My Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

Throughout this site I’ve mentioned the tools I use to create the delicious foods. Below is a brief explanation of how I use them. I have lots of gadgets of all kinds and I often get asked if I use them all. Yes, I definitely do. I’m running out of space to house them all! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through these links.

KitchenAid Mixer – Pretty obvious one…I use it to knead dough, mix batters, etc. I’ve had a 4.5 qt classic for about 20 years and I have recently added the 6 Qt. Professional 600 Series Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer to my tool set. In addition to the mixers, I also have some of the Kitchen Aid stand mixer attachments:

• Pasta Maker – Lasagna, fettuccine and spaghetti
• Pasta Press – Makes 5 kinds of pasta: spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, large or small macaroni
• Meat Grinder with sausage stuffer – Fresh burgers! 
• Citrus Juicer – Less mess with the including strainer
• Fresh Prep Slicer – Use for quickly shredding cheese, etc.
• Ice Cream Maker – Ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet and more

Breville Smart Oven Air – I’ve had this since May 2018 and its an amazing oven. At minimum I use it to air fry, bake, toast and proof dough. I do not use a regular oven at all. I use it for breads, cookies, well… it is used daily for all meals and its great for reheating foods that do not reheat well in a microwave. I strongly recommend an oven puller to insert and remove the hot oven racks.

Measuring Cup – This measuring cus has got to be my most favorite find! Talk about a splendid idea. With all the various measurements around it, its easy to measure just about anything. It has been slowly replaced by the digital scale even for my liquid measurements.

Digital Kitchen Scale – My scale gets a whole lot of use. After attending an demo by King Arthur Baking Company I realized how much of a difference it makes to measure your ingredients by weight instead of by volume.

Try this out – Get a measuring cup, dip it into your flour container, level it off then tap it on the counter. You will notice that you now have more room to fit more flour. This is the problem with measuring by volume, you can over or under estimate the amount you are actually using. Try switching to measuring your ingredients using a digital scale and you will see the difference in your final products. See here for a link to various weight measurements equivalents.

This scale replaced another scale I previously owned. I would suggest a scale that has grams/kg and ounces/lbs and measures to two decimal places (e.g. .05 ozs) which is great for when you are doubling or halving a recipe. Most recently, this scale has helped me to lose 50+ lbs. Its an absolute gem to use for figuring out appropriate serving sizes.

Cuisinart ICE-20 – Now who doesn’t like ice cream, and better yet ice cream in less than 45 mins from mixing ingredients to eating? This ice cream machine works really well at making ice cream, sorbets, frozen yogurt and slushies.

KitchenAid Food Processor – Ever had to grate more than two blocks of cheese, or puree strawberries for strawberry sorbet? That’s just two of the things I’ve used this wonder machine for. Its great for making baby food and grinding oatmeal into a find power to be used in recipes as well. If you don’t already have a heavy duty food processor, you really should considering getting one…it will save a lot of time. I even use it to slice apples and potatoes when I don’t need the slices to be the full slice.

Pastry Brush – So many uses, so little time. Get one…any one. Be sure it has a high tolerance for heat. I like the silicone versions because of the heat tolerance and this set has various sizes which can come in handy.

Presto Griddle – Though I now have the Cuisinart Griddler, I still use this to make pancakes. I’ve used it to grill shrimp, pork chops, make eggs, etc. The surface is kind of rough and things  don’t stick to it like a previous Black & Decker model I had.

Cuisinart Griddler – A new addition to my ensemble. This beauty replaced my George Foreman grill. The fact that the plates were removable and there was an additional waffle plate available make this a surefire winner. I use it to make some mean grilled cheese sandwiches as well as waffles with the additional waffle plates

• Cuisinart Griddler Waffle Plates  – A great addition to the Cuisinart Griddler. I much prefer thick belgian waffles to the thin waffle you sometimes get from other waffle makers, this make some waffles with nice deep pockets. Spray with a little vegetable oil spray and the waffles don’t stick as well, they plates are removable which makes easy clean up of all those deep pockets.

Nesco Dehydrator – I’m a fruit person. I’ve never been much of chips and store bought cookies and snacks person. However, fruits always go bad on me. I buy them and sometimes I just never get to eat all of it. I absolutely can’t stand to eat bananas once they start to get spots. I’ve been growing tomatoes and they too go bad before I could eat them all. My solution to this problem is this dehydrator. Along with the mandoline slicer below I could not be happier. I slice and dry apples, strawberries, bananas, tomatoes, mango. I’ve yet to try out the jerky and fruit leather, but I plan to get to that soon.

Mandoline Slicer – Warning!!! This is SHARP. Please don’t say you weren’t warned. I was warned too, with the numerous reviews on Amazon stating how sharp it is and to be careful. Guess what, I got nicked quite a few times at the beginning. Now, of course, if you used the safety guard it comes with, you really wouldn’t have this problem. Its just not very functional in that depending on what you’re cutting, the fruit/vegetable doesn’t fit properly into the safety guard. Its also lots faster to cut without it.

KitchenAid Strainer – You just can’t make strawberry sorbet without straining out all those tiny seeds. If you’re like me and you like the REAL chocolate drink make with cocoa (not cocoa powder – this is cocoa that must be grated or dissolved in hot liquid) and you don’t like the “dregs”, then you’d absolutely love this strainer. Nothing gets though except the liquid you want.

Cupcake Courier – Besides the obvious usage of carrying decorated cupcakes and tall cakes, I have often used this as a proofer to place my dough to rise. My kitchen can get quite cool and hinder the raising processing. Once closed, this provides an ideal place for the dough. If you were one of the lucky people to get this from Costco when they were selling it, it also came with trays for cookies. Now, I proof dough in my Breville Smart Oven Air or my 8 qt Instant Pot Duo Nova.

Mini Prep Bowls – These bowls come in pretty handy when you are getting ingredients ready. I use especially like to use them when I am making a recipe with eggs. I would crack an egg into one before adding that egg to my recipe to ensure the egg has not gone bad.

Kitchenaid Peeler – Used to peel and core fruits and vegetables. Makes quick work of preparing apples for Apple Chips and Apple Pies. Though, I’m on the lookout for one of those industrial type ones that can clamp to my counter top or the Kitchen Aid attachment.

Vitamix Blender – Gosh! I just love how this works. I use this to make my smoothies and I also have the dry grains container that I use to grind wheat berries into flour and make powders of my dehydrated vegetables.

KitchenAid Whisk – Other than the obvious uses of beating eggs, or mixing ingredients together, I’ve used this as an alternative to using a pastry knife when making the crumb topping for my apple pie and even when I make pie crusts. Its really good at making the crumbly mix of cold butter and flour.

Instant Pot Duo Nova – I am not much of a user of a pressure cooking. As much as I own three (yes, three) slow cookers, I really don’t use them much since I’m not much of a stew and soup person. I got this 8qt only because it was on sale and I figured I’d try it. It makes really great ribs and with the help of my parents I have figured out how to make my mom’s soup. 

Zojirushi Breadmaker – I have been making breads with a bread machine for many years before I learned out how to do so by hand. My original bread machine was a Welbilt brand that worked really well until it didn’t – almost 15 years later. I then got a Kenmore bread machine from Sears that has been working very well for me. I usually use the bread machine to knead the dough then I shape and bake in the oven. I’ve been hearing about the virtues of a Zojirushi bread machine and could not justify its cost. I mean, a bread maker is a bread maker is a bread maker… get my drift. Boy was I wrong. I finally got my hands on one and it really lives up to the hype. If you find one at a thrift store or garage sale – GRAB IT.