Seed cukes?? For what purpose? If they are pickler types, the seeds are so small and tender, its not necessary, Big green hard skinned cukes in supermarkets have biger seeds, but are totally unusable for pickling. There is another post about a year ago, on this same subject. You may want to do a search on 'favorite kitchen gadgets'.

I use a tablespoon to remove seeds from cukes. As for a favorite tool? I like my Pampered Chef can opener. No more sharp edges on the cans. Much easier of the spatulas too.

With so many apple trees and the wonderful, bountiful harvests, I am presently in awe of my little hand-cranked apple peeler/corer/slicer. Coming in a close second is my Italian pasta roller/cutter.

I wouldn't be without my serrated peeler. It's great for peaches and tomatoes but works well with hard vegetables too. I tried a few and like the Messermeister best with Oxo a close second.

Zeuspaul

Here is a link that might be useful: Serrated Peeler

Favorite - a small, 10 year old, cheap, off-brand paring knife with a flexible blade and a plastic handle. Peels, pares, cores, slices, dices, scrapes, you name it. Won't can without it and only wish I could find another like it.

Wife's favorite is her jelly bag that she swears is older than I am. And that's OLD!!

Dave

Well, mine depends on the day, LOL.

Right now it's peach season, so I like the peach pitter I got on the clearance table at Williams Sonoma for $2. Next will be apples, then my favorite will be my peeler/slicer/corer. After that my cider press.

Oh wait, that's probably not a "kitchen" gadget, is it?

Annie

After this weekend, my food processor!

I chopped all the veggies (except tomatoes) for 3 batches of salsa in about 15 minutes!!!

I agree though, it varies with what I'm processing!

Deanna

My fav kitchen gadget is my Henkel Pro birds beek peeling knife.
Not cheap at 67.00, but weighted perfecting, quality knife. Well, all my Henkels are.
Maybe the West Bend waterless cookware will be next, I just put a down payment on a gourmet set and 3 additional items

Today it was my melon baller since I was doing a bunch of pears and it really made it much easier and faster. As mentioned before in this thread, it depends on the day. I do really love my immersion blenders, my smaller sized food processor and my Salad Shooter Pro.

I love my food processor too. It is a total lifesaver at salsa making time.

I also like my handheld mandoline, for shaving garlic or hot peppers into thin strips.

Thank you, everyone. Now, I've got a list of items I'd like to see under the Christmas tree!

I took the seeds out of cucumbers prior to chopping for pickle relish. Would you have left the seeds in?

Cathy

The sweet pickle relish I am now making was with way to overgrown pickling cukes. Some were even larger than the regular cukes you see in stores. The seeds are quiee big and tough. I did cut them in quarters and dug out most of the seeds. There was also a lot of water in the seed area too. I used my mini food processor (all I have), to chop them up. Also added some dried onion and some fresh. Its on my stove right now, ready for the canning process.

I leave the seeds in my cukes when I make relish. The cukes were standard size, not overgrown ones. I use my grinder for my relish. Most of the cuke seeds get ground up anyway. This past week I made Hot Dog relish with cukes, green tomatoes and red bell peppers and plain mustard.

I have a wire strainer thing with a bamboo handle that I bought to use with my wok, but I've found it's perfect for scooping out scalded peaches and dumping them into the ice bath. Next would be my over the sink cutting board. It has a hole where the colander goes, but often I put an ordinary bowl there where I dump the peaches after I slice them.

I can't say as I have any favorites. One thing neither of us can live without is the coffee pot. :)

Greenhouser

A strange one I use all the time is my giant tweezers: turning foods; picking things out of jars; removing things from the disposal; even picking caught things out of the paper shredder.... and many more.

Otherwise I'm like most of you who appreciate whatever is saving you time at the moment.

Scissors. After I got used to using them for trimming meat, cutting herbs and celery, opening packages, and just about everything else that knives do and sometimes not very well, I now have 2 pair in the kitchen. They go in the dishwasher, of course, and are always ready.

My mom makes pickles with over ripe cukes that the seeds get scooped out of.

I'm not canning anything this year, but in general, some of my favorites are the over the sink colander I bought this summer, my lettuce spinner, and when I have strawberries, the Pampered Chef strawberry huller I bought several years ago.

I use my garlic press the most often. I have the Pampered Chef one with the plastic accessories that scrapes the pressed garlic off the outside, cleans out the holes, and digs the skins out of the hopper. It washes clean really easily too.

Melissa

Greenhouser is now Greenplanter???

I treasure my hand held stick blender/emulsifier thingy. It's perfect for pureeing soups or sauces, un-lumping gravy that has been ill mannered enough to lump in the first place, and chopping up some of the larger lumps of fruit in my jams into smaller, more easily spread sized lumps before I can it.

Also, it came with a mini food-processor attachment that is just right for processing small amounts of foods...like making a few tablespoons of pesto, or chopping a handful of nuts, or making flavored butter out of half a stick of butter and a few herbs.

I also love my suribachi. It's a Japanese mortar and pestle, pottery with no glaze on the inside of the bowl but a pattern of ridges. It makes it very easy to grind up sesame, sunflower or pumpkin seeds to whatever texture is needed, from coarse to fine. Naturally, I could put the seeds in a mini food processor or spice mill, but would often have to grind up more than I needed just to get it to work. The suribachi is easier to clean anyhow. I don't want to have to clean the whole mini processor for a tablespoon of sesame seeds.

And I love, love, love my bbq. O.k., I know it isn't a "gadget" per se, but I couldn't bear to be without it in the Central California Summer heat.