As we start looking at summer holiday destination listings, I confess I often look at the kitchen photos first. I love exploring new places or revisiting the same ones year after year. While most people like to spend lots of time relaxing all day by a pool or on the beach, I love to visit markets and plan menus. (Or, plan a dinner menu while I sit on the beach.) Strange, I know. But honestly, when you are visiting a lovely French market or stumble into an amazing fish market in Cape Cod, who can resist the urge to scoop up the freshest ingredients to make a dinner you would never be able to replicate at home. This is especially fun when I get to cook with my Food Stylist sister, +Abigail Wyckoff .
To that end, I have realised that I need to bring a bit of home with me on ever self-catering trip. Okay, maybe a bit more than a little bit. I actually have some very elaborate lists that get refined year-on-year, depending on my destination. (A little tip, buy brightly coloured tools and they won't get mixed in with the items at most rental cottages.) Regardless of where I am, this is my most basic kitchen list:
- Assorted covered knives by Kuhn Rikon (small serated, large kitchen)
- vegetable peeler
- collapsable collander
- toast tongs
- silicon spatula
- Microplane zester (doubles for grating Parmesan cheese)
- teaspoon set
- kitchen scissors
- wine stoppers
- bag clips
- cherry pitter (Seasonal)
Find the shopping list on: Self Catering Kitchen List on Amazon.com
In addition, I can't live without:
- Salt and Pepper grinder
- Select spices: cinnamon, cumin, oregano
- Select baking items: flour, sugar, table salt, packet of yeast, stock cube
- Olive oil spray
- PG Tips Tea
- Tea towel
- Few laundry cubes
- 2-3 Lock and Lock boxes (pack some of the above items in them)
- 5-10 Ziploc bags, assorted sizes (snack to large)
- Foldable shopping bags
You may think this is excessive, but the top items I keep together in a box which comes out of storage when we go on a trip. The other items actually cut down on things I need to purchase at the grocery store when we are away.
This brings me to one of my favourite Christmas presents this year. It is a Joseph Joseph 5-in-1 Utensil. I am most definitely adding it to my kit. If you like to bring a few things along on holiday with you, I suggest you get one of these handy little multi-taskers too.
Joseph Joseph 5-in-1 utensil
What do you slip in your suitcase when you go on a self-catering holiday?
