Limited counter space? Use an ironing board

baking, cookies, cooking, holidays, tips | December 17, 2012 | By

Use an ironing board for limited counter or cooking space

Are you doing a lot of baking this holiday season?

This is one of the best tips I have seen to extend your workspace without any money or hassle. Just use an ironing board. The great thing about them is that, unlike an extra table, an ironing board is already built for the heat. That not only frees up counter space, but it also frees up your pot holders.

You can put this in another room so your kitchen space isn’t blocked out more. Or, if you’re often cooking and without counter space, you could install an ironing board directly in your kitchen. I saw a few that did this on the inside of their pantry door. While they’re cooking, they leave the pantry open and flip open the ironing board to work on throughout the day. Then when the day is over, tip up the board, close the door, and your kitchen is back to its normal size again.

Here’s a video of someone talking about how she does it. She puts dish towels on hers to avoid the dirt and crumbs that might come from using it in the kitchen, too. It’s not like anyone ever really irons any more, though, right? But just in case, you don’t want any stray food left behind to get ironed directly onto your next piece of clothing that touches it.

 

Adjustable rolling pin – Pies, cookies, fondant made easy

Adjustable rolling pin from Pioneer Woman's Ree Drummond cooking site where you can change the size of the pastry 

When I first saw this adjustable rolling pin a while back, I wondered why I had never seen one like it before. Anybody who bakes at all, knows how hard it can be to guess if your cookie dough or pie crust is -really- an eighth of an inch thick, give or take a tiny fraction of an inch.

Rolling something out to be 1/3 inch instead of 1/4 isn’t going to make or break your dish, of course, but it can certainly mean the difference between 24 thick doughy cookies or 36 thin, crispy ones.

Adjustable rolling pin where you can change the size of the pastry, crust, fondant

And I know I’m not the only one who has ever rolled out a crust and had one end slightly thicker than the other. So my inner-occasional-wannabe-perfectionist is all over this. I was surprised to see it’s not even 20 bucks on Amazon either. Considering I’ve been using a can of tomatoes as a pin for the last while, maybe it’s time to invest in a real pin again?

Joseph Joseph adjustable rolling pin from Amazon - Change size from 1/4, 1/8, 1/2 inch thick dough or crust

Adjustable rolling pin from Joseph-Joseph

Turducken Week – Cherpumple pie cake and vegetarian turducken

baking, cake, creative, dessert, fruit, fruits, pie, turducken | December 30, 2011 | By

You know….CHERry, PUMpkin, and apPLE pies stuffed inside a cake. Just what you always wanted and didn’t know it, huh?

Cherpumple - Cherry, apple, pumpkin pie in a cake

One of these days, I’ll have to make one of these, too. I don’t know how they managed to keep it from sinking, but apparently it held its shape through the 4 hour serving window. And just in case you were wondering how this measures up with the other turducken varieties this week, it weighs in at almost 22 pounds and served 200 guests.

Cherpumple slice - Cherry, apple, pumpkin pie in a cake 

There are a bunch of other cherpumple submissions, too, so be sure to check them out.

And just in case you’re looking for more PETA-friendly turducken alternatives, this one is probably right up your alley:

Turkey, duck, chicken turducken stuffed animal bird

Awwww. <3