Category Archives: kitchen

Wordless Wednesday: Ikea Table

Check out my cool Ikea table! Since there are now 6 of us in the family we needed a bigger table. I saw this one in the Ikea catalog a while ago and since I was going to be in Palo Alto for other reasons I made a quick stop by to get this from the Ikea store there. This is the big table in the Norden line. I couldn’t believe that I could get a table the goes from 89 to 104 inches for only $399.

WFMW: Cookie Scoop

One of the best time saving gadgets I own is the Pampered Chef Medium Scoop. It was the best $15.50 (price with shipping) I ever spent. It give perfectly sized cookies, which are a commodity around here. My hands also stay clean so I can stop and run after the kids. It is dishwasher safe and easy action. Just dip and dish. I also use for potato pancakes.

Even cooler is the little one they sell is the same size as a mini-muffin cup and the big one is a muffin cup size. I spend forever trying to get them just right.

Silicone Muffin Cups


I was trying to come up with something I own that truly makes my life work better and I came up with Silicone Muffin Cups. I know that seems indulgent and silly but they have improved my life greatly. If you optimize your oven with large sheet pans you can put all of the muffin cups free standing them. I make 48 at a time (24 on each sheet pan). This works great for my Sweet Corn Muffins. I just multiply the recipe by 4 and cook them at once. This way I get everything dirty at once and yet I just have to go through one cooking cycle. Everything cools very quickly in the silicone so I just pop them out. Nothing sticks and I am not pulling paper off either. I even use these for Individual Egg Quiches. When I did this will the old fashion tins everything stuck:(. Then I just stack them up in a small little pile and don’t have to figure out where to store clunky muffin pans. You do have to wash them by hand but you get a 99 cent toothbrush and just scrub on them a little (the brush is more to get in the crevices than for scrubbing) and you are done! So there is one of my favorite things!