This morning over coffee I had occasion to talk to my daughter in law Theresa about kitchen gadgets. She was in the process of peeling potatoes. She said that her mom would put a folded newspaper in the sink and use a knife to peel the potatoes and then pick up the newspaper and throw the paper and the peels in the trash. I thought that was a great idea. As we continued our discussion, I suggested that potato people should peel the potatoes first then put them in bags and when you buy them at the store they are already peeled. Probably too many issues with that, like potato eyes, different shapes and sizes of potatoes, etc. Oh well, at the time I thought I was really on to something. By the way she no longer peels her potatoes like her mother. She does use a folded newspaper for the peels but she uses a peeler rather than a paring knife. Remember your mother using a knife and there were these long strings of potato peels. OMG… I have already spent too much time on potato peeling but it made me think of all the gadgets that are available for use in the kitchen. These are supposed to make our time more productive and make it easier to process fruit, meat and vegetables.
I do want to share one of the greatest gadgets that I have ever seen or used. It is a tool that gets all of the good pineapple fruit from inside the pineapple. Dole could probably include one of these with the purchase of a pineapple and their sales would soar. What you do is cut the end off the top of the pineapple. Make sure that the cut is straight and about an inch from the top. Generally, this will open up a big enough area to insert the tool. You center the tool and then start to turn it. The tool goes into the pineapple and you keep turning until you reach the bottom of the pineapple. Pull it out and what you have is the core, which you push out the bottom and this leaves all of the pineapple fruit in a perfect circle. You are done. Now you can process all that amazing pineapple anyway you want. Suddenly I can now have all the pineapple I want with almost no hassle. I love it.
There are many different gadgets, a hard-boiled egg slicer, a slicer for strawberries, an apple corer and slicer that immediately turns an apple into about 12 pieces (Great for a snack). I am sure you all have your favorite kitchen gadgets. These are just a few that I have used.
One final thing. My son loves to make bread. He is very good at it. He does it right with sourdough starter. He processes and bakes the most incredible loaves. One problem… slicing the bread. They still haven’t made a bread slicer that really does the job. Of course, there are commercial slicers that cost thousands of dollars but who can afford one of those. He has solved that problem. It turns out that at one of the grocery stores that he goes to they sell loaves of bread unsliced. They have a REAL bread slicing machine for people to use… safely… when you buy their unsliced loaves. Jeff simply puts two or three loaves in a bag and when he visits the store… the commercial bread slicing machine turns his gorgeous loaves into perfectly sliced bread. Awesome… problem solved.
I have to share one other little item. This comes to us from my wife Kathy. Somewhere along the way she found this unbelievable Ninja Bread Knife. It has its own box and case, and a cleaning cloth. It is very large although not a sword. She was very proud of this knife. I honestly don’t know if it was legal to buy this knife (weapon), but she did. I don’t know if she saw it on a late-night infomercial or what. It is kept under the counter out of site in its own case. I have been warned of the potential dangers in using this knife. Kathy made it clear that this was only to be used in certain situations and that it was a one of those cases that I needed to have supervision when bringing the knife out to cut bread. I have yet to cut myself but I am sure it is only a matter of time. It is a cherished possession and one that reminds me of my beautiful wife every time I carefully take it out of its case.
I have always been a sucker for kitchen gadgets. Whenever we would visit a store that had kitchen stuff I would look for that new gadget that I didn’t own. Plastic bags for your crock pot, a lemon zester, a garlic press, we are only scratching the surface. Have fun making life easier in the kitchen just try to remember where you put that peeler.
