rubber bands
seriously greatest tool ever for opening stuck jars and such :3

Thats a good tip, thank you!

Well, a couple favorite knives would have to be the most essential items, but wuffy doesn't really consider those "gadgets".

For that, it would have to be Vrghr's Immersion/Hand Blender, with the mini-chopper and whisk attachments. Just got a new one after wearing the old one out over the course of a dozen years or so. Perfect for mincing up or pureeing little batches of things too small to bother dragging out the full-sized food processor. And a wonder for making soups and sauces of all sorts without having to batch-process them in the blender. It also makes a fantastic, and ultra-easy home-made aoli/mayo in under a minute. (Wuff posted a recipe/technique for that one)

Vrghr wouldn't be without it! Even carried it over to our friend's house when wuff cooked there for Thanksgiving, and will be bringing it along again for Christmas feast there. *grins*

And of course dont forget the kitchen blowtorch :P

*laughs* Definitely can't forget that! It's certainly one of the more fun gadgets in wuff's kitchen! There aren't a whole lot of them that make you smile just by picking them up.

Hm... as for the most useless, that's rather hard to say. If they're useless, wuff doesn't keep them around long - don't have the room, for one thing. But that "honor" probably goes to the single-egg egg poacher and pan wuff got as a white elephant gift. A little, tiny tin pan with a dished in insert just large enough to hold 1 egg, and a tiny tin lid. Firstly, if wuff is having breakfast, it's going to involve MORE than 1 poached egg! Second, by the time you got the water in the base boiling, buttered the insert to keep if from sticking, CAREFULLY added the egg (it barely held one, so you ended up with egg on the stove, in the water, etc., if were the least bit shaky pouring it in), and then steamed it - you could poach 3-4 in the microwave!

Wuff ended up tossing out the useless insert and just using the little tin pan for a time as a butter-warmer, until it got dented in the pot drawer. Then went back to melting butter in the microwave, like the rest of the world does. *grins*

I love my vitamix. This is the kind of gadget that ends up living on the counter top because it's not worth putting away. A high powered blender (vitamix/blendtec) is on my list of must have for any kitchen. Make flour, knead bread and make a soup to dip your bread with one machine

gotta love the rollie XD its such an achiever

Ironic fact: I sell kitchen gadgets/small appliances/accessories where I work XD (and before I did THIS I was a cook in a chinese kitchen for many years lol)

Alton Brown has just made it to a regular time spot on Australian TV and I must say I look forward to his shows. I enjoy his sense of humour immensely. Although he makes the odd error here and there I think he's good fun. The errors he makes I think are usually just a difference in cultural locations.

I cant see the point in ever owning an automatic pie maker, what a useless pies of equipment that was. I can make a pie faster and nicer by hand in my oven.

I would really like to own a really solid all in one food processor/blender. You know the ones that you can not only cut every thing up but it can do pastry mix, cake mix, dough etc etc. One of the really good long lasting types. Added to that I would like one of those stab blenders for soups and sauces etc. *hugs*