Stuff I Like: Kitchen Edition!

Hey! It's summer time and we've both been cooking a lot so here's a "stuff I like" kitchen edition. First, two from me: 

This Tortilla Recipe That Will Make You Hate Me.
So, listen. Never in a million years would it have occurred to me to make my own tortillas. It just seems...advanced. But Marianne was making them with this (foolproof) recipe from Serious Eats and my boyfriend got wind of this and was very eager to help, so we made a batch. And you guys? This is life-changing. You will never want to eat a gummy grocery store tortilla ever again. It's also annoying as hell because even though it's a really simple recipe, it's labor-intensive. 100% worth the effort, though.

Tips: It's fine to use regular old white lard (or coconut oil or veg shortening) but this stuff is really nice if you can find it. When adding the water, pour it in very slowly until a dough ball just forms and then stop adding water! It'll prevent the dough from being too wet. I also make 12 instead of 10 because I prefer slightly smaller tortillas. 

This Meat Chopper I Can't Live Without.
Okay, I know it's not an actual real problem to hate poking at ground meat with a a spatula to break it up but I really hate it. I went searching for a better way and bought this chopper tool that looks like a dumb toy. But it's not! It's so good - great for meat and also for mashing guacamole and stuff. It's way more fun to smash up ground beef with this tool than to poke at it with a spatula, that's for damn sure. (And full circle - it works great for that pork taco recipe I posted last month!)

Now, two from Marianne: 

This Pasta That Is The Best.
Maybe I am the only one who went down a rabbit hole after reading about the bucatini shortage, but it suddenly became very clear to me why so much pasta from the grocery store is sub par.100% Durum wheat pasta from Italy is just SO MUCH BETTER, especially if you don’t eat a ton of pasta and want something that’s worth it. Why am I talking about this on a shopping blog? Because I found the best pasta at Target, duh. Next time you impulse buy a candle or seven, look for the Good & Gather Signature Pasta with the black label—100% Durum wheat pasta from Italy for $3 a package. They have so many unique shapes—we like Paccheri (like a giant rigatoni), Lumaconi, and of course Bucatini, the best of all the long pasta shapes.

This Whisk I Did Not Steal.
Beach house rental kitchens are typically a special kind of hell, filled with dull knives, weird As Seen on TV gadgets, and flaking nonstick pans. But every once in a while there is something you’ve never seen before and fall in love with. Enter this Kuhn Rikon galaxy whisk. Yes, it’s a very cute whisk, but aside from its petite looks and satisfying springiness, this whisk is my new favorite thing. It collapses down and allows you to whisk even the most shallow of surfaces, it’s bendy and gets into all of the edges of a bowl, it’s the whisk I reach for first every time. Don’t worry, I didn’t steal it, I bought my own, and now you can too.