new kitchen acquisitions

I got a few things for my kitchen the other day. Nothing fancy at all -- total cost was about $35 -- but I thought I'd mention them because they're mostly vaguely interesting... At least to me...

Cake pans. I've got some 9" non-stick cake pans, but I decided to get a pair of 8" aluminum pans. Non-stick cake pans are dark grey, meaning they absorb heat quickly and tend to cause your cake layers to cook too quickly on the edges, so they're rounded instead of flat. That's bad, since it makes the layers hard to stack. Aluminum reflects heat nicely, so (the theory goes) the layers will be flatter. We shall see. Hard-core bakers get these cloth things that you soak in water then wrap around the pans to make the edges cook even slower. I'm not that hard core. The narrower 8" layers make it easier to slice the layers in half and put in extra layers of frosting. I'm hard core about frosting. Oh, and I got some parchment paper circles to keep the cake from sticking to the pans. These are necessary even with the non-stick pans, which seem to stick badly for me...

V-shaped roasting rack. In my slow, painful process of learning how to cook meat, after years of cooking vegetarian, I finally learned how easy it is to roast a chicken. One important ingredient is a collapsible, non-stick roasting rack. It fits in a 13 x 9" roasting pan, and holds a chicken or a small turkey. And it collapses, so it'll actually fit in my crowded cabinets, and it's non-stick. Unlike non-stick cake pans, I endorse non-stick roasting racks.

Red flexible cutting board. As noted above, I'm cooking more flesh these days, and flesh is particularly full of bacteria. So I got a red cutting board to cut meat on and keep the salmonella from the broccoli. There's something pleasingly restaurant-kitchen about having color-coded cutting boards...

Plastic squeeze bottle. The magic trick that chefs use to get those fancy squiggles of colored sauces on your plate. They range in cost from 75 cents to (for the really big ones) two dollars. Impress your friends.

Plastic spoon. OK, this isn't impressive, but I did get a plastic cooking spoon to replace the one that I accidentally left on the stovetop too close to a flame and melted. Mmm, love the smell of burnt plastic with dinner...