Kitchen gadgets love/hate them

cc

I've got a KitchenAid mixer which I used to use all the time, with a myriad of attachments. However I rarely use it now that there are just two of us, but I can't bear to part with it. I think that I might start making homemade pasta again soon.
I do love my Ninja, so much so in fact that I have several, including an outdoor and a pressure cooking version as well as the more standary types. I really think I could manage without an oven at all if I tried.
I've never had a spiralizer, I just don't see the point.

I love our KitchenAid, use it most every day. Yes - pasta.

No air fryer, spiralizer, or microwave. We all vary don't we?

I have a selection as do others but husband has bought every method of making coffee over the years, filter, percolators (assorted), espresso, cafetière but still makes me instant!

Some are essential and a few more are useful. Others are a waste of time, money and space.

I love a gadget. I have a few coffee machines, one for iced coffee and an indoor and an outdoor pizza oven. I also have a spiralizer but it doesn’t see the light of day much. I’m after a ninja creamy for my birthday but it’s pretty £££ so might need to be birthday and Christmas combined.

As an update on my new single mug Lakeland 'beans to cup' machine. Now I have sorted out how it works, it is lovely. Makes a wonderful tasting mug of coffee in just under five minutes, and is very easy to wash out. I do also use a milk frother, but when I drank one mug black, noticed it was piping hot. It is very neat and compact and looks as if it is made for my kitchen. And, when it is making a cup of coffee the wonderful aroma from those beans circulated round my flat.

I have always felt that any 'gadget' that gets put away inside a cupboard, is one that is unlikely to be used much. The idea with any gadget is that it is quickly and easily available when required. The ones I used regularly all have their places on the worktop, so I do use them a lot.

I bought a nut chopper when lakeland was still in its infancy, I still use it now, when I have a lot of nuts to chop. I just pour the nuts in and turn the handle

I took my gaggia ice cream maker with me whenever I moved, it makes the most superb ice cream and lives on a worktop in my utility room. On the same worktop I have my modern panasonic breadmaker. I make an XL einkorn loaf every so often, after resting the loaf overnight, I use my ritter electric slicer to get even slices and I bag and freeze them

I used my egg boiler today, that was worth buying, perfect eggs. Vitamix is often used and my sage coffee grinder is used every day as is my aeropress

My old magimix is out on the kitchen worktop and so is my omega vertical vegetable juicer

I do use my gadgets, they enable me to have a very nutritionally good lifestyle without standing in the kitchen all day

Some gadgets have been a waste of space. slow cooker for starters, hand blender, air fryer, soup maker

My best gadget bought recently from Lakeland for £25 which seemed a lot is a quite large lemon zester. It is brilliant being fast and safe to use and very easy to clean. I’m one of the few to use a spiraliser regularly for making ‘courgetti’. Also from Lakeland. I inherited an expensive food processor from my mum which now just gathers dust as it’s such a faff to clean. Maybe more modern ones are better.

Just a toaster, no gadgets really. I used to have a breadmaker, but it made me eat too much bread—no good for my waistline!
one thing I cannot be without is an electric can opener; having bad wrists,, I could never manage with a hand-operated opener

But my best buy was a Ninja 10-in-One mini oven, to use when my Aga is switched off in the summer.
It does everything - bake, grill, toast, airfry, roast etc…..but the interior is aluminium and it is an absolute bugger to clean - or rather, its impossible.

I did get a little blender which is intended for smoothies and I had hoped to use it to make small quantities of houmous but it really doesn't work for that at all, not even as good as a stick blender. I bought an electric spice grinder but find it won't do small amounts, so I use a ceramic hand grinder that is more like a pepper grinder.
I have loads of plastic storage containers of various sizes but find that storing them takes up so much room.

I've got a KitchenAid mixer which I used to use all the time, with a myriad of attachments. However I rarely use it now that there are just two of us, but I can't bear to part with it. I think that I might start making homemade pasta again soon.
I do love my Ninja, so much so in fact that I have several, including an outdoor and a pressure cooking version as well as the more standary types. I really think I could manage without an oven at all if I tried.
I've never had a spiralizer, I just don't see the point.

Gransruleok I use a wooden spoon to hold the potatoes when slicing along for hasselbacks.
My partner is also a sucker for gadgets and gizmos. He got silicone air fryer egg poachers yesterday and tried them out today. Hmmm, not too bad but they needed oil/butter and some water on them. Can also be used for muffins.

I love my Kenwood Chef and my Ninja air fryer. Also love my cheap and cheerful spiraliser for making carrot ribbons for coleslaw

I recently bought a weird gadget for making Hasselback potatoes, unfortunately although it said it was stainless steel, it came out of the dishwasher in a horrible state, leaving black over my hands! Turns out it was actually aluminium. Grr. It would be very handy and save burning my hands because I cook my potatoes in the microwave, then cut them to make Hasselback’s, spray them with oil, and air fry for 15/20 minutes. I can’t find a stainless one anywhere, only plastic.

