Annie and I have been talking about this post for a while. Basically a shout-out to the all stars in our kitchen—the things we use every day, our essentials, the things we couldn’t live without, the game-changers in our kitchen, tiny yurt kitchen or not. We use these literally every day, so this post will help you get to know us more… TLDR: We love garlic and coffee.
Garlic peeler
This is classic you-don’t-even-know-you-have-this-problem marketing. We visited Annie’s parents over the holidays and they were raving about this magical silicone cylinder (pictured above) that pulls the peel straight off the garlic, just by rolling the bulb in the rubber a few times. Skepticism ensued. Magic followed. Enough said. Here ’tis.
Garlic press
You know what a garlic press looks like. And it’s a pain in the butt to clean. Here’s a new take on it (in above photo). After using the garlic peeler, you place the naked bulb down on the cutting board, and then press the garlic press down onto it, gently rocking back and forth. We use garlic in EVERYTHING. Garlic peeler + garlic press = gold. (Shouts to John and Julie, who also introduced us to this.) This one.
Manual coffee mill / coffee grinder
Fun fact. We run on solar, so try to minimize appliance use. That is, we don’t use appliances :) Energy is precious. I bought this coffee mill at an antique store in Wilmington, Vermont, before we lived in a yurt. We lived in an apartment. In town. With electricity. We had an electric coffee grinder. Annie was not happy (“more things!”). But I was vindicated, finally, upon the move into a yurt. (Is that the only reason I wanted to move into a yurt? I would never say that.)
Try your luck at antique shops. They’ve got character. Or if your shops are picked over, get a modern manual coffee mill. (Free pro-tip: The best antique shopping is in the South.)
Double-walled, insulated French press
Over the years we have made coffee every way but Chemex. (Free coffee shop idea: “Everything But Chemex,” and you can use every method except, well, you get it.) The French press is what we settled on—the Aeropress, our kick for a while, was too much work for how much coffee we drink. We had a glass press for a bit, but don’t you want your hot coffee insulated? Here’s the one we use.
Magnetic knife strip
Okay, this is basic, but come on. Where are you keeping your knives? In a drawer? Save that space, save the danger to your fingers, make your knives accessible when you need them. This was literally one of the first kitchen items we bought when we moved into the yurt. The spacing between our lattice meant we had to problem solve to figure out how to attach the knife strip. To keep the aesthetic of the lattice, we used a length of sapling, carefully split it down both sides so they were relatively flat, screwed that to the lattice, then screwed the knife strip to the sapling. Boom. Done. This is the one we chose.
What are your kitchen essentials? Let us know! thatyurt (at) gmail (dot) com.
