What Earns Counter Space in My Kitchen

"Glass, so I'm not cooking dinner on a nonstick coating."

Why I like it:

The glass bowl is the whole reason I bought this one. Most air fryer baskets are metal with a nonstick coating baked onto them, and I didn't love that for food my kids eat several nights a week. This one is glass, and it's see-through, so I can watch dinner crisp instead of pulling a drawer out every two minutes to check on it. The 7.5 quart size is what makes it work for us, because anything smaller means cooking in three rounds for this many people. The bowl goes in the dishwasher.

"Glass and paper. My coffee never touches plastic."

Why I like it:

Coffee is the one thing I get up for, and this is my best pour over. It's all glass, so there's no plastic anywhere in the brewing, which is exactly why I switched. Glass also doesn't hold onto oils or old flavors the way plastic does, so every cup tastes clean instead of tasting like whatever I made yesterday. It comes with a hundred of the real Chemex filters, thicker than the generic ones, so you get no grit at the bottom of your cup. And it looks good enough that I leave it out on the counter.

"Stainless and reusable, so I stop buying filters."

Why I like it:

This is what I reach for when the paper filters run out, which happens more than I'd like to admit. It's a stainless steel cone that drops right into the Chemex. You rinse it, you're done, and you're not buying a box of filters every month. The coffee comes out a little richer this way too, because the oils make it through instead of getting soaked up by paper. It came with a little brush for cleaning it and I actually use it.

"Stainless where the water sits, not plastic."

Why I like it:

A lot of electric kettles have a plastic tank inside, and pouring boiling water into plastic is exactly the thing I've been trying to get away from. On this one the water sits in stainless steel. The skinny spout is the other reason I picked it, because pour over needs a slow controlled pour instead of dumping water in and hoping for the best. It shuts itself off, which I need, because I walk away from things constantly around here. And the copper looks pretty next to the Chemex.

"All steel, on the stove, nothing to break."

Why I like it:

This is the one that lives on my stove for tea. It's heavy stainless steel so it doesn't feel tinny and cheap, the handle stays cool enough to grab without a towel, and there's no plastic and no electronics to quit on me in two years. Honestly I keep a whistling kettle because I want something calling me back to the kitchen. Left to myself I'll start the water and remember it an hour later.

"Loose leaf in steel, because a lot of tea bags have plastic in them."

Why I like it:

This is the one that surprised me. A lot of tea bags are sealed with plastic, and some of the fancy pyramid ones are basically plastic mesh, and you're steeping that in boiling water. Loose leaf in a stainless ball skips the whole question. You squeeze the handle, it opens, you scoop your tea in and drop it in your mug. The mesh is fine enough that nothing floats out into your cup. It comes as a two pack, so there's a clean one ready when the other one's in the sink.

"A dull knife is how people get cut."

Why I like it:

Everybody has that drawer of knives that stopped cutting years ago. A few pulls through this and they work again. There are four slots and one of them is for scissors, which I didn't know I needed until I tried it. The base grips the counter so you're not chasing it around while you sharpen. A dull knife slips off whatever you're cutting, so I think of this as a safety thing more than a kitchen upgrade.

"One ingredient, and no bag to steep."

Why I like it:

This is what I make around two o'clock, when a second cup of coffee would have me staring at the ceiling at midnight. One ingredient, just organic green tea leaf, nothing added to it. It's a powder you whisk in, so there's no bag involved at all. I use it in lattes mostly, sometimes in a smoothie. The lift comes on gentler than coffee does and I don't get the crash later in the afternoon.

"Organic, stone ground, and the ingredient list is short enough to read."

Why I like it:

This is my best 70% dark chocolate. It's stone ground, so it has a little grit to it instead of being perfectly smooth, and that's the point. Organic, and the ingredient list is short enough to read in one breath, which is getting rare in a candy aisle. I break off a piece when I want something sweet after dinner and one piece is genuinely enough, which I can't say about most things in my pantry. It also melts down into the best hot chocolate I've made at home.