I have recently come to love an upgraded sink strainer basket.


The stainless steel "screen" ones let water flow out fast, and gather all the ruddy little scraps that could cause plumbing issues, especially if you use septic.


Looks like this:




I almost never need to fill the sink with water so the whole "you can plug it" type is just useless and often closing off water flow when I don't want it.


For $3 or so, it's a good upgrade.

Yep.  I own one of these too.

no kidding...im in too...my current board is AIDSBOLAHERPFUMUNDACHEESEGONNOREAHHA-like

My sidearm to keep people from coming in the kitchen  .
Microplanes
Asian dollar store peelers which work better then any expensive peeler period
squeeze bottles
plastic quart and pint containers
Boos butcher block
food mill for best textured mashed taters
Stuff on my wish list
sous vide machine
outdoor wok station
Hawaiian shaved ice machine I have a problem
Dream list
Combi oven
centrifuge
freeze dryer
hand held homogenizer
PacoJet
vacuum rotary evaporator
Ultravac 250 vacuum chamber packager
too many to list

My Thermapen had the o-ring seal start to squeeze out.  I sent it in thinking they would fix it.  They sent me a new one for free.  Sometimes it pays to buy the good stuff! 

Here are some neat gadgets if you like stuffed jalapenos: 

Misto oil sprayer

https://www.amazon.com/Misto-Brushed-Aluminum-Olive-Sprayer/dp/B00004SPZV/ref=sr_1_1_sspa/131-7590820-0943604?ie=UTF8&;qid=1522886070&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=misto&psc=1

I got both.  Only mine is a DCS with the last true commercial burners that were available on the market.  

These silly things work very well for peeling small amounts of garlic:

Link

If you need a lot of garlic peeled, all you need is a bowl.  Cover bowl and shake the heck out of it.  Garlic peels itself.

A cheap pizza peel.  Very handy even for pulling cooked frozen pizzas out of the oven and being a cutting board to slice them.

I never had a toaster oven until I got married and my wife wanted one.  They're awesome for heating up leftovers that don't do well in the microwave, like fried foods.  And they heat up way faster than your full oven.
Also good for things like cheese toast.  Heck, she even baked a pie in it once when the heating element on our oven died.  It saved the day.

A wireless barbecue thermometer with two probes.  One for the grill air temp and one for the meat.

A guillotine-style wire cheese slicer on a board.  Way better than a hand-held slicer.

I have a magnetic board/sheet on the wall near my stove.  I keep spices in tins on that.  Handy, and they don't take up drawer or counter space.

A soap-dispensing dish brush.  Very handy.  We have the metal OXO one, I think.

I MUCH prefer a deep, single-basin sink to the traditional double-basin type.  I have a dishwasher, so I don't wash many dishes by hand.  If I do need to soak something, I have a plastic tub that fits in one side.  Otherwise, it's under the sink.  Being able to put large pans and skillets and such flat into the sink is great.  I miss the one I installed in our last house.  Haven't got around to installing one at our new place.

A flat whisk. They are awesome for making gravy and sauces. Can also be used as a spatula.

The two best things I can recommend for getting repeatable results are a decent scale and an instant read thermometer.
Bench scrapers. At least one. More is better.
For bakers... a Danish Dough Whisk. This thing is great for mixing doughs, biscuits and such. Works a lot like a dough hook. And doesn't get glopped up like a regular whisk. Never thought I'd end up using it as much as I do.

I like to use one of the products of our parent company, a Cedar Plank Grilling Board.
I like cedar the best, and it works even with other flavored pellets and wood.
Did a apple smoke, cedar planked huge hunk of Cheddar Cheese and provolone.
Couple weeks later used it in a Charcuterie spread with some bear bacon bits, duck-o-ronie (duck pepperoni), and some other great foods.

So a plug, we own grilling boards and Todd Alan Woodcraft.  So we make the cedar planks for grilling or baking, and we make great serving and cutting boards out of hardwoods.
What's that saying "I'm not just an owner, I'm also a client."

So if you want to check out my favorite kitchen item, its a cedar plank, and that's why I got into the business of making them.
I will be respectful and not post any links to them, if you want to see them you can google the names.

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Just picked this potato ricer up a few weeks ago.  Always heard "oh they make the best fluffy mashed potatoes."

