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Favourite Kitchen Gadgets! ... registry help for the brides

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Independent Gal

Independent Gal

Ideal_Rock
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Nov 12, 2006
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Hi All,

So, ZoeB is wondering about smaller gifts to register for and I think there are a lot of us over on BWW who could also do with some more ideas for lower price point registry items so people don''t feel they have to drop a tonne of cash on a gift.

How about helping us out by cluing us in to your favourite kitchen utensils and gadgets? Things we so need but never knew we needed? Things that will make our kitchen-lives more fun/exciting/speedy or our food yummier?

Thanks!
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Great question Indy! I think this is great for all your registry''s and for those of us just just love gadgets... Guilty! I''m going to have to think about this one, but off the top of my head.... I love my Silicone cooking utensils!

I''m off to search my kitchen!
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Something equivalent to this, which is what I have. They are a God send, makes chopping onions a breeze! I also use it a lot for nuts and hard boiled eggs (for a dip recipe I make a lot). That''s basically what I use it for, and I would be lost without it.
 
Date: 11/25/2007 1:33:23 PM
Author: Ellen
Something equivalent to this, which is what I have. They are a God send, makes chopping onions a breeze! I also use it a lot for nuts and hard boiled eggs (for a dip recipe I make a lot). That''s basically what I use it for, and I would be lost without it.
Click to expand...

Seconded! We LOVE our chopper!
 
Date: 11/25/2007 1:37:04 PM
Author: EBree

Date: 11/25/2007 1:33:23 PM
Author: Ellen
Something equivalent to this, which is what I have. They are a God send, makes chopping onions a breeze! I also use it a lot for nuts and hard boiled eggs (for a dip recipe I make a lot). That''s basically what I use it for, and I would be lost without it.
Click to expand...

Seconded! We LOVE our chopper!
Click to expand...
I own that one but like this one better because it measures also http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-GOC-300-International-Onion-Chopper/dp/B000A389IM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1196015961&sr=8-7

I also love love love the Pamperedchef pizza stone, pamperedchef garlic press (a must and awesome).

I love my kitchen aide Professional Mixer http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KP26M1XDP-Professional-6-Quart-Pewter/dp/B0002Y5X8S/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1196016140&sr=8-8 It was a wedding gift almost 8 yrs ago and I love it! My sister and mom have the artisan version and they like it.

I love having nice knives Henckels or Wüsthof are my favorites!
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Silicone bakeware?
 
Cool! We just added the measury-choppery thing to our registry.
 
Some small and mostly inexpensive things I can think of:

Thermometers - one for candy/deep frying, and one for meats. Instant-read is especially nice.

Kitchen scale - I find that recipes I use are increasingly giving measurements in grams, and it''s a pain to convert to teaspoons or whatever. It would be a lot easier with a scale, especially a digital one!

A double-layer mesh strainer - I''m shocked at how often I use mine, I never thought I would use it that much when I got it.

A wire cheese slicer - so much easier to use than a knife.

Salad spinner

If you have (or have registered for) a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, a bunch of the attachments are $50 or under (food mill, fruit puree-er, citrus juicer, veggie slicer). Also, having an extra mixer bowl for the machine is helpful if you do a lot of baking.

I love my silicone bakeware, I think the pink Calphalon stuff is the best - nothing sticks to it!

That''s all for now. If I think of anything else you absolutely need, I''ll post again
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An electric can opener! I never thought it would be as useful as it is. I have only had one for 1.5 years, but now I would never do without it. Mine is a Black and Decker model, no need to go fancy at all as they wear out eventually. If you're going for a manual can opener, a Swing-Away is the best one out there.

Oh, the other most useful item we have are black silicone product oven mitts. These are great! They are pricey $50/set or more, but you never need another set. They can be washed in the dishwasher, also you can use them to open jars or transfer things that are hot into the sink. Can't live without them!
 
Thanks Indy for starting this thread! There are so many gadgets out there and it''s fun reading what everyone loves to use. I like the dual salt and pepper mill a lot! We already have a little chopper and it does work pretty well. I thought of registering for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer but neither my FI nor I bake a lot. I probably would love to bake much more than I do now but then we''d have sweets in the house far too often.
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The first thing I registered for was a Kitchen Aid. And then I also registered for some great cookware. Also, a set of knives. Skippy is right, Wusthof makes the best.
 
This isn''t the best thing to register for, but I love basic vegetable peelers. They''re good for the obvious task of peeling potatoes (which we do regularly), carrots, etc, but we keep finding other uses for them. For example, they make cutting thin pieces of cheese or shaving parmesan a breeze, and you can just toss them into the dishwasher afterwards. (We have several so that we can toss them in instead of washing them by hand between loads.)

