What Kitchen Tool do you love?

[oceaneast]

Lately I've been loving the Panina Grill my In-laws gave me for my birthday last year. I can make everything from grilled cheese to more elaborate creations.

http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image1.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200526/0002/img33l.jpg

[kmmommy]

I really like my George Foreman rotisserie. You can make so many different things with it - not just chicken!

[granada]

I love my Kitchen Aid mixer. It makes cooking a lot of things so much easier.

[oceaneast]

I have a Kitchen Aid mixer. I found I'm only using it about once a month (if I make a cake or cookies). What other uses have you found that it works well for?

[Camdynlyn]

Although I have TONS of kitchen things thanks to my wedding... my favorite is and will always be:

MY APPLE SLICER/CORE-ER!

I am a sucker for apples and this just makes it even better. I should have invented the darn thing though. Oh, and the orange peeler is about the coolest ever.

I rarely use my Kitchen Aid Mixer and keep it on a shelf and the darn thing is too heavy to keep moving back and forth. :rolleyes: Lazy, I know!

I guess I am a simple girl!

[granada]

I have a Kitchen Aid mixer. I found I'm only using it about once a month (if I make a cake or cookies). What other uses have you found that it works well for?
I guess I *do* do a lot of baking. But I've also used it for mashed potatoes (makes them very smooth), I recently used it to mixed up squash for butternut squash gnocchi, and DH (the designated pizza maker) uses it to make pizza dough. There may be other things I'm not thinking of right now.

I think it's just want you're used to. I lived with roommates who used the Kitchen Aid Mixer all the time, so I've just gotten used to keeping it out and using it often.

[thedoorchick]

My Henckels Santoku knife.

I don't have a lot of gadgets, but my good knives I could not live without.

[oceaneast]

I also love my Henckels Santoku knife. It cuts beautifully. I think knives are probably the most important kitchen tool.

[justHB]

Definitely our Le Crueset pans.

http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image1.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200526/0015/img26m.jpg

[kemaji]

I love my microplane graters.

http://www.surlatable.com/images/products/thumb/25473_4539i.jpg

[Delaney21]

I love my Zylis chopper. I hate chunks of onions in things, so I use the chopper to pulverize them.

[Rose]

Definitely our Le Crueset pans.

http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image1.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200526/0015/img26m.jpg


Ooh that's what I want for my Bday, except in red.

I love my microplane. So simple, but so great.

[Jonesey]

I heart our DeLonghi indoor grill and my vacuum wine saver.

[ee_chick]

I love my food processor. I use it all the time.

[laura]

In addition to what's already been listed, I also use my Kitchen Aid mixer for anything with ground meat, like meatballs, burgers, etc. I don't make meatloaf, but I've heard it's good for that as well.

[flygirl]

My mini Krups food processor. So much easier to use & clean than the full size one. So easy, in fact, that I think nothing of pulling it out even if I only have to chop an onion!

[laura]

My mini Krups food processor. So much easier to use & clean than the full size one. So easy, in fact, that I think nothing of pulling it out even if I only have to chop an onion!

Do the parts go in the dishwasher? In my head I really want a food processor - especially for chopping annoying stuff like rosemary - but I hate appliances that are more difficult to clean than it is worth. Also, does this food processor work for small stuff like rosemary? Sadly, I know nothing about them.

[flygirl]

Do the parts go in the dishwasher? In my head I really want a food processor - especially for chopping annoying stuff like rosemary - but I hate appliances that are more difficult to clean than it is worth. Also, does this food processor work for small stuff like rosemary? Sadly, I know nothing about them.

Yes and yes...for the most part. Everything goes in the dw except the main unit, which just needs a wipe-down. It's handled every spice I've tried, including rosemary; the only negative is that you can't control the size of the chopping/shredding/dicing/etc with the smaller processor as well as you can with the big one.

PS, Laura, I need to get over to LJ & post about my new love. I finally bought a Dyson & swear I didn't believe you when you said you could actually fall in love with a vacuum cleaner.

[Trillian]

My Oxo Good Grips peeler:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/230/719812349916.jpg

[EmilyZA]

I love my Zylis chopper. I hate chunks of onions in things, so I use the chopper to pulverize them.

Delaney, I have one of these, and after using it once I was extremely disappointed. Is there a trick to it?

[JillyBean]

I love the entire Good Grips line. The handles make them so much easier to use. I use my microplane alot, too. I guess my favorite right now is my indoor grill (since we're in an apartment and can't use our outside grill) and my cast iron skillet.

[oceaneast]

I also love the Good Grips line. I particulary like their new measuring cups

[lml41981]

My kitchen tool is an appliance...I couldn't live without my toaster oven. I have baked things in there before and they turn out fine...and I love English muffins for breakfast, so my toaster oven gets lots of use.

