favorite thing friday

The one tool that I probably use more than any other tool in our kitchen, would have to be our tongs. We've only owned tongs for the past few years because it took us a long time to realize that retrieving hot bagels out of the toaster oven with our bare hands and awkwardly flipping bacon with two forks, wasn't really the best way to get the job done.

(I've got the scars to prove it.)

So we bought our first pair of tongs. And then our second.

(In case our first ones ever broke.)

What we've discovered is that tongs are extremely versatile and are quite possibly the most coveted item in our entire kitchen.

You can use them to get hot items out of a toaster.

You can use them to move peppers under a roaster.

You can use them to flip bacon, sausage or any item (except pancakes) on a skillet.

You can use them to extract from a tin, hot blueberry muffins made with millet.

You can use them to serve salad, pancakes or freshly cooked spaghetti.

You can use them to serve just about anything hot, except soup, whenever it's ready.

You can use them to transfer hot corn on the cob or things off the barbecue.

Why, you can use these things to dish out just about anything you can chew.

(It's true.)

Now you just wait because there's more ...

You can even use them to grab dirty tissues off the floor!

They come in a variety of different styles, colors and lengths. But our absolute favorite is a 12-inch pair made by Messermeister. We also have an 10-inch pair, but we don't use them nearly as much. Since we routinely subject our tongs to very high temperatures, we've opted for the steel variety as opposed to those that have a silicone coating, or grippers.

If you don't own a pair already, I highly recommend you add a pair of tongs to your culinary collection. And soon, you too, will be writing bad poetry about how much you love them.