I wish I'd kept my hand whisk, so handy (no pun intended!)

The Kenwood I thought would be an investment is so heavy. The mixture goes up the sides of the bowl and needs scraping down all the time. Not my best buy.

Same here, Microwave, Air fryer, Kenwood food mixer, hand blender and whisk.and just the ordinary kitchen utensils. I made proper birthday cakes ( Delia recipe) Victoria Sanwich, Eccles Cakes and fruit tarts without ay modern gadgets. My lte husband would bring gadgets for me, but I hardly ever used the.

I'm a dreadful sucker for kitchen gadgets. Some get used a lot and some really don't. The George Foreman grill is destined for the charity shop and a cheap nutri bullet thing from Aldi.

DH uses an Aero Press for making coffee.

The one I have also has a very useful bit for using to prise up the ring pulls on cans (you can see it on the left hand side of the pic). It opens various sizes of jars and bottles and has a bit to slit open bags and packets.

I have very few, and that’s at least partly down to worktop/cupboard space. The only large one (apart from kettle and toaster) is my trusty old Kenwood Chef, which lives in a cupboard most of the time.

For coffee we find a cafetière fine, or the little stovetop thing.

I do also have a slow cooker, but it’s such an effort to
lug it out of a wall cupboard, I rarely use it.

One mini gadget I love, is my citrus zester. V useful the other day when zesting 3 lemons for a monster LMP.

ViceVersa

Ooh, I forgot the jar lid removing thingy I bought on a whim after seeing it advertised on Facebook, but which has actually come in really handy on a number of occasions, especially when even my OH couldn't get the lid of particularly stubborn jars.

I’m very grateful for whoever mentioned a jar opener on here. Used it to open some beetroot the other day. I used to really hurt my arthritic hands trying to open jars.

Air Fryers really are game changers. I think they should have been called something else, as people seem to think that if they don't fry a lot they won't use one, but in fact they do so much more than fry. They use much less power than an oven, and keep the kitchen cleaner than cooking conventionally. They crisp food without adding fat (or sometimes a light spray of olive oil), so they are healthier, too.

I have a Ninja one and a Tower one with shelves, which I use for different purposes. My microwave also has an Air Fry function, and this morning I used it to make sausage and bacon rolls for my son and DIL, who are staying here this weekend.

It used one 'pan', there is no grill or hob to clean, and no grease in the kitchen. I put the sausages in first (no added fat) then added the bacon after 10 mins so it all came out together ready to make up the sandwiches. I was up first, so I got it going and left it to get on with it while I had my morning cuppa. Much easier and more efficient than either a frying pan or grill, and I just had to wipe the inside of the microwave when I'd finished.

Most gadgets aren't 'necessary', but they can give more options, and cut down on mess. The microwave is on the worktop anyway, and the Ninja lives in a drawer, although I am planning to move it to the boot room where I can leave it out.

I use the Instant Pot for pulses, pasta and soup, amongst other things, the slow cooker for casseroles in winter, the microwave for heating leftovers, the GF grill for grilled veg, toasted sandwiches and more, Air Fryers for roasting chickens, cooking chips, making Yorkshire puds, making cakes - in fact I only use the oven when I'm cooking for a crowd, or if I'm doing more than one pizza. I still use the hob to boil and simmer things, and to fry onions etc, but realistically I could manage without the oven.

Mollygo

We have a blue rubber thingy for removing lids. It’s perfect, except when it doesn’t work. What’s the one you saw advertised on Facebook ViceVersa?

It looks like this - I got mine from Must Have ideas, but I think you can get them on Amazon too.

ViceVersa

keepingquiet

Removing lids is easy with a wet cloth or failing that run the rim inder a hot tap for a few minutes... no need for a gadget.

Also I always have a separate pan for boiling eggs, but these days I just break them into a frying pan and scramble them around- much quicker and less messy, but you don't get to dip the yolk!

Those tips don't always work, believe me - we've had jars that we've tried everything with and still won't open. If my OH can't get the lid off, you best believe it's well and truly stuck!

Well maybe one day I'll need one... until then I'll just carry on as I do although since hand surgery last year my grip is non-existent!

I have a spiraliser and it is really good for courgettes so I am probably one of the few people that use them. It’s perfect for low carb.

I also have an ice cream machine bought 25 years ago and this is in regular use ( I will be upset when that dies).

I do have a large Kitchen Aid mixer, used for cakes and meringues and a stick blender used for chopping, soups and sauces.

I don’t feel the need for the air fryer and I don’t wish to take up surface space.