Kitchen Necessities

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the numerous kitchen utensils you can find in the store today. Everything from egg separators to 5 different styles of whisk.

Over the years I've resisted cluttering my kitchen with utensils that are only useful when making one particular dish or doing one thing--like this asparagus peeler. Who peels asparagus anyway?

What do you go out and buy? A great start would be mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons, mixing spoons, spatulas, & a whisk. OR a nice KitchenAid mixer, but then cooking is no fun :P

Here are some other essential kitchen items I like to use, that you might forget first time round:
-baking pans in several sizes (not just one!)
-pie dish
-pot holders
-vegetable peeler
-cheese grater
-rolling pin
-sharp knives, including pearing & chopping
-cutting board
-sifter
-ricer
-food mill
-food processor (If I had to pick one electric appliance to have in my kitchen, it would be a Cuisinart food processor)
-containers for dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar)
-parchment paper
-non-stick spray
-pizza cutter

Recently I've invested in a few additional items that are not essential, but make baking easier:
-pastry blender *EDIT* This is no longer needed for incorporating butter into pastry dough. A friend shared with me a much better technique using a cheese grater. Take the butter out of the freezer and immediately grate it with a cheese grater. It's super fast and easy and you have one less utensil to worry about!
-this tool, handy for chopping veggies & working with dough
-a simple pastry wheel/cutter. Though more complex ones like this exist!

Next to buy: this danish dough whisk. Certainly not needed for everyday baking, but if you make a lot of bread by hand, a utensil like this is great.