List your fun cooking tools and appliances!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorites are the immersion blender, old timey apple spiral peeler/corer, zester, copper bowl for egg whites, clay cloche for bread, pizza dough mat, silpat, baguette pan. My newest buy is a tagine.

Op here. I have all these too. How did i forget about the immersion blender! I need to find my old fashioned apple corer.

What is a Tagine for?

[Anonymous]

We get a lot of use out of our grapefruit cutter, the kind with a curved blade on one end and tiny double blade on the other. I was skeptical when DH bought it, but I love it.

In the summer, we use the little tweezer thing that takes the tops off strawberries.

I don't have the storage space to indulge in anything that's too big, but these little tools have a lot of value in my kitchen. I am a sucker for beautiful serving ware, though!

[Anonymous]

Breville frother. Use it for matcha or coffee lattes daily. Vitamix used daily for smoothies. Kitchen scale to weigh ingredients. Much more accurate than cups and spoons. Citrus juicer (oxo). Cherry pitter for cherry pie. Instant pot. Rice cooker (I’m Asian). Bread maker (use it for dough several times a week—pita, pizza, baguette, ciabatta, naan). KA mixer.

[Anonymous]

Special ginger grater. I have gone through a lot of ginger graters since living in Japan 20 years ago (where we grated a ton of ginger) and none of them held up the cheap 100 yen model I had from Japan -- which broke years ago. Finally found a good one. It's so good I went out and bought two more for when it breaks so that I will not have to suffer without a good ginger grater ever again. Bonus: works on galangal too.

(And though I didn't buy it during the pandemic, I have made good use of my instant pot, some excellent veg peelers, a microplane zester, and the world's best garlic press that works like new after near-daily use for 10 years.)

[Anonymous]

My favorites:

Lodge cast iron wedge pan (makes perfect cornbread wedges)
Immersion blender
Kitchenaid mixer
Zojirushi rice cooker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Special ginger grater. I have gone through a lot of ginger graters since living in Japan 20 years ago (where we grated a ton of ginger) and none of them held up the cheap 100 yen model I had from Japan -- which broke years ago. Finally found a good one. It's so good I went out and bought two more for when it breaks so that I will not have to suffer without a good ginger grater ever again. Bonus: works on galangal too.

(And though I didn't buy it during the pandemic, I have made good use of my instant pot, some excellent veg peelers, a microplane zester, and the world's best garlic press that works like new after near-daily use for 10 years.)

I just use a good knife and chop my ginger. It doesn’t take long at all. Can you link to your ginger grater? Why is it better than hand chopping?

[Anonymous]

We use our air fryer almost every day. It reheats far better than a microwave and my teens love it.

[Anonymous]

We have a million kitchen gizmos. My favorites are the most simple: strawberry huller, melon baller, crock pot, and electric kettle.

Some that we never use include the milkshake machine, panini press, and deep fryer.

Next I’d like to get a juicer but am not sure that I would use it enough to justify the cost.

[Anonymous]

I drink a lot of tea, I use my electric kettle every day, multiple times a day. We also use it to heat up water quicker to transfer to a pot to boil pasta.

[Anonymous]

Immersion blender
Pasta roller attachment for kitchen aid
Double sided waffle maker
Pastry bag set with a bunch of decorating tips
Ulu and wooden bowl - surprisingly practical and efficient
Nespresso

Meat thermometer that has a probe you can leave in the meat while it's in the oven or on the grill, and a remote unit so I can keep an eye of the meat temp while wandering around the house.

Here's a slightly more unique one: an Ebelskiver pan. We only use it a few times a year, but it's really fun.

Have my eye on a sous vide thingie. Might spring for it this year.

[Anonymous]

We have the usual things but here are our less common items.

Something unusual you probably don’t have is this Dutch bottle licker (translated meaning). Perfect for getting the last out of bottles. My spouse is Dutch. We also have a Dutch stroopwafel pan to make your own stroopwafels which are getting pretty popular in the US.

https://www.amazon.com/Flessenlikker-Scraper-Silicone-Spatula-Getting/dp/B07XXTLGP2

We also have a pan that is used for making breakfast sandwiches where you cook eggs in sections and waffle type breads at the same time in one pan. I actually use it frequently to make kids breakfast sandwiches. I can shower in the time it takes to bake and then breakfast is done.

[Anonymous]

I have a couple new silly, extravagant items that I love:

*AerDisc container for the Vitamix. Makes incredible thick “cloud” foam for coffee drinks and great hollandaise as well.

*Tovala combi oven (combi because it has a feature that combines steam and convection, and it also has bake, broil, toast, and steam reheat features). I got this on a whim after seeing an ad that said you could get the oven for $130 if you agreed to buy at least 3 meals a week from their delivery service for a minimum of six weeks in a calendar year.

I’m not usually into meal deliveries, but at the time we had two college kids home for an extended period in addition to our tween. One college kid is an athlete who is always starving, the other is a pescatarian, and the tween will only eat lunch if you nag him for a half hour or prepare it for him. I was getting extremely tired of cooking extra or special meals for them and figured they could feed themselves these meals, which require about 30 seconds prep time. Each comes with a bar code that you scan, and the oven goes through steam, bake, and broil cycles that vary depending on the meal. It worked perfectly, and the meals are very tasty. I’m especially excited about it for the tween, who is now very happy to eat salmon and vegetables or a cauliflower quinoa bowl for lunch with no involvement from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special ginger grater. I have gone through a lot of ginger graters since living in Japan 20 years ago (where we grated a ton of ginger) and none of them held up the cheap 100 yen model I had from Japan -- which broke years ago. Finally found a good one. It's so good I went out and bought two more for when it breaks so that I will not have to suffer without a good ginger grater ever again. Bonus: works on galangal too.

(And though I didn't buy it during the pandemic, I have made good use of my instant pot, some excellent veg peelers, a microplane zester, and the world's best garlic press that works like new after near-daily use for 10 years.)

I just use a good knife and chop my ginger. It doesn’t take long at all. Can you link to your ginger grater? Why is it better than hand chopping?

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSXCT08/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It truly grates it. Chopping is fine and there are recipes that call for chopped ginger, but when you want it truly grated and with its juice, you need a grater.

[Anonymous]

My knife. What else would I ever need?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immersion blender
Pasta roller attachment for kitchen aid
Double sided waffle maker
Pastry bag set with a bunch of decorating tips
Ulu and wooden bowl - surprisingly practical and efficient
Nespresso

Meat thermometer that has a probe you can leave in the meat while it's in the oven or on the grill, and a remote unit so I can keep an eye of the meat temp while wandering around the house.

Here's a slightly more unique one: an Ebelskiver pan. We only use it a few times a year, but it's really fun.

Have my eye on a sous vide thingie. Might spring for it this year.

Op here. I have the MEATER too. No more my meat. I can monitor remotely!! Definitely recommend.
I also forgot my
Magic bullet. Great for my daughter. One portion and can take off a use a lid and go.
Bear claws. Plastic with sharp ends. Can move meats to a platter but also to shred meat.
Lots to different graters.
A thingy my mom gave me that you clip to pot on one wide and strain. No separate strainer needed.
Have gotten some great ideas!