Oh Goodness, I love kitchen gadgets. I even have a pickle/olive plucker with little expanding wires that makes it easy to get a pickle out of the jar. It's great for parties...people always get a good laugh out of it. It also works extremely well.
One of my favorite things is an old fashioned church key (cheap bottle bottle opener that they used to giver away at liquor stores, back when you had to really open your beer. I use the pointed can opener end (used to pierce the lids of things like evaporated milk), turning it upside down, to pop the seal on jars so I can open them more easily.
I have some old wooden handled meat forks from my grandmother that are much smaller than what you ordinarily see, and I use them for all sortws of things. I also have a pair of her stainless steel tongs that hang on better than any others I've ever used.
Love my baby food processer for chopping herbs...sure beats lugging out the big one. But the big one is a real cherry. My ex-MIL bought it for me when they first came out, almost 30 years ago. It weighs a ton, but it still does a great job.
We don't use the blender much, but when it's Margarita time, It's invaluable. Last May, we had a bunch of fresh strawberries, and after we'd had our fill of shortcake, it was party time.
One thing I'd really like to have is a mandoline, but my safety record with a knife is very poor, so my husband thinks it's a bad idea.
All in all, it's hard to pick my favorite gadget, because I use most everything I have...and I have a LOT!
But, I'd have to say my churchkey, electric can opener (tall, called the "Penguin", big stainless steel spoons and ladles, small acrylic spoons (the wooden ones are so germy), pairing knives, and Santoku knife (like Racheal's) are the ones I use most.
Ooops! Forgot the cutting boards. I've replaced the wooden ones with acylic for sanitary reasons, using a specified one for meats. They are about worn out now, and I need new ones.
My husband bought a great big cutting board that is made of some new miracle substance that looks like marble and is very heavy. We use it for carving the big hams, turkeys and pork butts. It doesn't even have any knife marks on it...I think it's going to last forever.
