Food

Alton Brown says that everything in the kitchen should be a multitasker--every gadget that takes up counter space or drawer space should pay for its real estate and then some, in many useful ways. I say forget that; if it's a gadget that you use all the time, and it makes your kitchen time easier, faster, better, more fun, then that sucker should take up just as much room as it needs to take up. It becomes not clutter, but indispensable.

Amy, from Angry Chicken, is a woman after my own heart. She provides a roundup of her very favorite little stuff, the gadgets she can't live without, that soothe her soul, improve her life, and would be impossible to live without--everything from the amazing apple corer/peeler I didn't know existed to the salad spinner, which wins an award for item that sounds most useless but turns out to be surprisingly awesome. The list is inspiring--maybe it really is time to get a mandolin, because oh, how I hate cutting onions. And the apple pies that I can make, now that I know I don't have to bloody up my hands and spend three hours coring and peeling three pounds of fruit.

What are your favorite non-multitasking kitchen gadgets that have proved surprisingly, wonderfully essential? Inspire us all!

--Image via angrychicken

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