5 Unexpected Kitchen Must-Haves Our Editors Refuse to Cook Without (Starting at $2)

Yes, you might already have a timer on your phone, oven, or microwave (or all three) that you rely on. But Executive Editor Lauren Miyashiro points out that having “a separate kitchen timer is nice,” and Christine agrees. “I prefer having an external timer because it makes me go back into the kitchen to turn it off,” she says. “If it was on my phone and I was elsewhere, I would probably silence the timer when it goes off and then forget about it.”

For this, she recommends OXO’s Good Grips Digital Triple Kitchen Timer. “I love it because it’s very intuitive and easy to use,” Christine says. What’s really neat about this timer is that it can keep time for three different things at once. For those marathon cooking or baking days, this $31 gadget has got your back.

“I gave up almost all plastic food containers a long time ago because they’re all so flimsy, and they leak and they stain and are generally terrible,” Andrea says. “I use almost exclusively glass now. The issue with glass is that it’s heavy, so if I need to actually transport food it’s not ideal.”

Enter: Yeti’s The Dash and Dine Set. With this $50 set, you’ll get three containers: one that fits just over one cup, another that holds up to three cups, and a third that can accommodate as much as 8.5 cups of food. The containers are made from plastic (half of which has been recycled), but they solve Andrea’s problem: “Not only do they never, ever leak, but they’re also super-rigid and tough, and they never stain. I love them for when I need a container that behaves like glass but is more lightweight.” They’re going to be especially handy as we head into the holiday!