When I first came here there were some toys that the GW denizens had moved from workplace use to kitchen musts, but they don't seem to be getting a lot of discussion nowadays. They were ubiquitous here, and I think it's worth trotting them out for the newbies who haven't heard. Also, there may be some new gadget that enhances the kitchen greatly that we should add to the list.
I'll start with the obvious ones:
Tapmaster. A friendly little Canadian company makes these. It's a device in your toekick area that turns your faucet on and off. The first of us to put one in was looking for the ones they have in dental offices.
The basic unit has a plate that you can touch to start the flow and let go to stop it, or push down to keep it on. The Tapmaster uses air pressure to open and close its valves--there's no electricity or anything particularly complex involved. You set your favorite flow rate and temperature at the mixer and leave that open. If you want to change to using the mixer instead of the Tapmaster you can just lock the Tapmaster open.
Since that time, and as more and more of these started showing up in kitchens, they've come up with their "euro" model, which has a single bar controller that you nudge sideways with your foot, or nudge farther to lock open. Some shoeless cooks prefer this.
You can also get multiple controllers on a single faucet so that you can operate the faucet from two sides of an island, or whatever suits your project.
Plugmold. This one comes from the laboratory. Tired of outlets interrupting your planned beautiful backsplash? You can put plugmold either near the base of the backsplash, or at the top, under the upper cabinets. You can install a GFI in a plugmold unit, but you can also make the whole circuit GFI.
Wiremold Corp. bought up most of their competitors, and discontinued most of the interesting colors, but I've heard that some more decorative ones are coming back. Home Depot carries basic white plastic plugmold. It can be mounted flat on the wall, flat under the cabinet, or on an angled wood strip. There's also "angle plugmold", which isn't really "plugmold" since that's a term like "Kleenex" that's a brand name. Tasklighting makes it. It's reputedly very expensive, but some people think it's worth it.
If you have some countertop appliances that are always plugged in, like a coffee pot, toaster, or microwave, you might also want a regular outlet so that the cords don't always wave in the breeze, and are more hidden.
NeverMT. Do you have a soap dispenser in your sink? Keep a gallon jug of soap or lotion under the sink and pump it directly from the pump that came with your faucet kit. That is, it replaces the receptacle that goes under the counter with a hose and jug. If you use your pump a lot it saves constant refilling.
I'll also give shout outs to some other things:
Demeyere cookware for induction. Great, no rivets cookware for anything, but they have some technically special features for induction. Some other manufacturers do too, though any cast iron, or stainless steel pot that sticks to a magnet, will work.
De Buyer Pro V mandoline. If you ever feed mobs, this can't be beat for making short work of all your knife tasks. This one has continuous adjustment so you can make any width in between minimum and maximum. The V keeps soft things like tomatoes from getting squished.
I hope the rest of you will chime in with the other received wisdom that so many of us are so familiar with here that we sometimes forget to say...
artemis78
amberley
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