My Favorite Kitchen Things, Part 2 (GelPro mat)
I know I said I was going to talk about mixing bowls in the next part of this series, but I lied. Instead, I’m going to tell you about my love affair with my GelPro kitchen floor mat. My mom bought one for my parents’ house years ago at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and let me tell you, after baking while standing on my mom’s GelPro mat, the foam mat I bought at Target for my kitchen doesn’t even compare.
Since I’m often at my parents’ house for holidays, much of my time there is spent standing in the kitchen, and the GelPro mat is a necessity. When my parents remodeled their kitchen (double convection oven! island! huge deep sink! additional sink!), they chose stone floors which are definitely not the most comfortable floor to stand on for hours at a time. And to make matters worse, I recently developed sciatica (which I can tell you, is incredibly painful, second only to my post-tonsillectomy pain three years ago) which is aggravated by standing on hard surfaces for long periods of time. When I stand on the GelPro mat, my back and legs are happy!
So, when GelPro offered me a mat (I chose the striated style in khaki) for my own apartment, I was incredibly excited–I have 1970s ceramic tile floors which are not only ugly, but horrid to stand on. Plus, I was on my third foam mat (they get grubby and can’t be wiped clean) and was ready to do anything to avoid another doctor visit and potential MRI.
Now I can’t imagine not having the GelPro mat in my kitchen. In fact, I’m now totally spoiled and wish I had one in front of my stove too. (So what if I have a tiny galley kitchen?) In the meantime, I’m surviving by moving the mat to whichever side of the kitchen I’m currently working in. Sure beats back pain.
Wish you had a GelPro mat too? Here’s your change to win one! Because the folks at GelPro are so nice, they are giving away any 20″ x 36″ GelPro mat to one Nosh With Me reader! To enter, leave a comment telling me how you first discovered my blog, and what, if anything, you’ve made from it.
Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, June 13, 2010. One winner will be selected at random shortly thereafter and contacted by email. Please note this contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.
***Contest is now closed.***
My Favorite Kitchen Things, Part 1
I’ve been wanting to write a series of posts about my favorite kitchen items for some time now but never got around to it. Then the other day I was approached by the nice people at Challenge Butter (the butter with the elk on the box) asking if I’d like a package of their products. Considering their butter is a product I already use, I figured why not.
Well, I received the package and not only did they give me coupons for free butter (some for me and some for you!), they also sent me OXO and Spice Islands products. Since most of you have never been to my apartment, you don’t know how much I love OXO, especially their cookie scoops, whisks, and storage containers.
The whisks and cookie scoops are padded (and I think ergonomically designed) so when I scoop five dozen cookies from dough that chilled overnight, my hands don’t cramp up. I even have three sizes of the scoop–I use one for small cookies, one for larger cookies, and one for cupcakes. But my favorite product of theirs by far is the storage containers. I have six. And I labeled each one with my label maker because I’m a dork like that. (You would do that too if you had three different kinds of flour in your kitchen in clear containers.) Here, take a look:
(My galley kitchen is so small that I had to add a microwave cart for extra storage.) Now, why I love the containers:
- They’re clear, so you can easily see what is in each container.
- They’re airtight and the lid comes off with a push of a button (literally). I used to have containers that would cause my kitchen to be covered in flour every time I opened the container; these don’t do that.
- They’re stackable which is great for people like me with limited kitchen space.
- They’re more than wide enough to put a large scoop in, so you don’t have to spoon flour into the measuring cup.
What are some of your favorite kitchen tools? What can you not live without? And finally, want a free box of butter? Leave a comment below by midnight EST on Sunday, November 22, 2009 and you will be entered for a chance to win one of three coupons good for a free box of Challenge Butter. U.S. residents only please.
Next in the series: My favorite mixing bowls.
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And in super exciting news, Rachel of Coconut & Lime wrote a cookbook called The Everything Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon now!
