kitchen gadgets

[Amanda]

What are the kitchen gadgets you find are constantly in use? Which ones have wound up orphaned on a dusty shelf?

Best for me: Bialetti moka stovetop espresso maker- I use this for my morning coffee everyday. Our Vitamix blender is pretty awesome/useful, too. Also if cast-iron pans count as gadgets, then I love my cast-iron pan as well. Perfect for frittata, cornbread, etc...!

Worst: so far ive only used my crockpot once but I think that just reflects badly on me, not the crockpot!

[Emily]

I use my crockpot fairly often.  I make homemade Greek yogurt in it, and I use it for things like making the mashed beans that I used for my freezer burritos for lunch this week. 

Other gadgets that I use a lot are the microplane grater thingie and my immersion blender. I use my rice cooker a lot, but I'd probably cook rice in a microwave instead if I had a microwave. 

[Jenn Hubbs]

I don't use my crockpot very often, and I have managed to NEVER use my ice cream maker. I also don't use my fancy food processor or stand mixer nearly as much as I could, but mostly because I don't have a dishwasher so if I can possibly make something happen with fewer dishes I will. (Getting a dishwasher has gotten even higher on the list now that I use dishes for three meals a day every day instead of largely eating out/eating prepared food. But if I get a dishwasher I need to tear open the wall and then I should replace the plumbing which due to stupid tree roots means replacing my bathroom floor and that probably means replacing the BathFitters stuff in the bathroom too and UGH this gets expensive quickly.)

I do use my breadmaker multiple times a week - I got a one-pound machine so it makes a good-sized loaf for just two people that doesn't go stale in the 3-4 days it takes us to use it. We also use it for pizza dough.

It's not quite a "gadget," but I bought a regular old silicone mat that I now use every time I use a cookie sheet or banking tray for the ease of clean-up. I also bought silicone muffin pan liners, those are also sweet. I now pretty often make egg "muffins" in those because it's simple and easy to clean up and none of the egg sticks to the liner (which always feels like such a waste).

[Jenn Hubbs]

Oh man, I almost forgot: I use my toaster oven all the time. I would never go back to a regular toaster. It makes me get all fancy and do the "recommended" oven instructions (rather than microwave instructions) that makes better frozen food at lot of the time, because it heats up way faster than the main oven and just feels like less of a fuss.

[Karen Bowness]

i second the immersion blender and the crockpot. i eat a lot of soup, can you tell? 

i also use a box grater a lot, since brick cheese is so much cheaper than pre-shredded, although that is hardly exotic. my SO uses the rise cooker a lot, often to steam veggies too, but i learned to cook rice on the stovetop, and steam veggies in the microwave, so i never really got into the habit of using it. 

i will say a food scale comes in handy a lot, too.