Should I keep this? ... What is this used for?

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Should I keep this? ... What is this used for?

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Started 1 year ago by margaret
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margaret
Member

Every once in a while I find I have something or am given something that I am not quite sure what to do with. That is, it seems like it could be useful, but I do not currently use it or maybe do not know how to use it effectively. This thread is for anyone who wants to ask about a particular item to find out if it is useful in some way they had not considered.

My item: I have a pasta pot. Medium largish pot, insert with holes in it, a smaller insert that I guess would be used as a steaming basket, lid. I have used it only a couple of times -- once or twice for pasta (but I usually just use my large regular pot and a colander), a couple times for blanching corn that I froze (a rarity for me and I didn't even do a garden this year and won't do one next year), and once to steam a bunch of brocolli (I usually either microwave or use a different pot with a folding basket insert). Anyone crazy about pasta pots and have suggestions for how it could make my life easier?

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

I use mine a lot; I use it for blanching, and for making noodle soup (because i like o store the noodles separately for leftover) and I cook corn in it or squash cubes.

But, you just explained that you have other tools for all those activities. So I think you should donate the pasta pot. Someone will be grateful to find it at a thrift store, and they take up a lot of space in the cupboard.

Posted 1 year ago #
lottielot
Member

Donate the pasta pot for sure, it's a unitasker!! We eat pasta every day of the year but don't own one, how hard is it to drain some water? I have some bamboo steamer baskets which I stick on top of the pasta saucepan for veggies while the pasta is cooking, I love them because they're cheap, save energy and are easy to juggle all the different veg my family likes, plus they stack :)
My 'what do I do with it?' is a big glass jar a friend gave me. I did store rice in it but the lid has smashed now and I'm left with just the jar. It's sitting on my kitchen windowsill right now, it's quite decorative and it could be a decent vase, but are there any other uses for it people could think of? If it gathers dust I can stick it in the dishwasher, so it's not an effort to keep clean.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

if you don't use it much...and you have other tools that will also do the same jobs....then i'd get rid of it.
someone out there will love it.

Posted 1 year ago #
Honore
Member

Is your pasta pot stainless steel, margaret? If so, it would be nice for making large batches of soup, especially during the winter months. So homey. :) Otherwise, I think I'd send it on its way.

Posted 1 year ago #
rodaniel
Member

About this time last year, I donated our pasta pot and a buncha other unwanted kitchen stuff to the daughter of a coworker who just got her first apartment. She was eager to have the gently used stuff since all of her money is going for college textbooks.

Back to school time is an excellent opportunity to find kids who're setting up house (be it in a dorm, apartment, whatever) for the first time and don't have much to start out with. They'll often gladly take old furniture, small appliances, dishes, and just about anything else you're offering.

Posted 1 year ago #
margaret
Member

I don't even make homemade soup! I'm not much of a cook, although I am much more interested in baking.

Okay, the pasta pot is going into the donate bag. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some super trick to using it that I was missing out on. Kind of how I didn't want to be the one to go through the boxes of tools and spare parts left behind when my dad died because I didn't know what it was (after SEVEN YEARS waiting for my husband to go through it, my brother stopped by one day and spent an hour or two and got rid of more than half of it because it WAS junk or parts or manuals for things we didn't even have on the farm anymore).

Next question -- I have a little kitchen gadget from Pampered Chef that you use for hulling strawberries. It's sort of like the tiniest melon baller in the world only with jaggedy edges. I've used it once or twice, but it doesn't seem any more effective than a paring knife. Is there some trick to this, or is it just a personal preference thing?

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

Chuck it, it is more time-consuming than a paring knife. Plus you probably already have years of practice being fast with the paring knife.

Posted 1 year ago #
jbeany
Member

I think hullers are unitaskers - and not generally effective ones, either. If you are using a paring knife, you can also slice off any bad bits that you don't want at the same time, or just slice immediately for whatever you are making. Why handle berries twice?

Posted 1 year ago #
Lori Paximadis
Member

My pasta pot is an indispensible multitasker. (It's actually a huge stock pot with a pasta insert and a steamer insert.) Then again, I cook a lot. If you're cooking in volume, the pasta insert lets you drain what you're cooking without having to lift and pour out a heavy pot of boiling water + boiling hot contents (= very dangerous). I use mine with the pasta insert constantly for boiling big batches of potatoes for potato salad and steaming ears of corn. Without the insert, I use it for soups and stews and chili in big batches that I divide into portions and freeze.

But if you don't cook much or often, yeah, donate it. Along with with the berry huller. Can't think of a real purpose for that. :-)

Posted 1 year ago #
pkilmain
Member

Berry hullers are definitely unitaskers. You get sucked in because they're small and don't take up much room. :) Out with it.... I used to have a pasta pot like you described, but it was hard to store, and then I never wanted to pull it out of its out of the way space, so I would use my regular big pot anyway. It left some time ago....

You have inspired me to donate two old Revereware frying pans that are not non-stick, as well as a Pampered Chef mandolin that I never use.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

Unitasker I'll be shedding soon: wok. It was a wedding gift (nearly nine years ago) and we have NEVER used it. Ostensibly because where we've been living, we have not had a cooktop that would give us a high enough flame to make it worth hauling it out.

But also because honestly? I'd rather have a salad than a stir-fry. Live and learn!

Posted 1 year ago #
Sky
Member

When I de-cluttered my kitchen, out went the melon baller, grapefruit knives, strawberry huller and all the other unitasker I never used. I have a steak knife I use for almost everything.
My utensil drawer isn't overcrowded and I can find what I need.

