General Chat

I use my breadmaker a lot and my slow cooker quite a bit.
I have a good old trusty Kenwood Chef.
I mostly use a little mini oven for most of my cooking as it is so much quicker to warm up and much more economical than the big oven.

In our caravan I use a Ramoska and I think that is a wonderful gadget though not cheap.

I've hardly ever used our fondue set though I really love cheese fondue. We have an electric carving knife but I think it has only ever been used to cut foam rubber to size LOL.

My husband like gadgets and one of the most useless ones he decided we had to have was a thing to boil eggs in the microwave! I think I gave that away to a charity shop.

Sue

I have a combi oven I wouldnt be without. Use the fan oven part to make scones, do casseroles and shepherds pie, and mashed potatoes in the microwave bit. Never use the grill, so messy to clean, use a George Foreman with grill bags.

I don't use a microwave much but our old,basic one was on it's way so O/H,without consulting me,went off to Tesco and came back with a combi oven,grill,microwave.

Well I can't use it much but have had to look up the basic bits which are all I need anyway.I really don't know if he can use it but I don't suppose so.

I have a tiny balloon whisk which came in a set from a pound shop and I wouldn't want to be without it. It does cuppa soups,my culinary limit,every time and small amounts of gravy or anything else that only needs a little container.

best gadget ever - my Bamix hand mixer - had it since 1972 and use it regularly - brilliant for whipping cream, mixing cakes and blitzing soups etc. Best thing about it is the fact that you can use it in a cup or in a bucket and so easy to clean - just run it under the tap. They are quite expensive but well worth it, and Lakeland sell them still - Swiss made and obviously made to last. Were anything to happen to it I would immediately get another

I love going to the Denby Pottery Shop. There is a kitchen emporium where sometimes James Martin gives demos. But the tools and gadgets are brilliant. Best choice I have ever seen. Usually go there in the winter months, for two reasons, a) summer months in the garden or garden centres, b) the restaurant does a bonzo vegetable soup, in which they put everything EXCEPT the kitchen sink, I hope. Will be going again about September to stock up things, have a list on the go, though it is only about 4 miles from here.
Julia in Derbyshire

Just remembered we had a chocolate fountain bought us , never been out of the box. also foot spa never used,
I love my steam bags,must try some of the recipes I got with the last lot I bought, thought they were only for veg, but seems you can do quite a few things such as an omelette,3 mins in the microwave......

Things that get used all the time:

Hot air popcorn maker
Smoothie machine
Garlic press

Things that don't get used often:

Bread maker
Food dehydrator
Electric knife

Deb

I have a microwave which was bought over 25yrs ago for over £300, used only for defrosting, part cooking baking potatoes,warming up left overs... dau uses it to heat up baked beans.
I have an electric knife which is used at least twice a week ( almost as old as the microwave .lol)
A Mouliux multi blender which gets used fairly frequently for chopping steak /beef to mince and slicing potatoes into very thin slices for cooking
and little hand blender /mixer that will fit into a cup.
Got rid of my coffee percolator and now use a cafeteriea.
Still have my old Kenwood hand mixer..dau uses it for making cakes.
Been thro a few sandwich makers, love toasties!

I like my gadgets..

Microwave, Kenwood Frothie, George Foreman, George Foreman bbq ( fab), electric knife, foot spa, hairdryer, staighteners ( could not do without), grater / slicer thingy but it takes longer to set up than to chop an onion by hand. Also got a George Foreman Rotisseri still in it's box in the attic.

Alyson

my husband is gadget man so far he has had a popcorn maker used once a juicer used about 4 times a pannini press used about twice a george foreman grill used once very messy a sandwich maker dont know howmany times he used that a metal detector never used coming up to its 6th birthday and not even beenn out of the box (think will buy it a cake ) a bike 2 years ago never used. He is now banned from going shopping alone


Jackie

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.....