Heavy cream and some good butter..... Im sold

Potato/cauliflower ricer

Strawberry/tomato corer

Jap and French mandolines
Bench scrapers
Accordion pastry cutter
Digital scale
Timers
Therm pen
Immersion blender
Induction hot plate
Chinois
Cambros
Plastic p&q containers w lids
Cheesecloth and butcher's twine
Parchment paper

DASH egg cooker.  Indispensable if you want to hard boil farm fresh eggs.

We're not getting any younger and both have a touch of arthritis. These two machines have been awesome.

Electric Jar Opener

Electric Can Opener

For years I used a garlic press, but lately I find that like many kitchen tools meant to save prep time, you lose that time on the back end when you go to clean up and wash dishes.

If I was rich enough to afford a maid, I'd have a bunch on slap chops.

I've been running my garlic across a microplane for about 12 years now. You'll never see a garlic press in my kitchen again...

After years of being cheap I finally jumped on the Father's Day Thermapen One sale...here's to hoping I'm not disappointed.

Back when they were 2-3 seconds for a reading and cost $75 and the competition was 8 seconds for $7 it was hard to justify. Now that they're 1 second readings for $80 (sale price) and the competition is 6 seconds for $20 it's easier.

Plus, I melted my last cheap one because I stuck it in to wait the 6 seconds and got distracted, coming back 2 hrs later to a well-smoked thermometer. I don't anticipate that happening with this one.

I also can't see how they get readings so fast unless they're using software with an algorithm to predict the temperature based upon the few readings that occur in the first 3/4 second. It's likely possible to get an algorithm honed in with good data and good experimentation. I know that even though the tip is super tiny it can't possibly change temp that fast.

I have the Spyderco Sharpmaker and have tried to use it to sharpen my Victorinox knives. I found the process to be slow and inconsistent and I don't really see my knives getting sharp enough to be impressed. At this point, I just wants something that will be easy AF to use and can be used quickly to bring back an edge.

Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite. Basically a much cheaper version of adjustable angle sharpeners like the Wicked Edge, Apex Pro, TSPROF etc (most closely resembles the TSPROF. Is it as good as my TSPROF? Not quite. The TSPROF works REALLY well, even on larger/longer blades, but the WSPAE costs ~1/4 what I paid for the TSPROF).

Define "easy to use"...

I have a set of 9" x 9" square diamond hones in like 400, 800, and 1200 grit or something like that. I find the large hones make it easy to keep a consistent angle by hand with only a little skill without running out of room to work the edge. Smaller hones/stones require more skill to keep a consistent edge because you don't have much space to work so you're always cchangingthe stroke to make sure you get every bit of the edge. After that I strop it on a strop board I made by spray gluing some denim from an old ripped pair of jeans onto a bit of plywood. Run some inox polishing compound on it and strop a bit after the 1200 diamond and you can shave the hair off a gnats butt with ease.

The difference maker for me was getting the big diamond hones and making the big strop.

Mandolin slicer. It angers me to think about how I carefully tried to cut even slices of tomatoes and onions over the years to put on hamburgers.

My Inkbird wifi 4 probe thermometer. It syncs to the cloud so I can leave my smoker going during long cooks and know what's going on from anywhere I have internet access.

Just curious but what knives were you using?

For onions I use a 10" Shun chef's knife. The thin Japanese blade profile makes it effortless to slice onions relatively uniform. That's the ONLY knife I can get onions consistent with.

For tomatoes, as cheesy as it sounds I use a $6 tomato slicer made by Rada. I'm not a fan of their knives, their steel is 1 step above dollar store garbage, but their tomato slicer works well for me.

Nothing special.

As a matter of fact, right now my "best" knife in my kitchen is my Morakniv fillet knife. I do think I'll be getting a good Japanese knife sometime soon though. The big problem I have is eyeballing the correct angle to make the slices consistent.

Cheaper knives are easily pushed off-center slicing onions, making it hard to even know how to angle the blade. A chef's knife also makes it easier because the depth of the blade helps keep things going straight. A good Japanese grind slices right through . My onions aren't perfect, but the knife makes it so easy that I will pack up my good Japanese knives and take them on camping trips just to make it easy to slice & dice food.