Housekeeping Meme

Ms. Brightonwoman started a Housekeeping Meme at her blog. I feel obligated to play along! :)

What three kitchen items do you use the most often?
Medium-sized pot, Tupperware peeler (for both veggies and cheese slicing), and the Toaster Oven.

What kitchen gadget do you wish you had?
If it weren't so freakishly dangerous, I'd love a mandolin slicer.

What kitchen gadget do you never use/wish you hadn't spent the money for?
The sandwich maker (like a waffle maker). I use it much, much too rarely to be worth the space it takes up.

What is your favorite cookbook? (Link if you can!)
I tend not to use cookbooks, instead favoring large, unorganized piles of typed and even sloppy hand-written recipes I've gathered from friends, family magazines, websites, and web searches. Someday I'll organize it!

Who is your cooking inspiration?
Probably my mother-in-law is my biggest influence. She has a knack for being able to throw things together easily, that turn out delicious. I learned chicken noodle soup from her, and our favorite quick/cheap standby "skillet dinner" of rice, ground beef, celery and onions.

What are the three most important items on your spice rack?
Basil, Italian Seasoning, and Thyme

What are three recipes that you use all the time?
The above-mentioned "skillet dinner", Potato Soup, and macaroni salad (which my kids LOVE and is chock-full of veggies).

Can you share a cooking secret?
Not really, but a great kitchen trick for opening stubborn jar lids is to stick a (sturdy) metal spoon under the lip of the lid and use leverage to break the seal. Then it will twist off easily. :) If you can't manage to break the seal that way, use a heavy edge like the handle of a butter knife to pound the top edge of the lid (it will dent, maybe a lot), it usually accomplishes the same thing.

What is your greatest cleaning secret?
I am so *not* a cleaning master. I'm not even going to try to answer this one.

What is your favorite thing to clean?
Trick question, right? Can there be such a thing as a "favorite" thing to clean? If I have to pick something, I'll go with mirrors, I guess. It's nice to see a perfect reflection when I'm done.

What is your least favorite thing to clean?
Everything. But mostly floors.

What is your most embarrassing housekeeping moment?
I can't think of anything truly singular. But I have been thoroughly defeated by crayon on our apartment walls. The kids have taken a blue crayon to every single wall in their bedroom, and I cannot for the life of me find an easy way to get it off. Everything I've tried might work, but not without a lot of elbow grease. So I've given up. It shall remain scribbled upon until such a time as I see fit to attempt to re-paint the room.

Oh, and once, I tried quick-cleaning my blender by adding dishsoap to water, and then turning the blender on. It quickly overflowed a big mass of frothy bubbles all over my counter. I decided to just clean it the long way from then on. ;)

Who do you tag to do this next?
Summer, Melissa, and Magirk, you wanna take a shot? :)