Practical Person's Gift Guide: Kitchen Stuff

Practical Person's Gift Guide: Kitchen Stuff

• 12.11.2014

A follow-up to my "Practical Person's Gift Guide" of a couple weeks ago--this one's also written by a practical person, intended for the relatively practical people in your life, but with some of my favorite practical and beautiful kitchen goodies.

Over only the past two years, I've been learning to cook, and I've gotten really comfortable with and excited about a few tools and processes in particular. I love to share things I'm passionate about, and it would be great if I could share some of my new love of cooking real, whole, nutrient-dense foods for my family through personal gifts to friends.

Isn't it just the most perfect to find a pretty, useful, valuable gift specific to each friend? I hope this gift guide can help you with that! Here's my gift guide of kitchen stuff that will inspire and nourish.

You'll recognize a few of these kitchen faves in my Amazon shop here, but here are a few that would make great gifts!

A practical person's gift guide - for the cook or food lover!

1. Cuisinart mini food processor. We use ours all the time for sauces and smaller dishes, and it's much easier to store than a full-size food processor.
2. Cast iron Dutch oven. How beautiful are these Dutch ovens from West Elm? Unfortunately/fortunately, they're on sale, so they may not be around for long. There is also this classic Lodge Dutch oven - 3.5 quart or 6 quart. I had never used a Dutch oven until last year but now I'm hooked. Stove-to-oven-to-table-to-fridge!
3. THE CLASSIC cast iron skillet. This one comes with the handy perfect-fit rubber handle. (Bonus to include: home-rendered lard or tallow to cook in and season it with! See how and why to make your own here, here, here, and here.)
4. Enameled cast iron skillet (or this West Elm one, which is on sale). We have a small enameled cast iron skillet we use for eggs all. the. time. and they never stick!
5. Really good, programmable slow cooker. We got this one for a wedding gift and use it several times every week. It's on right now, actually. It's great for setting when you leave the house or need something cooked then kept warm during the night. 
6. BIG butter dish for grassfed or European butter. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find butter dishes big enough for Kerrygold butter!! We bought ourselves one of these, plus a gift for my in-laws, who also buy the good stuff.
7. Stick blender. Great specialized, small kitchen item. This is great for soups, sauces, and Bulletproof® Coffee (if you hold the cup or jar, don't leave it on the table if it's full).
8. Spiral slicer. I know it may seem like a lot of appliance for one function, but if you've ever tried to make zucchini noodles, sweet potato noodles, and squash noodles over the same few-week period with the little handheld one (like I have, ahem) you'll find yourself wishing for a dedicated, more functional machine. The little ones work for skinny zucchini but nothing bigger or firmer. Spiralized noodles are delicious and a great base for just about any dish - plus they fit extra veggies into the meal!

I'm serious about the cast iron--there's a reason it's been used forever!! We've given a cast iron pan along with a jar of home-rendered lard (seriously, check out those links above) as gifts before and people love trying new things (new classic, old things).

I'm sure my tips for kitchen goodies will evolve with my cooking skills, but I love to stick mostly to the basics like some of these above!

Check out all my gift guides here.