General Chat

Just chatting about buying various "gadgets", what is your best buys
and your worst. .... lock and lock storage is a good one I find them very useful, worst one burger maker that you cant pull apart to clean , real health hazard...

Jean

Goodness Jean..... I have drawers full of *must have* useless bits of gadgetry.... hubby bought me a tablet.... it is something to do with photography and computers, daren't chuck it, but had it a few years now, and never figured out how to use it, lol

Then there was the George Foreman grill... with a pokey little dish which caught all the fat.... well, I did one particular make of sausages, and the worktop flooded with the overflowing fat.... I couldn't get them cleaned and under fast enough.... then the fish would burn on the outside but was raw in the middle.... vegetables were never ever successful..

A sandwich maker....... useless piece of kit!

Electric knife.... I never could get on with it.

A diddly little electric hotplate that was meant to put your coffee or tea onto... and it would stay hot if you forgot to drink it straight away...

I am sure there are loads more!!

Love

Daff xxxx

My worste ones are makeup glasses....cant see with them on,not strong enough for me.
The new JML mop, not as good as it looks on tv.

Simple gaget's I like are a hook that goes over the door and I hang my ironed shirts etc on it as i do them.
And the wee clips you put on the line to let you clip your hangers on.

Pretty boring things really lol

Marion

I must get rid of the deep fat fryer,
I don't think I've ever used it, although others in the house have, but not for at least 4 years.
It was a raffle prize. OH swapped the duvet that we'd won, for the fryer, ... WHY?

Gwyn

my hubby's a gadget freak

i usually deposit them in his garage within a week

Gwyn, I got rid of mine too, I bought an Actifry, you only use approx 1 tablespoon of oil, we do roasties , chips, wedges, they are great no fat to throw away,and no smells,you can do other stuff with it but havent tried them yet....slow cooker we use a lot too...bread maker dont use as much as we should but I do like it....

The gadgets my OH calls 'under the sink must haves'. i.e. You must have them and within a few days they are stowed away in a cupboard under the sink until they are given/thrown away.

We got rid of our deep fat fryer, and sandwich maker, I am sure there are other things as well, just can't remember at the moment!

We used our sandwich maker for years then replaced it with a fancier version which I chose because of the easiness of cleaning. It is so big no-one uses it any more!

I had seven electric carving knives as wedding presents 27 years ago! All gone now, thank goodness, mostly as gifts to others.

I have a hand mixer I use all the time.

I have a posh coffee machine I don't know how to use.

We have an electric carving knife OH uses all the time. a bread maker we use in fits and starts, a Kenwood Chefette which is 42 uears old which still gets used occasionally and a moulineaux mixer which also gets used very occasionally (I don't bake these days). A coffee machine that OH uses to froth up milk for our instant coffee.

Used to have a coffee maker...coffee was always cold and a soda stream.
wasnt too impressed with that either.

One I have recently bought and only used once and put away is a Halogen cooker......big glass bowl with a contraption on top with halogen light which cooks food.......I didn't think it lived up to the hype....

An electric re-chargable cheese grater.......kept running out midway through grating cheese.......threw it away in sheer temper....

Garlic crusher.......now I just bash it with the flat of a knife.....

Knife sharpeners and scissor sharpeners that slip all over the place......bought a knife steel and use that instead....

Mincer that screwed onto the work surface, but kept slipping.....
Mincer with rubber suction pad to stick on the work surface but kept slipping.....

Good..... microwave/electric knife/decent carving and kitchen knives/hand held plastic cheese grater/

......and a couple I couldn't do without.......meat fork which I use to get the tea bags from the top shelf.......and potato masher which I can use to open the catches on the windows.....

Rechargable cheese grater, what next lol
Never heard of it.

Oh dear, Sally, I use the potato masher for the same purpose lol, never mash spuds with it tho

I bought my son a George Foreman grill several Christmases ago and he uses it all the time, but I never got round to having one here. We got o.h.'s son one when he was at uni, was when they were on special offer!

I have several items I won and never used, an electric wok still in it's box, a food mixer/processor? also still in it's box, and many other things. I bought a Sodastream when I was pregnant but hardly used it and still probably have some bottles of the concentrate in the back of my cupboards or in the pantry at my house. I also had an electric mixer for milkshakes but I used to use it to mix batter for yorkshires mostly. It was a bit like a small home version of the ones in Wimpy bars years ago lol, I think I liked it cos of the nostalgia as my first part time job was in a Wimpy bar!

I think when I finally start digging around in my house, I will find many such 'treasures' that I have lived without all these years lol

Lizx

Dear Just Jean

Hello,

My best kitchen buy was a small whisk with attachments for
making dough for bread.

My worst a bread maker seveal years ago.
I could not understand the instructions let alone use it.

Best wishes
xx

My worst buy was actually given to me for a present; well it was on my list. It was a Fruit/Veg juicer. The picture on the box didn't show the mess you have to clear up after using the thing. Half an hour's cleaning for a couple of glasses of juice.

I offered the thing to younger daughter. She said 'No thanks, I'd rather buy a carton of juice for £1!' :)

Janet

I like all my so called gadgets, and use them all the time. But it is time for the deep fat fryer to go to the tip.
Julia in Derbyshire

Would not be without my slow cooker - one of the best things I ever bought years ago before coming to Spain - and yes, I still use it.
Also use sandwich maker in the winter.
Electric knife somewhere in the cupboard - never use it - in fact if memory serves me right got 2 - 1 was left in the house when we bought it.
Had a laugh when I realised there were more uses for a potato masher - I use the large meat fork to grab things of top shelves.
When my kitchen is revamped I am not having top shelves due to the fact I am too short !!!!
Love Mary xx
ps great thread by the way Jean - thanks

Bought my son a gadget which he used all the time as he didnt have a reliable cooker. It was made byTefal, and was an electricpan you could use as a roaster, fryer, or casserole. I did a full ssssunday dinner in it to demonstrate for him, and I dont know why I didnt go straight out and buy one for myself!
have a philips hand mixing, stirring gadget that I have used once.

glad I am not the only vertically challenged person who can't reach top shelves top windows etc!!

Liz, I used to use my electric wok a lot for stir frying, since it got put on top of the cupboard in the interests of creating more space for the coffee machine (which you will have read is used for frothing milk) I use a wok that goes on the hob.

ann
Glos

My electric fry-pan gets lots of use as does my electric mixer now I've started baking again for the grandkids. I have a hand held cheese grater where you just turn the handle and I love it. But OH bought me a pie maker years ago and a crepe maker and when we had our kitchen redone I discreetly got rid of them.

Sue xx