My top ten kitchen gadgets

1. Pampered Chef garlic press. I think Rachel Ray is full of shit when she says it's just as easy to cut garlic with a knife. This press easily squishes garlic into most of my dinners. The bonus part is that it is the type of metal that eliminates the garlic smell, so as you rinse it off you just rub your hands on it so you won't smell like garlic.
2.Cuisinart Blender/food processor combo. One base for both. Most items that are made to do more than one thing tend to not do either very well. This is the exception. Best blender I have ever had. It makes a mean margarita or cocoa beverage. The food processor slices and dices with the best of them.
3. Mini-salt shaker set. Art's family is big on salt. Even though I grew up without using salt, I have adapted pretty well. The family is a pretty large group and we get together quite often. I noticed that when we were at family dinner a great deal of time was spent passing the salt, and waiting for the salt. So I got a set of 12 little shakers so each person could have their very own.
4. Food scraper. What would I do without that little 2 inch square piece of plastic?? There is nothing else better to scrape pots and pans with.
5. Parchment paper. I love to decorate cakes. I'm not that good at it, but it is very entertaining. It took me too long to learn how to keep cookies and cakes from sticking to the pan. Parchment paper works wonders. You can also use butter and flour (for white cakes) or cocoa (for chocolate cakes), but I like my parchment paper. They also make great icing bags.
6. George Foreman Grill. When I can't use my pellet grill (I live in NH so that is quite often) it is nice to have an indoor grill. My favorite food is hamburgers. Enough said.
7. Ice cream maker. When I went on the candida diet I knew that if I ever wanted ice cream I would have to make it myself. My Mom bought a bowl for my Kitchenaid mixer, but I didn't want to wear it out, so we bought a little 1 1/2 quart maker at Target. It is so easy to make ice cream, and tasty! Chocolate coconut is our favorite.
8. Press and seal wrap. I am an uncoordinated bumbler when it comes to saran wrap. I can tie myself and the saran wrap in a knot but I cannot get it to stick to a bowl. One time I found different plastic wrap pieces with elastic on them (kind of like a hotel shower cap), but since I have never seen them again, press and seal it is.
9. Kitchen Aid mixer. This was a birthday present from DH. It is so heavily used (and quite frankly so heavy) that it lives on the counter. I only know one person who has killed a Kitchenaid. My friend Sandra is a canning goddess. She cans almost 200 quarts of tomatoes a year. She used to process them through her kitchenaid. When she called to get a replacement part she found that tomatoes are the only thing that can kill them. I guess the liquid runs backward into the system after a certain point and zap.
10. My Sharp oven/microwave. Again on the does two things front we are amazingly pleased. It is a glass top range with a convection oven on the bottom and the drawer is on top, and instead of wasted space it is a microwave. LOVE IT!