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"Pasta Pot Susan Westmoreland, director of the Food Department, cooks pasta at least two or three times a week. She says, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s fast, it&amp;#039;s easy, it&amp;#039;s versatile, and my five-year-old loves it!&amp;quot;  As soon as she walks in the door, she puts water on to boil \u2014 she knows if she doesn&amp;#039;t use it for macaroni, she&amp;#039;ll use it for cooking favorite vegetables such as broccoli or green beans. And the pot she reaches for is a pasta cooker with colander insert. That way she doesn&amp;#039;t have to carry a heavy pot to the sink to drain it, risking a spill or steam burn. Instead, she lifts the strainer and gives it a couple of shakes over the pot right at the stove.  &amp;quot;You don&amp;#039;t want to overdrain your pasta,&amp;quot; Westmoreland cautions. &amp;quot;The water that clings to the noodles adds flavor and moisture to your sauce.&amp;quot; Recipes Pasta Primavera With Ham Bow Ties With Butternut Squash &amp;amp;amp; Peas Lisa Troland, associate food editor, depends on an inexpensive stainless steel steamer basket from the hardware store.  &amp;quot;A traditional bamboo steamer is nice for stacking different foods on several levels, and looks pretty on the table,&amp;quot; she admits, but she prefers the convenience of a small folding model. &amp;quot;It fits in lots of different pots, goes in the dishwasher, and stores in a drawer.&amp;quot; After steaming fish and vegetables, Troland saves the cooking water to thin and flavor mashed potatoes or use as a base for homemade soup.  Recipes Steamed Asian Scrod Fillets Jerk Halibut with Apple-Sweet Potato Mash Steamed Broccoli with Saut\u00E9ed Garlic and Lemon  Director of Food Appliances Sharon Franke&amp;#039;s passion for pressure cookers has proved contagious. When the test kitchen staff tried her recipe for short ribs, adapted from one of her favorite cookbooks, they were hooked.  After less than an hour of cooking, the meat literally falls off the bones into a full-flavored sauce \u2014 a dish we&amp;#039;d expect to take up to 3 hours. Although Franke has a favorite, the T-Fal Clipso, she says, &amp;quot;Any cooker will do the trick as long as it has a thick aluminum bottom to help prevent food from burning.&amp;quot;  Her advice: Turn your own favorite recipe for a long-cooked stew or braised meat into a weeknight dinner by reducing the liquids to only about 1 cup more than you want in the finished dish and cutting cooking time by two thirds.  Recipes Ranch-Style Short Ribs Moroccan Lamb Shanks Spiced Sweet-Potato Stew Lori Conforti, associate food editor, uses her hand blender morning and night. In the plastic cup that comes with it, she whips up a yogurt, fruit, and honey shake, then sends her husband of three months off with a full travel mug to drink on his drive to work.  For dinner, Conforti likes to serve homemade tomato sauce but doesn&amp;#039;t always have time to let it simmer. She confides, &amp;quot;When I&amp;#039;m in a hurry, I give it a little whirl with the stick blender right in the pot \u2014 just enough to thicken it but not puree it, because I like to leave my sauce a little chunky.&amp;quot;  Recipes Carrot &amp;amp;amp; Apple Soup Jalape\u00F1o-Spiked Black-Bean Soup &amp;quot;Sometimes when it&amp;#039;s raining or snowing, I just don&amp;#039;t have the heart to send my husband out to the backyard to set up the grill,&amp;quot; Debby Goldsmith, associate director of the Food Department, says with a laugh. &amp;quot;But I&amp;#039;m a big steak lover \u2014 particularly of the crispy fat you can get only from grilling.&amp;quot;  So when the weather&amp;#039;s bad, she turns to her trusty Le Creuset grill pan. Made of enameled cast iron, it gets hot enough -- even when used over medium heat \u2014 to give foods &amp;quot;real&amp;quot; grill marks and lots of flavor. Its enameled interior finish means it&amp;#039;s easy to clean and she doesn&amp;#039;t need to season it after every use.  Recipes Grilled Salmon With Herb-Caper Cream Pan-Grilled Pork Cutlets Tandoori Chicken Breasts Cathy Lo, assistant food editor, says, &amp;quot;The one appliance I use every day is the microwave oven.&amp;quot;  She puts it to work performing small but essential chores such as defrosting meat, melting chocolate, reheating sauce, warming lemons and limes for easy juicing, and softening butter. But there are some things, like polenta and spaghetti squash, that she wouldn&amp;#039;t dream of cooking any other way.  Lo also recommends zapping, not poaching, salmon and other delicate fish. &amp;quot;Cook them right on a platter. They&amp;#039;ll stay moist and won&amp;#039;t fall apart when you serve them.&amp;quot; Recipes Polenta With Spicy Eggplant Sauce Spaghetti Squash With Brown Butter &amp;amp;amp; Walnuts Mary Ann Svec, associate food editor, finds it&amp;#039;s easier to use a supersharp, easy-to-clean mini chopper than to pull out a knife and heavy cutting board \u2014 even for a single onion or carrot, or a handful of herbs.   Passionate about fresh ingredients, Svec has a special secret seasoning: a dash of gremolata \u2014 minced lemon peel, parsley, and garlic. She sprinkles it on simple foods like broiled chicken, pork chops, or fish just before serving for a quick burst of flavor and aroma.  Recipes South-of-the-Border Burrito Wraps Warm Salad With Pecan-Coated Shrimp "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/cooking-tools/a16898/food-editors-kitchen-tools-mar00/>