One of the things I love about my husband is his love of cooking and baking. The movie “Ratatouille” reminds me of him- one, because I swear they based the character of Linguine off a picture of my husband, and because my husband saw that movie when we were dating in high school and decided that if a rat could cook, so could he- the rest is history;). He loves to try new recipes and gets really excited about kitchen gadgets. He’s a little chef at heart.

Our latest discovery is definitely something to get excited about. My husband loves to bake pies, so for Thanksgiving we had 4 different pie recipes we wanted to try. My mother-in-law told us of an amazing tool that I’m pretty sure we can now never live without- the Silpat non-stick workstation. It’s basically a giant rubbery-plastic mat on which you roll out your pie crust (or whatever you are making). The best part about this thing- it’s truly non-stick. My husband and I rolled out all our pie crusts with no flour. What?! :D Seriously, making a pie crust has never been easier. The whole time we were making pie my husband was acting like a little four year old who has just discovered a new favorite toy. He kept gushing about how amazing this thing was and was grinning the whole time we were rolling pie crust. Christmas came early this year;).

Basically think of all the times you have needed a work surface that required laying flour down- pie crust, kneading bread, rolling pizza dough, making fondant, etc. Now, imagine that scenario without the flour! So much less mess, which is always a plus in my book. And honestly, I feel like the mat worked better than a floured surface. Absolutely no sticking. I feel like sometimes when I am just using flour the dough will stick unless I am constantly pouring flour all over the counter space- and then your food has a little more flour than I personally like. And then you have a huge mess to clean up. The Silpat mat just needs to be wiped down when you are done- and that’s it!

I also know this company has baking mats that you can use when baking cookies- I haven’t personally tried these yet, but I am so excited to try it! If you are a baker of any sort, you have got to try one of these. Seriously, they are awesome! You can just search for the Silpat workstation on Amazon. They run at about $50.00- but a totally worthy investment if you like to bake or spend any time in your kitchen with flour!

And, since we are talking about pies, I thought I would include a totally awesome recipe for one. My husband discovered this recipe and it’s been a hit with everyone who’s tried it. I am normally not a fan of apple pie, but add tons of sugar, cinnamon, and cream, and I definitely change my mind;).

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Have any of you tried the Silpat workstation? I would love to hear what you have to say about it.