Let's Talk About Kitchen Gadgets

[margecat]

The most exotic thing I ever bought was the Instant Pot, but I returned it. I try not to have too many gadgets, and I agree with Alton Brown! I do have a weakness for colorful salad plates, which I use mostly for things that are not salad (desserts, snacks, etc.) However, I've started to control myself. I rarely entertain now, and I don't like clutter, so I gave most of them to charity, and took a nice tax break.

 

[AbbysMom]

I do have a weakness for colorful salad plates

I have issues with pretty glasses. Wine, Margarita, etc. I have WAY too many of them.

 

[segelkatt]

I don't have many gadgets, they just clutter up the drawers. I have a potato peeler that has been used so many years that the blade has been worn into a curve. It only gets rinsed and then hung up next to the sink so it has never rusted and is handy for all the peeling jobs. My very expensive chef's knife is used for just about every cutting job besides my paring knife, I'm thinking of donating all the other knives that hardly ever get used. I have a garlic gadget that is a silicon tube which you roll on the counter with the clove inside (works for small onions too) and the skin comes right off. It came with a small plate that had bumps all over it which are not so sharp that you skin your knuckles or finger tips but grate the garlic really fine. A wine saver which is a vacuum pump with rubber stoppers will save your open bottle as it removes all the air from the bottle, I also use it on my olive oil bottle. A plane for grating nutmeg etc, wooden spoons, a rubber spatula, a flexible metal spatula and several whisks of various sizes are stashed upright in a heavy container next to the stove. Pizza cutter, bottle opener, the vacuum wine saver and plugs, an ice cream scoop are in a drawer as I don't use those every day, so is the egg slicer and the rolling pin on its cradle. I would not be without my vacuum sealer, both the big machine and the handheld, it saves so much money keeping cheese and sliced ham from getting moldy, and I can buy things in bulk, divide stuff up into smaller packages just right for one or two and pop them into the freezer (I hate shopping and bought a huge upright freezer so I won't have to go to the store so much and can get things when they are on sale, including stuff from the farmers' market when it's in season). Yeah, the freezer, vacuum machine and my fancy knife is all I REALLY need, everything else is just convenience.