DigsMagazine.com | host: PARTY TOOLS

be the perfect host/ess

a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

08.03.2006

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party tools how to stock your kitchen for better hosting
by Yee-Fan Sun | 1 2 3 4
continued from page 1

Ceramic baking dishes: Ceramic baking dishes are fab because they can go from the oven straight to the table – no added fuss of moving the cooked food to a serving dish, no danger of dumping that carefully crafted culinary concoction all over the floor mid-transfer. Big rectangular dishes are great for making and serving lasagna and casseroles; smaller ones work dandy for hot dips and side dishes.

Mini food processor: If you already have a full-size food processor, you’re all set of course. But for those who lack either the space or funds for one of the big versions, a mini food processor can make party food prep a breeze. Dump in your ingredients, hit the on button, and voila: instant homemade dips, sauces and spreads for your fete.

> Cuisinart DLC-2AR Mini-Prep Plus available at amazon.com
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OXO Good Grips 26781 Lemon Zester available at amazon.com

Zester: Sure, for most recipes that call for zest, you could use a regular grater if you had to. But a proper zester will do the job much more easily, extracting the maximum flavor goodness from your ingredients, and leaving you with a pile of beautifully uniform, slender shavings. Your food will taste better, and as an added bonus, you can use this tool to create lovely freshly-zested garnishes to top your finished foods.

Airtight storage containers: The key to staying sane when you’re throwing a big shindig is simple: do as much advance prep as you possibly can. To keep all those make-ahead foods and pre-prepped ingredients fresh until you’re ready to use/serve them, you’ll want to have a good collection of sturdy plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. Stock up on both very large containers (good for stockpiling hordes of hors-d’oeuvres) and small ones (good for sauces, spreads and dips).

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