Everyone’s focus has shifted overnight to the holidays, and with it, travel plans, entertaining, and cooking for large crews. This time of year–the time right before the big bonanza– always feels as though it were meant for stocking up on things like loaf pans and oven mitts, the way the autumn makes Joe Fox think of bouquets of sharpened pencils and such.

And now, following that totally-wasn’t-an-explanation explanation, I give you a random assemblage of 10 kitchen tools.

1. Expanding Cooling Rack Ideal for smaller kitchens, or just for those bakers who get anxiety from the vertically stacked variety, this cooling rack is essentially three racks in one.

2. Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat The classic. The undisputed champion. The must-have. The end.

3. Progressive International Collapsible Dish Rack You know how when you have company over there’s a boat load of dishes at the end of the feast that need washing? And how someone always insists on helping out by washing them all by hand? And then you end up with all these clean dishes and no where to really put them to dry? And you try to improvise by laying a towel out on the counter for the wet plates? But all that ends up happening is the towel gets soaked and you’re instantly out of counter space? Well, faster (way faster) than it took to read/write this description, you can pull out your collapsible dish rack, which has been stored economically somewhere, set up shop and go to town. And also you didn’t need to read any of that because, come on, a collapsible dish rack is as self-explanatory as it gets.

4. Disposable iPad Sleeves I don’t have an iPad, but I occasionally refer to my laptop or phone when I’m cooking. Dough-covered fingers on the keyboard is a no-no, and having to switch back and forth between clean hands and cooking ones is a large inconvenience. These sleeves are genius; slip them onto your ipad and you instantly get protected tech that’s still touch responsive.

5. Magisso Cake Server The gadgetiest of the bunch, this has potential to become kitchen clutter, so maybe proceed with caution. But it was featured in Oprah Magazine and all, and the video of it in action looked like straight up magic, so I threw it in the basket. Not to mention, what a production the cutting of the cake/pie usually has to be.

6. Chef’n SleekStor Pinch Pour Collapsible Measuring Cups Again, a winning solution for cramped drawers.

7. Chef’n GarlicZoom I have a slight neurosis about touching garlic and onions with my bare fingers, it’s a long story. The traditional garlic press requires a whole lot of fingers-on, making it a less than appealing option for me. The ‘zoom makes it easy to limit digit-to-clove-contact.

8. Grate and Measure with Etched Stainless Steel Grating Surface The majority of (non-organic) pre-shredded cheeses contain wood pulp. As in, bits of wood, from trees. Look into it. With this guy, you can pick up a whole block of some quality diary, grate it all at once and then store in conveniently.

9. Joseph Joseph Twist 2-in-1 Silicone Whisk The standard whisk gobbles up drawer space, but this version folds flat like to make storing a breeze. Also, there may be some dual cooking functioning or whatever.

10. Stainless-Steel Ladle with Strainer This, in my mind, is a genius little tool. Anyone as picky an eater as I can appreciate the control it offers in terms of liquid to solid serving ratio. A little more broth, now just the big chunks of veggies, please, etc etc.

K THANKS BYE!

P.S. What are your kitchen tool go-tos?