[Kristy]

My Kitchen Aid mixer. I wanted it for so long and finally found it at an awesome price. Is it bad that I hug it every morning lol.

[boilermaker]

You ladies just increased my Christmas wish list!

My favorite kitchen tool right now is my Kitchen Aid Blender. Makes awesomely smooth margaritas!

I also love my knives. I have the Henkels Twin Select line..but I need the Santoku. A good knife is so worth the money!
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=216355

[emmjay]

I like my microplane a lot too, but I think my favorite is my trusty old garlic mincer. I HATE mincing garlic with a knife, so that is probably the tool that gets used the most.

[gayle]

my Le Creuset stove top grill

http://www.lecreuset.com/usa/images/library/large/GntRevGrill.jpg?size=50&source=library%2Flarge%2FGntRevGrill.jpg

LOVE this thing........

And my Shun Chef knife
http://www.discountcooking.com/shop/standard/knives/111498/kershaw-knives-10-inch-chef-knife.jpg

AND last but not least, my All Clad
http://www.discountcooking.com/shop/thumb/professional-cookware/102059/all-clad-master-chef-mc2.jpg

[oceaneast]

Okay those of you that love your mixers, what do you make with them?

[Pamela]

I LOVE my kitchenaid mixer! I just got the pasta roller attatchments for it, and they were really easy and fun to use. I have a kitchenaid food processor too that I really love.

One of my coolest gadgets is my herb chopper

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/MrsPamela/herbchopper.jpg

This thing is fantastic for chopping up fresh herbs!

[Sarah051504]

I am the queen of kitchen gadgets. I love my grill pan like the one gayle posted and my Santoku knives. I just ordered this dehydrator:

http://a1460.g.akamai.net/f/1460/1339/6h/www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/Item/51/41/86/i514186sq02.jpg

and just had to get this to go with it.

http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image2.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200526/0015/img43l.jpg

[gayle]

That dehydrator is totally cool!

[camberne]

I love my Pampered Chef cheese grater (it's got two grater wheels and it has a turn handle) that I use all the time. It's great for grating chocolate for my chocolate covered custards. Mmmmmm. It's really great for cheese though... quesadillas, pizzas, tacos, etc. (not that I cook anything much other than desserts).

[gayle]

I have that cheese grater Alice! It's really neat.

I am realizing I have a little bit of a gadget addiction :)

[elladee]

My Wusthof knives are my favorite thing in my kitchen. I don't know how I managed before them...

I, too, love my toaster oven. We moved to a new duplex almost a month ago and, believe it or not, I still haven't used my oven. :rolleyes: It's been all toaster oven. I love that it doesn't heat up my kitchen like the real oven does.

[Tempest_too]

I *love* my Pampered Chef Food Chopper. It replaced my previous most-loved gadget, my mini-cuissinart. My full-size cuissinart was too bulky and heavy - I hated to use it. The mini-cuiss came along and it was much simplier, but the Food Chopper is the easiest of all. Whack! Whack! Whack! and I toss it into the dishwasher and I'm done! I've had it for about 5 years now and it's still in good shape.

http://users3.ev1.net/~fontlady/gadgets/food_chopper.jpg

[Golightly]

I LOVE my cusinart mini-prep! It just lives on the counter and I throw all kinds of things in there... cheese, carrots, onions, etc. I also love the cusinart hand blender we got, very convient.

We didn't receive many of the kitchen items on our registry... No one got us any of the pots and pans nor knives we chose...

We finally broke down and completed our registry and got a set of the Wustof knives (which are incredible and my second favorite kitchen tool) and a set of the Calphalon One (not nonstick) pans... DH spent weeks researching pots and pans and knives before he added those to the registry... It was sooo expensive to get them all at once, but we are thrilled with them.

I also registered for the coveted KitchenAid mixer... and someone took it upon themselves to replace it with a hand mixer :rolleyes: Actually, it's pretty handy, but my arm is nearly dead by the time I'm done and even the slow speed goes so fast... I can see how it is super handy for certain projects, but how the stand mixer will be great too... kinda hoping one of the pretty blue ones ends up under the christmas tree this year, along with a wok. :p

And I know it's not really a kitchen tool per se, but the mother of all household tools is far and away our Dyson vacuum cleaner.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&pid=02034518000&subcat=Upright+Vacuums

We went to get the animal and ended up with the Sears special edition that has two additional attachements (and comes in DH's preferred silver instead of purple.) We were debating about whether or not to get the exclusive one, but luckily it was worth it as the two additional tools are the ones I use the most. We have an oversized Siberian Husky so I am vaccuuming about 2-3 times a week right now and I am emptying the canister at least 4 times per session. Wonder if it would be cruel to have DH hold the dog down while I just vaccuum him directly... ;)

This machine is incredible... it gets every single solitary, bright white, dog hair off our dark blue couch, including the "skirt" part that Chewy rubs and leans against all the time (he likes to sleep right against the couch.)

