(bright music)
Welcome to Hadley Presents.
I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back, relax,
and enjoy a conversation with the experts.
In this episode, Hadley staff join us
to share their favorite tools in the kitchen.
Welcome to the show everybody.
->Hey. ->Hey, Ricky.
->Hello. ->Hello.
So great to have you all.
We have three from our last staff picks,
which was a lot of fun.
We talked about our favorite apps.
If you haven't heard that one,
it's definitely worth a listen.
So we have three veterans from that show
and we have a newcomer today.
With us, we have Steve Kelley from our technology team
and you may also know him from Get Up and Go,
and occasionally on Craft Circle.
Welcome Steve. Hey, everybody.
Thanks, Ricky.
We have Jennifer, who among many,
many other things,
supports a lot of our independent living workshops
and you'll also catch her on Resource Roundtable.
Welcome, Jennifer. Hi, everybody.
We have Tiffany also on our tech team.
You'll hear her in Travel Talk
and so great to have you on the show, Tiffany, welcome.
Hello, thank you for having me, Ricky.
Awesome.
And last, but certainly not least, we have Jessica Smith
who is doing a lot with braille these days.
So if you're working with braille
or if you're thinking about working on your braille,
you may encounter Jessica.
You'll also find her
on the Embracing Braille discussion group and Book Nook.
Welcome, Jessica. Hello, everyone.
Thanks for having me today.
Yeah, so good to have you.
I like to cook, and I like to eat,
and I was thinking about it,
and it's one of those things that, you know,
we all spend a little time in the kitchen
whether we really like to cook
or whether it's just kind of one of those necessary things.
So I thought we would get together
and just talk about what everybody
really can't live without in their kitchen.
And it's always very interesting
to get these things ahead of time.
I know what everyone has picked,
but nobody else knows each other's choices.
So this is a fun reveal for sure.
And why don't we then get started with Steve.
First of all, how, how much do you like to cook?
Is it a chore?
Is it a thing that you kind of do under duress
or do you enjoy it?
And then also what are your tools
that you just can't live without?
Cooking for me, it depends on what's being cooked.
Actually, for years I cooked
in a couple of different restaurants.
That was a lot of fun.
It was also really fast paced.
For years I was a single parent,
so there was the cooking, whatever my son liked
and sometimes that verged on being a chore.
And you know, these days I enjoy cooking from time to time
and yeah, there's a couple of things
that I can't live without really.
The other day I was looking for a recipe for a quiche
I started looking for the old Betty Crocker
because I remembered, oh yeah,
there's a great standard recipe in there,
where is that book?
Hmm, let me think.
So I looked through a couple boxes on the shelf,
I couldn't find it and then it was just like,
hmm, I'm just gonna get one from the Amazon Echo
because that's lately, where I've been getting
most of my recipes from.
It's just really cool because you can ask for a recipe
and what I really love is that you can kind of proceed
through the recipe or just get a list of ingredients.
And I'm wondering if I would still use the Amazon Echo
if, you know, back in the day I had 20/20 vision
or pretty close to it.
I don't anymore.
So sometimes it's easier to listen to the recipes
rather than running around looking for a magnifying glass
or something to enlarge the print.
So that's one of the reasons that I love the Amazon Echo.
Plus, you don't have to touch anything like,
Exactly, - you know, sometimes
your hands get messy
and you don't want to be flipping through a page
and you know, getting flour all over it.
Yeah, I would use,
and have used the iPad in the past for the very same thing.
You know, just get a recipe and zoom it up a little bit.
But that's what the problem is.
Next thing you know you're touching the iPad
and you've got flour fingerprints all over it.
(Steve and Ricky laugh)
You know, just, that doesn't work as well
as the Amazon Echo.
The other thing that's just really great to have
if you're using one of those print cookbooks
is just a good handheld magnifier
and I do have one of those, I use a 5x handheld magnifier
with an LED light on it.
You know, that works for a lot of things
and is super helpful.
You know, again, it's kind of like the iPad,
you wanna watch what's on your hand
before you start picking that up
Right. because it can
become a real mess.
I also have a really low cost Husky LED work light.
It's got a magnetic bottom
and I think it's really designed,
you know, for working on the car
or something like that out in the tool shed.
