Go Go Gadgets.... =)

I thought of a few more gadgets that I own. This little gadget is a wonderful tool. It's called Grandpa Witmer's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer. If you have ever bought natural peanut butter you know how it comes separated. The oil floats on top. You can make a real mes trying to stir it in. I have one friend who puts it all in another bowl and then mixes it and then tries to get it all back in the jar. She hates it because it leaves so much on the bowl. Once you get it stirred in, you can store it in the fridge and it won't separate on you. You can get this handy little tool at Lehman's Hardware (quick commercial message - if you use my link in the side bar, I get credit for your purchase) for $8.95. It works really well.
Mrs. Wonderful Neighbor reminded me about another gadget I own. We have this Cuisinart counter top ice cream maker. It makes a half of a gallon of ice cream in about 20 mins. We really don't want to buy ice cream and all the junk that is in it from the store. We are not purists and we do sometimes buy ice cream. However, with a grass fed jersey milk cow and her thick cream and plentiful milk, we have the ingredients for making delicious ice cream at home. The other night we made a rich delicious vanilla ice cream and put organic strawberries in it. YUM!!!!

I do not leave the above appliance on my counter. It goes out in the pantry. We could live without either of these two tools. I also got to looking at how many knives we have and spatulas, etc. Have you found any more things that are going to be leaving your home soon? I am working on a box of things that need to find a new home.

Kitchen Gadgets

I know that many gadgets were created to save us time. I look back at all that our foremothers had to do and wonder how they got it all done. If you go back far enough, they had to spin the wool and weave their own cloth even. Usually their houses were much smaller and they had hardly anything to speak of if you compare their kitchen with a kitchen of today. They did not have vacuums, because they did not have carpets. They beat and shook the rugs and swept the floor with a broom. It takes a lot for a broom to break. My friend Ginny has one that she has had since she was married (around 25 years). It even has a name, although I can't remember what it is. =) She can correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe it is a broom she told me about. I have a vacuum. Vacuums break more often and cost more to replace. The one I have is supposed to be a wonderful vacuum. It is an Orek. We got it because it will do rugs, cement and hardwood floors. It does a great job of picking up dirt, but it shocks me when I use it. I have gone round and round with them about it. I have had 3 different ones, but it still shocks you. I don't care to vacuum very often, it is painful. =) I like a broom for those areas that there is not a rug. I tried to pull the rug up in one area, but it has been down there so long and probably glued to the floor that it will have to be scraped up. The women of yesteryear had a few pans and bowls. They made do. A pan served multiple purposes as did the bowl. I received a catalog in the mail yesterday. It is very small as far as catalogs normally go. It is not a full size and it only has 36 pages. I took all the following pictures out of that one catalog.

This is to make shish-kabobs on your grill. Is it still a shish-kabob if it is not on a stick?

This is something that you can cook things in on your counter top versus your oven. It says it cooks in half the time.

This little gadget roasts garlic. See it's cute garlic shape? That is so you don't forget what it is for.

This one made me really shake my head. How hard is it to slice a banana. You can even do that with a dull knife. Even a child could do that. I guess they thought if an apple slicer would sell, then a banana one would too.

You can hard boil, soft boil or poach an egg with this item.

This is a little more old-timey. It will peel, core and slice your apple into rings. This can actually be handy if you are dehydrating apple rings or making apple pie in a jar. The pieces of apple are all uniform in size.

Here is a grill that you can grill sandwiches on your counter top instead of your stove top.

Here is something that you can deep fry things in and also something that will cook your hot dog and heat the buns at the same time. It even comes with mini tongs to use to pull them out when done.

This is a wee cast iron pan made just for melting butter in.

Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with owning any of the above. I am just showing you how we have gotten away from simplicity in our society. Where do they store all this stuff.... in the kitchen.... SO.... they need larger kitchens with more cabinet, counter and pantry space. To me many of these items would be more work and hassle to get out and clean than to just use a pan or something. We like to look at kitchen gadgets and things like that. We kept seeing the popcorn pan with the stirring handle on the top. We know several people who have them and use them often, so we bought one. We used ours several times, but I noticed the last few times we made popcorn, we just used a pan with a lid. Are we really saving ourselves time and energy? Some tools are very useful. I have a grain mill and a big mixer that I make my bread in. We got away from making all our bread for awhile, but are getting back on track. We grind our own wheat for the freshness and the good stuff in it. An electric mill is a real plus for me. Also, the mixer kneads 4 to 6 loaves worth of dough at a time for me. It kneads it for 10 minutes. That is 10 minutes that I try to use in cleaning up the bread mess. Some of the above items might be a real tool for some of you. We all have different needs in our kitchen. Some people have soymilk makers. It is so much cheaper to make your own than to buy it. So, it makes sense for them. Some people have rice cookers. I have even seen a plug in gadget for baking potatoes.

I want to simplify. It is so hard to do that when you already own things. Some are easily parted with, but others are very hard to get rid of. I have heard people say that if you have not used something in a year then you should get rid of it. Sometimes that seems ruthless to me. =) What gadgets do you have that are really a useful tool to you and why? What are some other gadgets not mentioned or shown above you have seen on the market?