Gadgets....
 

I stopped by Linens and Things the other night and was amazed at the plethora of kitchen gadgets available. Got me to thinking, what's my favorite kitchen gadget?

Well, I know for me, I could not live without my George Foreman Grill. I use it at least 2 times a week...and it does every thing I want but make food taste like it's been grilled outdoors.

What's your favorite gadget?

Dagney

I'm not really a gadgety gal in the kitchen. I want good tools that I can multitask with. I'm too poor to have anything in the kitchen that only does one thing, ya know? (Except the food, of course. It's only purpose is to be eaten!) I guess, though, that my favorite kitchen tool is my 8 inch, razor-sharp chef's knife along with honing stick. A close second is a board scraper. Is there nothing they can't do?

Okay, I'll admit, I like cooking just a bit too much.

my favourite kitchen device is this whisk my wife got me. its hard to explain, but it looks like a spring looped at the end of the handle. its not the most useful utensil, but i have a soft spot for it, expecially because it makes the finest scrambled eggs you could ever ask for.

most useful gadget? my crock pot.

~james

Microwave - hands down. Now if you're going to quibble and call it an appliance then the old time apple peeler. I'm addicted to cute machines.

Do the coffee grinder and pot count as gadgets?

I'm also fond of my egg slicer. I know it's simple, but it does SUCH a great job of it.

Anything in the gadget line made by OXO rules. Can opener, veggie peeler, wine opener.

I have a lot of the as seen on TV type products, too. My mom buys them.

Many of them do NOT work as seen on tv.

(even if you see it in the dollar store, you do not need an eggwave, for example)

I still don't know how the amazing dumpling maker will work out. haven't had the opportunity to make any dumplings yet. But it looks cool ...

the latest gadet acquisition is a kitchen magician (or something like that). It's from QVC. It's one of those spatula/whisk/tongs thing.

That DOES work as seen on TV. great for manipulating large slippery things (like putting marinated skinless boneless chicken breasts onto the george forman. they don't end up on the floor anymore.)

I'm in search of the perfect ice crusher. I'm 0 for 3 so far.

Heavy duty plastic ziplock bag.

Mallet.

Floor.

*Whap*

Repeat as necessary.

personaly i prefer the wood chipper !!! it makes a big ole' pile of chipped ice :rolleyes:

mmmm kitchen gadgets appeal to the geek in me... and I used to cook a lot more than I do now, but I restrain myself in purchasing the gadgets.

The one I really like is the traditional hand-cranked pasta maker. Makes really good stuff and, with practice, in less time than you'd think.

Bruce called it.
 

     The best for me is the microwave.
     As far as the gadget vs. appliance thing goes I clearly remember when my grandparents got their first one. They were the first people I knew that owned one. My grandmother said that it was a "neat gadget."
     The grandmother has spoken. No more need be said. :mad:

I'm about equally fond of our Black & Decker toaster oven and our slowly dying nameless cheese grater. Consuming as much pasta as I do, it's sublime to just pop a 1" cube of parm freshly chopped off the half-round into it and crank away. Sure beats struggling with a flat grater, at least. Though...Our freezer is also a central part of my life. Without the fridge/freezer ensemble, wherever would I keep icecream?

And, as far as microwaves go... Maybe I'm too young to be awed by the "cool" factor of popping things into a box and having them hot in a few minutes, but I really, really prefer the taste/texture of things cooked via more conventional means. Bread products in the microwave never turn out good, for example. Rarely do I whip out the mircowave, and when I do, it's typically only for glorified, and slightly faster, water heating. Oatmeal and the like. Even tea water is boiled on the stove, typically.

The pizza stone, mostly because you don't have to make just pizza on it. It's quite versatile if you get creative, though it makes great pizza as well.

My fasvorite gadgets
 

in the power tool category: The Kitchenaid mixer

in the hand tool category: TIED between the veggie peeler and the egg slicer (I don't know what I'd do without either)

Honorable Mention: the Cuisinart Food Processor

I'm all about temperature forks that light up to the doneness when you stick them in the meat(damn this was hard to describe still havn't done a good job :(). It's especially great when cooking burgers on the grill and it's too dark to tell if their red in the middle or not. Of course it's hard to convince people that stuff actually cooks when it gets off the grill so you sometimes get overcooked burgers/steaks when they use one of them.

One of my ex's claimed that just being able to soften butter so she could bake things on the spur of the moment (munchies) was worth the price of the microwave.Ice cream and love, are not for keeping.:D