Future charity shop donations, anybody?

ChapelGirl

I have just received the latest catalogue for a kitchen and household goods shop based in the North of England (you know who I mean!).

This is obviously their suggested Xmas gifts edition for the home cook and entertainer, but I was stunned and amazed at the number and variety of expensive dust-gatherers which they are now offering.

e.g. electric machines for shaking or stirring martinis (not sure if there's a cigarette lighter plug option so you can plug it into the Aston Martin, darling!), all-in-one soup cookers and blenders (for those for whom a pan and a stick or goblet blender don't quite do it), a low-pressure pressure cooker and various others.

If any of these appeal I'd wait a year or 2 as I'm sure your local charity shop will have them in stock then.

Not that I'm immune from gadget disease. We have the Magimix and the Bamix (used at least once a week), the Kenwood Chef (mostly used when OH gets the urge to make bread), a coffee grinder (used daily), a yoghurt machine (bought from a charity shop and used 2 x weekly), an ice-cream maker (used about twice a year), a spice grinder, a soda stream, a slow cooker, 2 pressure cookers(!), a Remoska (mostly used on camping trips) and various other useful household gadgets, some of which are crammed into the kitchen cupboards or are squeezed onto the worktop, and others which live in boxes in the spare room.

What are your most useful (and most useless) kitchen purchases?

Pink.

Hi Chapelgirl,

My most used kitchen gadget is my stick blender, I'd replace it the same day if it died. These threads should interest you:

Kitchen gadgets ...what is/is not essential

Must have kitchen gadgets

Unused kitchen gadgets

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the replies together.

Pink

ChapelGirl

Thanks Pink!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the wine cooler pod. That seemed like such a great idea. You take your bag-in-box 3 litre foil bag out of its cardboard box, put it into the egg-shaped plastic container and plug in, and you have chilled white or rose wine on tap.

Theoretically.

Actually the 3 litre bag is about 3 glasses-full too big to get it into the pod and shut the lid, and the square bag does not sit easily in the oval pod so the tap keeps twisting round the wrong way. And it takes several hours to cool down, so if you have room it is quicker to put the thing in the fridge in the first place.

Apart from that, marvellous gadget! Wouldn't be without it!

They're obviously seling like hot cakes because I paid about £20 for mine last year and they are now on Ebay from the same seller for £5.99.

OrkneyStar

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi Chapelgirl,

My most used kitchen gadget is my stick blender, I'd replace it the same day if it died. These threads should interest you:

Kitchen gadgets ...what is/is not essential

Must have kitchen gadgets

Unused kitchen gadgets

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the replies together.

Pink

I also love my stick blender, and my hand mixer. I only buy something if I can imaginee several uses for it, or a one use which I do all the time lol!
ETA I just cannot get on with my slow cooker these days....never tastes the same as hob!

InfamyInfamy

Whilst watching QVC one day...............(you can see what's coming)....they were demonstrating a rice cooker, which (after 3 mins) I was convinced I needed! But shock of all shocks it is brilliant!!!
I have though got a pasta maker in my cupboard still in it's box....unused.
My Mum had this weird gadget years ago which was an electric potato peeler. It had a sand paper like drum which you put the spuds in and it supposedly peeled them, but they just came out battered & bruised & feeling sorry for themselves!!! :eek:

zippychick

I've never understood why people find cooking rice so difficult? My old flat mate used to bleat on about how she didn't know how to cook rice without one (yes, that's why the kitchen ended up knee deep in rice). What's so good about them?

I must get a stick blender! one gadgy i don't have but would be handier than using the FP for blending soups etc. I understand you can get them for a fiver? is ther a difference in price?

greenbee

zippychick wrote: »

I must get a stick blender! one gadgy i don't have but would be handier than using the FP for blending soups etc. I understand you can get them for a fiver? is ther a difference in price?

you get what you pay for - the ones you get for a fiver aren't very robust. I inherited a bamix that finally died aged about 35 which I can't really justify replacing, but a mid-range one is probably your best bet. Or get a cheap one, and if you like it, when it dies, get a decent one.

zippychick

how much would mid range be greenbee? I genuinely have noooooo idea !

culpepper

InfamyInfamy wrote: »

I have though got a pasta maker in my cupboard still in it's box....unused.
My Mum had this weird gadget years ago which was an electric potato peeler. It had a sand paper like drum which you put the spuds in and it supposedly peeled them, but they just came out battered & bruised & feeling sorry for themselves!!! :eek:

I used to have a hand cranked potato peeler. It was alright on small potatoes if you added water so the grater bit didn't get clogged up with peel but useless on anything bigger than about golf ball size. I bought it in a charity shop and it now lives in the garden as a plant pot.

My pasta maker however has been used and used mainly because I mix the dough in a food processor which takes about 2 minutes instead of ages by hand in a bowl. Once you have tried rolling out pasta dough and cutting it by hand ,you will see that the 'mangle' kind of 'maker' are massively quick to use.
You can use them instead for rolling out polymer clay for crafts.

greenbee

zippychick wrote: »

how much would mid range be greenbee? I genuinely have noooooo idea !

I think I paid about £30 for mine, which is metal rather than plastic and seems to be pretty robust (I would tell you what it was, but I'm at work at the moment :cool:)

witchwoopiggy

I love my stick blender, slow cooker, and mil gave me a coffee machine donkeys years old and its brill you can make a pot full and just reheat if needed it is shaped like a coffee pot and you can see the coffee bubbling in the lid handle (hard to discribe) ohh and my bread maker, apart from these items I am gaget free but I would love to be able to get a yoghut maker