Cookaholics Bulletin Board

EB,

Yeah, I have one of the uber-sharp serrated peelers; we call it "the magic peeler". We got it from a huckster at a county fair. Love the thing for any really hard-to-peel veggies, like winter squash or eggplant.

With alternate blades, it's also a mini-mandoline or juilienne slicer!

But wait, there's more ...

Not hijacking at all, I wanted this to be for "Great Gadgets', not just the Graviti pepper mill, and I love that peeler, in fact I have 3 of them, in blue of course...



Sunny

Speaking of highjacking, I bought the Graviti for my grandsons but it always ends up right in front of DH's plate. He loves it. Thanks Sunny.
Fitzie

Ok, we've had the Gravitas pepper mill for less than a month and have used less than half the pepper corns supplied with the mill. I bought new batteries for it and installed them correctly. It worked a charm for about 2 weeks. Now it only works sporadically. Anybody have any suggestions?
Fitzie

Reminds me of a recent occasion, when I showed off my sophistication about kitchen gadgets. We were in the dining room at a friend's house, lights low, candles, and she made a beautiful veal stew that was sitting there in a Le Creuset. We were eating salad, and I reached for the pepper grinder, didn't look at it, but just twisted the top. It was an electric variety which I gather you're not supposed to grind. Anyway, the top flew off and at least half, if not more of the peppercorns, flew into the stew. New dinner game -- turn up lights and pick out little black peppercorns from full stew pot. Kind of ruined the ambience.

Opps! That reminds me of the scene in Pretty Woman where the seafood goes flying at the nice restaurant.

As I was grinding with pork fat slippery hands yesterday I lusted after one of these again, it's back in my in-basket at Amazon.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/food/4388680-423/gadget-game-resisting-the-allure-of-shiny-useless-kitchen-tools.html

But I disagree with the CA/FP....

You'll pry my food processor out of my cold, dead fingers, L.L. Shatkin!

Y'know, basically it's useful if you use it. My dad found one of those hot dog cookers -- the one that works like a toaster, cooks the dog and steams the bun. Truly the stupidest kitchen gadget since the turnip twaddler, but my sister's roommate used it almost every day, so I guess it was actually a good buy, especially since it was $3 at a garage sale.

I love my gadgets, even the chestnut scorer that I got on sale at WS and the plastic bag dryer rack thingy that my aunt and uncle gave me. And yet the shaved ice maker sits unused in my garage...
Nancy

That article drips with pretension...for example, the person who didn't like the food processor said "with my KA and Vitamix I'm all set." Yep, if I had a $500 blender I might not need the Cuisinart either.

The person who doesn't like the strawberry/tomato huller misses the point of it: you waste less fruit. Is it a necessary gadget? No, but it works well. Maybe if I had better knife skills I wouldn't use it, I dunno.

I have a lot of stuff on their no-no list, but as long as I have room for them they will stay and I will use them, albeit infrequently. Do I use my dehydrator every week? No, but it's darn handy come harvest time.

If I had to live in a tiny Chicago (or SF!) apartment I might pare down, but I don't, so naner-naner-boo-boo. (Actually, if I had to live in a small apartment I'd probably get a 2BR and use the second bedroom for kitchen storage LOL.)

Now I've done got all riled up...