Improvise when you can’t find the right kitchen tool

For all the clever tools you’ve bought for your kitchen, you can still find yourself waving your hands in the air and looking for the one that isn’t within reach.

Here are some tips from Real Simple magazine’s October issue about how to improvise, to find something to act as a stand-in before the chicken scalds or the caramel burns. It may even work better than what it’s replacing. At least, it will get the job done.

• You need a pizza cutter: You can use a pair of scissors, plain old kitchen shears (but use an oven mitt or tongs with your other hand to hold the crust while you cut).

• You need a biscuit cutter: You can use a 6-ounce tomato-paste can; remove top and bottom and wash inside well; dip the can in flour before each cut, to avoid sticking.

• You need a rolling pin: You can use a wine bottle (empty or unopened); sandwich your dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to prevent sticking. Chill dough very briefly to firm it up.

• You need a milk frother: You can use a whisk and a saucepan. Heat milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat until it is frothy on top, and whisk rapidly to desired frothiness, about 1 minute, taking care not to scald it. Pour into coffee; serve immediately.

• You need measuring cups: You can use yogurt containers. An 8-ounce container, filled up to a pinkie’s thickness from the rim, holds about 1 cup of flour or liquid. A quart container, filled to the same distance from the rim, holds 4 cups. Note: This solution doesn’t give you the exact measurements that serious baking projects need.

• You need an egg poacher: You can use ramekins placed in a skillet.

• You need a blender jar: You can use a quart-size mayonnaise or Mason jar; don’t fill this replacement jar more than half-full, and avoid very hot liquids.

• You need a cake dome: You can use a salad-spinner bowl. Just invert the outer bowl of your salad spinner over the cake and use masking tape to secure it for transporting.