Favorite Kitchen Gadgets {Link Party}

By Kate Riley April 17, 2012

I love food.  I know I have must have mentioned this before.  Yes, I’m a foodie – gimme gimme some savory sauces and some tasty treats and I’m one happy gal.  So I was playing in the kitchen a few weeks ago and thought up this idea where we all tell about our favorite kitchen gadgets, large and small.

A few others came to mind for me.  My blender for the morning smoothies, my super sharp pizza cutter for the kids frequently cooked cheese versions.  But there are three that once I acquired them, made my world complete and all of them around $10.   Here’s the quick run down three of my favorite kitchen gadgets!

First up, the five blade herb scissors.  I admit, I thought these were just a novelty at first, but after repeated uses with these shears to chop my chives and mince my thyme, I’m sold.  They’re awesome for anything that includes fresh herbs from soups to salads to roast meats and fish and they dice them up super fine in just a few snips.  herb scissors for roasting

I’m a big time egg person.  Is there a label for that?  If there is, well slap it on me because our family goes through two dozen a week on average.  My man makes a fantastic scramble, and I love a soft boiled egg with just salt and pepper, which is why I love this little gadget, a mini nonstick egg poacher that sits inside a frying pan in steaming water.  Eggs Benedict?  Coming right up!  Or let them sit in the poacher in the pan a minute more and you have perfect soft boiled eggs for a loaded Cobb (another favorite meal).

egg poacher gadget

 

The citrus squeezer or lemon juicer has changed my life forever.  I bow to this gadget.  You simply cut a lemon in half, insert it, and squeeeeeeeze.  Instant lemon juice without any seeds for anything from hot tea to marinade to lemon tart to a personal favorite, a raspberry lemontini!  I will share this recipe soon, pinky swear!  *hiccup*

lemon juicer for cocktails

 

Those are my three, the herb scissors, a mini non-stick poacher, and the lemon juicer.

snip it poach it squeeze it

What about you?  Time to link up! 

Can’t wait to read your kitchen stories!

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59 comments

  1. Wow I don’t have any of the three you highlighted. Maybe I need to try them out! :) I linked up my corian cutting boards. (#19) They are amazing!

  2. That salad looks so good and your eggs are cooked perfectly!!! share the secret to the perfectly cooked boiled egg!!

    Fun party…I linked up, but my post is kind of a stretch. ;)

  3. I’m all about multitasking with my kitchen tools.

    I use a sturdy little melon baller all the time – although never actually on melons! I use it to scoop out apple seeds and core with minimal waste. My 5 yr old LOVES apples and will gladly devour them even with the peels, but has trouble handling whole apples, so I chop ’em in half, scoop out the middle and away he goes.

    Likewise, I have a stainless ice cream scoop (the type with no moving parts) that I use far more often for melons than actual ice cream. It makes scooping the seeds out of cantaloupes and honeydews a breeze.

    I do have one single-purpose kitchen gadget tho… During the Summer months, we’re big fans of homemade mango popsicles and while I have managed to wrangle them manually, I love my Oxo Mango Splitter for removing the seed and leaving my fingers intact.

  4. that salad looks so yummy!! :-) and i love all of the gadgets you shared – love those herb cutting scissors. i have regular kitchen shears, but those are awesome!

    thanks for letting me link up my favorite kitchen gadget, too! :-)

  5. You had me with I love food, and ended with Raspberry Lemontini, oh my, love your post. I too love food, cooking, and anything kitchen related. I’d say my most used kitchen gadget is my whisk, next bamboo tongs, and after that, my super flat and flexable stainless steel spatula. I think a lemon squeezer may be in my near future tho. If we ever have consistancy in our weather, and spring sticks around, a raspberry lemontini may need to be concocted and consumed with a few girl friends :)
    Thanks so much

    • Agreed Sharon, they’re the perfect cocktail for gal pals! Will share the recipe soon!
      Kate

  6. My KitchenAid Mixer has to be the best. Probably because I worked so hard for it. My first TWO were aweful…but thanks to superior customer service and my time spent on the phone with them I got a THIRD upgraded mixer! Juts goes to show that persistence and gentle requests to customer service pay off!