I do have 2 large stainless soup pots and my dutch oven (which I use often). I use the large ones maybe once a year. They take up so much room so I'm thinking about sending them on their way.

Posted 1 year ago #
pkilmain
Member

@Sky - sounds like at least one of the soup pots could go?

My husband has a friend visiting for 10 days, and we were just sitting around visiting and drinking coffee, so I grabbed the pen holder in the kitchen and trashed all the non-working pens, and put the fancy Chinese chopsticks someone gave us (complete with fabric holder) in the donation pile.

Posted 1 year ago #
candy
Member

I had to google "dutch oven", hadn't a clue what it was. Turns out I have one as well, and I use it quite frequently.

I also have one of those large pasta pots, and I can't remember when I last used it. It should perhaps be sent to a better home.

Posted 1 year ago #
Rozzie
Member

This is a good example of how each of us needs to consider what is useful for OURSELVES instead of letting someone else do so.

For example, I have a family member who uses one of those pasta pots all the time. He doesn't even own a colander, but uses the one from the pasta pot for everything. I, on the other hand, don't like the pasta pot. The metal is too thin to use the pan as a stock pot,and the shape of the insert is not a good one for general use as a colander. Instead, we have 3 soup pots in various sizes, and use them all regularly. We also have two colanders, one large & one small, both of which get used frequently.

Someone else mentioned the wok as a uni-tasker. Definitely not! A good wok can be used for a ton of things. It can even double as a soup pot. I have a small wok and a large wok. Both get used a TON. I won't part with either, though I imagine when my son is grown, I'll use the small one most of the time. (He gave me the large one as a gift when he was only 5. We stir fry in it regularly. It sees use at least one time most weeks.)

As for chopsticks...my son uses those every time we have rice. He's mastered them quite well. I can't eat anything with them though I suppose I could use them to stab food and pick it up. ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

i have to giggle about the wok.
my wok is used almost daily....i've often considered that i would survive just fine if i threw out everything bar the wok, a chopping board and a decent cook's knife.
i have made pasta, soup, curry and paella in that wok at various times. i have used it as a deepfryer and as a steamer.
i have other pots and pans that i prefer for those jobs, but if push came to shove, i could manage with just the wok.

we all do have to examine our own individual reality and equip ourselves appropriately, as rozzie said.

just raving now: i read an article in a mag a few years ago.
various famous chefs were interviewed and photographed, in their kitchens at home.
gordon ramsey had an oven that was about as big as my house and it cost some astronomical amount to buy and install....he had to have the roof removed and get the thing lowered in with a crane.
after all that he admitted that he hardly ever used it, it was all too much hassle to fire it up.
it looked amazing and it was hung all around with more mauviel copper pans than any normal person would ever need.

then there was david thompson, who was in his river house in bangkok.
he had a wok and a knife and a strainer on a bamboo handle and a chopping board and that was pretty much it.
the contrast couldn't have been greater.

when i was in india last year, i kept taking photos of people's (very simple) kitchens.
the amazing food that can be produced with the most simple equipment is so inspirational to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

See, now I just feel like even MORE of a chump for keeping the wok all this time. Somebody else could have been using it!!

But as you say, bandicoot, while a wok (apparently) *can* do many things, the things a wok can do can also be accomplished by other tools - and I already had those tools. So there was really no use for the thing in MY kitchen.

But I'm keeping my pasta pot. :-)

Posted 1 year ago #
Rosa
Member

Me too, Chacha - I just used my pasta pot last week to blanche a bushel and a half of tomatos.

We have a wok too, though - it's my partner's, he loves it, he cooks with it about twice a month. He hates my pasta pot though - in fact tonight he made noodle soup (pho, really, with rice noodles, mock duck and tofu as per the little person's request) and now I have to strain out the leftovers so the noodles don't get squishy - if it were in my pasta pot I'd just lift them out!

Oh well. We have a lot of doubles like that - someone gave me a rice cooker and I LOVE it and he hates it so we also still have the old one. I figure if we had two separate apartments, we would have more kitchen stuff than we have now (though maybe not, I think before we moved in together he had TWO large heavy bottomed stock pots but only one plate, one knife, and one fork.)

Posted 1 year ago #
margaret
Member

Well don't I feel the fool. I actually dug my pasta pot out of the cupboard, and it's not at all the pot that I thought it was! I have another pot with a shallow insert that's been in my way for a year or two now, and I thought THAT one was the pasta pot. So the littler pot is in the donation bag, and I am going to actually try out my pasta pot tonight or tomorrow for cooking pasta AND cooking corn. If I LOVE it for those purposes, then I'll keep it. If not, then it will go. I also put a sauce pan in the donation bag. It is nonstick, and I burn stuff if I try to use nonstick.

NEXT ITEM -- CHILDREN'S SPLASH PANTS. We never had these when I was a kid. Are they like snow/ski pants? Are you supposed to wear them over your regular clothes? I went all crazy and bought some in a few different sizes, but we haven't used them. If my kids go outside, I don't stop and make them change their pants first, and I can't see them wearing these overtop of their pants -- too warm and too tight (course, my kids are quite big and have trouble enough finding regular pants that fit their gigantor legs). I think if I do decide to get rid of these, I might actually hang onto them for a spring consignment sale that takes children/baby clothes and equipment. I should be finished with some other baby stuff by then. What a revelation -- I can both donate stuff AND consign stuff -- it doesn't have to be one or the other. And if you aren't trying to sell EVERY little scrap and piece of junk, it isn't that overwhelming to deal with.

Posted 1 year ago #

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