Kitchen gadget hits and misses

[AbbysMom]

I like little kitchen gadgets, but often buy them and I am disappointed,

I bought this "Garlic Zoom" years ago and had never used it until recently -


I really liked it and used it twice since.


On the other hand, I bought this grape and tomato slicer and can't stand it -


I slice a lot of grape tomatoes in the summer to dry them and thought this would be a big help. The tomatoes don't even fit into it. :hmm:

What are some of your recent hits and misses?

 

[betsygee]

Somebody bought us an herb de-stemmer:   

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• betsygee
• Jan 8, 2016

It doesn't work at all--it's easier to strip them manually.

Same person bought us these food huggers to keep cut onions, citrus, etc. fresh.  They work great:  

41DuR7MQeGL.jpg

• betsygee
• Jan 8, 2016

 

[LTS3]

The local cable news station has a weekly feature on various gadgets and "As Seen On TV" stuff and tests them to see if they really work or not. http://www.necn.com/news/business/Does-It-Work-244937551.html The garlic zoom thing was tested before and passed the test. I think the video segment is still on the web site.

 

[Winchester]

Our local newstation has that segment, too: Does it Really Work? http://wnep.com/category/news/does-it-really-work/

Karen, I think I would like the Garlic Zoom. I'm not fond of mincing garlic.

We have these domed screen pans that you use on the outside grill. Supposed to be used for cubes/slices of vegetables or meats, kind of like a stir-fry thing. We got two of them because we thought they would work. Do they? Uhh, not so much. We're not particularly impressed with them. I have a wok for the grill that does a much better job.

I bought a battery-operated cookie press. Wilton. Thought it would be easier than using our very old (used to be my MIL's) cookie press, manually-operated. She gave it to me years and years ago and we use it whenever we make pressed cookies, usually around Christmas. Not impressed with the Wilton cookie press either. It really goes through batteries and it's not worth it. We found that using our old cookie press is better in the long run. We got the Wilton press out again this past Christmas for vanilla butter spritz cookies....and promptly killed four fresh batteries. No thanks. We'll stick to our old press.

Our local kitchen store sells Victorinox knives. America's Test Kitchen had researched knives quite a while back and seemed to be very impressed with the Victorinox line. Well, I needed a new paring knife, so I thought I'd try one out. No....I'm going to stick with Rada paring knives. They fit better in my hand and I like using them. And as long as I wash them by hand, they last forever.....until I throw them out by accident. Thankfully they are not expensive.

 

[AbbysMom]

Somebody bought us an herb de-stemmer:  

Same person bought us these food huggers to keep cut onions, citrus, etc. fresh.  They work great:  http://www.amazon.com/Huggers-Reusable-Silicone-Savers-Assorted/dp/B00NLN6GKG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452276479&sr=8-2&keywords=food+hugger

41DuR7MQeGL.jpg

• betsygee
• Jan 8, 2016

I'll have t check those out! :bigthumb:

The local cable news station has a weekly feature on various gadgets and "As Seen On TV" stuff and tests them to see if they really work or not. http://www.necn.com/news/business/Does-It-Work-244937551.html The garlic zoom thing was tested before and passed the test. I think the video segment is still on the web site.

I am a loyal NECN watcher. :nod: I am concerned though what the changes of them now being "NBC Boston" will bring.