Wedding Registries. Supposedly millennials are killing them but they aren’t dead yet. Maybe you’re on the fence about making a registry and you really just want to ask for contributions to your honeymoon fund, and I can’t blame you! But I’m here to tell you, registry or not, people are still going to buy you things so you may as well tell them what you want.

Now you’re thinking “But Sarandon, we don’t even need anything! We already have enough towels and we don’t really cook.” Well my friend, if there’s one thing I can be confident in knowing it is that one cannot live on takeout and meal kit delivery alone, and from one not-cook to another, there are still a handful of practical things you NEED to have in your kitchen that make the perfect addition to your registry. Stay with me here…

1.) An instant read thermometer:

If I had to name one thing that kept me out of the kitchen for a long time it would be the intense fear of giving myself food poisoning. Enter instant read thermometer – a magical device that allows me to know my food is cooked to the right temp (with the help of a google search to know what that temp is), so I can eat peacefully knowing my chicken won’t make me violently ill. Make this the your first stop when you go to Williams and Sonoma and get your handy dandy registry gun thing. Register for one, maybe two actually, you will thank me later.

2.) Two Good Knives:

One chef’s knife and one pairing knife. Take yourself to Williams and Sonoma and take the different knives for a spin to figure out which ones you like best. Different knives will have a different feel in your hand and you want to choose ones that feel good when you hold them and that are comfortable to use. And yeah, two knives is really all you need to get a lot done in the kitchen, so make them good ones!

3.) A Crock Pot:

Please don’t let This Is Us scare you away. You need a crock pot. There are few things better than being able to set and forget a pot of chili to be ready for dinner. And make sure the one you choose is big enough for the quantity of buffalo chicken did you will need to make for a super bowl party.

4.) Prepped Meal Storage:

Use this opportunity to register for some nice glass storage for your weekly prepped meals. Make sure the ones you pick are stackable and won’t take up your whole kitchen + that you register for as many as you need (Do you both prep meals every week? Register accordingly).

5.) A Great Blender:

As I type this my husband is deafening me with his smoothie making. I think ESPECIALLY for those who aren’t huge cooks a good blender is a must. When Daniel was in Japan for a year with The Marine Corps I pretty much lived off of smoothies. You can also make soups with your blender, and with some of them they can also double as a food processor. Our Ninja blender has a food processor attachment that is a lifesaver when grating cheese, making salsa, and grating potatoes for latkes at Hanukkah.

6.) A Cast Iron Skillet:

Our cast iron skilled lives on our stove and we use it for everything. Like, literally everything. In the morning it makes eggs or pancakes and for dinner we can use it to make chicken or salmon and stick it straight in the oven.

7.) Nesting Mixing Bowls:

This is Daniel’s addition to this blog post. His favorite wedding gift was a set of vintage pyrex mixing bowls. They are his babies. Regardless of how much you cook there will come a time when you need mixing bowls (boxed cake mix anyone?), and when that time comes you will thank me. Daniel also highly recommends getting a set of smaller glass mixing bowls as well, and perhaps even some duplicates of the smallest ones. They are great for pre-measuring ingredients for recipes so you know you didn’t forget anything, and so when you accidentally measure twice as much baking powder as you need you can correct yourself before adding it in and ruining the entire recipe. <- But I don’t have any experience with doing that. Why would you even think such a thing 😉 😉

8.) A Good Cooler: “It’s not a kitchen thing though” – Daniel.

Whatever, it’s a food thing and I’m going with it. If you go camping, do a lot of picnics with friends, or tailgate at every PennState football game you need a good cooler that can keep ice frozen for all of eternity and ensure your craft beer is never remotely close to room temp. It took us a solid 3.5 years to get around to purchasing a good cooler and I wish we had the foresight to register for it when we had our wedding (We take our insulation very seriously and got a Kong brand cooler. We like it because it’s epic at keeping things cold/frozen and it has a handy angle on the back of the lid that lets us put it in our trunk. Something we couldn’t do with a Yeti.)

And that’s it. I’m stopping at 8 because I can’t think of anything else and I don’t want to add random sh*t just so I can get to 10. I hope that doesn’t bother you too much, at least I stopped on an even number.

So yeah, from one not-cook to another, get these things and you’ll be on track to succeed as an adult (at least when you’re at home). Best of luck and happy cooking!

xoxo, Sarandon