Equipment & Products

♦ My ice blue KitchenAid mixer is, hands down, the best part about my kitchen. It’s my baby. I use it to mix, knead, whip, shred, grate, roll, grind, and freeze.

♦ My college cafeteria featured Fiesta ware dinner plates and bowls, and I fell in love with the simple, clean lines and bright colors. These iconic pieces are even on a postage stamp!

♦ Yes, Le Creuset cast iron cookware is heavy. Yes, you need to adjust your cooking technique a bit to use it. But it works really well. And it’s so pretty.

♦ Penzeys Spices consistently provides high-quality, well-priced spices and herbs. Plus they have awesome coupons in their catalog.

♦ My friend Susanne told me about King Arthur Flour. I use their bread flour for challah, whole-wheat flour to add nutritional value and nuttiness to pasta, and all-purpose flour for everything else.

♦ Since Gabe is lactose-intolerant, I use lactose-free milk in every recipe. It seriously changed our lives—I no longer have to figure out how to make soy milk taste good! Organic Valley recently introduced lactose-free half & half, which is perfect for making ice cream.

♦ This former barista loves to prepare lattes with her Breville espresso machine. This little guy pulls seriously professional espresso shots.

♦ For the first couple years of my blog, I used a little point-and-shoot camera: the Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS. I firmly believe that it’s possible to take great pictures with a cheap camera and terrible pictures with an expensive one; it’s about the photographer, not the equipment. That being said, I now shoot with a Canon EOS Rebel T4i DSLR and absolutely love it. My “nifty-fifty” lens is also my new best friend (that’s the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II).

♦ I think it’s really important to learn about composition, lighting, etc. before shelling out big bucks for a DSLR. Here’s a fantastic list of food photography tutorials from Jenn Cuisine that I’ve referenced many times in the past.

Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with any of the products or companies mentioned above.