But it's terrific in the kitchen
because the light just kind of flips up,
you turn it on, it's got an LED,
it's got three different light strengths
and you know, when you need something
either to see something on the stove
or to, you know, to look in a pot
or something like that, it's just super handy.
Great examples of things,
and some of them I never would've thought about,
having a separate little light to look at things,
but certainly that makes a lot of sense
and we'll have links to examples of these things
in the show notes.
So if you're wondering,
hey, where do I get something like that,
no worries, we'll have you covered for that.
Jennifer, yeah, it looks like you are up next.
Alright, well thanks Steve.
It was so fun learning about everybody's picks
and you mentioned Alexa and hopefully I'm not stealing,
but I just wanted to, I use Alexa for timers
all the time in the kitchen.
So my two, the first pick is really low tech,
so no batteries, no electricity required,
but it's something that can help with something
that can be a challenge for many of us,
and that's flipping or turning your food.
So whether you're making a hamburger,
or a grilled cheese, or a quesadilla,
you wanna be able to control where you flip it
and to make sure that it doesn't curl up on itself.
And so a double spatula is a really nice tool.
Now there's lots of ways
that people can do this without this gadget,
but I think it's just a really fun and handy device.
And it's basically two spatulas
that are joined together at the end of the handle
and they have versions that are made out of plastic
that work in all pans, especially non-stick pans
and they have a version that's two metal spatulas.
Basically they work like tongs
and so you just kind of spread them apart,
slide the bottom spatula underneath your food, close it,
then trap your food and then you can turn it
and know exactly where it's gonna end up.
Once you release the food, you can pinch it together
and use it, somewhat like a single spatula,
just to help make sure your food hasn't curled up on itself.
Slide it around in the pan if you need to recenter it.
Yeah, these run anywhere from,
in terms of US dollars from about, I've seen them about $10
to about 17,50, something like that.
Yeah, I've had people turn all kinds of food,
even fish sticks in the, you know,
that you might cook in the oven,
that you don't have to just use it
for stuff on the stove top too.
That is one of my most hated chores,
is flipping things.
And so any device that can make that a little easier
is definitely a winner.
Well, you might like my next device too,
because it's an alternative (Ricky laughs)
so that you don't even have to worry about flipping.
That's just a countertop grill,
and more specifically the George Foreman Grill,
you know, and I've had mine for over like 20 years,
they've been around a while,
but there are lots of different brands and styles.
The OptiGrill is one that's really hot right now.
It's a nice healthy way of cooking
because the fat drains from the food.
You know, they're great for cooking meat, and seafood,
and grilling vegetables and making sandwiches.
They're safer, a lot of folks feel,
and I, myself included,
because they enclose the food.
You're not cooking over an open pan
Right.
where there's grease
or fat spattering.
And you're cooking both sides at the same time
so you're actually cooking a little faster.
So you can heat up that chicken breast
in a lot quicker time too.
And it doesn't take up a lot of room.
It's, you know, less work area to worry about cleaning.
They have, the cook trays now can come out
to make cleaning a lot easier,
and so it's just a nice easy device for new cooks,
for anybody that's a little weary
about, you know, working over an open pan so.
And the grills are available from department stores, online,
they can run you anywhere from about $40 even up to $250
depending on the models that you-
How fancy you get it.
You got it.
Some, you just, some have buttons or knobs
that you can set to a certain setting.
Some you just go by timing.
If you're not able to see the lights
that tell you when it's preheated,
you can just, okay, I know I preheated
for five minutes and then it's good to go.
So they're really easy to use
no matter what your level of vision.
Awesome, great picks.
With that we will turn it over to Tiffany.
What can you just not live without in the kitchen?
Actually, the one that I wanna share
is more of a technique.
Just being organized in the kitchen
is really helpful for me.
Like, it just makes it easy to find things.
Just to give, like, just a little brief rundown
of how I organize things.
My seasonings and baking ingredients are in a cupboard.
Seasonings on one shelf, other ingredients on other shelves.
I have jars and canned goods in a different cupboard,
jars on the bottom shelf, canned goods on a different shelf.
