As someone who is always cooking and baking, I am very grateful for items that make my life easier. I found myself wondering the other day which appliances and utensils I would grab if my house were on fire. My top three:
Zojirushi Rice Cooker
When the instructions for your rice cooker come in English and Japanese, you know you are in business. I won’t lie: I am a pretty bad rice maker. And I eat rice about twice a week. Everything changed six years ago when my husband convinced me to get the rice maker. It can make two servings of rice in about 35 minutes with the Quick Setting, you can choose if you want your rice softer or harder (heh), you can make brown rice, sushi rice, porridge, and mixed rice. You can make rice with black beans, arroz con pollo, rice and vegetables, whatever you want. It has a timer, 
so if you want your rice to be ready by 7:00, you program the ready time and the rice cooker knows when to start cooking your rice.
Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer
A baker’s best friend, this stand mixer is great for mixing a batch of cookies, kneading dough, and with additional attachments, making pasta or grounding your own beef. Granted, this mixer is not for you if all you do is mix a batch of boxed brownies once a year. However, if you do a lot of baking, this puppy is worth its weight in gold (and it is a heavy mofo).
Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler
Confession: I don’t actually own this, but I want one so bad. It has removable cooking plates which makes it super easy to clean. The plates are reversible so you can use it as a grill or a griddle, it has a temperature gauge, and it has a removable drip tray to catch all that yummy bacon fat. A griddle is the ideal breakfast companion: you can make your pancakes, hash browns, bacon and eggs on the same surface. Santa, if you are reading this, I want one.
Runner up: the kitchen scale.
What would you clutch against your bosom as you ran from the flames?
Fire image courtesy of matthewvenn. For more of GtCosita’s posts, click here.
