Whats your favorite kitchen gadgets?

[vampz26]

We've seen a lot of fun in this forum with the orion cooker, a crockpot, and just a plain old grill...thought maybe with the holidays right around the corner we could share our favorite cooking gadges and maybe give each other a few gift ideas!

The last one I used was this:

Total Chef 4 In One Grill – Indoor Grill and Sandwich Maker - Waffle Maker - Electric Grill

I had actually picked mine up off of sears.com for about 14.99. Couldn't resist at least trying it out. Anyway, on my last weekend with my daughter over (she is 8), that was all we cooked with...we made:

With the Grill plates:
A NY Strip Steak panini
A meatball panini

With the sandwich plates:
Ham and Egg pocket sandwiches.
Ham and cheddar pocket sandwiches.

With the Waffle plates:
Waffles...(duh...)

With the griddle plates:
Quesadilla
Ham and cheese wraps.


Needless to say we got our 14.99 worth that weekend alone! The only problem, while the grill places are easy to clean, the inside of it under the plates is a pain. You've got to work around the heating element to clean it and its pretty tight. And if you don't clean it, it gets a wee-bit smokey on your next use...but other than that, we had a lot of fun with it. (I wouldn't pay too much for it though...its fun, but I'd imagine one would get tired of it...)

 

[jrp]

I get more good, and more cooking quality, out of my pampered chef garlic press. Not fancy, not electric, but nothing adds to my kind of cooking like fresh pressed garlic.

 

[HD MM]

Hmmm. I have many kitchen appliances I love, but the one gadget I get a lot of use out of and is the most helpful has to be my digital probe thermometer.

Food is always cooked to the proper temperature with the help of this wonderful tool.

 

[charper1]

My coffee grinder.

 

[socalpanman]

My favorite that I use the most is the KitchenAid mixer.
It's just a great power tool. Arrrgggghh.
Every attachment I get for it just keeps adding to the value as a cool time saver.

Next to that is the Food Saver. It really does work for us. Now in December I can enjoy that wonderful grilled taste of summer once again.

 

[StevenD]

Like Alton Brown, I'm not a fan of "unitaskers". But my all-time favorite kitchen gadget is a my Reveo MariVac. It only does one thing, but it does it very well and very quickly.

 

[HD MM]

Another very useful tool in the kitchen is my stainless steel skimmer.

While this isn't the exact model I have, you get the idea.....

It works wonderfully to skim out a bunch of stuff from of boiling water real quick. I don't know how I survived without one. Any cook should definitely have one of these puppies in their kitchen.

 

[stimpson]

Spice/Coffee grinder.

 

[jayn_j]

So many good choices already used.

OK, I'll add a knife sharpening stone. After awhile the hone doesn't do it any more and a dull knife is torture.

 

[vampz26]

Another kitchen gadget I love is the Breville Cordless Immersion Blender

I don't usually use it in the manner shown. I usually use it to make soups by pureeing or blending the ingredients directly in the pot while its cooking. So far I've made a cream of celery, an irish cheddar soup, and a pumpkin soup (also posted in another thread in this forum, I believe). A spicy gazpacho might also be nice....

 

[Smith P.]

Corkscrew (I'll post a picture) what doing all steps include release the cork.
Not automatic, just handheld type.

 

[jrp]

Corkscrew (I'll post a picture) what doing all steps include release the cork.
Not automatic, just handheld type.

I want to change my support from my garlic press — which I still love — to the corkscrew. I'm in wholehearted agreement with Smith, P.

 

[yourbeliefs]

My wife. ;p

SOMEONE had to say it.

 

[Smith P.]

My wife. ;p

SOMEONE had to say it.

Don't mix up kitchen and bedroom !

 

[vampz26]

Don't mix up kitchen and bedroom !

No good can come out of this...

 

[vampz26]

My wife got me a mortar and pestle for Christmas...according to Steven Raichlin (BBQ USA on PBS-HD) crushing garlic and herbs as opposed to chopping or mincing, unleashes more flavor and aroma. If anyone else has used a mortar and pestle before I'd love to hear your input, but I can't wait to try it out...

 

[navychop]

Hmmm. I've got one, but I only use it for crushing herbs. Haven't done garlic in it. Yet.

 

[jayn_j]

My wife got me a mortar and pestle for Christmas...according to Steven Raichlin (BBQ USA on PBS-HD) crushing garlic and herbs as opposed to chopping or mincing, unleashes more flavor and aroma. If anyone else has used a mortar and pestle before I'd love to hear your input, but I can't wait to try it out...

I used to crush garlic with a morter and pestle. It kind of ruined the m&P for anything else and I decided that either mincing or cutting gave me just as good flavor and more control of coarseness. I mostly just use a compression mincer these days. The M&P Is used for grinding other spices these days.

 

[mdonnelly]

My wife got me a mortar and pestle for Christmas...according to Steven Raichlin (BBQ USA on PBS-HD) crushing garlic and herbs as opposed to chopping or mincing, unleashes more flavor and aroma. If anyone else has used a mortar and pestle before I'd love to hear your input, but I can't wait to try it out...

My wife uses a metate to do all the garlic crushing. It's the Mexican equivalent of a mortar and pestle, but made from rough stone.

But her favorite tool is the Emmy food processor.

 

[dfergie]

This one big enough? (had camera set for close or would be crystal clear)I got this from my Moms place after she passed away... heavy sucker.