And even with my cooking utensils,
whether it's utensils for grilling or whatever it is,
I have those in a drawer.
But then the ones I use all the time,
I have them in a holder next to my stove.
And to go back to my seasonings,
those can be a pain sometimes
because of the labels. Oh, yeah.
But I use my magnifier for that,
to read the labels.
The ones that I use the most, I have those on top of a rack
so that it's easy for me to get to those and use.
And also too, we have a workshop on organizing.
Those are great tips in there
to look for ways to organize the kitchen.
As far as a tool, just like Jennifer,
this doesn't require any batteries,
these little devices, they're just lifesavers.
What I'm talking about are bump dots
or sometimes they're called locator dots.
I have my stove and my microwave labeled.
These guys can come in different colors,
and shapes and sizes.
For my stove, it has many functions on it.
So I mostly use the bake and the air fryer,
and there's like three different rows of functions.
And the bake is on the top row somewhere in the middle.
So I put a bump dot on there,
but the air fryer, it's on the second row,
but it's first in the row.
So that one is a little bit more easier to find.
Then when it comes to adjusting the temperature,
there's a number pad
and I have little clear small ones on those
because my husband also uses the stove,
and he wants to also be able to see the numbers on there.
For the start and the cancel, I use Velcro.
For the start I have soft Velcro
and then for the cancel I have rough Velcro
and the panel on my stove is black
so I use white Velcro to give me that contrast.
And it's the same type of concept on my microwave too.
Another tool that I also enjoy,
or it makes my life easy in the kitchen,
are using measuring cups.
We had received a gift from a house warming present
and there were measuring cups in there.
The measuring cups, they're black,
but then the measurement is raised just a little bit
and it's also camouflaged in with the color of the cup.
And I'm like, what am I going to do with these?
(Ricky and Tiffany laugh)
What I did was I took a knife
and I cut notches on one side of the measuring cup.
So my half cup, I cut two notches,
and then my third cup, three, and quarter cup, four
just so that I can identify those quicker.
And you could do that with either a steak knife
or a butter knife, but if you use a butter knife
you'll need to put a little bit more elbow grease.
Those are my favorite gadgets or technique for the kitchen.
I love it and I love how everything
that you mentioned
revolves, in some way, around being efficient.
So being able to find your numbers and adjustments quickly,
or being able to find your measurements quickly,
or being organized.
So yeah, I love it.
And finally Jessica, you're up.
What can't you live without?
Going off of what Tiffany said about organizing,
I have something similar to the measuring cups,
but they are the teaspoon set.
So having an organized kitchen
is something really important to me
and I found that having the measuring spoons,
they just ended up in a drawer.
So when I replaced my teaspoon set,
I ended up purchasing a teaspoon set that is magnetic.
So they magnetize to each other.
They sit together, going from largest,
which is the teaspoon,
to the smallest, which is an eighth of a teaspoon.
There is a leveler included that also magnetizes to the top.
That helps if you are measuring out spices,
or sugar, or coffee even.
Instead of using your finger to scoop across the top
to make sure it's level,
you just take the leveler and it's flat,
and it smooths across the top.
They're also stainless steel,
so if you use your teaspoons like a ladle and bend them,
you're able to bend the teaspoons to do that.
They're also double sided.
So you can bend one side
and then have the other side just flat.
They just sit in the drawer
and everything magnetizes together
so that it's one thing that I grab out of the drawer
when I'm getting ready to bake.
Can I ask a quick question?
What's the benefits of having them be a ladle?
Why would you use that?
So a lot of times if you're measuring liquids,
especially, if you're visually impaired,
it's very difficult to tell if you're pouring a liquid
into a level measuring spoon.
If you make it into a ladle,
you're able to ladle like soup,
your ingredients for your wet ingredients,
it's really helpful.
I've seen people use it for dry ingredients as well.
And then moving on to my second thing,
I have a coffee AeroPress.
If you haven't heard about the AeroPress,
it is a device that's made out of plastic
and it makes one or two cups of coffee.
You can also brew espresso in it, which is what I do.
I like my morning coffee that is brewed espresso beans
and then I add milk to it.
So what you do is you take the cylinder
and there is a plunger that is inside it
and you take the plunger out, add your coffee beans to it.
