The right gadget and gizmo can make cooking and serving a breeze. Most likely there are items around the house that could be used more often in ways that might be considered non-traditional. Here are several common household items that we use in new ways in the kitchen. Hopefully you’ll find these helpful as well.

Ceramic tile – use a single ceramic tile as a spoon rest on your kitchen counter or stovetop. Wipes clean easily and can be placed in the dishwasher.

Rubber spatula – works better than a knife for spreading mayonnaise on sandwiches.

Dental floss – cuts bread dough into dinner rolls with ease, precision and no mess.

Cookie cutters – cut cute shapes from a pan of Jell-O to delight the children. Large cookie cutters can be used to cut shapes from party sandwiches, adding a fancy flair to your party platter.

Decorative ceramic flowerpots can be lined with a napkin and used to serve muffins, breadsticks or rolls on your buffet or table. Upright flowerpots also are ideal for setting out flatware for a buffet style dinner party.

Sugar bowl and a new powder puff – Add flour to a sugar bowl and top with a new powder puff. The powder puff provides an even dusting of cake pans with flour. Store the powder puff in a sugar bowl, newly converted to‘flour bowl’ for convenience while adding organization and charm to your kitchen counter.

©Deborah Tukua, www.hollycreekbooks.com.

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