  7. Years ago I purchased a potatoe ricer from Williams Sonoma. My family loves my mashed potatoes with rich butter, cream and roasted garlic. The ricer works every time and makes the potatoes fluffy with minimal effort. Even gave away as wedding gift till WS changed the design. It also comes with different blades and is perfect for making baby food! Also really sharp knives. Can’t live without ’em!

  8. Love the herb scissors. I think I need a pair of those to go along with my regular kitchen shears which I can’t live without. :) Thanks for hosting this fun party.

  9. Since I am doing an herb garden this year I would love to try the herb scissors..

  10. I am hungry now! My favorite kitchen gadget at the moment is my new silicone balloon whisk! I am in love with it! I think a need a pair of those herb scissors. I’ve been cooking with lots of fresh herbs and those look like a must have.

  11. The must have for my kitchen is a garlic press/slicer I bought a couple years ago from Williams Sonoma. I use it almost every night!

  12. Oh the potato ricer for sure! And my ceramic melon knife from WS… it might be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received! There’s a loop on the end of the cover that you use to scoop out the seeds/cantaloupe ‘guts’, and the knife is serrated juuuuust right… it cuts like buttah. Love!

    I also use my herb scissors to cut up chicken/meats to go on salads. It’s the best!

  13. Thank you for hosting, Kate! I was able to link up earlier from my phone, but I subbed at the preschool (!!??!) this morning, and couldn’t comment. I think that some of those herb scissors need to go on my list. I have a beautiful rosemary plant outside, and it would be nice to cut those as well as my thyme, if it comes back.

  14. My friend just taught me how handy my kitchen shears are. They are even better than my pizza wheel for slicing pizza, quesadilllas and such. She says she uses them for just about everything. I like my zester for shredding garlic. I discovered that long before Rachel Ray made it popular, and my MIL thought I was nuts. Hey, it’s fast and it works. LOL!

  15. great list! will try the mix and chop. I make a chili and I am so tired of breaking up the meat with a spatula, it takes forever! By the way, is there a recipe for that loaded cobb salad? looks so delicious!

    • Hey Michelle, it’s salad greens + avocado + blue cheese + eggs + tomatoes + bacon (never forget the bacon!) -deeeeelicous and filling too.

  16. I love kitchen gadgets, what a fun post! I’m going to have to look for a pair of herb scissors. Thanks for hosting this, love looking at all the fun gadgets. :) Sharon

  17. Hmmm…those eggs don’t look poached, they look overcooked. But I’m in the “runny eggs fan club” so that could just be me.
    I LOVE those herb scissors though.

    • Hey Anna, nope those aren’t poached but I used the gadget to get them like a soft boiled, it’s handy!

  18. Kate,

    Thanks for cleverly themed link-up party! I always love an opportunity to pick up new kitchen ideas because there’s no two ways about it, I’m in the kitchen daily and it gets dull if you just continue doing the same thing.

  19. Ditto the citrus squeezer – it just gets so much more out of lemons and limes than the other methods. I give these out as gifts now.

    • Agreed Jimmy! They have different sizes for different citrus but I use the yellow universally too!
      Kate

    • Hi Sarah, that’s a Cobb for two, but I love that style salad – I use a balsamic vinaigrette but sometimes mix in a little Ranch, sounds kinda gross, but I swear, so good!
      Kate

  20. Kate- thanks again for hosting, I just realized that I didn’t post the appropriate posts for your kitchen party link party. I’m so sorry. I just drove 700 miles to Arkansas to visit my parents and guess I’m a little tired. Little Bit

  21. I’ll have to try out the herb scissor and lemon juicer, those are my often use ingredients. Egg poacher seem pretty nice too! Thanks for hosting and sharing.

  22. Love my citrus squeezer too. Use it all summer for Mojitos!
    My favorite multi-use gadget is my heavy duty potato masher. Its the best for making egg salad and home made applesauce.
    BTW Congrats on your new Blog/job!

  23. What a fun link party! I’m going to see if I have anything to link up. I love my lemon squeezer as well and I’ve been wanting those herb scissors!

