cleanout. Come to think of it, I don't have enough dishes, but I have tons of glasses, coffee mugs and stemware :-)

I have a small 9x11 ft kitchen that I dearly love. In one 34" cabinet I have the following because it contains a shoe 2 shelf shoe rack to expand the storage. It has: 6 sauce pots, 3 stock pots (max is 6 qt) 1 8 qt sauce pot, one 12" saute skillet and one chef pan.

I use each and every one of them. When I get new cabinets ... husband says get them .... me, I don't want the mess ... I'm not sure the new drawers would hold all that. I have all four 34" cabinets full to the max. We've lived here 12 yr.

The counter space is wonderful so that's not an issue because I bake bread and bake other wonders. Space is always a premium, but the 7 ft of counter space is room for anything I want to make. When we redo, I'll make the counters deeper, but not by much!

I had hoped that carpenter BF would be able to build me another work island next to the radiator, but since my time in my home is probably limited, (a move is looming) it isn't worth the effort. I am trying to do what Gina did, streamline my cooking utensil ahead of the move so I won't have to deal with a lot of this stuff that I have accumulated. If it isn't being used all the time, I'm going to pack it up and put it in one of the "save for moving sale" boxes. Part of it is just like what Gina said, I am looking to streamline my cooking too! When we go camping I have a "chuck box" with just the basics and still manage to turn out some good meals, which has got me thinking about getting rid of a lot of stuff from my home kitchen. So that got me comparing the things I use all the time with the things I rarely use. One issue is frypans. I have a LOT of them, but only use a few. I have yet to find one I really like other than a few non stick ones. The stainless ones stick and don't heat well, and the cast iron one is a pain to fuss with--heavy and I can't get the seasoning right. I have finally wised up and gotten an electric tea kettle. Now maybe I won't ruin all my saucepans and kettles by boiling them dry! But there's always rice to burn! :)

They'll have to pry my kitchen tools out of my cold dead hands...I'm not getting rid of anything..HAHAHA!

I'm with you, arkansas girl! I have a small, efficient kitchen full of gadgets I hope never to part with, even if I don't use each of them to their fullest potential. But I still want 'em!

And I keep my food processor, mini food processor, stand mixer, coffee maker, toaster, canisters, and a cookie jar on my limited counter space. If I had to pull them out to use them, I never would. Seems so impractical to hide them away. I scoff at big, beautiful show kitchens with miles of granite and nothing on them! (Aren't I mean?)

But, if I absolutely had to do with less, I'd keep my chef knife and cast iron pans. Delicious camp Coffee can be boiled in a pot, and whoever said grill marks are overrated is so right. I never turn over my two-sided griddle to get grill marks.

I do with a WHOLE lot less, when I am out bicycle camping. Two pots, one burner, and I cook. I don't just boil water. Of course, most times I tour with a partner, and he usually brings one or two pots and a single burner as well.

{{!gwi}}

Neither of us scrimps in our kitchen. We use what we like, and some of my stuff is stored in other rooms. :)

Moni

Storage in my little kitchen has been enhanced with this Boos Block stand. There is absolutely no other place for the mixer, the food processor and the breadmaker. I don't knnow what I would do without it. Florida homes don't have basements and the garage is full of cars!

beachlily, your kitchen is HUGE compared to mine! I don't even have a pantry. You could have an island rack too in that kitchen!

Well, behind that door is the big reach-in pantry that makes this kitchen work! The pantry is 5.5 ft long and 12 ft tall. I have limited cabinets but a goodly amount of counter top and I try to keep that counter clear. The good side of this kitchen is that I've had three other people at times helping to put a luncheon together and no one bumps into each other.

In our last house, I had a kitchen more than double the size of this kitchen without a pantry. This one is more convenient and easier to work.

I'm with Beachlily--it's so unfair that we don't have attics and basements! But then maybe not, I would just accumulate more carp.

Ipink, when you do move (yay!) maybe your handy BF can find some place to build in extra pantry space. I had a wall in my laundry room, which is close to the kitchen, that is a shared wall with the hot water heater area in the garage. I found these 3 cabinets for $33 each. My handy BIL cut out the wall and installed the cabinets; they encroach the garage only about 4". It has been great to have the extra space that was previously used to hang a picture.

Mustangs, I don't dare take a picture of my pantry. It is stuffed to the brim. It has wire shelves, none of which are tall enough for the Hobart or the food processor. I just use those tools right on that stand. Works great.

Love your pantry ... very organized. Good for you! Hope you aren't being blown away. We're getting a lot of wind and little rain. I'm on the other coast.

I'm really interested in the concept of paring down to get MORE, not the idea that less is somehow "lesser." I want less to fuss with, less to clean, less clutter, less wasted space, less poor quality stuff that I never use just taking up space, less fussing with meals, food that tastes good with less time and less elaborate ingredients. I'm interested in what are the most important kitchen essentials, the things that really do the heaviest duty in the kitchen and give you the most value in terms of time invested into delicious food. I'm interested in what are your tried and true utensils that are the most essential. I love the way Gina describes her dutch oven, I really like the idea of a couple of great pieces in the kitchen and revolving your cooking around those. I tend to be a very "global" person which means I like to try a lot of new stuff, new techniques, new food combos. But I think I've gone overboard with that and I'm contemplating how to have more fun with the basics.

