Friday, November 14, 2014

Kitchen Gadgetry


I like to cook. I like taking advantage of the wonderful foods and stores we have here in the western New York area.  As a result, I have a lot of kitchen supplies and utensils, not all of them are practical.
I tried to open the junk drawer the other day to throw in another menu but it was crammed with so much stuff,  it stuck.  I either had to clean it, or start another junk drawer somewhere else.  I couldn't find a spare drawer anywhere, so I was forced to clean it.    In the process I found some unusual kitchen utensils I forgot I had.  I found a melon baller my daughter and I used to make a melon display for the Fourth of July one year.

Notice the two sizes, capable of varied ball sizes.
  We had made a watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon ball tray from some great melons we found at the North Tonawanda Farmer's Market. The hardest part was making sure they didn't roll all over the place.  It hasn't been used since, but remembering those balls made me want to keep it.  I found a herb cutting roller my mother- in-law gave me. I honestly don't know why herbs need their own roller cutter, but some ingenious inventor marketed one and my husband's mother bought it.  I kept it because I didn't want to hurt her feelings.  Enough time has passed that I am sure she has forgotten about it and won't say "Hey, where is that handy herb roller I gave you?"  I threw out 37 menus, the herb roller, old ticket stubs from 1995, baby pictures I no longer recognize, and 700+ twist ties and an unidentified key. Once I realized that  I was able to close the drawer again, I was done with the cleaning thing,  but it started my thinking about kitchen gadgets and their uses.  A quick look around the kitchen revealed a panini/waffle  maker that we used once, a fondue pot also used once and a pickle crock that we use to store newspapers that my husband saves for when he lights up the grill chimney for the Weber in the summer. If I ever decide to make pickles, they'll probably be loaded with ink residue.  We also have an ice cream scoop in the shape of a cow. It's heavy metal and works really well for it's intended purpose, so I'm keeping it.


Anyway, I got to thinking about kitchen gadgets and decided to google "unusual kitchen gadgets" to see the possibilities. What I found made my melon baller look downright sensible.

In less than five minutes I found the following:
 
 
I should call my friend Bonnie. I found this handy inflatable turkey.  She could pass this off to  her family on Thanksgiving. She would surround it with Stovetop Stuffing and dump a jar of gravy over it.  "The turkey tastes like plastic again Mom!"
 
 
 
And a revealing cake topper that if someone chooses to use, might want to think twice about going through with the wedding.
 
 
A cheese slicer in the shape of a camera. "Say cheese"
 
 
 
A microwave S'more maker
 
 
 
And last but not least, this oldie but goodie.  No matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on, who wouldn't think Hillary capable of cracking a few nuts?
 
 
 
 

3 comments:

  1. OH MY! You have me laughing here. Too funny! I know we all have some of those strange gadgets in our kitchen. When we cleaned out our Aunt Bea's house, we found things that we had no idea what they were for. I put one on facebook asking for help and found it was a little gadget to help with the pull off tops that you find on some soups and other canned goods. I still can't figure out how that one works.
    Great post Jody! Love what you're doing with your blog.

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    Replies
    1. Kristie, I have one of those and love it!. Saves the fingernails. :-)

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  2. Don't be making fun of my melon baller!

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