Tools I can't live without

Hello, my name is Karin Larsen and I am a kitchen tool addict. I can get lost in the kitchen section of Target for hours on end. Put a gourmet kitchen store like Williams and Sonoma in front of me and you might never find me again. I love kitchen tools, appliances and gadgets, but like Alton Brown, I only want to use "multi-taskers," that is, tools that can be used for more than one purpose. Here are a few of my "can't live without tools."


My beloved FOOD PROCESSOR...grater of cheese, mixer of pestos, chopper of nuts and million other things.


My heavy duty blender - not the Kitchen Aid I originally wanted, but a great substitute and a wonderful smoothie blender.


My electric kettle - boils water for my tea MUCH faster than my stove kettle. Use this almost daily for all sorts of boiling needs.


My Kitchenaid mixer - need I say more?


My cast iron skillet - cooks steaks, bacon, oven pancakes and more. The perfect transitional tool...from stove to oven.


Not everyone uses aprons, but I can't live without them. I do all my cooking wearing one of these beauties...note the Guinness one from IRELAND!! (Bought that in the Guinness storehouse!)


My handheld immersion blender - purees soups into submission, sauces into velvet and saves me a LOT of cleanup.


My salad spinner that I use to dry all my veggies and if you remember from last Christmas, the inner strainer was the perfect vessel for aging my beef! That's multi-tasking at its best!


My measuring cup beaker with lid. I got this for Christmas last year. It's the perfect measuring cup, but also serves as a great storage container as well.


Garlic/ginger grater - got this at the fair and it's a great tool when you need garlic or fresh ginger grated really fine! Notice the sharp teeth sticking up.


Ice cream scoopers that I don't use for ice cream! These babies are the best for scooping uniform muffins and cookies!


Scraper/scooper (not sure what it's really called)...this is great for scooping up diced veggies to go into the pot. It's also a nice tool for mincing garlic, scraping dough off the cutting board and more.


Microplane grater - THE tool for zesting lemons, limes and oranges, but also THE tool for grating harder cheeses like Parmesan. Also a superior fresh nutmeg grater!


The best peeler I've ever owned and I've owned a lot of them. This tool is quick on potatoes and cucumbers alike. It peels mangoes, apples, zucchinis and SO MUCH MORE.


Tongs - hands down, the best salad servers in the world. Also used for flipping meat and veggies on the grill or in the saute pan.


Scale - this beauty comes in handy when a recipe calls for 2 lbs. of potatoes or 6 oz. chicken.


Pepper grinder - if you're not using freshly ground pepper on your food, you are missing out!!


The newest addition to the Larsen kitchen - the probe thermometer! This baby rocks! You insert the probe in your meat, put your meat in the oven, keeping the magnetic thermometer monitor outside the oven. You tell the thermometer what temperature you want your meat to be and when the meat reaches that temperature, the thermometer beeps at you to tell you it's ready! No more overcooked meat ever!!