I once went to a Christmas reception and the spread was a plate of excellent cutout cookies, and some really good cheese and crackers with a bunch of grapes. Good coffee and maybe cider. It was minimal and all delicious and every bit as good as some kind of elaborate dip or huge tray of cookie varieties, etc. Having less allowed me to focus on the greatness of just those few items.

I hear you completely. I went through my usual compulsive period with cooking - when I get into something I get INTO it! LOL. But now I'm where you are - paring down to what I use daily, to complement how I actually cook now. That coupled with us going "Paleo" really changed my cooking habits.

The Le Creuset is fantastic for soups, stews, sautee, stir fry, braise - so many types of cooking. I keep a large and small nonstick for eggs - we eat lots of eggs. I use a crockpot for starting broths and for some stews I make while I'm at work. But if I stayed at home more I wouldn't need that either as I would use the dutch oven.

Utensils I use a lot are silicone spatulas, which I replaced my wooden spoons with; egg spatula, egg whisk, stick blender. I use a blender sometimes daily for smoothies.

The silicon spatulas with wooden handles are fantastic - I use them to stir anything, to make scrambled eggs. They don't scrape or scratch and they are very effective.

LOL Gina, my BF teases me incessantly about my precious spatulas. Being a Jersey boy he thinks its funny the way this Midwesterner says SpAAAtula! I think he refuses to use a spatula just to spite me! :)

After a divorce, while most of my belongings (95%) were in storage, I learned to live with less. Not as spartan as on my bike camping trips, but a WHOLE lot less.

Consequently I got rid of a lot of stuff, when everything came out of storage. This made living in this small house so much easier. :)

There would not have been enough storage for most of my "stuff".

My kitchen is soooo much smaller than the one pictured above, but for just me, and my daughters the few times they visit, it is just right.

Moni

Well beachlily, your "little" kitchen would likely hold at least 3 of mine! My kitchen is 9x11. I'd venture a guess you have more counter space than I have kitchen square footage! LOL And no, there's not "always" room to hang pots and pans from the ceiling. I wish I could, but in my kitchen I guess you'd have to be about Verne Troyer's size to do that. You make do with what you've got.

We all have our "wish we hads". I thin it's unfair and stupid that not all kitchens have a pantry. I've made do with shelves and stuff but I'd gladly trade my basement laundry room for a first floor laundry and a pantry.

Had I not wanted to try a self cleaning oven I probably would have bought one of those "apartment sized" stoves. With my old one I used the electric frypan more than the actual stove. Although I miss the small oven on it (it was a double oven) I just use the convection oven more now unless I'm making several things or bigger stuff. (It's one of those glass bowl with heater on top) Also use the Nesco a lot. Never found a practical use for an electric kettle. I use the coffee maker when I need water heated quickly.

Much depends of course on what I'm making and for how many, as to what cookware I use most often. 9" frypan gets used a lot along with a 3 qt sauce pan. I have smaller sauce pans but you don't have to fill it. The Dutch oven and chicken fryer get used for bigger stuff. I often use the chicken fryer for cooking pasta in larger amounts. I have some of the T-fal nylon utensils that I use pretty much all the time. I like them. I use tongs rather than a spaghetti fork. Also have a flat wooden utensil that gets used a lot and is safe for non-stick.

When I was camping I used 2, sometimes 3 boxes for a chuck box and that carried everything for cooking and cleaning up. It was my portable kitchen. Worked well. Both my apartments had kitchens about the size I have in the house so I'm used to a small kitchen. Most large kitchens waste a lot o room IMO. Now with mobility issues, a compact kitchen is actually an advantage rather than a liability. For me, it only makes sense to have things out that you use often. I don't see any reason to hide a coffeemaker or a toaster in a kitchen. I'm not out to impress people with the look of the room. If people don't like it, stay out, is my philosophy.

You could get by with very little if you wanted to. My cast iron Dutch oven is in the basement unused for 30+ years. Now it'd be difficult to use while I'm healing anyway so it'll stay in the basement unless I give it away.

I do have a few gadgets that could be superfluous but I still like having them. One of the jar poppers, like a big bottle opener, to pop the seal on jars is one. But I guess I'm using a strap wrench more in its place but that's a one-trick pony too. I really dislike one-use items unless they're very special. Helps keep some of the junk and clutter in check.

I just got back from living away from home for a few months. I had a kitchen where I was staying which I was told was stocked but that means different things to different people. So sight unseen I had to decide what I absolutely needed. I ended up taking my Le Creuset 4.5 qt pot, a 9x13 Pyrex pan, one cookie sheet, a corning ware covered casserole, a hand mixer, measuring utensils, whisk, spatula, and my 9" cast iron skillet. And you know what? I did pretty darn well with just that. The apartment did end up having a cookware set with saucepans and Dutch oven. It was an interesting exercise for me because I am a kitchen appliance junkie! I love my stuff and I missed it but I did ok. Good luck to you!

Tracey