I was reminded of how many things we accumulate in the kitchen over the years while we were unpacking and cleaning all of the kitchen gadgets we got since we moved to Mexico about two and a half years ago. We had a large cardboard box full of all sorts of things, and I realized that we probably have about 10 times that in storage back in Canada.

Do we really need all of that stuff, or do we just become addicted to purchasing all of those neat kitchen gadgets? Over the coming weeks I will give my opinion on what are the things I find useful in the kitchen, and about what things I should never have bought. I have a weakness for kitchen knives of all size, and over the years I have oscillated between using 10 different ones to prepare a dish to using a single one to do everything. This does not stop me from purchasing new knives all the time, as we all must have our vices…

For now I have just washed everything and stuffed them in a few drawers in the kitchen, and next weekend I will go through everything and decide what I will keep and what will go in storage or be given away. I’ll make a handy list of basic kitchen essentials for those starting out with a new kitchen, or who want to do some fall cleaning. This will also help me in finding out if we are missing something important when we start using the kitchen heavily.

Lucito