Oddly, I hated the pampered chef chopper that we had. I ended up donating it to Goodwill. Mine repeatedly fell apart and spilled stuff EVERYWHERE, which made the dogs happy but was aggravating on my end. If I don''t have to cut up much onion, I find chopping by hand pretty easy. Larger amounts, I just use my food processor with the right attachment.

I love my Kitchenaid, and I don''t just use it for sweets. It makes it easy to make really good mashed potatoes. Also, it can knead several loaves of bread at once. Mmm, homemade bread.
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Homemade pizza dough, too. They actually come with a recipe book listing a lot more things that you can use them for.
 
Reading more of the replies, I have come to the conclusion that I have weird cooking tastes. I hate the silicone baking things. Hubby used to use the silicone muffin things all the time, and they were so much more of a PITA to clean than it would have been just to spray the muffin tin and clean it up afterwards. We had to wash them by hand because they were small and light enough that they''d end up at the bottom of the dishwasher and get partially shredded. He stopped using them when I started refusing to clean up after him when he did (usually whoever doesn''t cook has the job of cleaning up).

This isn''t quite a gadget, but I like to keep extra cutting boards around that are small enough to throw in the dishwasher, because I often cut stuff on them and it cuts down on what I have to wash by hand.

Oh -- I have a whipped cream dispenser, the kind that you''d see if you ordered a hot chocolate in a coffee shop, and I love it. Love love love it. I''m also the type of person who squirts whipped cream directly into her mouth. Shhhh.
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C&B at least used to carry them, and I''m pretty sure that WS does as well.
 
Oh, Blenheim''s whipped-cream dispenser suggestion made me think of another thing -- those spray jars you put olive oil into, then pump up the pressure and spray into the pan. My parents have one and still I miss it.
 
Date: 11/25/2007 11:19:49 PM
Author: Blenheim
Reading more of the replies, I have come to the conclusion that I have weird cooking tastes. I hate the silicone baking things. Hubby used to use the silicone muffin things all the time, and they were so much more of a PITA to clean than it would have been just to spray the muffin tin and clean it up afterwards. We had to wash them by hand because they were small and light enough that they''d end up at the bottom of the dishwasher and get partially shredded. He stopped using them when I started refusing to clean up after him when he did (usually whoever doesn''t cook has the job of cleaning up).
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don''t trust them. There is just something about them that I''m not sure about.
 
In the bigger kitchen gadget category I would say my Cuisinart Food Processor is my favorite item. I have the KitchenAid mixer too but the Cuisinart Food Processor gets way more work at my house. I''m not a big baker, but I do slice & dice a lot of veggies.

Next would be my toaster oven. A friend of mine gave me hers awhile back when she got a new one. I never wanted one...took up too much space etc. Well, it turned out I use it all the time. Ours toasts & bakes. I use it a lot for reheating things as well as for toasting nuts etc.

Another mid-priced item would be an immersion blender. I never had one of those either until I got remarried in 2005 & new hubby had one. They''re fabulous for pureeing soup etc. His broke and I lived without for a year and finally missed it so much I went and bought a new one.

In the small gadget category, I love my chopper too but it does seem to break easily. I''ve gone through a few. I really wish they made one where the clear plastic part was solid steel.

Love my salad spinner too. And the meausring spoons with the slide...so one spoon can measure everything from 1 teaspoon to 1/8 of a teaspoon or 2nd spoon does Tablespoons...2 measuring spoons does it all. I am pretty sure these were Pampered Chef items I got off ebay.
 
A good wine bottle opener (we have one that sits on the counter and has a handle with the opener attached, hard to explain, very cool, if I had known how much I''d love it I would have purchased a more expensive one).
A foil cutter (for wine bottles).
A good food processor (mine is too small, it makes me crazy).
Kitchen Aid (I love my kitchen aid and use it all of the time).
An iron skillet.
A grill pan.
Good set of pots and pans.
 
I love mangos. I would eat them every day if I could. I also make a fantabulous mango salsa. The hard part is cutting around the seed so I don''t make it too often. Then I discovered this little baby. It''s my handy OXO mango splitter.You can get them just about anywhere but definitely at BB&B or L&T.

411725.jpg
 
I also highly recommend the kitchen aid stand mixers. We use ours more for mashed potatoes than anything else. It''s fabulous! I also love my immersion blender and my garlic press.
 