Sorry... didn't mean to hijack. I am having so much fun with all my new kitchen toys... er, tools these days. We had NOTHING before we got married. It was the final straw when I was cooking for a dinner party and my stupid 10 year old, Ikea chef's knife wouldn't cut through the skin of an apple. I swear the food tastes better now.

Cheers, bon appetite, etc.,

[JillyBean]

I already posted about how I love the Good Grips (by Oxo), but I forgot to mention how much I love their angled measuring cups:
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/380/23520104115C.JPG
It is so much easier to read the measurement from the top.

Sarah, I'd love to have a mandoline! That is on my wishlist (along with a Le Creuset dish) :)

[Sarah051504]

That dehydrator is totally cool!

Thanks, I hope it's as cool in person as it looks online. It should arrive on Friday but we are moving this weekend so I won't be able to play wiht it untill next week. :(


Jill ~ I have a cheapie V slicer now that you can't adjust the thickness of the slicers and I figured that if I was going to invest in that dehydrator that I was going to completly spoil myself and get the mandoline to make preparing food for the dehydrator easier and more fun to use. I also love the angled measuring cups. I resfuse to use my regular ones anymore. :p

[boilermaker]

We have an oversized Siberian Husky so I am vaccuuming about 2-3 times a week right now and I am emptying the canister at least 4 times per session. Wonder if it would be cruel to have DH hold the dog down while I just vaccuum him directly... ;)



Golightly, I just had to laugh because my Golden LOVES to be vaccuumed with one of the hand tools (the hard angled one). Everytime I vaccuum, he follows me around and when I have the hand tools out, he noses his way under it. It is very difficult to clean my entry way rug when the dog is rolling on it trying to get vaccuumed :)

[Golightly]

Boilermaker, that's too funny! Chewy is terrified of the Dyson... DH calls it Jaws, from the movie "Mr. Mom." You know, the one where the scary self-propelled vaccuum eats the "woobie." Hilarious.

Anyway, our Dyson gets parked in the front closet when we're not using it and Chewy knows it's in there, he'll nose the door and the run away... or else he'll just give it a huge berth when walking by...

Cheers,

[EmilyBronte]

I love my Kitchen Aid mixer, food processor, and blender. I also love my Santoku knife, but all these have already been posted. So, I'll go with my tongs:
http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image2.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200526/0004/img34m.jpg

Quote from Golightly:
"And I know it's not really a kitchen tool per se, but the mother of all household tools is far and away our Dyson vacuum cleaner."

Probably silly to admit this, but I had a dream about one of these vacuums one night.... The whole dream was in black and white. I can't remember the content other than in the middle of this black and white room stood the yellow Dyson vacuum cleaner. Weird, huh?

[jarm]

We have those same tongs, and we have a set of tongs that doesn't have the heat reistant part. Ouch! They hurt when they get heated up. I love those tongs so much more.

I tend to have a different favorite monthly. Right now my favorite is my blender/food processor. I use the blender to make milkshakes and I use the food processor to chop up onions, which I tend to use in every meal.

Just wanted to say this is a great thread, and I already have a wish list started...need to go to a Pampered Chef party...want that hand chopper!

[flygirl]

And I know it's not really a kitchen tool per se, but the mother of all household tools is far and away our Dyson vacuum cleaner.
Come wax poetic in the All Important Dyson Thread (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=357). :D

[gayle]

God, that is too funny Golightly.

My Golden, Sunny runs like hell when I pull the vacuum out. All she has to do is see it and she is "outta there".

She'll hide in the closet, or the bathroom. She has even learned to close the bathroom door with her nose just so it won't come anywhere near her.

She is such a wuss.

Also, LOVED Mr. Mom, that is one of the funniest movies EVER.

[emmjay]

I have a new kitchen item that I love - we registered for All-Clad Stainless pans and didn't get any when we got married over a year ago. We've been using hand-me-downs from my parents (one sauce pan is from when I was like 8 yrs old).

Last night I got home from work and received a gigantic box from with an All-Clad saute pan and a sauce pan as a birthday present from my sister! I am so excited - and the best part is that now that she knows what I want she will just keep getting them for me for Xmas and birthdays. I freaking love my sister right now! :)

[gayle]

You will LOVE your All-Clad. It is by far, the finest cookware I have ever used, and it will last you a lifetime.

What a GREAT sister :)

[Sarah051504]

I second that. You will love your All-Clad. Between my set and my Wusthof knives I’ve become sort of a snob and hate cooking at other people’s houses that don’t have them.

[emmjay]

Actually my brother got us a Wusthof knife set for our wedding gift, and I love that as well. I have great siblings!