It also comes with a measuring spoon
that gives you the perfect amount of coffee.
You put your coffee grinds in it and pour hot water on top,
and then you take the plunger and wait five minutes,
and after five minutes you just give it a little stir,
and then plunge the plunger down through the cylinder,
and it has, coffee comes out the other end
into your coffee cup.
I really like this device because it's small, it's compact,
it's easy to clean.
Because it's plastic,
you're not worried about it being in the sink
full of dishes and breaking.
So that's something that I use very frequently.
I've also used it to make tea
and use tea instead of coffee in it.
Nice.
I like how versatile that is
and you know, you don't have to make
a giant pot of coffee and you know,
maybe you don't wanna use coffee pods or whatever.
It's versatile enough to do tea and coffee.
So couple of different ways to get that necessary caffeine.
Before we go, I wanna share my two.
I was thinking about it
and didn't wanna share something, much like all of you,
didn't wanna share something that required batteries
or you know, something that you have to plug in or whatever.
For the most part, all of this has been very low tech
and mine are too.
So my first one is just a standard sheet pan, cookie sheet.
Why would that be a thing I couldn't live without?
Well, not only can you put a roasting rack
over the sheet pan and cook bacon on it in the oven
rather than frying it on the stove,
so much easier and very, very yummy,
but also I like to use it 'cause it can really help
when you're prepping something,
and you're measuring ingredients,
and you're pouring things into things.
I am maybe not the most tidy person when it comes to this,
and so having just a cookie sheet
down where I am prepping things,
all of that mess, all of that flour
that might get all over the counter
is instead going to be contained just in this cookie sheet.
So you just have to wash that and off you go.
And then my second one is a set of cutting mats.
So what is a cutting mat?
It's the same concept as a cutting board.
They come in different colors.
So you can use those to contrast
with the food that you're preparing,
or you can have certain ones for veggies,
certain ones for meat, that kind of thing.
The back of the cutting mat is made of a material
that it will kind of stick to the counter
and not move around.
You know, the top of it is just plastic
and these are very thin.
So once you cut your ingredients
and you're ready to transport them somewhere,
they're thin enough that they're actually pretty bendy.
So you can more easily bend it
to fit the shape of the vessel that you're pouring into.
So if you're trying to pour into a food processor or a pan,
you're able to just bend this cutting mat
and almost make it act like a funnel
to funnel those ingredients where they belong,
rather than picking up the big, hard cutting board
and trying to dump it in successfully
once you've raked everything to a particular corner.
Those are my two.
Before we wrap up, anybody have any other
quick thing to mention?
I love that the A lady, the Amazon Echo
was definitely today's winner I think so.
She's definitely a multitasker,
that's for sure.
Yes, right. (Ricky and Jennifer laugh)
I just want to quickly mention
that we do have a workshop called Labels You Touch,
and that also gives some really cool ideas
for labeling things around the house or inside the kitchen.
Yes.
I love how our show notes
are going to include many, many, many series
that are already on Hadley.
So this is kind of like your one stop shopping
for figuring out, not only where to get
some of these kitchen tools that we've mentioned,
but also how you might go about using them
and getting some other tips and tricks too.
Anything else before we wrap up?
The whole magnifying series too,
for those who do Oh, yes.
or wanna break out that magnifying glass.
And just to balance off the non-technical stuff
with one more techie thing,
I use Google Lookout an awful lot
sometimes when I need to quickly read some ingredients,
or something like that,
or directions on the back of a package,
that is, like, the handiest little app
for the Android phone.
I think it's terrific. Ooh, great tip.
And Seeing AI would be,
it's kind of sister app Exactly.
on the iPhone.
iPhone for sure, yeah.
I think it's just so cool how from
low tech to high tech
and even just, it's a combination of gadgets
and techniques ->Yes.
->that can really help keep you safe, and independent,
and efficient in the kitchen.
Well, thank you all so much for sharing
your favorite tools and your favorite techniques.
And I'm hungry suddenly. (podcast guests laughs)
I think we all should- ->I second that.
->Exactly. ->And Jessica could brew us up
some nice tea or coffee in her AeroPress.
Absolutely. Thanks, everyone.
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