These cold mornings gave me a chance to hunker down and clean out some of the kitchen cabinets. In the process, I remembered why some things are more useful than they appear on the surface.

For instance, a pasta fork or, as we novices call it, a spaghetti stirrer. This useful device allows you to scoop spaghetti noodles out of the bowl with ease.

Our mom taught us a second use for the spaghetti stirrer – it’s a great back scratcher. Just be sure you don’t put it back in the utensil drawer after you’ve taken care of that itch.

A four-cup Pyrex measuring cup serves double duty. It’s perfect for making one serving of oatmeal in the microwave.

You’ll never have to worry about oatmeal boiling over in the bowl, thus leaving a layer of oatmeal that resembles concrete on the microwave plate. Plus you can eat the oatmeal right out of the measuring cup.

Our mom taught us a useful trick for a spatula. In a pinch, the pancake flipper thing makes a great spanking tool for unruly children. More than once, she would wave the spatula around and threaten us with a spanking if we didn’t behave.

The pizza cutter isn’t just for pizza. It’s a great tool for cutting sandwiches in half and doesn’t massacre peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches like a regular knife will. The pizza cutter also makes cutting the crust away from sandwiches a snap.

Zip-loc bags are a lifesaver for me. I use them as they’re supposed to be used –sandwiches, cookies and grapes. They’re also my first choice for keeping a wet washcloth in the car when traveling with little ones.

The jumbo Zip-loc bags are a traveler’s best friend. You can put four or five T-shirts in one bag and then squeeze the air out of the bag. This step compresses the bag down to about an inch thick. Then you toss it in your suitcase, saving space and keeping the garments relatively wrinkle free.

Same goes for your nightgowns and shorts. Put them in the bag, squeeze out the air, and you can pack twice as many garments as you’ll need. The gallon-size bags are great for packing undergarments for travel as well. My suitcase resembles a plastic factory whenever we travel.

I also use the sandwich-size Zip-loc bags for sorting pens and the extra plastic dispenser cups for kids’ medicine. They’re also great for separating Legos by color or shape, and the bags are the perfect size for a toddler’s hands.

A butter knife not only spreads butter, but it’s great for spreading anything. Hint – lightly mist that knife with cooking spray before attempting to spread Marshmallow Fluff on a slice of bread.

In a pinch, a butter knife makes a fabulous flat-head screwdriver. I’ve also used a butter knife as a shoe horn, a tool to pry open the lid on homemade jelly and to clean the gunk out from the sides of the kitchen table leaf on the rare occasions when I take it out.

At the top of my not-needed list is a food processor.

I have a friend who swears by this machine, but I’ve never taken it out of the box. In my over 50 years of cooking, I’ve never had the need to process any food. So, buh-bye.

Also on that list is a blender. Once I found out the calorie count in a milkshake, the blender became a distant memory. That unused appliance came out of the cabinet to make room for more boxes of Zip-loc bags.

Our thoughtful son and wife gave us an Insta-Pot for Christmas a couple of years ago. The directions were confusing, and the one time I was brave enough to use it, the chicken came out like rubber. I can accomplish that with my old Magnalite pot from Louisiana.

So there you have it – what’s useful and what’s not in the kitchen. The next time your back itches, try out that pasta stirrer. You’ll never look back.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.