Now I just need a good kitchen.... (we're currently in an apartment with a 1950s galley kitchen - no room to move, no storage, etc.).

[bunnyboo]

I love my pampered chef garlic press!!!

[Sarah051504]

I love my pampered chef garlic press!!!

Really? I can't stand mine. Half of the garlic gets stuck in it and then that cover thing will not stay on it! I'm very disappointed in it.

[dana b]

i'd have to say the le crueset grill pan, i probably use 4 times a week. i need to figure out how i'm supposed to be cleaning it though, i don't think i'm doing it right.
i'd have to say my kitchen aid mixer is just for looks at this point since i've never used it in the 2 yrs i've had it :rolleyes:

[Janey]

MY APPLE SLICER/CORE-ER!

Woohoo! That's my answer too! I have three of them, even -- one at work, one at home, and one at my mom's house... Gimme a Fuji and a Slicer and I am a happy woman.

[looch]

kitchen aid mixer! not only do i use it to mix, i use the grinder attachement to grind my own beef...once you have one of these burgers, you will never go back to store bought chopped meat!

[juliebug]

I love my Henckels Santuko:
http://store1.yimg.com/I/chefknivestogo_1849_10700469

But in all honesty, the most useful tool in my kitchen lately has been my salad spinner.
http://www.oxo.com/catalog/imagesprod/32480_3a_1.jpg
We joined a community farm's CSA and for the several weeks we've been inundated with early season greens (lettuce, spinach, etc.). They only do a quick rinse at the farm, so everything is still very dirty when we get it home. This guy's been a life saver!

[Marilyn]

I also love my Whustof knives. I have had mine for about a year now.

What does everyone plan to do for sharpening? I have heard you should send them out but I have no idea where to start.

[ee_chick]

What does everyone plan to do for sharpening? I have heard you should send them out but I have no idea where to start.

I take mine to a cooking school or shop at least twice a year. If you have a Sur La Table locally, that's where I usually go, and I'm quite happy with them. One of my local grocery stores also has a sign that they'll do it. I generally need to leave them for a few hours, but they don't let you leave them overnight.

[elladee]

What does everyone plan to do for sharpening? I have heard you should send them out but I have no idea where to start.

Try looking in your Yellow Pages under something like "Sharpening Services" to find a local place. That's how I found the shop I go to.

[Mentul77]

My fav is my kitchenaid mixer, my george foreman grill, or my deep fryer (yeah, I'm southern, what of it? Ha Ha)

For those that asked, I use my Kitchenaid for mashed potatoes allllll the time, cake mixes, umm anything you would normally do with a hand mixer or even a wooden spoon. It also has the whisk arm so it is great for mirangue or whipped cream for pies (my mom uses hers for that, I haven't attempted it yet). It is also supposed to be good for breads with the dough hook arm on it. I'll be using mine later this week to mix pudding and cool whip for a chocolate eclaire cake for a 4th of July party this weekend. There aren't many things you can't do with it.

[Aug2002Bride]

I love my Pampered Chef Self Sharpening knives, the food chopper and the micro cooker! Those are the 3 items I use almost every single night to cook dinner!!!!

I really want a Kitchen Aid Mixer!!!!

[laurenc]

i love my kitchenaid stand mixer. i don't know how i ever made it through the annual christmas cookie baking marathon without it...

[Jill1228]

Ditto! My MIL thought she was going to take it when she moved....over my damn dead body!


Other things I lurve
I love my black kitchen aid stand mixer (got it as a housewarming gift)
My kitchen aid food processor
my deep fryer (you can take a girl out of the south but can't take the south outta the girl) :D
my brand new Dyson vacuum cleaner

I *love* my Pampered Chef Food Chopper.
http://users3.ev1.net/~fontlady/gadgets/food_chopper.jpg

[GoCougs]

Honestly? My favorite kitchen tool is my husband! He's a way better cook than I am and he loves to be in the kitchen. So, I sit back, enjoy a nice glass of wine and watch him work!

[mgrace]

oooh, I have lots of favorites. So, either my Kitchen Aid mixer, my Global knife, Oxo tongs or Pampered Chef mini spatula.

[Bucktown]

I am waaaay late and I hope she sees this:

Granada~ Your butternut squash gnocchi sounds delicious! Would you be willing to post your recipe?

[littlelove8138]

i love my indoor/outdoor grill. i use it at least twice a week to grill chicken. it's the best and it goes in the dishwasher!! :)

[DallasLady]

At this time of year, I cannot live without these:

Meat thermometer:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0000CCY1X.01._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Turkey Lifters:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0002T0XBU.01-A1H097IJ6WK7GU._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Flavor injector:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00005NUVV.01._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[Liz]

My favorite is the garlic press. We put garlic in just about everything!