Must have wine opener from "Cork Pops" You will never lose a cork in the bottle again
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http://www.corkpops.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=12237-8&Category_Code=001&Product_Count=0


We are coffee addicts and love our Keurig coffee maker. It''s one of the one cup at a time coffee makers and I love having a fresh piping hot cup of coffee in under a minute.

http://www.keurig.com/brewers.asp?mscsid=SMLK0DBBLNK89JKGBQDEMHHQNWTJ27C2
 
Date: 11/25/2007 11:11:56 PM
Author: Blenheim
Oddly, I hated the pampered chef chopper that we had. I ended up donating it to Goodwill. Mine repeatedly fell apart and spilled stuff EVERYWHERE, which made the dogs happy but was aggravating on my end. If I don''t have to cut up much onion, I find chopping by hand pretty easy. Larger amounts, I just use my food processor with the right attachment.
Click to expand...
Really? Did you have the newer model like in my link? I have an older version, and it''s never done that.




I thought of something else. It''s one of those things you don''t use all the time, but when you need it, nothing else will do. (kinda like a Nesco cooker and turkey roaster) Great for entertaining.

Heating tray
 
OMG, they make a MANGO SPLITTER!? That''s going on my X-mas list.

Ellen, it was a gift from my mom and I no longer have it, so I''m not really sure what version it was. If I remember correctly, the bowl part was made up of two pieces that snapped together, and whenever I pressed the knob thing down with practically any force, they''d come apart. I had hubby look at it and he said that I was putting it together correctly (and he''s an engineer, so he''s usually good at figuring that kind of stuff out), so it wasn''t just that I wasn''t attaching them correctly. Also, there was a rubber plate thing that formed the bottom of the bowl, and the seal was bad enough that if I picked it up without very carefully making sure that the bottom was fully supported, it would fall off, spilling onion (or whatever I was chopping). Maybe mine was just defective, but I''m happy enough doing it by hand or using a food processor that I don''t feel the need to get another one to find out.
 
Seriously, it''s the best thing since sliced bread.
 
Here are a few of my favorites...

Gripper cutting board...doesn't slide on the counter and comes in fun colors
http://www.surlatable.com/product/architec+gripper+cutting+board.do?search=basic&keyword=gripper&sortby=gsa&asc=true&page=1

lemon juicer (they also make one for limes and oranges, but I use the lemon one for everything)
http://www.surlatable.com/product/citrus+juicers%2C+lime+.do?search=basic&keyword=juicer&sortby=gsa&asc=true&page=2

glass mixing bowls--I use these all the time and its great to have a variety of sizes
http://www.surlatable.com/product/nested+glass+mixing+bowl+set.do?search=basic&keyword=mixing&sortby=gsa&asc=true&page=all

cookie dough scoop--perfect size everytime
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cw324/index.cfm?pkey=xsrd0m1%7C15%7C%7C%7C0%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7Cscoop&cm%5Fsrc=SCH

Williams Sonoma goldtouch non-stick bakeware...baking sheet, cake pans, etc...nonstick & can go in the dishwasher
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/srch/index.cfm?words=goldtouch

ETA: not a fan of the silicone bakeware plus its not sturdy....so could get messy if you're not careful.
 
Love that mago splitter! We should look into registering for an immersion blender. It might be one of those things that we'll rarely use though, so I'm not sure about it. We'll see. My FI is super excited about one of our latest registry items:

It's called "the Griddler" and it's a grill and panini press. We'll probably use it for grilling a lot.

griddler.JPG
 
We registered for a food processor and my FI and i stood there for a good 10 minutes, debating about whether to get the 7 cup, 11 cup, or 13 cup. What would you recommend? Neither one of us cooks a bunch but we keep saying we'd love to get into it more than we have. We registered for the 7 cup but now I'm thinking we should have chosen the 11 cup.
 
Get the 11 cup. the 7 cup won''t be big enough to do a whole recipe if you use it to make something instead of just chopping. I know because I just used mine to blend together a casserole and my 11 cup was almost too small. The 7 cup won''t be worth dragging out and the 13 cup will probably be too big. I have a kitchenaid food processor with the mini bowl and I love it! I''ve used it several times already.
 
I love love love these mini prep/measuring bowls from C&B:

Mario Batali Prep-Measuring Bowls
$9.95

Superstar chef Mario Batali makes another breakthrough in the kitchen with these multi-purpose bowls. Bright red melamine bowls are designed for full and half measures, from 1/8 cup to 2 cups, so you can prep and measure numerous ingredients simultaneously. Smooth interiors are easy to scoop from; non-slip matte exteriors cling to the counter. Close-nesting sizes are compact in the cabinet.
• Melamine
• Dishwasher-safe

ETA- Zoe, get the 11-cup

MarioBataliPrepBowlsRedS7.jpg
 
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