  24. I might have to get a citrus squeezer. Looks like fun! This is a very useful and fun link part. :)

  25. I was just thinking the other day that I needed a lemon/lime juicer type thing…just might have to pick one up.

  26. My first favorite is my bullet blender. I use it every day to make little strawberry smoothies. I just throw in about ten frozen strawberries, a packet of stevia, water, and sometimes some plain greek yogurt and sometimes not. Instant smoothie in ten seconds. My next favorite is my crock pot. I use a couple times a week. I throw in several frozen chicken breats and a can or so of diced tomatoes and spices, and in 6-8 hours I have enough chicken to last about four days. Then my last one is one I just got in the mail today and it’s called an Xpress, Redi, Set, Go. It’s a little plug in gadget that looks simliar to a George Foreman Grill but isn’t. I just cooked my frozen salmon patty in it in about 8 minutes, probably could have taken it out in about six. So, there you go!

  27. That herb scissors looks awesome.

    The two items I could not live without are my VitaMix and my food processor. I’ve had two other blenders that I rarely used (and they still broke!), but my VitaMix makes me love blending stuff (I think the low cleaning maintenance helps a lot). Green smoothies all around!

    And, being a hater of all things meat, my food processor is perfect for making nut butters and hummus. I use them both several times a week.

    My husb was such a genius in purchasing both items for me.

  28. I’m not really a gadgets kind of girl; i’m more of a minimalist (I mean I have one drawer and one cupboard after all), but I do have a flexible cutting board (aka cheap plastic placemat) that I think works nicely.

  29. If you haven’t already learned this, roll your lemon between your hand and the counter pressing slightly before you cut and juice. You will get more juice out of it (and faster too).

  30. I can’t wait to try the lemon juicer and your raspberry lemontini recipe. Yum!
    One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is my garlic peeler. I don’t know what it’s officially called, but it’s a thick rubber tube about six inches long, that I bought at a kitchen store, and when you put garlic cloves inside it and roll and press it on the counter, it works like a charm!

  31. I’m a little late to the party, but I finally linked up my favorite gadgets. . . most of which are very old-school. My husband is a foodie, so he’s constantly buying new gadgets–and I use the same old reliables over and over!

    I’m with you on the scissors. I have Cutco shears that I use for many things, not just herbs, plus I keep more than one pair of scissors in my kitchen. I do like your lemon juicer; I need to look for one of those. And I’d love to have that martini recipe! :)

    Thanks so much for hosting, Kate!

  32. I need to get that egg thingy! Oh my – does that salad look good! Who am I kidding- anything with avocado looks delish in my book!

  33. If you love the herb scissors, you’ll love my favorite kitchen gadget, Toss & Chop Scissors. I use them on whole cooked chicken breasts for chicken salad, enchiladas, etc. I also use them to make chopped salad. Really, they work for anything that needs a moderate chop size. For smaller pieces, just chop a little more. I do it in a metal bowl. And I hold the scissors backwards and pull the handle toward my body instead of as shown on WS. Much easier.

    http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/toss-and-chop-salad-scissors/

  34. Ok Kate, My fave kitchen gadget is my Kitchenaid mixer, with my new Ninja blender being a close second, but on to more important things…..That Cobb Salad looks DELICIOUS!!!!! :))

  35. I have two favourites I use almost daily. A chopper for onions, nuts, etc. and a garlic press — both from Pampered Chef. I just put a clove of garlic in the press, skin and all, and squeeze. The minced garlic goes into my recipe. All I have to do is scoop out the skin and pop another one in! The chopper is just as easy to use AND I can take out any aggression I might have! Sometimes ingredients get mighty small when I finish with them – but I am so much calmer :) Here are links to both products:

    GARLIC PRESS http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=26463&categoryCode=KW

    CHOPPER http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=240&categoryCode=CE

  36. I must admit that I use my kitchen sheers probably more than any other gadget besides my coffee pot. I think I need more than one pair because they are always in the dishwasher. Mine can be seperated so they are easy to keep clean.

  37. What a great post and link party! Sadly I don’t have time to write a post about my favorite gadgets, but I’ll surely enjoy reading what others have to share. Always on the lookout for great gadgets :)

    If I did have time, I’d tell all about my pastry blender, my solid one piece silicone spatulas, and the ball whisk that my MIL gave me. Cannot live without them!

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